MadTeach

MadTeach got its name because I used to teach in Madison, WI, and that used to make me pretty mad...now I teach in a large city... totally different scene... but I'm keeping the name. :-)

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Tuesday, September 18, 2007

ten positive things

One day last week when my students were completely nuts the assistant principal came in to yell at them. I am starting to get slightly annoyed with all the other adults coming in to yell at my kids... but anyway.

She told them for homework to write ten positive things they can do in their classroom. Most of them wrote a set of rules (do's and do not's). Some highlights...

"Don't hit the teacher."

"No throwing food in the class. No throwing chairs. No throwing school supplies. No stealing from the teacher. No writing on other people's paper."

"Never disrespect the teacher or all adults if you don't like it go somewhere else."

"We are suppose to act like we have sense."

"Do not play with other people's hair." (This one showed up on three lists - not sitting next to each other either! More aspects of that bad teen movie I'm in... the girl who dreams of being a hair stylist but is oppressed by the mean teacher... )

One girl added a small note on the back of her paper...

"Dear Mrs. _______
I am sorry what we did and I want you to forgive us and we care just give us some time. Love, _______."

posted by birdfarm @ 6:21 AM

1 Comments:

At 9:26 PM, Chris said...: ohohohoh: that last bit made me tear up. i just want to hug her.

i am so proud of what you're doing. i am reading, even if i'm not commenting (and not even getting to my emails lately -- i know you're there!). you are amazing, and i love hearing what you're doing.

when i get out from under my 50 drafts and the grant i'm writing for the writing center (deadline yesterday) and and and... we'll catch up. i should be less crazed after this week.

(the ten posts prior to this one)

RETURN TO CURRENT POSTS

The Scariest Thing You'll Ever Read
"From the Land of Frankenstein"

John Taylor Gatto explains the origins of the US school system:

"The Prussian mind...held a clear idea of what centralized schooling should deliver: 1) Obedient soldiers to the army; 2) Obedient workers for mines, factories, and farms; 3) Well-subordinated civil servants, trained in their function; 4) Well-subordinated clerks for industry; 5) Citizens who thought alike on most issues; 6) National uniformity in thought, word, and deed.

"The area of individual volition for commoners was severely foreclosed by Prussian psychological training procedures drawn from the experience of animal husbandry and equestrian training, and also taken from past military experience.

"Prussian schools delivered everything they promised. Every important matter could now be confidently worked out in advance by leading families and institutional heads because well-schooled masses would concur with a minimum of opposition."

--John Taylor Gatto
"The Underground History of American Education"
Chapter Seven

So that's why our school system is the way it is... why we are the way we are.

Now that you know...act to RESIST and TRANSFORM this system that keeps us gullible, obedient, and ignorant.

¡Si se puede!

I'm a new teacher (social studies 6-12), committed to anti-racist, multicultural, and fully inclusive education; also a traveller, materialist historian, political activist, former grad student, and occasional gardener.

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Rethinking Schools
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