More Coffee, Please

Some interesting news on the vice-principal hunt at MRHS. Mr. Pickering, in a move I can’t help but applaud, opened up the process to students as well as parents and others in the community. It’s a smart move.

Schools are too often closed communities (if communities at all), and the decisions made are not open to the public—students especially. When the people most affected have a say, they they’re far more likely to buy into the process and more likely to go along with whatever decision is made. It’s valuable for choosing who will be a vice principal, and it’s valuable for every other decision.

Community comes from allowing people to buy in. I’m glad MRHS is doing so.

The SAU again put out bids for insurance this year, and once again,² our current carrier came in as the low bidder. Even more amusing, the actual cost for insurance was $771,893.64 less than what was budgeted.

Hmm. If I recall, the tax burden (if the contract were passed) for teacher’s contracts next year would have been $680,306. So teachers just handed the district back the entire cost for raises they didn’t get.

I wonder if we’ll get anyone to thank us for that. I wonder what we’ll hear when it comes time for contracts to be approved. Will we once again hear about how the teacher’s cost the district money…when in reality, we’ve saved it?

Ah, that pesky truth thing. Such a pain.

Heard a rumor the English department is trying to create a schedule where each teacher has a senior elective and a primary grade they teach. If true, a very good idea.

My wife is out job hunting. She had a great interview, though there are still about 40+ candidates she’s up against. However, if she gets the job, she’ll make more money than I do.

I have no issue with this. I’m perfectly willing to have her support me in a manner to which I’d like to become accustomed.

But it does make me wonder when a college graduate, with a bachelors degree and no experience, can make more money in social work than a teacher with seven years of experience and a Masters degree.

I knew society didn’t value us at all, but it’s odd having the confirmation. Fortunately, I’m pretty sure God counts teaching as missionary work. It’s all about a thankless task trying to reach people who don’t really appreciate how lost they are.

Anyone dropped by the Colony Mill lately? If not, go on down and climb the stairs. The astounding work which greets you is MRHS.

Deb Crowder and her art program always amazes me. The kids are amazing artists, and the things they create are amazing. The kid who created the dancer piece about music needs a Reeses badly—there’s a host of talent.

Now what we really need is for every other discipline to find a way to make their work public in the same way. Kids ought to be publishing their poetry and their writing in magazines—they ought to be doing research in the field that fish and game publishes and uses. There are a lot of ways to get schools out there and actually looking at the real world, if we just step up and get creative.

I have a civics class I might ask to put a law together. Our kids can change the world, if we let them use their voice to do so—and show them how.

I taught a group of kids looking at writing Melville’s Bartleby the Scrivener. I teach the story nearly every year, though this was the first time at MC².

It was the first time I’ve ever had a class laugh at the story. They got the humor. I find that a very hopeful sign.

Thank you Terry Pratchett¹:

“You sound a very educated man for a barbarian,” said Rincewind.
“I didn’t start out a Barbarian. I used to be a school teacher. But I decided to give it up, and make a living by the sword.”
“After being a teacher all your life?”
“It did mean a change of perspective, yes.”
“But, well…surely… the privation, the terrible hazards, the daily risk of death…”
Mr. Saveloy brightened up. “Oh! You’ve been a teacher, have you?”

1 Courtesy of Mr. Guion, who sent this my way. ↺

2 Okay, slight update May 7: last year the current carrier was not the low bidder, but did save several hundred thousand over what was originally projected. Also, the money saved is the whole SAU, so that includes Hinsdale and the SAU offices: the Monadnock share is just under half a million.↺

Gregarious

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