it’s winding down. Today is the last day for my seniors. This school started EARLY. OHSAA Baseball tourney doesn’t START until next week!

Faculty is split over a lot of the discipline and grading rules. ‘Restorative’ backlash: Legislators propose tougher school discipline. Obama/Biden supporters love it. The rest of us? Not so much.

Liberal Policies Endangering Teachers And Students

The Indiana government looks ready to create a special fund for training teachers to use and carry firearms. I’m thinking of going through the Ohio program myself.

POST-COVID SCHOOL DISCIPLINE PROBLEMS:  Some statesare adopting reforms that will give teachers and principals the authority to suspend disruptive students.  That’s good news.  School discipline is an area that had been too long left to progressives.  They made a giant mess of it.

CHANGE: The North Carolina legislature is making attempt to restore classroom decorum by putting teachers and principals back in charge. (Background on how that decorum was lost here and here.)

FROM EACH ACCORDING TO THEIR STUDY HABITS…: Now Comes ‘Equitable Grading’ to Dumb Down Our Children.

In which I turn this blog into continued sharing of regret that I took this FT gig. It IS spring break so I have a few days away fom THOSE kids, although I’ll be subbing elsewhere this week.

IT’S TERRIBLE FOR STUDENTS, TOO:  “Soft-on-Consequences Discipline in Terrible for Teachers.”  (And don’t let anybody give you any baloney about this issue.)

HOW THE LEFT DRIVES AWAY COMPETENT PEOPLE: National K-12 teacher shortage due to education colleges pushing ‘radical philosophy’, expert argues

There ARE options: Unschooling: 1

CHAOS:

I recently likened my students to the tic-tac-toe playing chicken in the Tropicana. They’ve been trained to recognize simple patterns and peck at a screen. Teens spent the pandemic in front of screens. And we wonder why they feel hopeless

Florida High School Student Beats Teacher Unconscious For Taking His Nintendo Switch

MORE EVIDENCE ON THE DUMBING DOWN OF PUBLIC EDUCATION: Nearly half of NYC DOE grads at CUNY need remedial classes

Antifragile children

Check out the surveillance footage from the school that said black students forced white students to pledge allegiance to BLM

THE TIME HAS COME FOR YOU TO TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR CHILDREN’S EDUCATION: Why 65 Percent of Fourth Graders Can’t Really Read.

JOANNE JACOBS: Learning math matters. Math scores are way down: The Education Recovery Scorecard

GOVERNMENT SCHOOL OR HOBBES’ STATE OF NATURE?

WELCOME TO AMERICA’S GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS:

There are issues here. Of course there are issues ANYWHERE and I wonder how much of what I’m seeing here is because I’ve been here for three years so I’m privy to a bit more. Things are said in my presence that wouldn’t have been two years ago. Another convenient school has upped their building sub money to more than $30 a day more than I’m getting here. $30 per day, five days a week, four weeks a month for nine (make it with to allow for breaks.) 30×5=150. 150×4=600. 600×8=4,800. Probably worth the move. So I’ll pick up some gigs there over spring break and after this school wraps up (a two-week difference) and try to position myself for the offer.

In the meantime ….. the entire gig saddens me to the point of tears regularly. I try not to focus on it.

Jason Riley reports that according to an annual survey of school leaders “schools saw a 56% increase in ‘classroom disruptions from student misconduct’ compared with a typical school year before the pandemic.”

Instapundit readers know what I think about about all this.

I’VE SEEN THE LOCKDOWNS AND THE DAMAGE DONE: Pandemic school closures damaged children — and it’s not getting better.

New Study Shows COVID Poses Exceptionally Low Risks to Kids, Further Discrediting School Closures

THE WHOLE DAMN THING IS A MESS: Public schools facing dramatic surge in unruly students

a reminder of this thing: DAVY CROCKETT EXPLAINS WHAT’S WRONG WITH BIDEN’S STUDENT LOAN GIVEAWAY: Not Yours to Give.

Now to go off-topic to pad this thing out with some interesting stuff:

You Can Eat Better Than King Henry VIII, Thanks to Globalization and Burger King

a great series on Title IX and sports and education: Title IX: The New Shimmer of Statutes

Keith Lowery: History Is Not a Cartoon

Welcome To Our Crazy Years. “But you don’t get Hitler because of Hitler. There are always potential Hitlers out there. You get Hitler because of Weimar, and you get Weimar because the people charged with maintaining a liberal polity are too corrupt and incompetent — or crazy — to maintain a liberal polity.”

These are rare in this day of remote learning but here we are. And IMHO th schools screwed up. Yes we got 3-4 inches of snow in the area but by the time the busses needed to start running for MOST districts the temp was over 32 and a gentle rain was dissipating the accumulation. A two hour delay woulda been fine. Maybe they just wanted to get the days off the state allows.

And speaking of “the state,” “education,” and “allowing” things:

Ol’ Klaus Schwab of the WEF is going viral for a clip where he talks about revolutionizing education like a freaking Bond villain

“Professor George has put up one of the greatest tweets ever. Today’s American universities are strongly religious places with many, many rituals.”s Tom Wolfe wrote in his epochal 1976 article, “The ‘Me’ Decade and the Third Great Awakening:” “It is entirely possible that in the long run historians will regard the entire New Left experience as not so much a political as a religious episode wrapped in semi military gear and guerrilla talk.” (That line was written with early ‘70s radical chic in mind, but reverberates quite nicely today, given Antifa’s current love of paramilitary cosplay.)

THIS will end well: Minnesota Poised To Ban Christians, Muslims, And Jews From Teaching In Public Schools

The 12 most useless college majors, according to experts. I minored in two of these. One third of them are arts. And several are feeder programs for bigger and better things.

The NAACP Has a Demand: Teach Our Kids to Read Cf: Baltimore.

The Educational Ship Comes to a Shuddering Halt

This IS an issue in MANY schools. I’m in the middle of it. Personally I think they’re God’s gift to substitute teachers. IF the classroom teacher specifically references it in the lesson plan I of course follow their directive. But if left to my own devices (see what I did there?) I’ll allow them. Students seem to like me but the admiration is misplaced. “You let us listen to music while we work.” Yes. Yes I do. But if I was the one up here imparting wisdom and trying to shovel some smartness into that skull foll of mush I would NOT be letting you apply those tuneful soporifics! Wacko Leftist Lady Calls DeSantis ‘Authoritarian’ For Opposing Cell Phones In Classroom

I’ve been the building sub in my current location for over 1 1/2 years. I’ve always felt welcome and accepted but recently it’s becoming a bit much. I’m seeing more and more of how the sausage is made. Hearing the grumbles from the faculty. And the student body is disgruntled as well but aren’t they ALWAYS? I have a feeling it may be nearing a breaking point. Something’s going to happen. It might be race related. It might hinge on discipline issues or enforcement of school rules (dress code, phone use, behavior.) But it’s in the air. Seemed to tick up a notch AFTER Christmas break (not what the school calls it but what it was for me.) Time will tell. And hopefully I’m wrong.

My tolerance at school (and OF school) is getting thin. Year end stuff. Winter break stuff. Nerves are fraying. Curious to see where the break ultimately comes. In the meantime:

Chronic School Absenteeism. RACIST!

THIS one was cool. Forget bake sales: This elementary school is set to raise $50,000 because they grew wheat as a school project.

I was NOT …. I repeat NOT involved in this. Grades For Attractive Female Students Dropped During Remote Learning

HARD TO DISAGREE WITH THE ASSESSMENT: ‘America Is Getting Dumber’: Experts Say Lockdowns Aren’t The Only Cause Of Student Struggles

Public high schools are failing to prepare students for freshman year of college, professor warns

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Community college is a better, more viable alternative for many students.

Biden is a doddering old man who has no idea what’s going on but that’s no excuse for putting someone like this lady in your education department

And speaking of …. dress codes? The Case for Bringing Back Neckties (and Classical Liberalism).

SHOT: CEO Of Failing Baltimore Public Schools Gets $444K In Yearly Pay, Comp

CHASER: Baltimore City Schools hits new low in nationwide testing | WBFF

I’ve thought this since the first week I subbed: ABOLISH THE SO-CALLED “ED” SCHOOLS—NOW!!!

No. No it isn’t. You might have to be more selective and not take us ALL … but just as having a piece of paper doesn’t make you good at teaching, NOT having the paper doesn’t make you BAD at teaching. Ed Sec: Recruiting outsiders to teach a ‘slap in the face’ to educators

Sadly part of me wants to bring back poll tests. Students cannot pass a basic citizenship exam: A shameful indictment of our education system.

related to all of the above: The 2022 Ig Nobel Prizes.

this will be used again: “The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” ~~ Marcus Aurelius

Old school. Y’see kids, back in MY day mid-August was the county fair, rolled right into the state fair rolled right into the community festival which ended on Monday. Teachers reported Tuesday. School started Wednesday. And the first football game was Friday. NOW the county fair’s been moved to early July, I have no IDEA when the state fair is, the community festival is STILL Labor Day weekend, school started three weeks ago, as did the HS football season. So I’m always kinda lost.

‘Never seen it this bad’: America faces catastrophic teacher shortage

A Belated Vindication for School Reopeners

Expect this to be reposted under other topics: DAVY CROCKETT EXPLAINS WHAT’S WRONG WITH BIDEN’S STUDENT LOAN GIVEAWAY: Not Yours to Give.

A TRILLION-DOLLAR CON: Long-term con: Obamacare was ‘paid for’ by nationalizing student loans.

The White House press secretary blames Republicans for Covid school closures. We have the receipts for that gaslight attempt.

Actually started last Friday but TODAY is the first day of my regular building sub gig. Started well, including applause from the foreign language department. But not all schools are ready to hit the ground running. Lots of issues out there. Columbus public teachers may be striking soon. There aren’t enough subs in the CBUS are NOW and many refuse to cover CPS in the BEST of times, so I don’t know WHAT they’re gonna do. All I DO know is it isn’t going to involve ME.

I opposed this during the Obama administration and still do. I’M HOPING TO BE ABLE TO FIGHT THIS:  “Excusing Misbehavior Is Bad for Kids and Schools, But That’s What Biden Admin Want to do for ‘Equity.‘”  (Here’s my argument.  Oh, and here’s more … I’ve been hammering on this nail for a while. 

A TEACHER’S STORY: Why I Left California

DEVON WESTHILL KNOWS FROM EXPERIENCE:  “Going Soft on Black Children’s Misbehavior is the Wrong Policy Prescription.”

And the source of MOST of the problem: OUR ED SCHOOL SLUMS.

It’s why I teach in the district I teach. Or, rather why I DON’T teach in certain OTHER districts. K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Midwest teachers leaving the classroom over student behavior, left-wing politics. There’s not much of an argument for public education anymore.

also this: COLOR ME UNSURPRISED: Study finds full-occupancy, in-person teaching did not lead to SARS-CoV-2 in-class transmission at Boston University.