I’ve been doing that BBQ thing all day, but it looks like the only thing I’ve missed is the announcement that July 5th is now Powerful Stupid Day.
re: Civics [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
A totally crazy Saturday-morning thought: Wouldn’t George W. Bush make an awesome high-school government teacher? Wouldn’t it be something if his post-presidential life would up being that kind of post-service service? How’s that for a model? Who needs Harvard visiting chairs and high-end lectures? How about Crawford High? (Or wherever?) Reach out and touch the young before they are jaded, or break them of the cynicism pop culture and possibly their parents have passed down to them. Whatever you think of President Bush, he’s a likable guy in love with his country with some history and experience to share.
Like I said, crazy. Saturday. Have a good one.
07/05 09:06 AM
I sure am glad that I don’t wake up with powerfully stupid thoughts like this in the morning. I could try to explain the many ways in which Kathryn’s idea here is stupid, but that would actually risk doing serious and long-lasting damage to my thinker thing.
I guess Pet Goat, mandated to be read upside down, will find it’s way into the curriculum?
Yeah, G.W.Bush knows how..
And Kathryn is not the worst of the bunch either at NRO.
Toss Nancy Soderburg into the bucket of stupid. So much for a ‘good enough’ spy bill…
greewald took exception to ms. nancy’s screed:
recommended reading
Please stop Booman! LOL. My thinker thing can’t take it.
Frankly, all the high school social studies teachers I know are ex-coaches who try to coax their old blue line masters (the kind that have those toxic fumes) through the copy machines.
George Bush fits pretty well in that IQ bracket. He could probably hand out worksheets and read the paper while students copy off one another.
owch. auch. owsh. awch. oughch. ouge. owgje. ouch.
ick.
Why not? My high school history teachers were all dumber than catshit, so he’d fit in perfectly.
That’s not what Bush wants. I’m pretty sure what he wants is to have editorial control over what version of the story makes it into the history text books.
Doing that job one classroom at a time would be hard work.
And see if he’d meet the standards for being hired. Here in Florida, he’d have to be certified.
Standards and all that right? We don’t want just anybody to be a teacher.
If Bush were accepted and certified to teach, make sure that his compensation is tied to his student’s performance. That’s what his brother, Jeb, proposed for teachers. My gosh, Bush (the Dubya) spent eight years as President without being held accountable–finally, he could be held accountable as a teacher.
Since Jeb wanted tie to teacher compensation to the academic success of their students, let’s find a spot where Dubya would need to work hard for his paycheck. I know a great place: Immokalee High School.
Graduation Rate: 58%
School-Wide Measurements (2006-2007) School Grade: F
The real hurdle for the high school is that a large portion of students are from migrant families: Immokalee is the largest center for migrant farmworkers on the East Coast. These kids have significant obstacles:
I don’t disparage the staff and faculty at Immokalee for what they try to accomplish. I just reckon that in Kathryn Jean Lopez’s ideal vision of Bush being a history teacher, she probably didn’t have Immokalee in mind.
Sounds like that could work IF you began from where the students were and measured their progress during the year (And no counting any new students that come in or discarding any student drop-out’s scores). You’d probably have to calculate the average growth during the year to effectively reward any extra growth / punish any slacking off. It could work, but you’d have to do a lot of calculating to leave out any factors that are either beyond the teachers control or that the teacher might be tempted to try and control (like driving out under-performing students).
GW couldn’t sell me a used car, let alone teach Government to H.S. Kids. Can you see him do the U.S. Constitution unit??