school | Piss and Moan

Hey, kid

Posted on November 8, 2021 by backuphill

Your momma warned you back in the day. Don’t take candy from strangers, especially the guy that rolls up in a creepy looking van and entices a kid to get in by offering them a piece of candy. You remember that ol’, “Hey, kid, want a piece of candy?” thing, right?

Well, it seems the Democrats in New York essentially have become “that guy in the van.” This is beyond creepy.

Now that the shot is approved for kids 5-11, NY has taken to bribing children to get the shot. Right now, at least according to the article, it can happen at school with parent permission. I can only imagine that when not enough get vaccinated that way the Dems will find a way to remove the parental permission and just let kids decide for themselves. I mean, parental rights have been removed for other healthcare things so why stop for a shot?

Man, this just makes you feel dirty when you think about how the government is going after our kids.

Sure, there is some need for shots and there have been great advances but do you think this is going a little overboard? Actually bribing kids and making it attractive to get a shot when they can’t (in most cases) or won’t even brush their teeth, take a shower, brush their hair, or even wear deodorant?

Oh, but let’s just add one more thing for kids to bully, tease, and harass other students about. I can hear it now…”I got my shot. Did you get yours?”…”So and so doesn’t have the shot! Ewww, you’re do dirty!”…”I bought such and such with my shot money. What did you get?”…

The peer pressure will be immense and you know, without a doubt, that kids will be forging their parents’ names to get the $100.

Sorry, but this is almost criminal when you start thinking of the implications.

Really, really disturbing the Dems have done this route. But maybe I really shouldn’t be surprised, they are already bullying and threatening adults who don’t get the shot, so this is the next logical step.

The slippery slope is no longer a slope.

Inappropriate display

Posted on May 4, 2021 by backuphill

Is it appropriate for a teacher to display a “Black Lives Matter” poster on their wall or wear a t-shirt with the same message? Is it appropriate for a teacher to leave a Bible or other religious text sitting on their desk? Is it appropriate for a teacher to promote one political party over another? Is it appropriate for any of these things to be done while with students and on school time?

I was doing a training the other day with a school district and one of the teachers participating in the Zoom meeting had a poster on the back wall, in plain view of the camera, that essentially was advocating for a political viewpoint. Obviously this teacher was demonstrating they were an “activist” of sorts and wanted whomever was seeing them on camera to see that they felt a certain way about certain issues currently on the forefront of conversations for society as a whole.

I found the poster to be inappropriate for a teacher to be displaying – especially if this was a background that would be seen by students. I didn’t find it inappropriate because I disagreed with the subject matter. I found it in appropriate because I see it as a violation of professional standards.

Now, before I continue, I want to reiterate that I am all for free speech and allowing people to express their views. If you have spent time on this blog over the years you would know this. I don’t have many instances where expression of one’s views should be limited because I believe that the expression of one’s self is that important.

However, having been a high school teacher and an American Government teacher and knowing enough about freedoms within the school and limitations of those freedoms, there would seem to be a double standards – again.

Professional standards say that, as people who have a position of power over students, our personal views should be kept to ourselves. In the past this has generally been applied to things like politics and religion. The reasoning behind this is that students are moldable and if given undue influence, they might take on the beliefs or thoughts of their teacher. Makes sense, and as a teacher I tried to keep the students guessing when it came to these two topics – not my job to instill these things in students, that’s their parents’ job and eventually they should develop these views and opinions on their own with their own reasoning.

However, over the last 20 years, it has been more acceptable for teachers to express their political views but not their religious views. When I was teaching I heard my own colleagues express their political views in the classroom with students. I have had my daughter relate to me that one of her teachers was actually passing out bumper stickers for one particular presidential candidate. Conversely, I have seen and heard of school employees and teachers being punished for expressing their religious views or even practicing their religion while on school grounds.

Is it another double standard? Is it another practice of “it’s ok for me, but not for you” when it comes to politics and religion?

Look, it should be all of one, or all of the other. Either keep all politics and religion out of the classroom or allow all politics and religion in the classroom.

But, what do you think? Is there a fine line between what is appropriate and what isn’t? Is one more acceptable than the other?

Consequences

Posted on September 20, 2019 by backuphill

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Sorry, kids. You’re just gonna have to “deal with it.”

As much as you would like to not have consequences for your choices, even if those choices are based on good intentions, there are still consequences. There needs to be in a civilized society and you can’t change the rules every time they conflict with your beliefs.

I am not sure if you are aware, but right now there are probably hundreds (thousands?) of students in your community skipping school for climate change. Their intentions might be good (albeit questionable). Their intention is to draw attention to an issue you are concerned about. Great.

But, this can be effectively done on any other day at any other time. There isn’t a legitimate reason to skip school and I hope that the school district & school board in Seattle don’t bow to pressure and excuse these absences.

That also goes applies to these kids’ parents. Come on, parents, have a little integrity here! If you are a parent who excuses your child from school for such an activity then you are a part of the problem too. I know that is a bold statement, but you need to stop enabling bad behavior in your child.

Maybe you even agree with what your kid is doing, at least in the sense of the “cause.” Maybe you’re the permissive parent…you want to be “cool”…whatever…, but do you want to make a bigger impact with your parenting? Allow them the freedom to make the choice of staying in school or skipping it AND THEN let them deal with the consequences of that choice. Stop enabling everything your kid does. There are legitimate reasons for an excused absence from school and this isn’t one of them. You aren’t helping your child learn that making choices comes with responsibility.

Kids, stay in school.

Survival mode

Posted on August 30, 2019 by backuphill

Photo by Francis Seura on Pexels.com

One day. Just make it through the day.

Friday before a long weekend. Will it be busy? The hope is that it won’t be because district employees will be taking advantage of their last long weekend of the summer. Alas, the hope had died on the vine…

We are already running and I don’t think we have hit the ground yet.

The flood of support tickets continues. At one point yesterday, I had six open support tickets and trying to support them all at the same time. Today, I already have two to start with. Hope this isn’t a sign of things to come.

Watch out people! The weekend is nearly upon us. Keep your head down today, enter survival mode, and make it through the day. Just one last push to weekend freedom!

Sit down and shut up

Posted on February 11, 2019 by backuphill

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

One thing I know for sure, teaching a class or training people never goes quite as planned. There are always things you can’t account for, even when you have experience and account for things you know will happen – because they always do.

I was a high school teacher for 15 years. One thing I got used to was that students, no matter how engaging the lesson was, never were really invested in what they were learning. I mean who are we kidding, right? Students don’t see how what they are doing now prepares them for something down the road, in the future. They are too focused on today to understand that. So interest in class was always a challenge, no matter the subject.

Now that I am no longer in the classroom, I am teaching at a different level, so to speak. I am teaching adults (teachers and school district employees) about how to use the software they use every day. Now, we are talking about people with different life experiences than students. People who know that what they are being taught will be useful to them immediately, or at the very least in the very near future. YET, they are, in some cases, a worse audience than high school students!

Teachers are a notoriously bad audience. I know because I was one of those bad audience members. But I see it all the time from adults. They sit and have side conversations, text, look at email, grade papers, etc. I even had one teacher watching the World Cup on his computer while at a training class. Yeah, real professional, buddy.

Listen, I get that teachers have a millions of things on their mind and a billion other things to do. I can totally relate! BUT, if you won’t let your students (or at least have the expectation that your students will not) act this way, why do you think it is acceptable to act that way when you’re in class? You’re an adult, for pete’s sake. Have a little more self-control than your 4th graders for crying out loud.

So, SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP!