Hello CRAIG!
Friday January 09 1998 19:45, CRAIG SCHROEDER waxed eloquently to SHEILA 
NG:
 CS>
 ->> I happen to believe that schools act in a cocoon, separate
 ->> from reality much of the time
 CS>
 CS> School was cancelled for reasons of weather (good idea with
 CS> education, who regularly complain about lack of prep/free time,
 CS> are not only not expected to arrive for work, but are
 CS> incredulous when I've dared bring up the topic.  School
 CS> districts should view these days as opportunities for bonus
 CS> inservice, staff group projects and any number of meaningful
 CS> activities.
Sounds like these people have it too easy.
I closed my school one day because of flooding but had my staff come through 
the flood and put in a full day.
Here in New Zealand, teachers work on average 54.5 hours per week.  
Principals of schools work up to 70 hours. (This was the findings of a survey 
at the last contract round.)
 CS> After the meeting I showed the tech staff a news article
 CS> showing that Apple now only had 3% of the personal computer
 CS> market, over half of those sold went into schools, half of the
 CS> balance were sold to people with school-ties who felt
 CS> compelled to use the platform that their school used.  When I
 CS> asked where these students were ever going to run into another
 CS> Mac in their lifetime, the responses were absolutely inane and
 CS> focused more on "the teachers are accustomed to the Macs and
 CS> there'd be hell to pay if we tried to change".
Schools are conservative institutions.  Phrases like "We've always done it 
this way" and "This will need to be researched before a discision can be 
made" are typical of people in conservative institutions.
There is pain in change.  Perhaps we all need to be reminded from time to 
time that the butterfly was once a catapillar.  Sadly many of your teachers 
seem to be catapillars.
 CS>
 CS> Anyway...you get the idea.  The world of paranoid
 CS> administrators, rectum protectem underlings and teachers that
 CS> have no real focus on their public image just keep
 CS> perpetuating a system that seems more and more detached from
 CS> reality.
As to the beginning statement:
 ->> I happen to believe that schools act in a cocoon, separate
 ->> from reality much of the time
I happen to agree to a certain extent.
I believe that this syndrome is largely brought about because teachers go to 
school and then on to college for their training only to go straight back to 
school to teach.  They have not had sufficient experience of life to make 
them aware of all the realities you alluded to.
Cheers
Chris
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