Those Who Truly Teach Are "Lemons"
The San Francisco Chronicle, September 10, 2006, had an article supposedly about improving the quality of schools. It starts out:
Imagine a company president being ordered by the board of directors to hire any misfit who knocks on the door.
It's a crazy scenario -- but it's exactly the way many California school districts operate when an unsuccessful teacher is quietly edged out of a school. As long as the teacher agrees to leave voluntarily, union rules require the principal of any other school in the district with an opening to hire that teacher.
The practice, common in large and mid-size urban districts, is so reviled by principals that they've given it a derogatory name.
"It's called the Dance of the Lemons," said state Sen. Jack Scott, a Pasadena Democrat who wrote a bill to ban the practice in low-scoring schools and to limit it in others.
______________________
Finally, starting with the 16th paragraph of the article, does the truth come out:
The new law would no longer require principals in low-scoring schools to hire unwanted teachers. Like Balboa, these schools rank 1, 2, or 3 on the state's 10-point Academic Performance Index.
Principals in higher-scoring schools would have a window of time each year to hire whom they please -- beginning on April 15 and running through the summer.
______________________
My letter to the San Francisco Chronicle:
Dear Editor:
Your article, "Dance Of The Lemons", and the letters that comment on it, all seem to accept the premise that the goal of schools is to enable students to pass standardized tests.
Thus, the teacher that can inspire young minds to think creatively, to go beyond Newspeak, is considered a "lemon", while those that follow the path of pablum indoctrination laid down by the Bu$h Regime are the "educational" shining stars of the Fourth Reich.
The purge of intellectual activity in the public schools that began with expansion of standardized tests in the 1960's, furthered by Ritalin and other chemical toxins, and accelerated by No Standardized Test Left Behind, thus advances another goosestep thanks to the California legislature and HerrGoobernator.
Sincerely,
Terry L. Clark
Imagine a company president being ordered by the board of directors to hire any misfit who knocks on the door.
It's a crazy scenario -- but it's exactly the way many California school districts operate when an unsuccessful teacher is quietly edged out of a school. As long as the teacher agrees to leave voluntarily, union rules require the principal of any other school in the district with an opening to hire that teacher.
The practice, common in large and mid-size urban districts, is so reviled by principals that they've given it a derogatory name.
"It's called the Dance of the Lemons," said state Sen. Jack Scott, a Pasadena Democrat who wrote a bill to ban the practice in low-scoring schools and to limit it in others.
______________________
Finally, starting with the 16th paragraph of the article, does the truth come out:
The new law would no longer require principals in low-scoring schools to hire unwanted teachers. Like Balboa, these schools rank 1, 2, or 3 on the state's 10-point Academic Performance Index.
Principals in higher-scoring schools would have a window of time each year to hire whom they please -- beginning on April 15 and running through the summer.
______________________
My letter to the San Francisco Chronicle:
Dear Editor:
Your article, "Dance Of The Lemons", and the letters that comment on it, all seem to accept the premise that the goal of schools is to enable students to pass standardized tests.
Thus, the teacher that can inspire young minds to think creatively, to go beyond Newspeak, is considered a "lemon", while those that follow the path of pablum indoctrination laid down by the Bu$h Regime are the "educational" shining stars of the Fourth Reich.
The purge of intellectual activity in the public schools that began with expansion of standardized tests in the 1960's, furthered by Ritalin and other chemical toxins, and accelerated by No Standardized Test Left Behind, thus advances another goosestep thanks to the California legislature and HerrGoobernator.
Sincerely,
Terry L. Clark
posted by TLC's Place at 10:41 PM
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