A reply to readers who thought that last post and last project should have had more limits:

I guarantee readers that every high school student in that classroom had watched Maury reveal a daddy or two, or even legions of daddies and nondaddies. One of the saving graces of that classroom — and real frustrations — concerned absenteeism. The class had 35 students, 40 to start until union limits kicked in. On any given day, though, we were likely to have fewer than 30 students. Many knew they were dropping out soon and simply stayed home. I printed copies for 35 but I expected 28.

It’s hard as heck to run group projects in classes like that, and the Maury show helped attendance among other considerations. Kids were excited. Kids wanted to watch the show developing even before presentations. I stand on what I let those guys do. It worked.

Sometimes in urban and academically-challenged areas, you have to do what works. That’s why strict scripting of curricula based on the Common Core represents a step in the wrong direction and a bad idea. Even Jim Carrey might have trouble making the exports of Costa Rica interesting. Some of these politically-correct stories that have been produced by major publishers to teach literature should be marketed as sleep-aids instead of short stories.

In the meantime, yes, my students were America’s children. But I assure readers they had left childhood behind sometime previously. One of my presenters never finished that class. He was arrested and jailed midyear after a gang disciplinary action went wrong and he accidentally killed a friend, He was tried as an adult and then convicted of manslaughter long months later, too many months later. They twisted the system to get him to seventeen years of age before they brought charges. We were a much sobered class by the end of the year.

I loved those kids. This last post brought back many memories. And for all the problems I had trying to teach Spanish to those kids, most of whom had no interest in Spanish, I’d take that class over a Common-Core scripted class or District-Curriculum-Determined class any day.

Eduhonesty: I promise to get back to preschool soon since interest is high.