When Bad Grammar Happens to Bad People
You know, there's nothing wrong with being a bad speller as long as you are aware of the problem and seek to improve it. I've known bad spellers who frequently ask how something is spelled or reference a dictionary to check spelling. These days most programs allowing you to type include a spell checker and you can even type into Google a word misspelled and it will ask if you meant the correct spelling making Google a decent spellchecker. (Hail Google!) And I've known many good spellers who do the same. Bad spelling does not make a bad person.
The problem comes when you have a bad speller who doesn't care that he or she misspelled a word. That's stupid, but you're a still not a bad person.
Then there's Brent Rinehart, brought to my attention by Leonard Pitts, Jr. in his editorial "
The Ongoing Stupidification of America". Rinehart put together a comic book explaining why he should be reelected commissioner of Oklahoma County and one of those reasons apparently is his willingness to gay bash. Read Pitts's article for the full story. But Rinehart is a bad person for trying to stir up hatred.
But my concern here, as an English teacher, is the spelling and grammar of a "Roads [sic] Scholar" and politician that is such a bad speller and doesn't care. You can read the full comic by clicking the link in Leonard Pitts's article and following the link to the pdf, but here are a couple of the more interesting mistakes.
General misspelling of "opportunist". He should have been a lexiconical opportunist and used a dictionary.
"Brent ask's to"? What does that mean? Brent Ask is to many questions...what? To many question, Brent Ask is...an idiot? And who is Brent Ask? I thought we were talking about Brent Rinehart.
Apparently family values don't include correct spelling and grammar.
Here's the CNN interview where Rinehart states his disinterest in his bad spelling after it being pointed out that he spelled pedophile two different ways, neither one right.
Again, his intolerance is worse than his spelling and grammar, but Leonard Pitts, Jr. covered that topic better than I could.
The Guilderland Grey-Zone: No Easy Answers
Ok, here's the Guilderland mess.
Someone in the Guilderland High social studies department felt the environment was unwelcoming. Off-color jokes. Terms like "faggot" and "queer". But the teacher did not file a harassment complaint. So they hired someone to investigate. That "Culture Climate Survey" was an investigation. The person doing the inquiry warned that the way she was being asked to look into the claims was going to anger the teachers, and she was correct.
The investigation did seem to echo that with reports from other teachers who eat by themselves because they are uncomfortable with the others, and comments about breasts of speakers.
So assuming this is true, do you remove two random teachers? Does that solve the problem? The redacted report says many teachers were angry with the questions. One of the things I wanted to look into was how large the social studies department is. The redacted report is heavily edited, so it's unclear how many complained of the environment. Based on what appears to be separate individual complaints, I'm guessing 4 or 5 total. That leaves 15 teachers in collusion to tell sexual jokes and harass other teachers. Will moving 2 teachers have any effect? I know my numbers are speculation, but even if I'm off by 5 and it's an even split, moving 2 and leaving 8 would not have that big of an effect.
And it side steps the issue. Do a work-place harassment class, not just for the social studies department, but for the entire school. I would have recommended the "Culture Climate Survey" be done over the entire school, but seeing as how these weren't papers surveys but in person interviews, that seems unlikely. Then you take the teachers named aside and tell them to knock it off. Tell them that if they are making the workplace unbearable and they continue to do so, they will be dismissed, but then we're talking about some with tenure, which is bogus. No one should have that sort of guarantee. But fine, you say that you'll move them elsewhere. You give people a chance to correct themselves.
The person who held the "Culture Climate Interviews" didn't even include reassignment as a recommendation. So the school board and the superintendent came up with that solution on their own. The person who made the recommendations is author or editor of 27 college textbooks, and more than 140 scholarly articles and conference presentations on sexual harassment, psychology of women, gender and sexual harassment, and victimization. You would think that if she thought moving a couple of bad eggs would solve the problem, she would have included it in the report.
The solution to move 2 teachers to break up a "locker room" mentality and prevent sexual and prejudicial jokes just doesn't add up.
So I find myself returning to Nelligan's claim that he's being targeted because he is an outspoken critic of the district leadership and the teachers union.
A source closer to the events told me, "I did have the misfortune of working for the High School Principal when he was Ass. Principal at another school district and he was the biggest sexist and would make comments about high school girls!! When I called him on it - needless to say my part-time contract was not renewed. Both the Superintendent and the Principal have histories of not liking anyone questioning their authority."
That would explain why they aren't letting the public speak out. It's bad form. You let the people stand up and say what they want to say. Then go do whatever you want to do. You might even find some supporters in the bunch to back you up.
I still have questions. What do the 2 middle school teachers being moved up think? Does Nelligan have a history of having other teachers accuse him of being offensive? How is McManus involved?
People have commented in other places, like
here, that the board has the authority to make the transfer, so Nelligan and McManus should just comply without complaint. But if you don't question the reason, then that power can be abused, which some suggest both superintendent and principal of Guilderland High are guilty of doing. It's not a matter of demotion or feeling that the middle school is a punishment. It's a matter of reason. Leaders should have to justify their decision and it doesn't seem that their decision makes sense. Swapping 2 teachers with 2 other teachers will not reconfigure a 20 person staff and allow for a fresh start. And worse still, and I will be happy to beat this drum every time, to not allow the public to voice their opinions is unconscionable.
More links -
Daily GazetteFoxNews (new article)Not Backing DownStudent Blog - Check out "
Response to G’land Schools Redacted Reports" dated July 14
WGY - They linked to my blog! Though I am not actively trying to be anonymous, but whatever.
Guilderland Update
The school board met and said they would not overturn the superintendent's decision to switch the teachers.
I've read the redacted "survey" and am doing some investigation...my thoughts will come tomorrow.
Links to the PDF Redacted files are available here:
http://www.guilderlandschools.org/
Guilderland Grumble: Let's Get Ready to Rumble!
In Guilderland, New York, a community is up in arms about the transfer of two social studies teachers from Guilderland High School to Farnsworth Middle School. I've done what research I can and find myself uncertain how to feel. There are many aspects of this issue to consider and many aspects that seemingly have not been revealed and will apparently be revealed tomorrow. Let's break this down...
The Act: Transferring teachers against their will. I believe most districts have the authority to transfer teachers as they see fit. It's a power that I think most districts use sparingly. After all, keeping teachers happy so that they are teaching at peak performance to improve test scores and such is one thing most districts try to keep in mind. From what I've read, it seems, though, that the superintendent has a history of moving teachers.
It's also a power that I have no problem with if it's to fulfill a critical need. But two middle school teachers are being moved to the high school. So now I have to wonder about the reason for the move. Because taking two teachers used to teaching high school courses, and two teachers used to teaching middle school and swapping them, at the surface, doesn't make much sense. It's almost like a reality tv program. Trading Blackboards.
The Reason: At the center of this seems to be a "Culture Climate Survey" where, from what I can figure, teachers were asked to fill out how they felt things were going in their departments, how everybody got along, etc. Let me pause for a moment and say that if you have to get teachers to fill out a survey to find out if everyone's getting along, there's a problem. But let's move on...
The only thing revealed about the survey is that it says, "members of the high school social studies department fostered a "locker room" atmosphere in which sexual jokes and derogatory comments about staff members were allowed. [Matt] Nelligan also was accused of deriding a gay staff member, but was exonerated."
I'd like to see this survey. I've taken surveys for my district and they are always, "Rate 1-5 how happy you are about XYZ." I have never been asked to take a professional survey where I could criticize departments or individuals. If the school board is concerned about the climate of the school, they might want to consider how allowing open criticism of coworkers affects the climate, but let's move on.
The superintendent has said that even though Nelligan was determined to be innocent doesn't mean he didn't do it. Well, that's true *cough*OJSimpson*cough*, but you can't treat him professionally on what you think he's guilty of doing. He was found innocent, you can't use that accusation as a reason to do something.
I also find it interesting that this "locker room" atmosphere is getting a woman who was pregnant at the time of the survey transferred with Nelligan. Nelligan says Ann-Marie McManus is caught up in it to make it seem like he's not being singled out. Sounds kind of paranoid and egocentric, but since I haven't heard any specific accusations about McManus, I have to concede that he may be right. I'm not sure, though, why the fact that McManus was out of maternity leave when the survey was given keeps getting mentioned.
Nelligan, of course, has his own theories. He says it's political. He and the social studies department at Guilderland High School are open critics of the district leadership and teachers union and this is a divide and conquer tactic. I have no evidence to the contrary because the school board and the superintendent have done little to explain what's going on and why, which gets us to the next topic...
The Handling: Secrecy seems to be the slogan here. Locked door executive sessions and such. Bad idea. I can't think of a reason that school boards should be allowed to sit away from public eyes to make decisions. But then they shouldn't have said they were moving anybody before they were willing to discuss the reasons. They should have said, "Here's what the survey told us. Here's what we plan to do about it." It's like a movie where you see the ending and the rest of the movie you see how they got there. Very exciting. Very mysterious. That's not how to run a school district.
But then, the teachers should have been spoken to privately before this happened. If they were causing problems, they should have been spoken too and told they need to stop the sexual jokes and criticism of staff. They should have had a chance to face the accusations and respond to them.
Last Monday, the 7th, the school board met privately and decided to take another week to determine if they have the authority to overturn the superintendent's decision. I agree with Nelligan that this is a delay tactic because you can't tell me they don't know if they can veto the superintendent. Now if they are taking that week to decide if they want to overturn it, that's fine. But tomorrow when they reveal what they are going to do and why, which they should have shared to begin with, the public will not be allowed to comment. Telling the people who voted you into office that they can't talk is...a bad idea.
Random Thoughts: I find it interesting that we haven't heard from other teachers. Other members of the social studies department. Maybe that's because Nelligan and McManus are problems. Or maybe they are unwilling to confront the school board and or union.
Part of July 14ths itenerary is sharing of the redacted survey results. Interesting thing about the word redact. It can mean just putting something in writing. But it can also mean adapting, editing, or obscuring. Based on the secretive school board, I wonder which is the correct meaning here.
Bottom line is that we have heard everything from one side and little from the other, so I can't say which side I agree with. I'm leaning toward Nelligan and McManus, but I might take that back tomorrow.
Here are links to the articles I used in my research. The first link is the YouTube video made by a Guilderland student that was emailed to me by an unknown person.
YouTubeFox NewsSpotlight NewsTimes Union
Tips for Trips to Docs
LiveSmarter, "A blog for improving daily living through insights into health, wellness, finance, and education," has an article up about how to keep your children more relaxed and calm on doctor trips.
38 Tips to Keep Your Kids Entertained and Stress Free When Seeing a Doctor.
It's a great article for new parents going to the doctor's office or ER for the first time with their toddler. Having 5 children between 6 and 1, I'll admit a number of the suggestions, well, I rolled my eyes and thought, "Duh..." But I'm sure I wasn't as wellversed and some of the tips would have been helpful. Some of the good ideas include being prepared to entertain and feed your child. Especially important to unpredictable trips to the ER.
Interestingly enough, a number of the suggestions seem designed more for relaxing the parent than calming the child, but then that supports tips 28 and 29, "They can express emotion, you can't" and "Be Patient". The first three tips, lumped together as "Do Your Research", will be very helpful to calming first time parents, because there's nothing more stressful than taking your child into an unknown situation. Tips 11-13 are pretty clearly focused on keeping the parent calm, suggesting parents have their insurance information, being on time, and making a list of questions for the doctor. Tips 22-24 are good recommendations for parents to keep calm, "Learn How to Present your Child's Case," "Ask the Right Questions," and "Know the Medical History." Knowledge about your child and what may be his or her condition will help the doctor and help you stay calm. Also, the suggestiong to have your phone charger with you in Tip 18, "Bring Some "Just in Case" items is a good recommendation targetting keeping the parents stress-free...ish.
A warning about researching your child's condition: Despite all the information you can find online about any and every medical condition, most of us aren't doctors. Many conditions have similar symptoms and panicky parents my assume the worst, when it's nothing big. That will increase parent stress which won't help the child's stress level. And use the information to prepare youurself, not to tell the doctor what your child has. Don't go in saying, "My child has Blahblahtorisis and I need you to get him the hospital." Let the doctor do the doctoring and diagnosis. If it is Blahblahtorisis, then you'll have an idea what that means and you'll better be able to "Ask the Right Questions" as the tips recommend. If the doctor comes back with the horrid, "I'm not sure. I'm going to run some tests for Wahwahtorisis and Boobooleptia." Then feel free to ask him about Blahblahtorisis to see why it's not being tested for.
A Strong Recommendation from the List: Well Check-ups. Not only will yearly Well check-ups make sure your child is healthy, it will do more for familiarizing your child with the doctor's office than all the role playing and talking the two of you can do.
