Colleges aren't giving students a real education

I think a real education also means understanding why and how things work, understanding the larger world, not just keeping one's head down and pushing forward in a narrow world, like a trained monkey. And I disagree that colleges are doing a good job of teaching young people to think critically and analyze effectively.

Author Argues Colleges Focus More on Professional Training Than Transformation
PBS Newshour
Sept. 4, 2013

Colleges try to market their degrees as a ticket to professional success. A collection of essays argues the focus of higher education should be on student transformation and learning. Jeffrey Brown sits down with Mark Edmundson of the University of Virginia to discuss his book, "Why Teach?: In Defense of a Real Education."

Transcript:

JUDY WOODRUFF:... What is the real purpose of college?

...JEFFREY BROWN: "If you want an education, the odds aren't with you," just one of many provocative lines from a new book exploring the contemporary university, very much including the most elite institutions and the lives of teachers and students...

...JEFFREY BROWN: So, first, what is a real education and why does it need defending?

MARK EDMUNDSON: Well, a real education -- I will offend a few people by saying this -- is humanities-based and it's oriented around the prospect of getting to know yourself, figuring out who you are and what you really want to do with your life.

JEFFREY BROWN: And that is not what is taught now?

MARK EDMUNDSON: Well, I think a lot of student come to school having been primed by their parents and their teaches to go into a business school, to go into an economics major, to do a science major, whether they're scientists or future businesspeople in their heart or not...

JEFFREY BROWN: You add a larger level. You write: "Midway through the last decade, the 20th century, American higher education changed. Colleges and universities entered a new phase in which they stopped being intellectually driven and culturally oriented and began to model themselves on business."

MARK EDMUNDSON: Yes, a lot of truth in that, I still think.

Schools have become more consumer-oriented. Can we give you the best kind of food? Can we give you the best kind of gym? Can we give you all the entertainment that you need on Saturday and Sunday, the best kind of football team? But, then, at the end, you are going to have to pay for it.

So, there's a lot of diversions out there, but there is still the heart of a good education in just about every American college.

JEFFREY BROWN: But why has that happened, that it became more business-oriented? And what does that do to the actual exchange between teacher and student?

MARK EDMUNDSON: Well, it became more business-oriented because, like businesses, I think the universities competed for students. Right?

And one of the ways to compete is offer as plush and easy a circumstance as possible. So the professors have had to step forward and try to undermine those expectations of a continuing consumer pleasurable encounter, do a little bit of challenging, do a little bit of questioning, do a little bit of the Socratic thing that we try to do.

JEFFREY BROWN: ...Is it coddling the students, in the sense that they're not challenging them enough because they're more like customers, rather than students? What's the argument?

MARK EDMUNDSON: Well, I think they come with those expectations, but I think professors try to push back in the direction of a more serious kind of engagement.

One of the things that we're doing, it seems to me, is that we're teaching students very well how to read and interpret demanding and interesting texts. But we're not going far enough in asking them this critical question: Is this true? How would you apply it to your life? How would you live it out?...

JEFFREY BROWN: We talk a lot about a crisis in the humanities...

MARK EDMUNDSON: ...Well, I think that, you know, the humanities can help you to do better in life. You can learn to read well, write well, think well, present yourself in an appealing sort of way. But I think that fundamentally we're not about success. What we're about is challenging and examining every single kind of socially accredited standard out there.

If a student studies the humanities and reads Plato and reads Socrates, he may come out believing that he wants to be a conventional success, but he may also come out believing that success is really for somebody else; he's going to lead a life of what Thoreau called voluntary poverty, and that's that. And that's the risk that parents take, but better a happy kid than a slogging-away, successful -- in conventional terms -- kid.

...JEFFREY BROWN: But not to say this might help you become a lawyer or a doctor or an engineer?

MARK EDMUNDSON: What I'm more likely to say is, this will help you decide whether you want to become a lawyer, a doctor or an engineer.

And if you do decide to do that, you are going to be all the more successful because you made the decision on your own, not because it's been imposed on you from outside.

JEFFREY BROWN: So, what are you saying? Because I can hear people saying, look, it's a tough economy. Right? Kids and parents pay a lot of money to go to college... What do you tell people? Why should they not be thinking that this has to lead to something with money or the economy in mind?

MARK EDMUNDSON:...Well, you know, if you look at people's professional lives and you ask them why do they fail, right, frequently, they fail because they are a round peg trying to slam themselves into a square hole of a profession that they really do not love and are not committed to, right, so that if a student learns what it is he or she really values and wants to do, the chances of success are much better.

And that's something we provide in the humanities that others don't. But the thing to add is that students may in the humanities look into this idea of success and say, no, not for me. I have a son who lives in Austin, Tex., works in a bike shop, and is writing a novel. I'm tremendously proud of him. He looked into the success thing, and so far, what he's saying is, not for me.

JEFFREY BROWN: But you're probably going to hear from people, this is the privilege of the well-off, to be able to have that kind of, I don't know, four years of thinking and of, as you use the word from John Keats, soul-making. Right?

MARK EDMUNDSON: I would like it to be a privilege that everybody had access to. Right?

And that -- when we say we can't afford that, we can afford 2.5 million people in jail. We can afford armies that can fight three wars at the same time. We can afford rich people who pay 15 to zero percent of their taxes, but we can't afford to give everybody a chance at the humanities? I would rather open it up for everybody.

JEFFREY BROWN: So, what do you tell -- you refer at one point to the astonishing opportunities at colleges. For all the kind of tough things you have to say, you talk about the wonders of our universities.

MARK EDMUNDSON: Yes. Yes.

JEFFREY BROWN: What's the advice? How should a student take those -- particularly those starting maybe right today, right, or this week, how should they take advantage of that?

MARK EDMUNDSON: Yes.

You have got to look around for the teacher who is going to be great for you. There is this period that they call shopping period -- probably not the best name -- but you go from class to class, from professor to professor, and you see, you look around for somebody who really lights it up for you. You're looking for somebody with a keen mind, love of learning, and a warm heart.

And you get those things together in the same person and you have found somebody who might actually be able to teach you something, and maybe you will teach him something, too.

JEFFREY BROWN: And what about for those in your profession? What's the answer to your question, why teach?

MARK EDMUNDSON: You know, it's a little bit of a mystery. There's something just plain wonderful about watching people develop.

And the ages between 18 and 22 are among the very best for that. People come, and they're very unformed. And they read and they think and they spend time with their friends. And they grow at this astronomical rate. And it's just wonderful to be around and see it happen.

How Schools Can Boost Students’ Reading Scores

Here is a guest post by Anna Miller:

The verdict is in and the result is not really flattering for children in the USA – according to the survey conducted by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the reading scores (a dismal 221 on a scale of 500) of fourth graders across the nation has not improved at all over the period of a year. The same tests conducted for eighth graders did not show much improvement either with the scores rising just one point (from 263 to 264) in a whole year. There is more reason to hang our heads in shame when we consider that this lack of improvement is despite the efforts of the No Child Left Behind law and the Reading First program that was a part of it. So where are we going wrong and what can schools do to boost their students’ reading scores?

• Get them to read, read and read some more: The best and easiest way to easily understand what you read and be able to infer facts from what you have read is to read as much as you can. The more you read, the more your comprehensive ability increases. The written word does so much more than tell you a story – it improves your vocabulary, boosts your comprehension capabilities, and even allows you to become a writer in your own right. So if schools want to get their students to improve their reading scores, they must encourage and insist on reading habits right from the time the child is able to make sense of a string of words.

• Minimize the use of technology in the classroom: While technology is a good thing, there are times when it hinders with the natural learning process by allowing you to take shortcuts that don’t help your brain in the long run. So if students are permitted to use calculators to work out formulae, if they’re allowed to use cell phones to remember vital facts, and if they’re allowed to look up the Internet for the solution to every single problem they’re given, how are their brains going to be pushed enough to develop and grow? Reading and comprehension skills are associated with the ability to reason and infer facts and solutions from the given set of information. So unless children are allowed to challenge their brains in more ways than one, they will always remain poor readers and writers.

Reading is as important as, if not more important than Mathematics and the Sciences because it forms the basis for every other subject. If you’re able to comprehend the essence of a paragraph with just one reading, you don’t really have to struggle to study the subject in question. Reading itself constitutes studying, so that’s all the more reason for schools to focus on boosting their students’ reading scores.

By-line:
This guest post is contributed by Anna Miller, who writes on the topic of online degree. She welcomes your comments at her email id: anna.miller009@gmail.com

Reference

In spite of high-profile efforts to improve the reading skills of the USA's poorest schoolchildren over the past several years, their reading abilities barely improved last year compared with 2007, results of a federally administered test show.

Reading scores essentially didn't budge in 2009, both for students overall and minority students, according to results issued Wednesday on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP. Fourth-graders' scores were unchanged at 221 points on a 500-point scale, and those of eighth-graders rose just one point, from 263 to 264.

ILLITERACY: Why Johnny still can't read.

Jonathan Kozol in SD on October 8, 2007

Juvenile Court and Community Schools (JCCS)
Excellence Comes In All Colors (ECIAC)

Presents
Jonathan Kozol

Monday, October 8, 7 P. M.
Book signing to follow.

St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral
2728 Sixth Avenue
San Diego, CA 92103

Join the JCCS ECIAC Committee, fellow educators, students, parents, and community members in an evening with noted educator, author, and social justice advocate Jonathan Kozol. His books include Death At An Early Age, Savage Inequalities, Amazing Grace, Illiterate American, Rachel and Her Children, The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America, and the upcoming Letters to a Young Teacher.

Jonathan Kozol has continually combined teaching with activism. Working with African American and Latino parents, he helped set up a number of freedom schools in storefronts and church basements and later taught at South Boston Senior High School during the city's desegregation crisis.

At the forefront of social and educational examination, Jonathan Kozol's books are now considered required reading at most universities and part of the curriculum for future teachers and religious leaders.

Please RSVP by Thursday, October 4 for this exciting event!

"Pick battles big enough to matter; small enough to win." Jonathan Kozol

ECIAC Contact Information
Phone (619) 573-6330
www.sdcoe.net/excellence
eciac@sdcoe.net

Some successful people rub others the wrong way

Paul Vallas, new superintendent of New Orleans Recovery School District

Paul Vallas and his district are described by Larry Abramson in these snippets from NPR.org:

"Last year was a rocky one for the New Orleans Recovery School District, which has run the city's schools since Hurricane Katrina. Hundreds of students were turned away because schools and teachers were in short supply. Test scores were at rock bottom. Buildings are still in terrible shape...

"Armando Almendarez has worked with Vallas in Chicago and Philadelphia, and he came out of retirement to help Vallas here.

""I don't think that there's another urban superintendent quite like Paul Vallas — he really looks at solutions out of the box," Almendarez says.

"Almendarez acknowledges that Vallas isn't the easiest person to work with. But, he says, "You can't find anyone with a greater passion, a greater vision.""


August 31, 2007
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14053110

School pays $500,000 for teaching that there are four branches of government--among other interesting "facts"

Apparently Dick Cheney isn't the only one who thinks that there are four branches of the US government.

California Alternative High School (CAHS) will pay $500,000 to resolve a lawsuit that alleged it provided worthless diplomas.

While the school incorrectly taught that the U.S. government has four branches, it must be said that the school correctly named the three real branches (executive, legislative and judicial). The imaginary fourth branch was called "administrative." Apparently that's the one that consists of Dick Cheney.

According to a March 18, 2005 article on consumeraffairs.com, the school "did not use textbooks, but instead gave consumers a 54-page workbook; the workbook contained numerous factual errors...students were taught the United States has 53 states, that the flag has not been updated to reflect the additional three states, and that Congress has one house for Democrats and a second for Republicans."


http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/cahs_settlement.html

Schools improve after lawsuit

Carla Rivera of the Los Angeles Times wrote on August 12, 2007 that improvements have been made since Williams v. California was settled:


"Three years after the settlement of a class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of California's poorest students, a new study has found that teaching and learning conditions in the state's lowest-performing schools have improved: More children are receiving textbooks, school facilities are in better repair and more teachers have proper credentials.

"The report, scheduled to be released Monday, is the first comprehensive assessment of the impact of Williams vs. California, which resulted in a package of laws requiring county superintendents to visit the lowest-achieving schools to monitor the availability of textbooks and the physical condition of buildings as well as to determine if teachers -- particularly those in classrooms with large numbers of English-learners -- are properly assigned.

"The ACLU Foundation of Southern California and Public Advocates, which prepared the report and were co-counsel for the plaintiffs, found progress in all areas, although some counties and individual districts, such as Los Angeles Unified, still fell behind statewide averages.

"Some education groups that have been monitoring the settlement criticized the adequacy of complaint procedures and the depth of teacher training. They pointed to figures in the report, such as that 20,000 classes with substantial numbers of English-learners still did not have teachers with the proper training to provide instruction. They also noted that there is no evidence the settlement has helped to close the achievement gap between poor students and non-native English-speakers and their white counterparts.

"Still, during the study period from 2004 to 2006, students statewide received more than 88,000 new textbooks and instructional materials, nearly 3,000 emergency campus repairs were funded and the percentage of fully credentialed teachers increased from 90% to 92%..."

Merit-based decision making

Site-based decision making doesn't work when it's controlled by school politics. When school staffs are willing to consider good ideas no matter who they come from, and to reject bad ideas no matter who they come from, they can begin responsible decision making.

The merit of the idea should be judged, not the social and political standing of the person who comes up with the idea.

Schools don't fire incompetent teachers because they don't have competent teachers to replace them with

It's a myth that schools want to fire incompetent teachers.

Who would replace them?

Or maybe the problem is that administrators are too lazy to document incompetency. Or could it be that principals just don't know who to start with? There's quite a bit of incompetency going around, and not just in the teaching profession.

Susan Ohanian notes that "...the main targets of firing and harrassment are the outspoken teachers who want to change the system, or who criticize the boss, NOT the lazy, incompetent teachers, who are portrayed as the chief beneficiaries of tenure."*

Susan is right.

Administrators (and teachers) who are unsure of their own abilities often react with hostility and aggression when a colleague starts talking about how things could be improved.

*http://www.susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.html?id=7368

Bush wants no child left behind all alone; he wants them to have lots of company

Bush's Pell Grant plan would shut out thousands
By PATRICK KERKSTRA, Knight Ridder Newspapers

PHILADELPHIA -- As a freshman, Temple University student Arsema Solomon needed to borrow just $5,000 to cover college expenses that were not met by grants, some limited family help and a part-time job.

Three years later, Solomon has added a night shift as a bank teller, and mounting costs have forced her to double her student-loan load to $10,000 a year.

Her financial burden might be even greater next year if the Bush administration goes ahead with a plan to change the Pell Grant funding formula.

If the formula is changed, an estimated 90,000 students receiving Pell grants would become ineligible for the program, and an additional 1.2 million students would see their grants shaved by $200 to $300, according to a financial-aid advisory committee created by Congress...

From SouthCoastToday.com
http://archive.southcoasttoday.com/daily/12-04/12-13-04/a16ed314.htm

Why people in their 30s are worse off than their parents

From Voice of San Diego:
By Murtaza Baxamusa, San Diego
Tuesday July 17, 2007 |

Thanks to the Union-Tribune for a crash course on the education of American workers.

Just two months ago, the Union-Tribune editorialized a report that young men in their 30s in the United States are not doing as well financially as their fathers' generation. The U-T thinks this is because of the "consequences of bad choices throughout their lives, such as whether to pursue more education." As I pointed out in my letter to voiceofsandiego.org, this was a false statement. Every indicator of education shows that the current generation is more educated than before.

In fact, a college degree does not ensure a bigger share of the economic pie for many graduates. In a recent study, two economists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology established that only college-educated women have seen their compensation grow in line with economy-wide gains in productivity. The earnings of male college graduates have failed to keep pace with productivity gains. Simply put, growth in business does not translate into growth in wages for workers.

Now the U-T apparently backs up into its argument by complaining that “...teens are spending more time going to summer school or studying” instead of learning job skills. It goes on to list things that “you cannot find in a book” such as flipping burgers.

So whether you are working or studying this summer, Americans deserve to be poorly paid, and our high wage jobs shipped overseas. Of course you can always find a minimum wage job without health care in a burger stand.

Don't complain. If you do, YOU are likely to be investigated.

Betty Combier of ParentAdvocates.org writes:

"The problems that exist in the NYC school system also stem from the Department of Investigation not doing the work that they are mandated to do. They seldom investigate anything that an 'ordinary' citizen or parent of a public school child, reports, and when a teacher calls to ask for an investigation, if it is a teacher without political credentials, it is the teacher/parent/child who is investigated. They dont like people who call their bluff, either. I accompanied David Pakter to the SCI office when Thomas Comiskey, Deputy Chief Investigator, asked David to come into his office and tell him all about OTHER teachers who had broken the code of silence. Mr. Comiskey came over to me, put his finger in my face, and told me "Not you, we dont want to talk with you."

"The New York City Department of Investigations is located at 80 Maiden Lane in downtown Manhattan, near the South Street Seaport on the lower East Side.

"The following is the DOI mission, as stated on the website:

""The New York City Department of Investigation (“DOI”) is one of the oldest law-enforcement agencies in the country and an international leader in the effort to combat corruption in public institutions. It serves the Mayor and the people of New York City by acting as an independent and nonpartisan watchdog for New York City government.""

The above was found at http://parentadvocates.org/nicecontent/dsp_printable.cfm?articleID=7337#null

Note by Maura Larkins: The NYC DOI's website states: "WHISTLEBLOWERS ARE PROTECTED," but they all say that, right?

Blowing the Whistle on the Powerful and Corrupt

From Parentadvocates.org:

Opening the Door to NYC Education Corruption Part I: Update on Retaliation of All Whistleblowers

The New York City Board of Education is throwing out good teachers who are either over 40 years of age and/or speak out against the corruption they see. Students who question or dispute the system are suspended or failed and thrown out, and parents who ask questions are told they will be arrested if they enter their child's school. this is New York City.

The New York City Board of Education - still the legal name - is continuing to defame anyone who dares to stand up and talk about the corruption and crimes going on inside our city schools. We all now know the routine: you may be a teacher, parent, student, or consultant, and you see students abused by school personnel, or you know of school funds being misappropriated; you cant sleep at night unless you mention it to your supervisor. In fact, you are probably encouraged by the BOE PR to speak out.

This is a trap.

The BOE expects complete silence about everything that occurs within the walls of any of their buildings or outside, and involves any BOE personnel or money.

Retaliation is always swift, unpredictable, incomprehensible, and random. Thus, everyone is kept in a state of constant terror: teachers who correctly fear for their jobs; parents afraid of the police and school personnel harassing or abusing their children; and children who feel the betrayal of trust for those who were supposed to protect them 'in loco parentis'...

by Betsy Combier
http://www.parentadvocates.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&articleID=6276

This man did something about crime in schools

Edward Stancik, school investigator, 47


Wednesday March 13 2002
Schools Investigator Stancik Is Dead at 47
By ALISON GENDAR and JOE WILLIAMS

Special schools investigator Edward Stancik, who for more than a decade worked to rid city schools of child molesters and crooks, died yesterday at NYU Medical Center.

Stancik, 47, had been hospitalized for at least several weeks and had a history of heart problems. His office listed the cause of death as heart failure.

During Stancik's tenure, more than 1,000 school employees were fired or disciplined as a result of his investigations. Many were later convicted of crimes.

"He had a very difficult job, and he did it well," said former Mayor David Dinkins, who created the post by executive order in 1990 and hired Stancik.

Stancik, then deputy chief of the rackets bureau for Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, was the only person who had held the job.

In his first six weeks in office, Stancik arrested five teachers and school workers on charges of sexually abusing students.

He continued to bulldoze his way through the school system, attracting both headlines and resentment.

In one of his most significant achievements, Stancik documented rampant patronage in local school districts and corruption in school board elections, helping to spur a change in state law in 1996 that stripped the city's community school boards of most of their power.

"We make people walk in the light. We shine a light in dark places," Stancik told the Daily News on Dec. 2, 2000, his 46th birthday..

http://slick.org/pipermail/deathwatch/2002-March/000073.html

Ten Years of Undercover Investigations in Schools Resulted in this Book

Betsy Combier of ParentAdvocates.org wrote the following book review:

Lydia Segal's book ["Battling Corruption in America's Public Schools"] puts the NYC, Chicago, and California Departments of Education on notice....we who have read this book know more about how the system is not there for our kids than "you" want us to know.

We can no longer assume that more money allocated to our schools will "fix" the disaster that is our public school system.

Lydia Segal draws on her 10 years of undercover investigation and research in over five urban school districts, including the three largest, New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago, and the two most decentralized, Houston and Edmonton, Canada, to provide, in her new book Battling Corruption in America's Public Schools, the details of the corruption, theft, fraud, and patronage that has overrun our public school establishment for several decades. There is no question that anyone who is interested in school reform -this means anyone who pays taxes, is a parent or guardian of a child attending school and/or who works toward a goal of establishing an education system that puts children first - must read this book...

I have it on good authority

I am a teacher who sued California Teachers Association recently for violations of statutes (PC 127 and others), and I got a response in the mail yesterday from CTA lawyer Beverly Tucker. This is the line that most intrigued me:

"For the last five years, Larkins has been attacking [CTA] Defendants...through a political campaign of sorts."

Is that what I'm doing? It's sounds pretty cool. I'm conducting a political campaign of sorts. I guess it's not a full-fledged political campaign because I'm not running for office. But if the co-head of CTA says that's what I'm doing, then I've got it on good authority. (Beverly Tucker and Executive Director Carolyn Doggett control CTA. President Daniel Vaughn is just a carefully-groomed talking head.)

My goal has long been to become a Democratic activist, working to strengthen my party against the corrupt influence of the California Teachers Association. Education is too important to be a political football. Carolyn Doggett and Beverly Tucker have for too long traded the best interests of children for political power for themselves. Lots of Democrats know this, but how can a Democrat get elected without support from CTA?

Note: CTA lawyers, according to their pleading, are ignorant of the fact that the statute of limitations for violation of a California statute is 3 years. They insist that I've missed the deadline. Perhaps a law review course would be in order?

Mitz Lee v. Katherine Nakamura on Betancourt

Retired Navy Admiral José Betancourt, SDUSD's CAO, pleaded guilty to an ethics violation recently, for his involvement in a Navy contract soon after he retired.

That doesn't seem to bother board member Katherine Nakamura.

But board member Mitz Lee says, "We are very hard on ethics, good judgment and being honest, open and forthright."
(San Diego Union Tribune July 13, 2007)

Are schools more corrupt than other public entities?

"San Diego Community College District tustees considered an unusual proposal yesterday to REPEAL A CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION LIMIT THAT ALREADY EXCEEDS those of San Diego city and county races."

Eleanor Yang Su wrote in her July 13, 2007 San Diego Union Tribune article that the SDCCD limit is already seven times larger than San Diego Unified School Distict and City College of San Francisco.

But here's what surprised me:

"The limit, passed in a 3-2 vote by the board in 1999, is THE ONLY CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION LIMIT FOR ANY COMMUNITY COLEGE DISTRICT IN THE COUNTY"!!!!!!!

There is, however, a whole world of campaigning that is unaffected by these contribution limits: churches and the unions.

Why are so many schools run by a Kakistocracy? (2)

Our system requires that anyone who runs for office find big campaign donors, because candidates need lots of money for TV ads. Political races are getting more expensive all the time. Local developers are tiny termites compared to the big praying mantisses of Halliburton, Blackwater, and Titan Corporation, but all these companies buy access to the deep pockets of the American taxpayer. The only solution for this problem is to take money out of the campaigns. We need full public financing of campaigns.

Was Lowell Billings Quoted Correctly?

Superintendent Lowell Billings of Chula Vista Elementary School District in San Diego County seems to think that there is a basic conflict between being a union leader and raising the bar of teaching performance.

It is true, of course, that unions work to protect incompetent teachers.

But so do administrators.

I'm afraid that most teachers and admininstrators in schools care more about how they are perceived than how they actually perform.

But that's true in most professions, isn't it? Isn't it also true in most professions that currying favor with the powerful will get you farther than striving for excellence? Look who we have for president of our country. This is not a man who strives. He's not really concerned about learning as much as he can, or asking how he could do better. And his recent pardon of Scooter Libby proves beyond a doubt that loyalty matters more to him than honesty and obedience to the law. Yet he has risen as high as a human being can rise.

Can we expect more from our teachers than we expect from our president?

Here's the quote from the June 5, 2007 CVESD board meeting minutes:
Dr. Billings bid farewell to outgoing CVE Vice President Robyn Higginson. He mentioned that she is a formidable advocate for all teachers and strong union leader, yet (!) someone who raised the bar with our articulation/collaboration curriculum and instruction.

Judge says it's okay for students to wear Tigger socks

from California Teachers Blog
by Jane Swanson

Teachers at Napa Valley's Redwood Middle School will have to get a life now. They can no longer suspend students for wearing Winnie the Pooh-themed socks to school, according to a ruling on July 2, 2007 by Judge Raymond Guadagni of Napa County Superior Court.