Bullies Revisited.
Recently, the State of New Jersey initiated a new Anti-Bullying policy primarily in response to a suicide at Rutgers approximately one year ago. Bullying tactics have changed drastically since the schoolyard bullies of my childhood, and the approach taken by educators must adapt to include new venues and tactics used by one child to intimidate another. The failure of previous initiatives is obvious; we wouldn’t need a new one if prior methods of dealing with bullying succeeded. New Jersey’s program ends when an individual leaves the public education system. Once in the workplace there are no initiatives, yet bullies still exist (another point for the failure of previous approaches). In my experience, they’re women but I’m certain...
Classroom Confidential
I just finished listening to Anthony Bourdain’s Medium Raw and about midway through the audiobook, when the author revisited the why and how of writing Kitchen Confidential, I realized that I was the Tony Bourdain of education. Of course, I immediately posted this observation on Facebook to “likes” all around. Bourdain loves food and travel, possesses a somewhat angry, often snarky personality: the guy in the room in a ripped t-shirt and jeans when everyone else is in well ironed shirts and pressed pants and peppers his conversation with frequent curse words. If you know me, you get the comparison. Combine this literary experience with the receipt of an email from a colleague that contained the following: I attended a conference last summer...
Acrylic
This time of year, Back to School immediately comes to mind as a blog post topic. I thought about writing one, began composing it in my head while driving back and forth to the farm, but realized the only people happy to see back to school are the parents of children young enough to have to pay for childcare in the summer. For the rest of us, teachers included, back to school is a depressing, somewhat expensive and possibly sad especially if you’re sending a kid back to college. I know, kindergarten teachers are skipping off to meet their new cherubs, glitter in one hand, paint in the other, but jaded high school teachers are contemplating the end of freedom just like those kids who belong to the names on our new rosters. So I didn’t write that...
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