You know you've become somebody when suddenly with people think your important enough to say they were with you!
"Drew Russo
Great night celebrating local arts. Congressman Tierney, Mayor Kennedy, Rep. Steve Walsh, Councilors Pete Capano & Brendan Crighton, and School
Committeeman Charlie Gallo all here showing their support! Thank you Corey Jackson and the AAH team for all that you do for Lynn! — with Brendan Crighton and 10 others."
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OKAY, OKAY, I'M ONLY AN OTHER BUT TWO YEARS AGO I WAS A NOBODY!
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Nice - so tell us how the night was - worth the trip?
ReplyDeleteGood, it'll be in a post back with the long video.
ReplyDeleteI met you tonight and told you I would send you my blog I published on January 31. My friend and I enjoyed the concert. I don't have much use for the politicians who were there to get their names in the paper.
ReplyDeleteI THINK ...What Education?
When I was a student in the public schools, educated women did not have many options. Consequently, I had some of the best and the brightest teachers, who, together with my mother, awakened me to the challenge of learning. So many of my teachers were responsible for my intellectual development, for making me feel valuable as an individual, for setting me on a course where learning was truly a gift. Unfortunately, once more opportunities for women opened up, the best and the brightest moved into more lucrative professions. I believe that this was the beginning of the dumbing down of the educational system. The teachers I had would never have put their own interest before that of their students nor would they blame the parents for their failure. The best and the brightest would not have needed job security because they possess that inner security in themselves and what they were contributing. They did not need the teachers union. Recently, I began to wonder how many leaders in the teachers unions were ever amongst the best and the brightest. My guess would be there were and are very few.
Some time agao, I learned that Finland holds their teachers in such high regard that they are paid at the rate of doctors and lawyers. In Finland, only the top of the class are selected to teach. In the United States teachers come from the bottom of the class and are paid at a rate commensurate with their contribution to society. From time to time a good teacher is produced, gets hired, and excels at her job, but when the budjets are cut she is the first one fired because the unions insist on protecting the more senior, mostly ineffective teacher. You might say I am painting the problem with a very broad brush and you might be right. I am sure there are excellent teachers with tenure who have made a difference in a child's life. But given the quality of the education provided our children, I don't think the brush is that broad. The teachers unions balk at merit pay because everyone is equal and therefore worth the same. We all know that this is not true and any good teacher has to cringe at this notion. While merit pay is good, the real solution is to do whatever is necessary to get back the best and the brightest.
I enjoyed your company tonight. The problem is that we value the wrong things. We prize objects and the things we can do with them most instead of the giving of the knowledge of how to make and use those things.
DeleteLeft to our own devices, we will always prize objects and things. This is called "greed". If knowledge of how to make and use objects and things were given away we would really be approaching equal opportunity. The powers that be would have to run for cover because we would see through their bill of goods. They would have nothing to sell.
DeleteYou are clearly WISE! Do you write POETRY perhaps?
DeleteRoz...I enjoyed reading your post and I couldn't agree with you more. In my experiences as a parent, I have found that it is mostly the teachers who have seniority that lack all the necessary skills our children need and deserve. Meanwhile, some of the newer teachers have fresh ideas and teaching methods, as well as the patience and communication skills that are essential. LPS only evaluates teachers who have "professional status" once every 3 years, while those who don't are evaluated I believe once or twice per year. This may be a state mandate, but as a parent, I believe every teacher should be evaluated at least once a year. Although, then there's the issue of what this evaluation consists of and who is performing it. Those of us in Lynn know first hand how meaningless and useless some of our evaluations are. I did hear that as of next year the evaluation of teachers is going to change. One of the areas they will be evaluated on is their students test scores. However, the problem with that is why should a 4th grade teacher be held accountable if her class doesn't perform well on the MCAS. She/He did not teach these kids for the previous 4 years where they should have learned all the material. This is an example of the many flaws our evaluation system has.
DeleteI have this little petition, you see.
DeleteLori...Evaluations have their place when all the stars are correctly aligned. You are so right when you say that the system is flawed. It has to be difficult for a promising teacher to have to pay for the failings of others while at the same time those that did fail are protected by a system that politicians and their allies have designed to fail. I use to think that the answer was to have parents in a given community rally together and demand better but now I think that parents from a whole host of communities have to ban together to effectuate change. This is the only way to achieve that power in numbers. If I am wrong and if you believe that there are enough parents in Lynn who are willing to go to any length to secure a quality education for their children then let us discuss how they can be rallied. I grew up in Boston and attended the public schools. Would you believe that one of the reasons my parents wanted my siblings and me to move to Massachusetts was that Boston had the best school system in the country followed closely by Cambridge and Lynn? That was a long time ago. If the Lynn system is to be changed it has to start with the School Committee and work its way up or down depending on your point of view. Maybe we need another Noah's ark moment. We might have to start all over again.
ReplyDeleteStanley...You know what they say "tis folly to be wise." I was really lousy writing poetry. I couldn't find a word that would rhyme with time.
ReplyDeleteActually I never heard that saying BUT I never had to worry about being wise! Also my poetry only rhymes here so that would not or should not stop you. True poetry is written with ideas.
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