With the Writers Guild strike showing no signs of coming to an end, largely due to the studios’ refusal to restart negotiations, I have been thinking of the parallels that exist between writers and teachers. Surprisingly, we have much in common.
1. Without writers, there would be no entertainment industry. Similarly, teachers are the lifeblood of education, a self-evident truth to most, but often an apparently arcane concept to ‘the bosses.’
2. The entertainment bureaucracy, including studio heads and production companies, is most reluctant to adequately remunerate writers, without whom their lavish (some would say profligate) lifestyles would not be possible. Again teachers, gross financial disparities aside, are rarely rewarded even with praise or sincere acknowledgement by boards and administrators, who seem eager to take most of the credit for success and none of the blame for failure.
3. Both writers and teachers need to be creative, imaginative, even inspired to succeed in their professions. What masquerades as imagination in both the entertainment and education chain of command is frequently merely uttering platitudes and 'buzz' words or following trends,
4. The upper echelon of both the entertain industry and education is rife with demoralizing arrogance. (See #1, 2, and 3 above, and just try talking to them.)
5. Writers and teachers, when they are doing their best work, can have real impact on people. Bosses ‘take meetings.’
6. When they retire, teachers and writers can take some satisfaction in their body of work. Mercifully, many of the bosses lack the capacity for real self-reflection, sparing them the realization of how they have wasted their lives.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Friday, January 4, 2008
The Search for Meaning – Realizing a Sense of Community
One of the biggest arguments for the existence of taxpayer-supported schools, as opposed to private schools, is that, due to the diversity of social and economic classes present, students learn about the realities of our pluralistic society and thereby develop a sense of community that extends beyond their own backgrounds. In many ways, inculcating this sense of community is key to developing a better world.
A while back I had an article published based on an environmental questionnaire I developed to help the reader determine whether he or she has that sense of community along with the realization that even small steps can effect big changes in the world. What follows is a slightly amended version of that article:
… As a world community, we need to realize that each of us makes daily choices and decisions that either worsen or lessen our negative impact on the world, and that the power of individuals working toward a common goal is not to be underestimated.
To help clarify your own outlook, take the following questionnaire:
Environmental science tells us that idling cars contribute tremendous amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. Instead of idling your car for five or more minutes while slowly approaching the window of your favorite drive-through, are you willing, once a week, to make coffee at home and put it in a readily available thermos cup? You can still enjoy your caffeine fix, yet at the same time save some money, time, and air quality.
At least once a week, are you willing to use a clothes drying rack instead of the dryer? This readily available inexpensive device requires only three or four minutes to arrange one’s wet clothes on. The benefits: reduction of hydro usage, the saving of money, and, especially in winter, adding some much-needed moisture to the air inside the home.
When the time comes to replace your lawnmower, will you consider an electric, as opposed to a gas powered model? Studies suggest that the latter, operated for one hour, emits pollution equivalent to driving a car about 160 kilometers.
Will you replace your conventional light bulbs with energy efficient fluorescent ones? They can be a real money saver over the long run and improve our air. It has been estimated that having at least one such bulb in every Canadian household would be the equivalent of removing 60,000 greenhouse gas-emitting cars from our roads.
Will you carpool to work at least once a month?
Will you turn down the temperature on the water heater (a task simple for even the most technically challenged, a group I sheepishly admit to being a member of)?
Are you willing to regularly turn out the lights in unoccupied rooms?
Will you alter the power settings on your computer so that the monitor, the largest consumer of power on the PC, turns off after 5 or 10 minutes of inactivity?
When the time comes, are you willing to buy a smaller, more energy efficient car?
If you were renovating or building a new bathroom, would you be willing to substitute a low-flow toilet that uses only 6 litres of water as opposed to a conventional one that uses 13 litres per flush? This environmentally sound technology will likely also save you over $100 per annum in water costs, by the way.
Your Score:
If you answered yes to 7-10 of the questions, the chances are that you are environmentally aware and are willing to take steps to reduce your ‘environmental footprint.’
If you answered yes to 4-6 of the questions, you are probably moving in the right direction and should read more about environmental issues at websites such as David Suzuki’s (www.davidsuzuki.org).
If you answered yes to less than 4 of the questions, you are probably more concerned about your own immediate comforts and conveniences than you are about the health of your children, your grandchildren, and the future of the planet. Try to start cultivating a sense of community.
Readers will probably have noticed that most of the measures found in the questionnaire entail very little personal sacrifice or inconvenience. In adopting several of them, our lives can go on pretty much as they always have. However, over the course of time, we may discover that we are profoundly changed because our relationship with the world has changed. Indeed, perhaps the greatest collateral benefit of embracing conservation is the forging of a sense of community, the awareness that what we do has an impact, not just on ourselves and our families, but on the larger world as well. With it may come the understanding that despite the environmental shortcomings of our governments and our businesses, we have within ourselves the power to make a real difference.
The final question to be answered is, “Are we willing to exercise that power?”
A while back I had an article published based on an environmental questionnaire I developed to help the reader determine whether he or she has that sense of community along with the realization that even small steps can effect big changes in the world. What follows is a slightly amended version of that article:
… As a world community, we need to realize that each of us makes daily choices and decisions that either worsen or lessen our negative impact on the world, and that the power of individuals working toward a common goal is not to be underestimated.
To help clarify your own outlook, take the following questionnaire:
Environmental science tells us that idling cars contribute tremendous amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. Instead of idling your car for five or more minutes while slowly approaching the window of your favorite drive-through, are you willing, once a week, to make coffee at home and put it in a readily available thermos cup? You can still enjoy your caffeine fix, yet at the same time save some money, time, and air quality.
At least once a week, are you willing to use a clothes drying rack instead of the dryer? This readily available inexpensive device requires only three or four minutes to arrange one’s wet clothes on. The benefits: reduction of hydro usage, the saving of money, and, especially in winter, adding some much-needed moisture to the air inside the home.
When the time comes to replace your lawnmower, will you consider an electric, as opposed to a gas powered model? Studies suggest that the latter, operated for one hour, emits pollution equivalent to driving a car about 160 kilometers.
Will you replace your conventional light bulbs with energy efficient fluorescent ones? They can be a real money saver over the long run and improve our air. It has been estimated that having at least one such bulb in every Canadian household would be the equivalent of removing 60,000 greenhouse gas-emitting cars from our roads.
Will you carpool to work at least once a month?
Will you turn down the temperature on the water heater (a task simple for even the most technically challenged, a group I sheepishly admit to being a member of)?
Are you willing to regularly turn out the lights in unoccupied rooms?
Will you alter the power settings on your computer so that the monitor, the largest consumer of power on the PC, turns off after 5 or 10 minutes of inactivity?
When the time comes, are you willing to buy a smaller, more energy efficient car?
If you were renovating or building a new bathroom, would you be willing to substitute a low-flow toilet that uses only 6 litres of water as opposed to a conventional one that uses 13 litres per flush? This environmentally sound technology will likely also save you over $100 per annum in water costs, by the way.
Your Score:
If you answered yes to 7-10 of the questions, the chances are that you are environmentally aware and are willing to take steps to reduce your ‘environmental footprint.’
If you answered yes to 4-6 of the questions, you are probably moving in the right direction and should read more about environmental issues at websites such as David Suzuki’s (www.davidsuzuki.org).
If you answered yes to less than 4 of the questions, you are probably more concerned about your own immediate comforts and conveniences than you are about the health of your children, your grandchildren, and the future of the planet. Try to start cultivating a sense of community.
Readers will probably have noticed that most of the measures found in the questionnaire entail very little personal sacrifice or inconvenience. In adopting several of them, our lives can go on pretty much as they always have. However, over the course of time, we may discover that we are profoundly changed because our relationship with the world has changed. Indeed, perhaps the greatest collateral benefit of embracing conservation is the forging of a sense of community, the awareness that what we do has an impact, not just on ourselves and our families, but on the larger world as well. With it may come the understanding that despite the environmental shortcomings of our governments and our businesses, we have within ourselves the power to make a real difference.
The final question to be answered is, “Are we willing to exercise that power?”
Thursday, January 3, 2008
The Search for Meaning – The Possibilities
As I mentioned in a previous post, the job of teaching can be an all-consuming one, often with few psychological rewards. In my first year of retirement, I intentionally avoided making any long-term commitments on my time since, for the first time in many years, I had the prospect of unstructured time. During that year, I did some house redecorating, a great deal of reading, honed my crossword puzzle skills, started this and my book review blog, and worked on a small research contract. All in all, not a bad introduction to retirement. Since the fall, however, (once a teacher, always a teacher – I think I‘ll always regard the fall as the start of the year!) I’ve begun to consider the real possibilities and opportunities that the freedom of retirement provides. In October I started to do some volunteering.
During my working life, for the most part the only volunteering I did outside of helping prepare an annual meal that my wife organizes for a local shelter and drop-in centre was within the context of the teaching profession. I sat on committees both within the school and with the local branch of OSSTF; I never regarded those activities as particularly altruistic, given that they were designed to benefit the very profession I was a part of. As well, I never felt, given the time commitment that committee work entails, this was a particularly good use of my time, and afforded little in the way of personal satisfaction. I found the same to be true of a civic-minded committee I joined that sought to make a difference in the election of municipal politicians – ultimately it seemed to me time wasted. However, one personal benefit was the confirmation that I am the type of person who craves more hands-on, immediate results from my actions. God love those who enjoy the world of minutia, rhetoric, and glacial progress I identify committee work with, but it’s clearly not for me.
The volunteer work I am doing now is very hands-on and physical – helping to sort and pack food in a foodbank. Its immediacy is something I really enjoy, and I intend to stay with it in the long-term, but I am still looking for other meaningful activities to be a part of. My next posts will reflect some of the research and reading I have been doing in pursuit of that goal; I hope that these posts will not be seen as exercises in self-indulgence. I intend them only as a very small means of helping people see the many opportunities that exist for making a difference in the world and finding meaning in life.
During my working life, for the most part the only volunteering I did outside of helping prepare an annual meal that my wife organizes for a local shelter and drop-in centre was within the context of the teaching profession. I sat on committees both within the school and with the local branch of OSSTF; I never regarded those activities as particularly altruistic, given that they were designed to benefit the very profession I was a part of. As well, I never felt, given the time commitment that committee work entails, this was a particularly good use of my time, and afforded little in the way of personal satisfaction. I found the same to be true of a civic-minded committee I joined that sought to make a difference in the election of municipal politicians – ultimately it seemed to me time wasted. However, one personal benefit was the confirmation that I am the type of person who craves more hands-on, immediate results from my actions. God love those who enjoy the world of minutia, rhetoric, and glacial progress I identify committee work with, but it’s clearly not for me.
The volunteer work I am doing now is very hands-on and physical – helping to sort and pack food in a foodbank. Its immediacy is something I really enjoy, and I intend to stay with it in the long-term, but I am still looking for other meaningful activities to be a part of. My next posts will reflect some of the research and reading I have been doing in pursuit of that goal; I hope that these posts will not be seen as exercises in self-indulgence. I intend them only as a very small means of helping people see the many opportunities that exist for making a difference in the world and finding meaning in life.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Teaching After Retirement?
As mentioned in my last post, I am opposed to retired teachers taking up supply positions, assuming the supply exceeds the demand. What follows is an article I wrote about a year before I retired, stating the reasons for my position. It appeared in a local teacher publication, and the response I got was, shall we say, spirited.
Teacher Retirement
What I am about to write, I know, will not be well-received by many colleagues of my generation, i.e., those who are planning to retire in the near future. Indeed, were it not for the fact that this is my last year of teaching, undoubtedly I would lack the moral authority to assert the following: in my view, doing supply work in retirement, with one notable exception, is wrong, and does a grave disservice to recent graduates in education.
How did I arrive at this conclusion? I’m sure that if we think back to the dawning of our own careers, many of us will see parallels to the situations that new teachers face today: a dearth of opportunities, except in select disciplines, and the very real prospect of having to relocate far from family and friends. That was certainly my experience, and it is not one that I am particularly keen to see young people face today.
Since stable employment eluded me in Ontario, I moved to and taught in Manitoba for many years, returning in 1988, one of the most compelling reasons being that my wife and I did not want our children growing up with almost no contact with their grandparents and other extended family members. It was only after toiling in supply work that I was able to secure full-time employment as teachers, especially department heads, got to know me and my work; as well, I was able to see the job postings in staff rooms, thereby giving me an edge over outside applicants.
Today, our young people are being denied such opportunities. When was the last time a new teacher did supply work in your school? It has been more than two years at my place of employment. To remedy this situation clearly will require retiring teachers to adopt a new perspective and be prepared to make sacrifices. Certainly, I know many anticipating retirement who say they will need the money that supply work pays to augment their pensions. My response to that is simple: either defer your retirement, be prepared to live a little more modestly, or begin a second career. Do not fall into a comforting rationalization about how students will be especially well-served because of your vast experience. The bald truth is that the vast majority of supply work entails babysitting or monitoring, not actual teaching. Nor should you feel that you somehow deserve to teach after retirement because you have paid your dues. What would make any of us think we are owed anything by the system?
I mentioned at the outset that there really is only one exception to the opinion I have expressed. That is when a teacher, either through maternity leave or illness, will be off the job for the remainder of a semester. Assuming the illness or leave occurs sometime after the semester has begun, it is, I believe, highly desirable to have an experienced (presumably recently retired) teacher assume duties to ensure continuity in the classroom. It would simply be too difficult for most new teachers to master the curriculum in a short time and provide that continuity. Indeed, last year at my school two of my former colleagues, whom I hold in very high esteem, did exactly that, and the students were indeed well-served by their conscientious professionalism.
The sentiments I’ve expressed in this article will undoubtedly strike some as either harsh or cold-hearted. I think they are neither. It is only when we admit to ourselves that we’ve had a pretty good run that we can begin to recognize it is time to yield to the younger generation who, once they attain full-time employment, undoubtedly will acquit themselves in the job with honour and vigor, just as we did when we started out, so long ago.
Teacher Retirement
What I am about to write, I know, will not be well-received by many colleagues of my generation, i.e., those who are planning to retire in the near future. Indeed, were it not for the fact that this is my last year of teaching, undoubtedly I would lack the moral authority to assert the following: in my view, doing supply work in retirement, with one notable exception, is wrong, and does a grave disservice to recent graduates in education.
How did I arrive at this conclusion? I’m sure that if we think back to the dawning of our own careers, many of us will see parallels to the situations that new teachers face today: a dearth of opportunities, except in select disciplines, and the very real prospect of having to relocate far from family and friends. That was certainly my experience, and it is not one that I am particularly keen to see young people face today.
Since stable employment eluded me in Ontario, I moved to and taught in Manitoba for many years, returning in 1988, one of the most compelling reasons being that my wife and I did not want our children growing up with almost no contact with their grandparents and other extended family members. It was only after toiling in supply work that I was able to secure full-time employment as teachers, especially department heads, got to know me and my work; as well, I was able to see the job postings in staff rooms, thereby giving me an edge over outside applicants.
Today, our young people are being denied such opportunities. When was the last time a new teacher did supply work in your school? It has been more than two years at my place of employment. To remedy this situation clearly will require retiring teachers to adopt a new perspective and be prepared to make sacrifices. Certainly, I know many anticipating retirement who say they will need the money that supply work pays to augment their pensions. My response to that is simple: either defer your retirement, be prepared to live a little more modestly, or begin a second career. Do not fall into a comforting rationalization about how students will be especially well-served because of your vast experience. The bald truth is that the vast majority of supply work entails babysitting or monitoring, not actual teaching. Nor should you feel that you somehow deserve to teach after retirement because you have paid your dues. What would make any of us think we are owed anything by the system?
I mentioned at the outset that there really is only one exception to the opinion I have expressed. That is when a teacher, either through maternity leave or illness, will be off the job for the remainder of a semester. Assuming the illness or leave occurs sometime after the semester has begun, it is, I believe, highly desirable to have an experienced (presumably recently retired) teacher assume duties to ensure continuity in the classroom. It would simply be too difficult for most new teachers to master the curriculum in a short time and provide that continuity. Indeed, last year at my school two of my former colleagues, whom I hold in very high esteem, did exactly that, and the students were indeed well-served by their conscientious professionalism.
The sentiments I’ve expressed in this article will undoubtedly strike some as either harsh or cold-hearted. I think they are neither. It is only when we admit to ourselves that we’ve had a pretty good run that we can begin to recognize it is time to yield to the younger generation who, once they attain full-time employment, undoubtedly will acquit themselves in the job with honour and vigor, just as we did when we started out, so long ago.
Saturday, December 29, 2007
The Search for Meaning
They say that when people reach a certain stage in life, they look for things to make their lives meaningful. Throughout my years as a teacher, that search for meaning eluded me, partly because the job both haunted and consumed me, leaving little time for engagement with the larger world, and partly due to my belief that whatever I accomplished in the classroom had less to do with me and more to do with the innate talents and discipline of my students. Now into the second year of my retirement, I find both my interests and the focus of this blog diverging from its initial purpose of offering observations and commentary about education and moving into areas of which I feel an educated person should be aware. You might say that I am now trying to reengage with the larger world.
To that end, I suspect that more of my entries henceforth will be eclectic in nature, reflective of this search for meaning, although I have no intention of allowing them to devolve into maudlin self-indulgence. (I’ll leave that to people like Shelagh Rogers and her execrable program on C.B.C. radio, Sounds Like Canada.) To mark this shift, I would like to begin a series on how we, as individuals, through either acts of omission or commission, can have a positive impact on the world. The first act relates to retired teachers.
While I realize the situation varies tremendously depending upon where you live, in my school board, there are many retired teachers who do supply teaching and take long term occasional positions. The problem with this is that it deprives a large number of young people the opportunity of working and making themselves known to administrators. One young man I know, for example, who had worked for about three years on contract at my school, is now on the supply list but gets called an average of once or twice a month, while many retired teachers drawing healthy pensions are called much more regularly, owing to the fact that they are well-known due to their former status.
So my suggestion is a simple one: when you retire, unless your board is chronically short of supply teachers, make a young person’s life a little easier and future employment prospects brighter by consciously choosing NOT to supplant them; elect NOT to be put on the supply list. I have never regretted my decision to make way for a new generation of young people.
If I can find the file, in my next post I would like to provide an amended version of an article I wrote on this topic about a year before I retired.
To that end, I suspect that more of my entries henceforth will be eclectic in nature, reflective of this search for meaning, although I have no intention of allowing them to devolve into maudlin self-indulgence. (I’ll leave that to people like Shelagh Rogers and her execrable program on C.B.C. radio, Sounds Like Canada.) To mark this shift, I would like to begin a series on how we, as individuals, through either acts of omission or commission, can have a positive impact on the world. The first act relates to retired teachers.
While I realize the situation varies tremendously depending upon where you live, in my school board, there are many retired teachers who do supply teaching and take long term occasional positions. The problem with this is that it deprives a large number of young people the opportunity of working and making themselves known to administrators. One young man I know, for example, who had worked for about three years on contract at my school, is now on the supply list but gets called an average of once or twice a month, while many retired teachers drawing healthy pensions are called much more regularly, owing to the fact that they are well-known due to their former status.
So my suggestion is a simple one: when you retire, unless your board is chronically short of supply teachers, make a young person’s life a little easier and future employment prospects brighter by consciously choosing NOT to supplant them; elect NOT to be put on the supply list. I have never regretted my decision to make way for a new generation of young people.
If I can find the file, in my next post I would like to provide an amended version of an article I wrote on this topic about a year before I retired.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Something to Think About
One of my favourite writers, David Macfarlane, had an article in the Dec.24th edition of the Globe and Mail. He is a former columnist with the paper,and I have never understood why they dropped him as a regular contributor. What follows is the kind of insightful and skilled writing that I used to savor on a regular basis:
How the rich spend at Christmas
DAVID MACFARLANE
From Monday's Globe and Mail
December 23, 2007 at 5:08 PM EST
It's always good to know what the wealthy are up to – particularly now that the holidays are upon us. And so, in the spirit of the season, here is a list of exclusive gift suggestions. Very exclusive, when you stop to think about it.
One thing the rich are bound to have this year is a roof over their heads. Untouched by bombs, hurricanes, fires and mudslides, intact roofs are capable of keeping the cold and wet out and the warmth in. Of course, roofs can't be for everyone. There aren't many refugees who know a good architect from a hole in the ground. And the homeless – they wouldn't know how to get hold of a decent contractor to save their lives. Roofs are particularly rare anywhere there has been an earthquake, a civil war or an intervention by the Bush administration. Probably anyone who had anything to do with a subprime mortgage also has a pretty good view of the stars this winter. But that is the great charm of roofs. It is its exclusivity that gives basic shelter such enormous cachet among the discerning.
Speaking of hot and cold, members of the world's economic elite have it coming out their taps. No walks with plastic jugs to the communal well for them. No worries about droughts or dried-up rivers. No mercury poisoning, no upstream chemical plants, no toxic run-off from intensive agri-factories in the watershed. And best of all, no beverage companies buying up the rights to the local source. In the households of the truly affluent, there is as much water as anyone could ever want. A flushing toilet! A hot shower! Often, there are baths. And for the man who has everything, how about this: Your favourite gardening enthusiast can run the sprinkler in the summer for as long as he wants, with water that is clean enough to drink!
And after a busy day of brushing your teeth, shampooing the dog, doing the laundry, quenching your thirst and cleaning the dishes, what would the holidays be without food? In the kitchens of the world's most well-to-do, there are refrigerators that are full of milk, cheese, eggs, hamburger, and, at the back of the shelves, um, other things. (I'm not sure. It looks like they've been there for a while. Maybe they're capers.) Also, the rich have cupboards with cornflakes and peanut butter in them, and they have breadboxes that contain bread. Often, there is orange juice in the freezer. And sometimes someone has left some ice cream.
But even the rich encounter people who are hard to buy for. You know the type. You ask what they want for Christmas, and they don't say anything very helpful in reply. Not if they're busy whisking flies away from their sleeping children, they don't. So here's a nifty suggestion. What about shoes? Everyone likes shoes. The rich have been wearing them since forever. Ands really, you can't go wrong with footwear. Shoes are especially good for crossing deserts in the Sudan (see water-related gift suggestions, above) and for running away from crazed, marauding janjaweed soldiers in Darfur.
And then, for the last-minute shopper, there's always penicillin. The upper crust has always known that it never goes amiss. There are lots of diseases and infections that can actually kill people when there is no access to antibiotics – and that is one of the many indications that, as F.Scott Fitzgerald once said, the rich are different. They sure are: They're alive. Some people – at least, the ones who don't have to ask pharmaceutical companies how much anything costs – are happy to spare no expense when it comes to not dying. And while on the subject of how good the rich have been at avoiding death, take a tip from the top 5 per cent of the Earth's wage-earners: Anti-retrovirals make a great stocking stuffer.
There are traditions that come with having an income, and one of them can solve the tricky business of giving a gift to a young person. It's always difficult, so here's a useful idea. The rich like to give their children educations. Preschool, primary, high school – the whole nine yards. Now that the economy's booming, postsecondary tuition is as common under the Christmas trees of the wealthy as Laura Secord chocolates, Tim Hortons gift certificates and sweaters from the Bay. The rich figured out years ago that giving kids the possibility of a future pretty much cut out gas-sniffing and suicides among their own teenaged offspring. And who among us is grinch enough to argue with that?
How the rich spend at Christmas
DAVID MACFARLANE
From Monday's Globe and Mail
December 23, 2007 at 5:08 PM EST
It's always good to know what the wealthy are up to – particularly now that the holidays are upon us. And so, in the spirit of the season, here is a list of exclusive gift suggestions. Very exclusive, when you stop to think about it.
One thing the rich are bound to have this year is a roof over their heads. Untouched by bombs, hurricanes, fires and mudslides, intact roofs are capable of keeping the cold and wet out and the warmth in. Of course, roofs can't be for everyone. There aren't many refugees who know a good architect from a hole in the ground. And the homeless – they wouldn't know how to get hold of a decent contractor to save their lives. Roofs are particularly rare anywhere there has been an earthquake, a civil war or an intervention by the Bush administration. Probably anyone who had anything to do with a subprime mortgage also has a pretty good view of the stars this winter. But that is the great charm of roofs. It is its exclusivity that gives basic shelter such enormous cachet among the discerning.
Speaking of hot and cold, members of the world's economic elite have it coming out their taps. No walks with plastic jugs to the communal well for them. No worries about droughts or dried-up rivers. No mercury poisoning, no upstream chemical plants, no toxic run-off from intensive agri-factories in the watershed. And best of all, no beverage companies buying up the rights to the local source. In the households of the truly affluent, there is as much water as anyone could ever want. A flushing toilet! A hot shower! Often, there are baths. And for the man who has everything, how about this: Your favourite gardening enthusiast can run the sprinkler in the summer for as long as he wants, with water that is clean enough to drink!
And after a busy day of brushing your teeth, shampooing the dog, doing the laundry, quenching your thirst and cleaning the dishes, what would the holidays be without food? In the kitchens of the world's most well-to-do, there are refrigerators that are full of milk, cheese, eggs, hamburger, and, at the back of the shelves, um, other things. (I'm not sure. It looks like they've been there for a while. Maybe they're capers.) Also, the rich have cupboards with cornflakes and peanut butter in them, and they have breadboxes that contain bread. Often, there is orange juice in the freezer. And sometimes someone has left some ice cream.
But even the rich encounter people who are hard to buy for. You know the type. You ask what they want for Christmas, and they don't say anything very helpful in reply. Not if they're busy whisking flies away from their sleeping children, they don't. So here's a nifty suggestion. What about shoes? Everyone likes shoes. The rich have been wearing them since forever. Ands really, you can't go wrong with footwear. Shoes are especially good for crossing deserts in the Sudan (see water-related gift suggestions, above) and for running away from crazed, marauding janjaweed soldiers in Darfur.
And then, for the last-minute shopper, there's always penicillin. The upper crust has always known that it never goes amiss. There are lots of diseases and infections that can actually kill people when there is no access to antibiotics – and that is one of the many indications that, as F.Scott Fitzgerald once said, the rich are different. They sure are: They're alive. Some people – at least, the ones who don't have to ask pharmaceutical companies how much anything costs – are happy to spare no expense when it comes to not dying. And while on the subject of how good the rich have been at avoiding death, take a tip from the top 5 per cent of the Earth's wage-earners: Anti-retrovirals make a great stocking stuffer.
There are traditions that come with having an income, and one of them can solve the tricky business of giving a gift to a young person. It's always difficult, so here's a useful idea. The rich like to give their children educations. Preschool, primary, high school – the whole nine yards. Now that the economy's booming, postsecondary tuition is as common under the Christmas trees of the wealthy as Laura Secord chocolates, Tim Hortons gift certificates and sweaters from the Bay. The rich figured out years ago that giving kids the possibility of a future pretty much cut out gas-sniffing and suicides among their own teenaged offspring. And who among us is grinch enough to argue with that?
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Towards an Effective School Attendance Policy
While this is my first entry for some time, I would like to continue discussing school attendance policies. In my last post I suggested that schools and boards rarely have the stomach to implement and enforce meaningful policies for a myriad of reasons. Today I would like to look at one from the past that was quite effective.
When I taught in Manitoba, I was fortunate to work for a division that eventually developed a policy that was stringent yet fair and, for the most part, enforced. While many years have elapsed since that time, if memory serves me, a letter was sent home after 3 absences advising the parents of our policies and the importance of regular attendance, etc. After five or six absences, the student was given a detention, and ultimately, if he or she accrued ten, an appearance before a principal/vice- principal, board member, teacher and superintendent was mandatory. At this meeting, the truant had to explain why he/she should be allowed to continue in the course, after which a contract was drawn up which permitted no more than two more absences, no matter what the reason. While you might think that this was a cumbersome, draconian and time-consuming process, the truth is that such meetings and contracts were rare, owing to the fact that when they were violated, the student was removed from the course and placed in study hall for that period every day. In other words, this policy had teeth, and almost no one ever violated the contract.
Despite its success, I remember one time when one of my students violated the contract and I had every expectation that he would be removed. After talking with his father, who felt I was being grossly unfair, despite the fact that it was his son who had skipped class, I received a call from the Superintendent. He had spoken to the father and suggested that this was a time when we should show some compassion; I responded that there were no mitigating circumstances whatsoever, and not to enforce the contract was to essentially render it meaningless. Being both young and rash, I also told him he would have my resignation if he didn’t support me on this (a career-limiting move, as they say). After I talked to him, I then phoned a trustee that I knew fairly well, told him the situation and asked for his support.
The outcome was that the Superintendent was overruled by the board, and the lad was removed from my class. Needless to say, relations with the Superintendent were ‘frosty’ from that point onward. Yet for me, the gamble was worth it, as I have always believed that educational integrity has to be practiced on all levels, from the top down. Without it, we really stand for nothing but expedience, which serves no one.
When I taught in Manitoba, I was fortunate to work for a division that eventually developed a policy that was stringent yet fair and, for the most part, enforced. While many years have elapsed since that time, if memory serves me, a letter was sent home after 3 absences advising the parents of our policies and the importance of regular attendance, etc. After five or six absences, the student was given a detention, and ultimately, if he or she accrued ten, an appearance before a principal/vice- principal, board member, teacher and superintendent was mandatory. At this meeting, the truant had to explain why he/she should be allowed to continue in the course, after which a contract was drawn up which permitted no more than two more absences, no matter what the reason. While you might think that this was a cumbersome, draconian and time-consuming process, the truth is that such meetings and contracts were rare, owing to the fact that when they were violated, the student was removed from the course and placed in study hall for that period every day. In other words, this policy had teeth, and almost no one ever violated the contract.
Despite its success, I remember one time when one of my students violated the contract and I had every expectation that he would be removed. After talking with his father, who felt I was being grossly unfair, despite the fact that it was his son who had skipped class, I received a call from the Superintendent. He had spoken to the father and suggested that this was a time when we should show some compassion; I responded that there were no mitigating circumstances whatsoever, and not to enforce the contract was to essentially render it meaningless. Being both young and rash, I also told him he would have my resignation if he didn’t support me on this (a career-limiting move, as they say). After I talked to him, I then phoned a trustee that I knew fairly well, told him the situation and asked for his support.
The outcome was that the Superintendent was overruled by the board, and the lad was removed from my class. Needless to say, relations with the Superintendent were ‘frosty’ from that point onward. Yet for me, the gamble was worth it, as I have always believed that educational integrity has to be practiced on all levels, from the top down. Without it, we really stand for nothing but expedience, which serves no one.
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