On December 3, the Illinois General Assembly approved Senate Bill 1, a fairly comprehensive set of changes to teacher retirement benefits and to the funding of the Teachers’ Retirement System.

I honestly don’t know how I feel about this. Changes to the existing system seem unfair since people have been relying on promises made to them. They have budgeted with a certain set of expectations. After all, if you can’t trust your own state, whom can you trust?

Still, I am a fiscal realist. The state of Illinois has fallen into an abysmally deep hole and it can’t keep writing checks for which there are (or will be) insufficient funds.

Eduhonesty: Pension reform has become unavoidable. The budget numbers simply don’t work and those numbers have to be fixed somehow. That said, this post is for aspiring teachers: There are fifty states where you can teach. Don’t pick this one.

So a new student arrived. I did the perky new student introduction. Welcome to the class!

I introduced the poor guy. Then I asked those questions from MeTV shows. You’re new? Where did you come from? You’re local? Oh, but you were not here before? Were you at the local Catholic school? Where have you been in school?

Awkward moment: When your new student tells you he just got out of jail.

I felt pretty bad about maneuvering him into that public admission, needless to say.

Eduhonesty: Maybe this post should be a reminder to talk to students privately before barging into their business. I blew this one badly.

“An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he
knows.”

~ Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 – 1969)

I’ve written this before, but it’s worth a repeat of sorts. Some days I’m really tired of big words. I have lists filled with words to use to create lesson plans. They’re not allowed to merely “review” anymore. It’s not active enough. They’re not allowed to “learn.” Learning is not specific enough.

They have to classify, generalize, illustrate, paraphrase, summarize, differentiate, discriminate, distinguish, research and demonstrate, among other action verbs. Many administrators want to see these words and I tend to oblige them. These same administrators produce erudite presentations showing their own grasp of multi-syllabic words.

Eduhonesty: Don’t get me wrong. I love big words. I play spelling games for fun. But there is a large difference between seeking the most effective word and showing off to impress the audience. We appear condescending and pretentious when we use too many polysyllabic words in a single sentence. We also appear insecure.

Let me take a stand: There’s nothing wrong with a goal such as “Students will learn the difference between a metaphor and a simile.” We can gussy this sentence up all we want, but the truth is that extra verbiage in a lesson plan won’t help students to learn any faster or better. The extra time we spend on the lesson plan may be taken away from planning actual instruction too.

Many students struggle to connect with their social studies classes. Yet the content of these classes permeates the news and daily life. We make some connections using primary and other sources from the internet.

But if we want students to understand their place in the civic scheme, why not have them attend village board meetings? Or park board meetings? Even zoning boards and planning commissions are likely to have their moments. So many towns offer a direct view into the politics. We don’t take enough advantage of outside resources.

I suggest the little nippers check out their local school board meetings.

She once said to me, “My brain just doesn’t work,” somewhat blithely but entirely sincerely as she explained away an assignment gone wrong.

Yet she’s pretty good at math. She catches on quickly.

I wonder how she came to that original belief about her abilities.

Fortunately, she seems to be realizing she her brain has more power than she once supposed.

“Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.”

Malcolm Forbes (1919 – 1990), in Forbes Magazine, courtesy of bob@lakesideadvisors.com.

Eduhonesty: Forbes was lucky enough not to see the current post-NCLB educational apocalypse. Currently, I sometimes think we are emptying minds as we teach students that the purpose of education is to pass tests. With this focus, the joy of learning may become utterly lost. Students hear, “You need to know this for the test,” — all the time.

How often do they hear, “Isn’t this fascinating?”

Among other considerations, curricula aligned to the test can ensure that teachers won’t get a chance to teach interesting material that they and their students will enjoy.

Example: I love geometric proofs. A small, but mathematically hardy, group of students can be expected to feel the same way. No true mathematician exists who can’t and doesn’t produce proofs. Unfortunately for students, some expert in my state determined that proofs represented such a small percentage of overall standardized test requirements that teaching proofs was a poor use of instructional time. My then-high school stopped teaching proofs, except for a brief, essentially useless introduction to the idea.