Get Schooled

By Lola

May 26, 2005 01:41 PM | Link to this

I will most certainly continue challenging my daughter’s mind with academics over the summer, even if they are simply reading assignments or projects I give her that deal with science or social studies. It’s vital that their brains remain active over the summer break, because that will make the back-to-school transition much easier for them in the fall. Besides, even if there is a break from school, there should never be a break from learning.

By Ron

May 26, 2005 01:50 PM | Link to this

Absolutely I will have sons reading and doing math activities over the summer. My third grader scored well in all CRCT areas, but had some low scores in individual sub-categories. Without spending a lot of money, I can work with him and help strengthen those areas. Parents need to realize that expensive tutoring programs aren’t always necessary if you are willing to put some time into working with your kids yourself. Put down the remote, turn off the phone, and set aside a time for reading with your children, or take advantage of the myriad low-cost or free activities available around Atlanta which will help your children learn. A simple walk through the park with a book on birds or plants can become a free adventure in learning; a trip to a state park can become a fun science or history lesson. It just takes time, and believe me, it is fun and unforgettable to your children.

By Kiki

May 26, 2005 02:25 PM | Link to this

School work over the summer? No way! If children are already good students, then I think summer is their time to relax and have fun. My teenage boys like it because they get to read things that interest them over the summer … and are both honor roll students. School is very stressful and they need to take this time off mentally to be fresh when they have to start back in the Fall.

By william

May 26, 2005 02:51 PM | Link to this

Even though I see the benefits of school work in the summer, my child is being punished with school work. Under the guise of getting students ready for work in Advanced Placement courses, my child has been given a list of mandatory assignments to complete - including everything from reading a novel in French to completing the first two chapters of a calculus book to reading three novels for a Lit class. My child has worked hard all year to be at the top of her class, and she has also worked hard to earn money to take a trip with another teacher to Europe. As soon as she returns from her trip (which will carry much more educational value than the summer assignments), she will be laden with assignments that are “due” at the beginning of school. The teachers who assign these things rarely do more than check them off of a list, thereby receiving plagiarized summaries or copied work that is not really learned. There are children who need to do some work in the summer so that they do not lose some skills, but the summer is not for doling out excessive work to the students who are already motivated to do well.

By Sly

May 26, 2005 02:56 PM | Link to this

Summer is a time for a different kind of learning. Like visiting new places, trying new things, exploring with friends. Absolutely gonna show my kids another part of life and the world. More of a hands-on approach tho that will build lasting memories. For me too.

By Adam

May 26, 2005 03:02 PM | Link to this

For far too many young people, summer vacation results in a three-month holiday from constructive learning activities and valuable opportunities to practice the skills they need to be successful in school and in life. Research demonstrates that all students experience significant learning losses during the summer months. We keep our children enrolled in KUMON year-round so that they never lose crucial academic skills. Of course, the play, take trips, read books, etc. just like all children, but KUMON really keeps them sharp and focused so there is no lag when they return to school in the Fall. I believe their number is 800-ABC-MATH.

By The Coach

May 26, 2005 03:36 PM | Link to this

When an Advanced Placement teacher gives a summer assignment, it is usually a review so the student does not come into the class “cold”. Anyone that has ever been in high school knows it is extremely hard to remember the material from the past year, so a summer assignment helps the students to hit the ground running. Besides, if you are taking an AP class for the right reasons, you should want the extra work to help prepare you. If you don’t want the extra work, dont take the AP classes, and take the material in college. Just an old AP teacher’s two cents…

By Marcia

May 26, 2005 03:50 PM | Link to this

Watching TV, playing video games, sleeping til noon, etc are not always contructive to learning.

As a teacher, I will continue to gain skills because “The lack of knowledge is the root of all evil”. Don’t remember who said it, but it is put away with January lesson plans to be used again.

Knowledge is POWER.

By Manny T

May 26, 2005 03:51 PM | Link to this

Summer is a great time to enhance learning. However, I think Sly has it right. Let’s look at things that we do not normally get to focus on as much during the regular school term.

We will explore some fundamentals at home as we try to instill the everyday importance of reading, counting, and figuring things out (problem solving). If we develop good habits at a young age, I hope we will not have a need for professional tutoring businesses later in their school careers.

By Jake

May 26, 2005 04:22 PM | Link to this

Adam and Ron - What do you and your type A kids do for fun, or as a reward for all that study and hard work, memorize the encyclopedia?
My daughter is 14 and her summer schedule has band camp, soccer camp, a trip to California, and a trip to the beach with a friend. I think there will be more life lessons in those redwood trees than those math sub-categories.

By Sylvia

May 27, 2005 09:24 AM | Link to this

By Sylvia

May 27, 2005 09:33 AM | Link to this

Students should enjoy their summer. They shouldn’t be laden with academic coursework. They do that during the year. They should spend time exploring in detail the things that they couldn’t during the year. Whether it’s making mud pies, having a lemonade stand, planting some vegetables. In addition, they can read books from the library. Cut out the tv and do something memorable.

By Karen

May 27, 2005 10:01 AM | Link to this

Manny T, You have it right, as parents we are the first teachers and everything we do with our kids can be a learning opportunity, from reading the paper and discussing stories, to watching and discussing news and movies.

Summer is a good time to have good talks with your kids about what you and they think about anything. You don’t need structured lessons or work sheets, but do plan a weekly trip to the library, to Fernbank, the zoo, or Callaway’s butterfly garden. Get out and see something different and talk about it, get your kids interested in a new hobby, have a family summer project to write your family history or draw your family tree, teach them to sew or cook or bake with you, to help you with comparison shopping for best buys and best nutrition in the supermarket. Plant and grow a flower and vegetable garden and harvest it together. Kids want to feel useful, that they are contributors, and you give them that chance, and postive feedback as they learn and accomplish new tasks.

If you want some structure, traditional summer camps, day camps, community school art classes, or beginning music lesson are good, and local college enrichment programs for high school students.

And summer is a good time to volunteer to help an elderly person in your neighborhood, to help at a food bank or in a church vacation bible program.

If you take a vacation to the beach, buy some books about that area and study the wildlife or history of the people and see the local sites while you are there.

All new experiences will be learning experiences and keep their brains (and yours) working. Learning is not just the acquisiton of rote memory math facts or grammar rules, it’s learing to think and discuss your thoughts and express yourself clearly, either in speaking, singing, writing, playing music or creating art.

Have a great summer!

By formerAPstudent

May 27, 2005 10:02 AM | Link to this

william: i agree with “the coach.” if you don’t want to do the work, then you shouldn’t take an AP class. i, like your daugther, was also at the top of my class and registered for 4 APs before my senior year. and you know what? i was able to have a fun summer AND complete the work. its not as though she’s going to be bogged down every waking minute of the summer. i’m SURE she’ll find some time to hang out with friends, take a vacation, etc.

By Anitha Balaji

May 27, 2005 11:56 AM | Link to this

Yes, I would Like my Daughter to continue her Kumon Lessons, in summer season. She is very much confident about her next year, because of Kumon classes.

By william

May 27, 2005 12:31 PM | Link to this

Coach and Former AP student, I definitely appreciate your viewpoints as former AP teacher and AP student. I still am disturbed at the type of work as it is not review nor is it something to keep one’s skills sharp. As for hitting the ground running in the new school year, the teachers that have assigned these things will not use the material from the summer to augment what they will actually teach. I understand that this is a problem in one school, and I appreciate that you have done things differently in your classes. I am still not impressed with the seeming necessity of summer coursework. I think my child may be better served by earning course credit for these things.

By Nikole

May 27, 2005 01:29 PM | Link to this

Wouldn’t year-round school solve some of these problems with retaining knowledge? Any thoughts on that?

By Sylvia

May 27, 2005 01:47 PM | Link to this

Nikole - NO!!! Year round schooling will not solve these “problems”. Can’t you year round schooling afficianados get a life? School is not the be all and end all of a child’s education. In case you’re thinking that this will provide you with a year round baby sitter, you are mistaken - the school year is 180 days, no matter how you slice it up. Summer vacation provides opportunities that do not exist in short little breaks -kids (and their families) need summer vacations to pursue interests that inspire them and yes, educate them. There is no such thing as “summer learning loss” - it is a fallacy. If you want your kids to be in academia all year round then go right ahead - but you need to pay for it yourself, and don’t try to drag us along with you. Japan has a 240 day school year, no recess, and the one of the highest suicide rates in the country.

By Nikole

May 27, 2005 01:59 PM | Link to this

Sylvia- Relax! I think these blogs make people hostile and defensive. I am not a parent, but a first-year teacher and I am NOT a proponent of year-round schools, just wanted to put that point out there because it has been used so much to defend year-round schools.

By Lane

May 30, 2005 10:08 AM | Link to this

I agree with Sylvia and Karen - our children should be encouraged to experince things other than structured learning over the summer. Summer is time for relaxing, playing, catching lightning bugs, climbing trees, playing with neighborhood children. Chidren should be encouraged to use their imaginations and learn to interact with other children - they certainly don’t get much of that in school anymore. All the tutoring and test scores in the world won’t do much for you in the workplace if your can’t get along with people or solve problems. There is educational value in free playing. I believe there is much more to the education of my children than what is measurable by a test score. Thank you Nikole for bringing up year-round school (also called Balanced Calendar and Extended Calendar). The school systems are robbing our children of their childhood taking away summer bit by bit.

By Sylvia

May 30, 2005 01:22 PM | Link to this

Nikole - I’d love to relax, but the school board robbed our family of any summer vacation time this August. The state of Georgia needs to improve its curriculum - and is making great strides in that direction this year. It does not need to rob children of their childhood in a misguided and ineffectual attempt to improve standardized test scores. I am tired of having my child used as an experimental guinea pig as they try out fanciful calendar (and recess) theories which are contrary to common sense and factual data gleaned from succesful school disricts.

By EZ

May 31, 2005 09:49 AM | Link to this

Here in North Carolina the parents decided that the nitwit school administrators got it wrong when they backed up the school calendar and stole a week of summer vacation each year from our children. They had us starting school on August 8’th. WRONG. We had strong support from the (mainly) women of this state that said NO to this nonsense, and now school starts no earlier than Aug 24’th. Now our chilren and parents get to have a normal summer vacation schedule. The parents got what they wanted, which they should have.

By Jennifer

May 31, 2005 10:33 AM | Link to this

Sylvia,

They may have robbed you of August, but they gave you back all of June. Shifting the weeks does not mean they stole something from you. Personally, I like the idea of kids taking their exams before Christmas break—I think mirroring the college calendar makes a lot of sense.

By K

May 31, 2005 01:29 PM | Link to this

You can solve all of these problems by getting your children out of government schools and putting them in acredited private schools where parents have more say so. My teenagers will not start school the first week of August, will finish their exams before Christams break and will be out of school June 2. They can also take all of the AP classes they want and our school has a rule that there will be no homework given during any school break or off days (not including projects that the children already know they have due). And … you don’t have to pay tens of thousands of dollars to have your child in a great private school, there are plenty of them out there. As far as school work in the summer … my two will be attending golf camp, basketball camp, church camp, and a beach vacation. They will also work in my parents business when not at camp. I think that’s plenty of learning over the summer. They will be happy and excited to get back to school and will be ready to start back into the academic process. They have already started planning their science projects!

By Sarah

May 31, 2005 03:03 PM | Link to this

EZ - I’m also from NC, and I have t tell you that the state had not “stolen” any time from the chidren - they had the same amount of summer vacation as always. It just began in early August and ended in Mid May. One huge downside to moving the starting date back to late August (which, contrary to what you state was a measure supported by the tourism industry, not parents) is that now high school students will not be able to take their final exams before Christmas vacation. Because of the new schedule, they will break for Christmas, come back and take finals, and then start their new semester. Also, junion and senior students who are concurrently enrolling in local community colleges will find that much more difficult, as the public school and college schedules will be very different. Our students are in school 180 days a year. I can’t see any harm in having those 180 days start in early August, and see a great deal of difficulty visited on high schoolers with this move.

By Karen

June 1, 2005 09:51 AM | Link to this

K said “we can solve ALL of these problems by getting our kids out of government schools and into private accredited schools where parents have more say.”

I respectfully disagree. I know three people who decided recently to withdraw their children from private schools (name brand Atlanta area private schools). One child wants a choice of orchestras that her local public high school offers, and the private school doesn’t. One child felt stifled in the privileged kid private school and wanted to be a regular kid in public high school. And the third child was caught up in drugs in a private school and his parents made the change to public high school.

Whether you send your kids to private or public school, parents always have choice and control, and it begins, continues, and ends at HOME. You send the kids to school for socialization and to be run through a curriculum. How they process that curriculum starts with you the parent. You are responsible for encouraging reading and good study habits, and independent research. You are responsible for teaching them to think critically, to ask questions, and question authority, in other words to verify anything they do not already know as true. You encourage kindness, respect and participation. You are lazy and irresponsible parents who think that schools, either public or private, are responsible for your kids’ education.

My kids went all the way through public schools and I helped a lot in the classroom and in PTA and booster clubs. I knew what was going on in the school, and I did have influence with the teachers and principals. My kids knew I saw there and that I knew what was going on, and I kept on top of their progress, and they performed well.

Having said that, it makes sense that in the summer your kids need you to oversee their learning process, and not a bunch of school workbooks and handouts. Get over your gripes about when summer vacation ends and school begins, the year is 180 days long either way. The more you complain, the more your kids will complain, because they are watching you very closely and are learning more from you than you think.

By Prince

June 1, 2005 10:20 AM | Link to this

Parents please make an effort to educate you children over the summer. It’s for their benefit.

On August 9, 2005 2pm- 4pm. @ Afrobooks 871 Ralph D Albernathy Blvd Atlanta, GA-West End Mall. We are sponsoring every child a math book with shortcut methods for passing standardized tests. It’s called Donate and Educate.First come, first serve. Signed by the Author. For more information email: chercolby@bellsouth.net

By faye

June 1, 2005 11:09 AM | Link to this

Oh, some of you people need to get over yourselves! “Stealing our summers” indeed…

As several pointed out, the school year is 180 days long, no matter how you slice it. Most of us in the metro area were out a full WEEK before Memorial Day. We have about 11 weeks of summer (for those of us going back the week of August 8th). That’s a week longer than most.

The myth of a lazy, idyllic summer is just that - a myth. Summers off are an archaic remnant of an agrarian community - kids didn’t get summers off to play - they got summers off to help on the family farm.

As far as tourism goes - who said travel was only worthwhile in the summer? I, for one, love Atlanta in the spring, but find summers too hot. New England is beautiful in the fall, and you’d be hard pressed to go skiing in any season but winter. Most people get 2 to three weeks of vacation per year - wouldn’t you rather spread that out to less busy seasons instead of fighting the crowds and going where everyone else is going?

As far as education over the summer is concerned - put away the workbooks! This is the time for more relaxed pursuits - read books for FUN, not a test or report. Take the kids out to Red Top Mountain and look at the stars. Go fishing. I was blessed with a wonderful grandfather who took the time to enrich my education over the summers - not through more of what I got plenty of in school, but through hands-on, minds-on experience. The problem is most kids will spend their summers inside playing video games, and the only reading they’ll do is looking up game cheats on the internet.

By Howard Nelson

June 1, 2005 11:11 AM | Link to this

Let’s see….in business, you do two very important things that contribute strongly to the success of your company. First, you get to the root of the problem versus treating the symptoms. In the case of our school systems, Cobb County has elected to treat the symptom (poor performance), by extending the calendar school year against the will of the majority, instead of treating the problems that really cause how poorly we are doing. Meanwhile, my 10 year old in 4th grade ended his school year in 2005 by having an outside play day, a pizza party day, a Gameboy day, (you get the point), and no homework for almost two weeks. If going to school more throughout the year is the answer, then why did our public elementary school waste at least an entire week of learning? Some people say that leadership makes decisions, and that trying something is better than trying nothing. Wrong! What this decision is doing is taking valuable family bonding time away from us. Vacation time with the family. Our children missing those wonderful summers off to recharge their batteries, and time off enough to be excited about returning to school and friends when the time comes. Yes, I’m sure those two earner families to keep up with the Joneses that use school as a cheap baby sitter would like to see short summer breaks (after all, it helps them find someone to take care of their children for them). This of course is part of the problem with our school systems. Parents do not spend enough quality time with their children to establish strong values, instill discipline, and help them to do well in school by helping them with their studies (so many are tired when they come home from work). This time with our children is very important to the childs success in school, especially in light of other sue happy parents that want a good education, but will infringe on others by creating an environment of fear in the schools surrounding culture, values, what the children should or shoud not study, and discipline, tying the hands of teachers trying to do their jobs. The few, corrupting the system for the many.

Now, let’s go to the second problem in the school systems that need to be addressed, versus forcing the us to the year round school year calendar. In business, and I’m talking all business sizes, from Exxon to the local owner operated card shop in the strip center in your neighborhood that run on 7% overhead or less. What do I mean by 7% overhead? I mean the percentage of cost against their gross sales to administrate (generate P&L’s, etc), supervise, provide human resources, legal, and other support functions, whether internal for large corporations, or external for smaller companies. We’re talking 6% for the average business, compared to 62% of it’s sales/revenue (our tax dollars and lottery funding)for our public school system to support it’s overhead and administration. Imagine what the billions of dollars that go into these self rightous “Superintendants, Boards, and support networks” that ignore the will of it’s constituents in cases like the school calendar and laptop computer initiatives, to protect their positions and future jobs with companies like Apple Computer could do if spent where it should be, the infrastructure and personnel that make the real difference. If these billions were not spent on bloated overhead, we could have the finest computer labs, the best teachers and equipment money could buy. There would be plenty of money for rewarding teachers that excel in teaching our children, attracting the best teachers, and take care of the root problem(s) that well run businesses go after versus putting salve on the symptom and expecting it to get better as the public school system continues to do. Why do we spend money at the federal level for the Department of Education (billions again)? What do they do for us at the local level? It’s time to really change the system. and get rid of the fat that generates an ineffective bureaucracy and put it where it belongs, into our childrens schools(facilities) and education (teachers) where it belongs. What’s the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing(s) over and over again, expecting a different result!

By faye

June 1, 2005 11:46 AM | Link to this

Howard…I am in Cobb county…The school year IS NOT EXTENDED!!!!!!!!

What do you not understand about that?

Homework for you - print yourself off a copy of the Cobb County calendar and COUNT THE DAYS. Find a copy of the old calendar and COUNT THE DAYS!!!

Get a calendar and count the number of weeks between the last day of school and the first day of school.

What do you get?

A non-extended school year. The amount of days is determined at the Federal level. Cobb can not arbitrarily opt to extend it.

Regarding the last week of school - that wouldn’t happend if we were on year-round schools. Knowing you’d be back in three weeks would keep most kids focused longer.

By Another Teacher

June 1, 2005 11:56 AM | Link to this

Howard - I teach middle school, and when the students got back from spring break (with SIX weeks left to the school year), and I gave them homework, I was asked, “Homework? Why? The school year is practically over!” With that mentality, it’s easy to see why the last week of school is filled with “fluff.” Chances are, however, that those activities did not take up the entire day.

The other challenge I had was after the CRCT - most of my students thought the school year was over then, too.

My suggestion? Give the CRCT the last two weeks of the school year. That solves a lot of problems. And if the testing company wants to keep our money, then they’ll bust whatever they need to get the scores returned to us in a timely manner.

And as a teacher, I can tell you, I’m not getting paid fopr working any extra days - the school year is not any longer - if it were, you’d be hearing more teachers talking about it.

By Another Teacher

June 1, 2005 12:28 PM | Link to this

From the “Small Business Directory” online:

OVERHEAD In a business, the expenses and costs that are not directly associated with the production or sale of goods and services. The normal costs of being in business, such as office, rent, utilities, insurance, advertising, accounting and legal expenses. As opposed to the COST OF GOODS SOLD that directly relate to the products or services for sale.

We don’t sell anything (at least we shouldn’t be ;-) ) so to compare schools to a typical business model is like comparing apples to oranges.

Also, as a former employee of 2 small businesses, 6% seems awfully small. ‘Course my not understanding that is probably why I opted for the safety of my cushy, can’t be fired from, summers off, government-sponsored job, ha ha (please read that with a smile - I wrote it with one!).

By Howard

June 2, 2005 01:31 PM | Link to this

Faye,

Where did you learn to count, our public school system? May 23rd to August 8th this year, which is a week shorter than last year, and Cobb County wants to reduce that by 2 more weeks in 2006. Now, compare that to a traditional calendar which runs from the first week of June until the first week of September and what do you have???? Count the days!!!

By Howard

June 2, 2005 01:44 PM | Link to this

Another teacher….maybe a former teacher if a system of evaluation and reward are put into place. I’ve owned and managed large and small businesses for 33 years. I think I know about overhead in business and what is included. I have also run the finances for a candidate for the U.S. House of representatives. I’ve studied the government budgeting process. Please show me where it takes more than 10 times the overhead in the school system versus an average of 6% in business? Also, you are talking 10’s to 100’s of billions of dollars when you talk 62% of a budget for just this county and state budgets. In the 60’s businesses ran 4-5% G&A, and the school systems ran about 10%. I have to question it when i receive a request for money to fix an air conditioner in the gym at my son’s elementary school, because the county can’t afford to fix or replace it. We’re being forced to spend over 100 million on not only the wrong laptop program, but another 20 million a year to maintain technology that is least compatible with other operating systems, software, and the internet, and will be outdated in 5 years, but we can’t fix the air conditioner in an elementary school where the temperatures were reaching 90+ degrees, activities canceled, etc…. go back to school and get out of the government system to get re-educated about the real world. I write this with a knowingly smile……..

By faye

June 2, 2005 04:19 PM | Link to this

Howard…in Cobb County, our students got out on May 20th, not the 23rd. Our students return to school on August 10th.

Not counting the weekends:

5/23 to 5/27 = 1 5/30 to 6/3 = 2 6/6 to 6/10 = 3 6/13 to 6/17 = 4 6/20 to 6/24 = 5 6/27 to 7/1 = 6 7/4 to 7/8 = 7 7/11 to 7/15 = 8 7/18 to 7/22 = 9 7/25 to 7/29 = 10 8/1 to 8/5 = 11

plus Monday the 8th and Tuesday the 9th.

11 and (almost) a half…

As I said…

LONGER than than the usual 10 PLUS we get a whole week off at Thanksgiving - nice to be able to travel and spend time with my family.

I’m off to count the days on the Cobb County calendar…

By faye

June 2, 2005 04:25 PM | Link to this

The calendar update…

Days per month:

Aug = 16 Sept = 21 Oct = 20 Nov = 16 Dec = 16 Jan = 15 Feb = 18 Mar = 23 Apr = 15 May = 20

Equals 180 days.

By faye

June 2, 2005 04:43 PM | Link to this

More calendar info…

Howard’s insult really got me curious…

First of all, I checked with my neices and nephews’ school system. It’s in Massachusetts and is the school system in which I spent most of my time.

They start on August 31 (earlier than when I was a child - we traditionally started the first Wednesday after Labor Day). They have off for Labor Day, Columbus Day, and Veteran’s Day (Cobb wanted to add Columbus and Veteran’s but didn’t). They only have Thursday and Friday off for Thanksgiving (Cobb tried that about 5 years ago - dismal failure). For Christmas, they only have 1 week (26th through the 30th), versus Cobb’s 2. They do however have an additional week in February. Makes sense when you consider the weather…

They have MLK, but not President’s day. They do however have off Good Friday. Their spring break is from April 17 to the 21st. They have Memerial Day off (we don’t need it - we’re out by then) and they finish up on JUNE 22!! Most of June is gone, giving them back those first weeks of August.

Still curious (and still peeved by Howard’s comments on how I couldn’t count), I further researched the issue.

I had thought that the number of days is federally mandated; however, it is a state decision. Addtionally, some states determine the start dates of the school year; others leave it as a local option.

There is a Georgia State laaw that determines the 180 day time period (perhaps Howard, you would like to move to one of the states that has a 175 day school year). You can check out the details at the following website:

http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/55/26/5526.pdf

By Another Teacher

June 2, 2005 04:56 PM | Link to this

Wow, Howard, I was joking around, and trying to start a dialogue…I didn’t write the post to be insulted; I wrote it hoping you would better explain yourself.

Others who regularly read the post have probably seen my background before. Sorry to bore you with it again…

I served in the Marine Corps after high school. After my time in the service, I went back to school. Despite an interest in teaching I talked myself out of it REPEATEDLY because of the negatives.

I eventually got a degree in science. While I put myself through school, I worked in restaurant management (large hotel and small yogurt shop - both ends of the spectrum). I also worked in laboratories and hospitals.

After I finished my degree, I got a job with a sort of science education business - it was a very small business - only 3 of us in the beginning - we wore lots of hats, so to speak. I helped with books, marketing, whatever it tooks to get that business (now 5 times as big, and doing very well!) off the ground.

All the time I was doing that, and traveling to schools, I thought about teaching full time. So, after awhile, I went back to school (as you suggested, ha ha) to get my teaching certificate.

You know nothing about me or my teaching - I actually got very good reviews this year and had the highest percentage of my students pass the CRCT - at a high risk school. I don’t normally post that, because I don’t want to look like I’m bragging or defending myself, but your post made me feel as thought I needed to do both.

I’ve worked in small businesses, but I was not a business major. Nor do I have any intent to be, if it means working with people like you.

If you want to post discussion-worthy items, please do. But leave your insults at home - and I could say that to some of the others on here.

As I’ve posted before, “Can’t we all just get along?”