Teaching High School: What’s New in High School?

Educator Readings

Gotham Writers' Workshop: Writing Fiction: The Practical Guide from New York's Acclaimed Creative Writing School
As much as I would love to take on of the courses online with this book, this book is much cheaper ($15 vs $350) and possibly will be just as good.
William Glasser: The Quality School: Managing Students Without Coercion
I saw Glasser speak a few years ago. Just as powerful in person as this book is in your lap and then in your mind.
Neil Postman: The End Of Education : Redefining the Value of School
From the back of the book: "...today's schools promote the false 'gods' of economic utility, consumerism, technology, or ethnic separatism and resentment."
W. James Popham: The Truth About Testing: An Educator's Call to Action
Shows much more than I thought possible about the dangers of too much testing. (*****)
Martin L. Gross: The Conspiracy of Ignorance: The Failure of American Public Schools
This affirms for me many thoughts I have had about the public schooling system in the US. (*****)

Tuesday, October 21, 2003

What’s New in High School?

It’s been a while since I’ve been a high school student myself, buy I must say it never would have occurred to me even now to have sex in the boy’s bathroom. Yes, that’s right: Sex at school. During the school day. In the gross (sorry guys, but it is) boy’s bathroom.

These two youngsters apparently had it arranged for someone to distract the teacher on duty so the young lady could sneak in and then they were able to get their freak on. And apparently it didn’t matter if a few people saw.

From what I heard from the staff, all who know her are shocked. Not much has been said about the boy, which goes along with our society’s double standard of it’s ok for the gents to score.

I’m disgusted. Mostly because the district I instruct in does not have a safe sex program or a sex program at all. The word ‘masturbation’ is not to be uttered. It’s a ridiculous policy. I imagine we’re getting close to only teaching the creationist theory of how humans got on this Earth. But I digress.

As a staff we were forbidden to talk about “The Incident”, almost to the point of not even discussing it amongst ourselves. Don’t talk about it with students, direct any media contact to the board office, and don’t discuss it with any parent of any student.

Suspensions are already being served and it may be decided that they should both be expelled. Although, I imagine the young lady, who by all of her teachers’ accounts is a soft spoken, all A student, will be hard pressed to show her face there again. But maybe I’m wrong; I’m not now 15. Maybe it’ll be seen as an act of courage.

Tuesday, October 21, 2003 at 06:24 PM in Students | Permalink

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Tuesday, October 21, 2003

What’s New in High School?

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