CS>School was cancelled for reasons of weather (good idea with
 CS>the icy roads).  Virtually every worker in every profession of
 CS>every industry was expected to be at work in our region.
 RM> While this time might well be used for SOMETHING,
 RM> the idea that one can simply throw together a
 RM> meaningful inservice on the spur of the moment
 RM> is pretty far-fetched.  The "business" of
 RM> education is teaching; when someone goes to work
 RM> on a snowy day, the primary function of their
 RM> job goes on; when a teacher goes to work and the
 RM> kids are not there, the primary function is
 RM> impossible... It seems petty to simply want the
 RM> teachers to show up if there's really nothing
 RM> that needs doing... Otoh, from a PR position,
 RM> it would make sense... Btw, a number of staff DO
 RM> show up at my high school to run off papers,
 RM> etc...
CS>This is exactly the sort of paradigm that I am saying needs to be
CS>broken.  You are thinking of yourself as "herdsman" instead of
CS>a teaching professional.  Creative administrators could have
CS>very meaningful projects in process (group dynamics, curriculum
CS>follow-ups, group/individual prep time).  Your "business" of
CS>teaching might very well be better enhanced by a day of
CS>professional improvement than one more hour of access to the
CS>students.
CS>I understand your resistance to chancing that time
CS>to another wasted, poorly planned inservice.  If your
CS>administration and staff improvement committees are weak, it
CS>becomes your duty as a professional to change those things.  I
CS>suppose that over the years with battles between unions and
CS>desperate, short-sighted school boards that an attitude of
CS>following the arbitrated contract would tend to take
CS>precedence over other issues or at least cloud them.
Well... Following a contract is considered to be
a legal requirement; I hardly think that violating
one is cause for congratulations for being in
control and far-sighted....
CS>If educators truly understood the simmering resentment toward school
CS>districts, they would be much more conscious of the issue.
You're hitting me at a propitious moment... I'm
sitting here simmering myself... Allow me to
illustrate the reasons:
1. Student throws a basketball at a local gym teacher.
   A struggle ensues and the student gets a small
   bump on the head.  Teacher is hauled into court and
   suspended (with pay) from his job.  Found innocent
   of any wrongdoing by several agencies, teacher is
   still, 2 years later, not allowed in the classroom.
   Teacher is white, student is black, and that is the
   SOLE reason for the suspension...
   
2. Two students are fighting in a classroom, teacher
   physically separates the students, and one of them
   has red marks on the back of his neck as a result
   (I presume the kid was struggling and the teacher
   pressed down harder than he intended).  Teacher is
   arrested for assault, and has been out of his class
   for the last couple months (which means his class
   has had only a substitute)...
   
3. Emotionally disturbed (special education) student,
   who has a file 3 inches thick of disciplinary
   problems, is repeated advised that he is not to be
   in school unsupervised (he must be in a supervised
   classroom situation).  This is a student whose
   behavior has gotten him bounced from one school to
   another for YEARS.  Principal tells him he will be
   arrested for trespass if he violates that provision.
   Student comes to school 3 hours early, roams the
   halls, is picked up, and principal has him arrested.
   Student spends the next 30 hours in jail (don't ask
   why his mother didn't pick him up).  Principal is
   being crucified in the local papers, AND by the new
   superintendent (who didn't even wait to talk to the
   principal) for poor judgement.  Local paper portrays
   this as "a student is arrested for wanting to go to
   school"...
I'll give you two quesses to the following questions:
How likely is it that I will be intervening in any
fighting in the halls from now on?  How likely is it
that I will be confronting any students about their
language, hats, etc?

.
--- Maximus/2 3.01
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