Taylor the Teacher

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This just needs to be said, in re the following sentence:

Judy Benitez, executive director of the Louisiana Foundation Against Sexual Assault, cautioned that it might be too soon to say whether there really were rapes at the evacuation sites [during hurricane Katrina.] ~isn’t that still going on?~

It is absolutely too soon.

Kaelie,

I had a mentor once. They’re overrated. That’s why you need three or four of them. I’m proud to be one of yours. Didn’t know I was teaching all those things you attributed to me, but I’ve learned so much myself this year from knowing you that I suspect it was all you. ~case in point: i didn’t introduce you to blogging. i mentioned blogging as extra credit once and gave you the URL for wordpress. you took it from there.~

It’s all about the learner.

The reason I was the only adult that saw the real Daniel is because there’s a shortage of adults who know both you and Daniel ~and because daniel doesn’t cooperate with some of his teachers~  But adults don’t see everything, either. That’s why there’s no substitute for thinking for yourself & consulting with people who have some sense. Whatever their age.

Some experiences really do look different from the other side. Life is more complicated than it looks when you’re sixteen. And more simple than it looks when you’re twenty five. When I was sixteen I was looking at the wrong data a lot of the time. My life isn’t DESTROYED despite what they want you to think. But things would have been easier if I’d seen some things sooner. That’s why adults try to tell you what to do. The ones that care about you, anyway. Some people are just acolytes for the power hungry.

And it’s the Acolytes that don’t tell the truth about life during school hours because the institution itself is set up to mold the way you think, not help you think for yourself. They think they put on a good show, but it’s clear who they’re serving.

And that’s my real reason for getting out. Unacceptable happenings daily in this joint, but for me it only serves as an example of something I knew all along: the whole system is irreparably broken. I cannot perform magic tricks in service of unearned authority seeking to extend itself. I’d rather eat peanut butter for the rest of my life.

But I don’t believe it’ll come to that.

Your best bet is to do the best you can to take charge of your own learning. You need your high school diploma, but it doesn’t mean anything. The Acolytes at the school do not have learning to offer. But you need their damn piece of paper. So get it, then move on quickly.

And work for change.

In the bathroom chatter ~lounges were removed long ago. hurray for harry wong~ one phrase keeps coming up, “I don’t understand why the district doesn’t step in and do something.”

As though somebody told us the district was on our side and WE BELIEVED THEM.

Inspired by ROCKETnumber9, Gaping Void, and Stephen King

Women like action.  Men like musicals.

I am a woman. I never watch Lifetime, but I watch Spike every day. This isn’t because I’m unusual ~even though i am~ it’s because genres shouldn’t be defined around imaginary groups of people. Spike is action. Why not just say that? It’s just as easy as following perpetuating, ~question for another time~ shlepping shallow stereotypes. ~which reminds me stephen king has been after me to turn off the television and read~ It would probably widen the audience.

Then Spike would have to distinguish itself among other “action” networks. That means, the spikeheads would have to figure out what the common thread in their programming is. There is one. And it can be described and defined more clearly than “action” or “television for men.” This is mental work they are going to have to do. Broad, bi-lateral swaths of the population might have served when we, the people, had no control. But that’s not cutting it anymore.

Spike’s failure to do this mental work has made me suspect all along, and I’ve always watched Spike grudgingly.

So they really don’t have as much leeway as they seem to think they do with those annoying ads in the corner of everything I watch. They block important parts of the screen. ~with little ads for their shows. so i can watch more of their shows with ads for their shows~

~but stephen, i’m busy turning this big wheel~

~you know what that wheel reminds me of? several species of small furry animals gathered together in a cave and grooving with a pict~

drawing by Ken Rodoff

I was going to write a post about two near-fights I intervened in during one 25 minute lunch and how a student ~one i knew would never do this~ refused to come with me and popped off to me while the whole of B lunch stood watching like it’s John Woo.

And how I stood there too long before any other adult came to help me. Not that I was in danger, but I could’ve used some help. ~i take it as a given that any fight requires two adults. too much to ask?~

But I’m sick of talking about crap like this. So, inspired by Ken’s drawings, I decided to skip it ~or did i?~ and draw something. ~his riot assessment was great for this post~

Then I remembered I can’t draw.

But I pressed on, so be kind:

I was also going to ask why fights are a form of entertainment. Then I remembered how much I loved Kill Bill.

Stephen King ~et. al.~ is valid reading for high school. Better that students read and enjoy King than pretend to read Dickens and hate ~fear?~ it.

Those who read King, Rowling, Koontz, Sparks, Grishom, Zane, and whatever else they damn well feel like reading will cultivate a love for reading and may someday decide to read Dickens.

Those who have developed the habit of running in horror from libraries and bookstores never will.

Oh, and when those King readers do decide to read Dickens, they’ll still know how.

Here’s a great thing about my job:

I get to talk about Pink Floyd ~and other cool stuff~ with people who are still enthusiastic about it. Every year at least one student asks me if I’ve seen Dark Side of the Rainbow, or heard “See Emily Play.”

I LOVE THAT about young adults. They’re excited about things.

~it’s not the best pink floyd picture on the web, but it’s the only one i’ve taken myself with a cheap camera live from the superdome~

Ken tells of a student who drew vaginas on his standardized test booklet:

 …one of the students used his test book to draw an extremely large image of female genitalia.

Then, he was all work, all business; like he needed to draw a really big vagina before he could settle down to the task of testing.

I’m impressed. Vaginas are more difficult to draw than penises. I get those on my tardy book about once a month.

Odd, really, because if The Scribbler doesn’t like my tardy policy  ~where can he stick his attitude concerning my tardy policy?~ he could talk to me about it. But what is going on in The Scribbler’s head, thinking that drawing a penis is an effective, or even interesting, protest? ~i am assuming it’s a guy. 80% of my late comers are guys, and why would a girl draw a penis?~

I once had a student draw me with my hair on fire, clutching a book, wearing a T-shirt saying “Read or Die.” I had a gun in the other hand. He signed his name.

The penis scribble isn’t worth my attention.

So, class, the lesson today is that nobody is impressed with the drawings of genitals. We teachers already knew that boys have a penis, and ~perhaps more shockingly~ we also knew that lots and lots of boys like vaginas.  Lots and lots.

Let’s move on, okay?

Tagline on bathroom door ~too small to read~ says: One high school drama teacher is about to make a huge number 2.

This movie looks hilarious. From comingsoon.net via slashfilm.com:

In the irreverent comedy, a failed actor-turned-worse-high-school-drama teacher (Coogan) rallies his Tucson, AZ students as he conceives and stages a politically incorrect musical sequel to Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.”

But then again, it may just be another example from pop culture about how those that can’t do, teach.

Still, I’m going to put it on my list of summer movies to see.

SOME writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.

Thomas Paine, Common Sense ~which you should read immediately, even if you’ve read it before. when we’re studying a text, we don’t pass over it with our eyes once & call that reading~

Big religious debate on twitter yesterday, and I managed to keep my big mouth shut. Although I believe in God, I’m tired of the conversation. I’m especially tired of believers and non-believers alike confusing institutions with the ideals ~or truths, if you will~ that started them.

I wouldn’t have brought it up at all, but the same thing is happening in lots of areas of our thinking.

The behavior of the church is no more an argument against the existence of God than the behavior of the schools is an argument against the existence of science. Same is true for government and democracy.

Nor is the unearned authority ~tradition~ of the church, government, or schools to be taken as evidence of God, democracy, or education. ~or anything at all for that matter~

Government, people, is BAD. So is religion. So is schooling. Society, God, and education, however, ROCK. The enemy is orthodoxy.

But that means MY orthodoxy as well as the other guy’s. Institutions are the enemy. We need to take my good friend Elton’s advice: stop arguing about angels in trees and burn down the mission.

No comment on the fact that the guy gets taken away at the end….

NOTE: Apparently it’s Elton John Week here at Taylor the Teacher. I don’t do things like this on purpose. I’m sure it’s a sign of my UNPROFESSIONALISM as a blogger that I don’t PLAN better & keep these things from happening. ~at least I’ve started using the toilet~