The story not being told is how many fake administrative jobs have been created and filled by people who are friends of Eugene White. Many have little or no responsibility and yet earn $100,000 salaries. We all can name a few.
"I am always hearing stories like this, but I don't know who these people are. Please name some."
Mid-level IPS administrators and other "special people" anointed by the administration are making $100,000 plus.
That includes a new hire-on as high school basketball coach at Broad Ripple who has no teaching duties.
Then, you have your IPS teachers who have master's degrees from prestigious universities (and I am not talking about Indiana Weslyan) and 25 years of teaching experience who aren't making much more than half of that.
I done be my Dcotor degrees from Indana Weslyan Univbity and be knowing what I's be dioing running a hish shool. Just said Dr' whens you talking at me. Dexter
How is it that Maryanne Johnson Jones, who retired from the district several years ago and is in her seventies, is back, running Washington High School as a spy and making over a hundred thousand dollars?
Where I earned my M.Ed. does not matter. You and I both know that there are many "master teachers" who earned degrees from "prestigious programs" who cannot cut it in the classroom, let alone the IPS classroom. I'll not dignify any more irrelevant conversation on that. To do so would insult both of us.
Yes it does matter! That's the problem with education today. People try to take short cuts because they can't get into a "prestigious graduate program".
It does matter when people simply pay the fees and jump through a few hurdles and suddenly they have a graduate degree. It is an insult to those of us who earned them with hard study and participation. It cheapens the degree for all of us with legitimate degrees. That is why we have principals in IPS with doctoral degrees who cannot write a coherent sentence.
"It is an insult to those of us who earned them with hard study and participation."
Amen to that. I would also add EXPENSE necessary to get a post-grad degree from a legitimate grad school versus a diploma mill like Wesleyan.
I look on the IPS website at the various school websites and I am appalled at the poor presentations abusing the English language. These websites are supposed to be showcasing each school; instead they showcase that many principals have no functionality in using the English language or in coherent and logical expression of ideas.
What stories (good or bad) aren't being told about IPS? 1 .How about a story on dumb teachers in IPS. 2. The weak teacher in the classroom next to you. 3. Cry baby teacher. 4. The teacher who could not teach. 5. The teacher who has been teaching for more than 25 years and need to take their ass home. 6. I'm old as dirt, but I need the pay check. 7. I'm a punk. Therefore, I hide behind this blog.
I continue to believe that there is NO BAD TEACHER LIST IN IPS! More mind-control from the administration of White. He has asked his principals to target weak teachers, older teachers--be ruthless, is what I heard. There is NO LIST that says John Doe, Joan Smith, etc.
Why are “teacher fellows” with their so-called fly by night teaching endorsements better educators than those from so-called prestigious university? The old, lazy teacher who does not want to do anything other than complain. On any giving day a teacher fellow or transition to teaching educator could out teach a teacher from any so-called prestigious university of Indiana (Ha, Ha, don’t make me laugh. Indiana has no prestigious universities, and if there are such university IPS didn’t get any students from them.)
Indiana has no prestigious universities? What planet are you from? I think Notre Dame, Hanover, Depauw and Wabash all qualify. Think of the astronauts that graduated from Purdue. IU and Ball State have some amazing high profile alumni. An IU professor won the Nobel Prize in Economics.
It has been my experience as a teacher who has worked with transition teachers and as a parent whose children have hed transistion teachers, that they are a mixed bag, just like traditionally trained teachers. There are excellent teachers in both groups and there are good people who are not cut out for teaching. It is hard for me to believe that we still try to make gross generalizations about groups. All older teachers are not bad. All younger teachers are not good. Anyone over 12 should have learned to be skeptical about any sentence that begins with "All..."
There are teachers and administrators who do a lousy job and someone has allowed them to continue to work in jobs that they should not have. There are also teachers and administrators who do great things for students and are under appreaciated, even maligned. If our education system is going to rise above the current state, we need fair hard working leadership.
Oakland University, Indiana Weslyan, Walden and Phoniex are the most prestigious universities in Indiana. Do you know how hard it was for me to get into Phoniex University? My God I had to walk inside the building, yep, get out of my vehicle and walk into the darn building. Harrrison College will allow you to do everything online now, yep even sign up online.
Many of the teaching fellows or transition to teaching teachers do not last long. Some don't last long because it was just a life rope during slow economic times and others because some people think it is easy to teach. There are some good ones but they frequently quit for better paying jobs or even teaching but in districts where teachers are appreciated and not bashed by the superintendent.
As an Indiana University graduate, I am offended by the comment that there is no prestigious colleges in Indiana. The School of Education at IU Bloomington ranked 19th in the US in 2009. (See US News and World Report; http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-education-schools/rankings)
That is ahead of USC and PENN State by the way. I would personally consider any school in the top 20 to be "PRESTIGIOUS". So, perhaps you should check your opinion against the facts or is that how you teach too? Opinions only? Where did you get a teaching degree?
"I would personally consider any school in the top 20 to be "PRESTIGIOUS". So, perhaps you should check your opinion against the facts or is that how you teach too? Opinions only? Where did you get a teaching degree?"
The person who originally made the comment about there being no prestigious schools in Indiana sounded like an administrator to me, not a teacher. Go back and re-read that post.
"5. The teacher who has been teaching for more than 25 years and need to take their ass home."
Now, that post really demonstrates the essence of what it is to be an IPS administrator, a principal, or an administrator's lapdog, lobotomized, Stepford Teacher.
I'd really want a person using that kind of English and language administrating over my kid's education.
Why does Keith Burke still get his huge salary when he was not able to make it as an administrator? I hope the licensing board is aware of how unfit he is as a leader/administrator and refuses to renew mentorship program.
Okay, I am a taxpayer, not a teacher nor an employee of IPS. I have an earned Ph.D. that I did not receive from a diploma mill.
I would like to raise the race question in a rational way.
My personal belief is that God created different races to be like beautiful multi-colored flowers in His garden. The Bible says that all men and women are created in the image of God, no matter what ethnicity or color and I believe that completely.
However....for some time, there has appeared to be an "us versus them" mentality among a lot of African/American administrators in IPS. Racism is ugly, no matter what person is expressing it - black, white, red, yellow or purple.
Is racism towards non-African Americans a part of what is going on in IPS concerning the treatment of teachers?
I have been told that the superintendent once told a group of teachers "the problem we have is that we have too many white, old, women teachers."
What if the superintendent was white and he said "the problem we have is that we have too many black, old, women teachers (administrators, teachers, principals," etc.)?
A white administrator who said something like that would have made CNN news.
So, is anyone interested in opening this can of worms and discussing racism in current IPS modus operandi in an intelligent, logical (not emotional) way?
However....for some time, there has appeared to be an "us versus them" mentality among a lot of African/American administrators in IPS. In the spirit of debate what gave you that idea? Who is "us" and who is "them"?
In my experience there is over the last 20 years. There (since this superintendent came on board) is a mentality that the white teachers should give way to African American teachers for this population. Dr. White has even said in staff meetings at the end of the year that our population would rather see someone who looks like them in front than those who are from "the ruling class".
I believe some of the administrators I have encountered are on board with this. I have seen teachers doing the same things and the African American teacher gets higher marks in reviews than the white teacher.
BTW: This is taboo subject. That really should not be spoken.
You want to talk reverse race issues. Just look at the football issue. Almost all the schools did make the IPS athletic policy. Yet, the two schools (Manual and Washington) that are the only football playing schools without a majority African American population will be without teams.
Manual is majority white. Washington is equal about 1/3 african american, 1/3 latino, and 1/3 white.
All the other football playing schools are majority African American.
You want to talk reverse race issues. Just look at the football issue. Almost all the schools did make the IPS athletic policy. Yet, the two schools (Manual and Washington) that are the only football playing schools without a majority African American population will be without teams.
Manual is majority white. Washington is equal about 1/3 african american, 1/3 latino, and 1/3 white.
All the other football playing schools are majority African American.
Yes, there are growing numbers of IPS educators who embrace Afrocentric educational philosophies and who express them overtly and frequently. I have heard a Shortridge administrator, first hand, speak words to the effect that white people cannot teach black students effectively.
To be sure, if that idea's reverse (i.e., black people cannot teach white students) had sprung from my lips, I'd be banished forever from IPS property as I well should.
Personally, I find Afrocentrism to be culturally exclusive rather than culturally inclusive.
Cain Hope Felder, a Professor of New Testament Language and Literature at Howard University and supporter of Afrocentric ideas, has warned Afrocentrists to avoid certain pitfalls, including:
Demonizing categorically all white people, without careful differentiation between persons of goodwill and those who consciously perpetuate racism.
Adopting multiculturalism as a curricular alternative that eliminates, marginalizes, or vilifies European heritage to the point that Europe epitomizes all the evil in the world.
Gross over-generalizations and using factually or incorrect material is bad history and bad scholarship.
"Personally, I find Afrocentrism to be culturally exclusive rather than culturally inclusive."
I appreciated all of your post and found it insightful. I agree with the above statement. IPS kids aren't going to go out into a society that is Afrocentric, they are going to go out into a society that is multi-cultural.
Good or evil are conditions of each individual's heart and soul, having nothing to do with skin color or other ethnicity.
Read the July 3, 2006 post from this IPS principal's myspace page. He sounds like an angry man and that is OK, but is it really a good idea to post your personal rage (complete with your picture) and profanity Online when you are a high school principal?
Transparency is a good thing, up to a point. I believe that point was surpassed in the referenced post.
I am an old, half-dead man and not a teacher nor an administrator.
When I grew up in the 1950s-1960s, I grew up in a poor neighborhood and was blessed to go to school with a large number of African/American kids.
They were my friends, my buddies, kids I played ball with and walked home from school with. We never talked about race, it didn't matter to us.
We were just friends.
Then, I went to a small college and I quickly made friends with an African/American guy whose nickname was "The Doctor of Love" and we were out walking around and a group of other African/American guys yelled that they were going to beat both of us to a bloody pulp because we were out walking together. They called him an "Uncle Tom" because he had me, a white guy, as one of his closest friends.
It was the first time in my life I had ever experienced this and I was shocked, hurt and disappointed. I was never a member of any "ruling class" and I'm still not. By American standards, I am poor still. I think people are oppressed more by economic injustice in relation to social/economic classes than by race.
Racism is an ugly monster, however it rears its ugly head.
If it is being practiced in any form in IPS, IT IS WRONG!
I don't know. I can see where some parents might get upset because a principal used some curse words, but I can certainly understand why he did. And I can certainly understand why he didn't post it anonymously since the whole point of his blog post was resenting having to "pack it down." He obviously uses writing/poety as an outlet for anger and sadness. And writing is a really healthy outlet for anger and sadness. I guess I don't see where it crosses the line, and I certainly don't think it's reverse racist.
It is amazing the lengths some people will go to in order to justify racism and racial hatred. The above post starting with......"I don't know." is a good example of that. Racism is wrong.
I was trying to be respectful of the person who posted the link in the first place. Should I have said, "Are you out of your mind you stupid bigot? It's not racist to be angry about racism!" I don't think the blog post was racist at all. Even a teensy bit. But I can see where someone could find it objectionable for a principal to publically post an angry blog post with curse words in it. But in that case, I would think the one about his marriage falling apart would be more offensive.
Look at Dr. White's choices, for the most part, in promotions and appointments. He wants no part in white men or women having positions of power. It is sad really. Role models are role models, regardless of race or ethnicity. Look at some of these role models we now have in administrative and athletic positions.
In the next twenty years it won't be about race, but about class, educated vs not educated. I taught with a black woman several years ago at a mixed race school, sometimes white teachers would bring her bad black kids and ask her to talk to them. One day she confided in me that she didn't understand this, as her parents were a teacher and a doctor, she had grown up in an upper middle class home, she had a masters degree and her husband was also a professional. She knew she had even less in common with the children being brought to her for a talk then the people bringing the kids.
I am not sure that the term should be "class" but perhaps "culture". A person who is not "highly educated" may have more in common with another person based on culture whereas "class" seems to relate to wealth, priviledge, etc. I am thinking of a black man I know who is an auto mechanic, not highly educated in terms of degrees, but very intelligent, listens to classical music(not that this is, in itself, indicative of culture) while working on cars, is well-read and has high standards of conduct. On the other hand, I know several persons who are "professional" educators but whose actions and attitudes are less than "classy". They do not display a work ethic or character that I would want any student to emulate. This is true of all races. What we need to strive to have in common with our students is a desire to learn how to learn and standards of behavior that will help them be successful; to be life-long learners and do well at their chosen craft (which doesn't mean they need a degree) CAUTION: above is not proof-read so please read beyond errors)
I though that the meaning of student athlete meant that you must maintain at least the minimum 2.0 GPA. Then why is it we still think that the only way is to cheat our way through the process. What messege is this sending to the child.
Some student at JMCHS have 1.0 GPA or trouble in the classroom been suspended and are still allowed to represent the school and the district.
Integrity Please...
ISHAA Rule violation Conduct and Character Rule number 4 You should conduct in or out of school in a way which reflects discredition on your school ot the IHSAA You create a disruptive influence on the discipline, good order, moral and educational enviroment in your school
Scholarship You did not pass 70% of hte full credit subjects or the equivalent that a student can take in your previous grading period Semester grades take precedence. Your are not currently passing 70% the full credit subjects or the equivalent that a student can take
Promoting a fight after a game that you should not of played because you don't have the grades is a great way to send a message.
But I guess you just have to be the great Joby Wright and get away with this
The story not being told is how many fake administrative jobs have been created and filled by people who are friends of Eugene White. Many have little or no responsibility and yet earn $100,000 salaries. We all can name a few.
ReplyDeleteI am always hearing stories like this, but I don't know who these people are. Please name some.
ReplyDeleteLet's talk about the do-nothings in the ISTA, IEA, and NEA. They are the real out of touch thieves.
ReplyDeleteThere goes, Jane Kendrick again.....
ReplyDelete"I am always hearing stories like this, but I don't know who these people are. Please name some."
ReplyDeleteMid-level IPS administrators and other "special people" anointed by the administration are making $100,000 plus.
That includes a new hire-on as high school basketball coach at Broad Ripple who has no teaching duties.
Then, you have your IPS teachers who have master's degrees from prestigious universities (and I am not talking about Indiana Weslyan) and 25 years of teaching experience who aren't making much more than half of that.
So, you say you want a "story?"
There's one!
I done be my Dcotor degrees from Indana Weslyan Univbity and be knowing what I's be dioing running a hish shool. Just said Dr' whens you talking at me. Dexter
ReplyDeleteHow about Peggy Penn working as a building sub only there is never a sub assignment for her. Check her salary.
ReplyDeleteHow is it that Maryanne Johnson Jones, who retired from the district several years ago and is in her seventies, is back, running Washington High School as a spy and making over a hundred thousand dollars?
ReplyDeleteYOu mean Indiana Weslyan, the diploma mill? What does a Doctoral degree cost from there??
ReplyDeleteWhere I earned my M.Ed. does not matter. You and I both know that there are many "master teachers" who earned degrees from "prestigious programs" who cannot cut it in the classroom, let alone the IPS classroom. I'll not dignify any more irrelevant conversation on that. To do so would insult both of us.
ReplyDeleteYes it does matter! That's the problem with education today. People try to take short cuts because they can't get into a "prestigious graduate program".
ReplyDeleteIt does matter when people simply pay the fees and jump through a few hurdles and suddenly they have a graduate degree. It is an insult to those of us who earned them with hard study and participation. It cheapens the degree for all of us with legitimate degrees. That is why we have principals in IPS with doctoral degrees who cannot write a coherent sentence.
ReplyDelete"It is an insult to those of us who earned them with hard study and participation."
ReplyDeleteAmen to that. I would also add EXPENSE necessary to get a post-grad degree from a legitimate grad school versus a diploma mill like Wesleyan.
I look on the IPS website at the various school websites and I am appalled at the poor presentations abusing the English language. These websites are supposed to be showcasing each school; instead they showcase that many principals have no functionality in using the English language or in coherent and logical expression of ideas.
What stories (good or bad) aren't being told about IPS?
ReplyDelete1 .How about a story on dumb teachers in IPS.
2. The weak teacher in the classroom next to you.
3. Cry baby teacher.
4. The teacher who could not teach.
5. The teacher who has been teaching for more than 25 years and need to take their ass home.
6. I'm old as dirt, but I need the pay check.
7. I'm a punk. Therefore, I hide behind this blog.
Coming soon the list of bad teachers in IPS. (I found the list on Friday.) Will your name be on the list?
ReplyDeleteIt looks like one of Eugene White's cadre of teacher bashers has found this blog......or is that Jane Kendrick posting again.
ReplyDeleteI continue to believe that there is NO BAD TEACHER LIST IN IPS! More mind-control from the administration of White. He has asked his principals to target weak teachers, older teachers--be ruthless, is what I heard. There is NO LIST that says John Doe, Joan Smith, etc.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid that there is such a list. There are a lot of secondary teachers on the list.
ReplyDeleteWhy are “teacher fellows” with their so-called fly by night teaching endorsements better educators than those from so-called prestigious university? The old, lazy teacher who does not want to do anything other than complain. On any giving day a teacher fellow or transition to teaching educator could out teach a teacher from any so-called prestigious university of Indiana (Ha, Ha, don’t make me laugh. Indiana has no prestigious universities, and if there are such university IPS didn’t get any students from them.)
ReplyDeleteIndiana has no prestigious universities? What planet are you from? I think Notre Dame, Hanover, Depauw and Wabash all qualify. Think of the astronauts that graduated from Purdue. IU and Ball State have some amazing high profile alumni. An IU professor won the Nobel Prize in Economics.
ReplyDeleteIt has been my experience as a teacher who has worked with transition teachers and as a parent whose children have hed transistion teachers, that they are a mixed bag, just like traditionally trained teachers. There are excellent teachers in both groups and there are good people who are not cut out for teaching. It is hard for me to believe that we still try to make gross generalizations about groups. All older teachers are not bad. All younger teachers are not good. Anyone over 12 should have learned to be skeptical about any sentence that begins with "All..."
There are teachers and administrators who do a lousy job and someone has allowed them to continue to work in jobs that they should not have. There are also teachers and administrators who do great things for students and are under appreaciated, even maligned. If our education system is going to rise above the current state, we need fair hard working leadership.
Oakland University, Indiana Weslyan, Walden and Phoniex are the most prestigious universities in Indiana. Do you know how hard it was for me to get into Phoniex University? My God I had to walk inside the building, yep, get out of my vehicle and walk into the darn building. Harrrison College will allow you to do everything online now, yep even sign up online.
ReplyDeleteMany of the teaching fellows or transition to teaching teachers do not last long. Some don't last long because it was just a life rope during slow economic times and others because some people think it is easy to teach. There are some good ones but they frequently quit for better paying jobs or even teaching but in districts where teachers are appreciated and not bashed by the superintendent.
ReplyDelete"I think Notre Dame, Hanover, Depauw and Wabash all qualify."
ReplyDeleteI would add Butler University, Rose-Hulman and Earlham College to that list.
"No prestigious colleges in Indiana."
Yeah, right!
Sure seems like the big bucks people uptown have been commenting a lot here lately - nasty stuff for the most part. Must be getting nervous, I guess.
Education and intelligence are two different things. The majority of
ReplyDeletepostings on this blog has done a great job of proving this
As an Indiana University graduate, I am offended by the comment that there is no prestigious colleges in Indiana. The School of Education at IU Bloomington ranked 19th in the US in 2009. (See US News and World Report;
ReplyDeletehttp://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-education-schools/rankings)
That is ahead of USC and PENN State by the way.
I would personally consider any school in the top 20 to be "PRESTIGIOUS". So, perhaps you should check your opinion against the facts or is that how you teach too? Opinions only? Where did you get a teaching degree?
"I would personally consider any school in the top 20 to be "PRESTIGIOUS". So, perhaps you should check your opinion against the facts or is that how you teach too? Opinions only? Where did you get a teaching degree?"
ReplyDeleteThe person who originally made the comment about there being no prestigious schools in Indiana sounded like an administrator to me, not a teacher. Go back and re-read that post.
"5. The teacher who has been teaching for more than 25 years and need to take their ass home."
Now, that post really demonstrates the essence of what it is to be an IPS administrator, a principal, or an administrator's lapdog, lobotomized, Stepford Teacher.
I'd really want a person using that kind of English and language administrating over my kid's education.
Not!
Why does Keith Burke still get his huge salary when he was not able to make it as an administrator? I hope the licensing board is aware of how unfit he is as a leader/administrator and refuses to renew mentorship program.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I am a taxpayer, not a teacher nor an employee of IPS. I have an earned Ph.D. that I did not receive from a diploma mill.
ReplyDeleteI would like to raise the race question in a rational way.
My personal belief is that God created different races to be like beautiful multi-colored flowers in His garden. The Bible says that all men and women are created in the image of God, no matter what ethnicity or color and I believe that completely.
However....for some time, there has appeared to be an "us versus them" mentality among a lot of African/American administrators in IPS. Racism is ugly, no matter what person is expressing it - black, white, red, yellow or purple.
Is racism towards non-African Americans a part of what is going on in IPS concerning the treatment of teachers?
I have been told that the superintendent once told a group of teachers "the problem we have is that we have too many white, old, women teachers."
What if the superintendent was white and he said "the problem we have is that we have too many black, old, women teachers (administrators, teachers, principals," etc.)?
A white administrator who said something like that would have made CNN news.
So, is anyone interested in opening this can of worms and discussing racism in current IPS modus operandi in an intelligent, logical (not emotional) way?
A principal of one of the community high schools has voiced numerous times that there is a problem with white women teaching black males.
ReplyDeleteAbove said.........
ReplyDeleteHowever....for some time, there has appeared to be an "us versus them" mentality among a lot of African/American administrators in IPS.
In the spirit of debate what gave you that idea?
Who is "us" and who is "them"?
In my experience there is over the last 20 years. There (since this superintendent came on board) is a mentality that the white teachers should give way to African American teachers for this population. Dr. White has even said in staff meetings at the end of the year that our population would rather see someone who looks like them in front than those who are from "the ruling class".
ReplyDeleteI believe some of the administrators I have encountered are on board with this. I have seen teachers doing the same things and the African American teacher gets higher marks in reviews than the white teacher.
BTW: This is taboo subject. That really should not be spoken.
You want to talk reverse race issues. Just look at the football issue. Almost all the schools did make the IPS athletic policy. Yet, the two schools (Manual and Washington) that are the only football playing schools without a majority African American population will be without teams.
ReplyDeleteManual is majority white.
Washington is equal about 1/3 african american, 1/3 latino, and 1/3 white.
All the other football playing schools are majority African American.
You want to talk reverse race issues. Just look at the football issue. Almost all the schools did make the IPS athletic policy. Yet, the two schools (Manual and Washington) that are the only football playing schools without a majority African American population will be without teams.
ReplyDeleteManual is majority white.
Washington is equal about 1/3 african american, 1/3 latino, and 1/3 white.
All the other football playing schools are majority African American.
Yes, there are growing numbers of IPS educators who embrace Afrocentric educational philosophies and who express them overtly and frequently. I have heard a Shortridge administrator, first hand, speak words to the effect that white people cannot teach black students effectively.
ReplyDeleteTo be sure, if that idea's reverse (i.e., black people cannot teach white students) had sprung from my lips, I'd be banished forever from IPS property as I well should.
Personally, I find Afrocentrism to be culturally exclusive rather than culturally inclusive.
Cain Hope Felder, a Professor of New Testament Language and Literature at Howard University and supporter of Afrocentric ideas, has warned Afrocentrists to avoid certain pitfalls, including:
Demonizing categorically all white people, without careful differentiation between persons of goodwill and those who consciously perpetuate racism.
Adopting multiculturalism as a curricular alternative that eliminates, marginalizes, or vilifies European heritage to the point that Europe epitomizes all the evil in the world.
Gross over-generalizations and using factually or incorrect material is bad history and bad scholarship.
"Personally, I find Afrocentrism to be culturally exclusive rather than culturally inclusive."
ReplyDeleteI appreciated all of your post and found it insightful. I agree with the above statement. IPS kids aren't going to go out into a society that is Afrocentric, they are going to go out into a society that is multi-cultural.
Good or evil are conditions of each individual's heart and soul, having nothing to do with skin color or other ethnicity.
http://blogs.myspace.com/brandondcosby
ReplyDeleteRead the July 3, 2006 post from this IPS principal's myspace page. He sounds like an angry man and that is OK, but is it really a good idea to post your personal rage (complete with your picture) and profanity Online when you are a high school principal?
Transparency is a good thing, up to a point. I believe that point was surpassed in the referenced post.
I am an old, half-dead man and not a teacher nor an administrator.
ReplyDeleteWhen I grew up in the 1950s-1960s, I grew up in a poor neighborhood and was blessed to go to school with a large number of African/American kids.
They were my friends, my buddies, kids I played ball with and walked home from school with. We never talked about race, it didn't matter to us.
We were just friends.
Then, I went to a small college and I quickly made friends with an African/American guy whose nickname was "The Doctor of Love" and we were out walking around and a group of other African/American guys yelled that they were going to beat both of us to a bloody pulp because we were out walking together. They called him an "Uncle Tom" because he had me, a white guy, as one of his closest friends.
It was the first time in my life I had ever experienced this and I was shocked, hurt and disappointed. I was never a member of any "ruling class" and I'm still not. By American standards, I am poor still. I think people are oppressed more by economic injustice in relation to social/economic classes than by race.
Racism is an ugly monster, however it rears its ugly head.
If it is being practiced in any form in IPS, IT IS WRONG!
I don't know. I can see where some parents might get upset because a principal used some curse words, but I can certainly understand why he did. And I can certainly understand why he didn't post it anonymously since the whole point of his blog post was resenting having to "pack it down." He obviously uses writing/poety as an outlet for anger and sadness. And writing is a really healthy outlet for anger and sadness. I guess I don't see where it crosses the line, and I certainly don't think it's reverse racist.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing the lengths some people will go to in order to justify racism and racial hatred. The above post starting with......"I don't know." is a good example of that. Racism is wrong.
ReplyDeleteI was trying to be respectful of the person who posted the link in the first place. Should I have said, "Are you out of your mind you stupid bigot? It's not racist to be angry about racism!" I don't think the blog post was racist at all. Even a teensy bit. But I can see where someone could find it objectionable for a principal to publically post an angry blog post with curse words in it. But in that case, I would think the one about his marriage falling apart would be more offensive.
ReplyDeleteLook at Dr. White's choices, for the most part, in promotions and appointments.
ReplyDeleteHe wants no part in white men or women having positions of power.
It is sad really. Role models are role models, regardless of race or ethnicity.
Look at some of these role models we now have in administrative and athletic positions.
Fire the principal at Shortridge for his bigot remarks.
ReplyDeleteIn the next twenty years it won't be about race, but about class, educated vs not educated. I taught with a black woman several years ago at a mixed race school, sometimes white teachers would bring her bad black kids and ask her to talk to them. One day she confided in me that she didn't understand this, as her parents were a teacher and a doctor, she had grown up in an upper middle class home, she had a masters degree and her husband was also a professional. She knew she had even less in common with the children being brought to her for a talk then the people bringing the kids.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure that the term should be "class" but perhaps "culture". A person who is not "highly educated" may have more in common with another person based on culture whereas "class" seems to relate to wealth, priviledge, etc. I am thinking of a black man I know who is an auto mechanic, not highly educated in terms of degrees, but very intelligent, listens to classical music(not that this is, in itself, indicative of culture) while working on cars, is well-read and has high standards of conduct. On the other hand, I know several persons who are "professional" educators but whose actions and attitudes are less than "classy". They do not display a work ethic or character that I would want any student to emulate. This is true of all races.
ReplyDeleteWhat we need to strive to have in common with our students is a desire to learn how to learn and standards of behavior that will help them be successful; to be life-long learners and do well at their chosen craft (which doesn't mean they need a degree) CAUTION: above is not proof-read so please read beyond errors)
Is Jamyce Banks still around IPS anywhere? She was the Principal when I was at Marshall. Talk about a horrible administrator, she was one!
ReplyDeleteWhy is this allowed at John Marshall?
ReplyDeleteI though that the meaning of student athlete meant that you must maintain at least the minimum 2.0 GPA. Then why is it we still think that the only way is to cheat our way through the process. What messege is this sending to the child.
Some student at JMCHS have 1.0 GPA or trouble in the classroom been suspended and are still allowed to represent the school and the district.
Integrity Please...
ISHAA Rule violation
Conduct and Character Rule number 4
You should conduct in or out of school in a way which reflects discredition on your school ot the IHSAA
You create a disruptive influence on the discipline, good order, moral and educational enviroment in your school
Scholarship
You did not pass 70% of hte full credit subjects or the equivalent that a student can take in your previous grading period
Semester grades take precedence.
Your are not currently passing 70% the full credit subjects or the equivalent that a student can take
Promoting a fight after a game that you should not of played because you don't have the grades is a great way to send a message.
But I guess you just have to be the great Joby Wright and get away with this
"Is Jamyce Banks still around IPS anywhere? She was the Principal when I was at Marshall. Talk about a horrible administrator, she was one!"
ReplyDeleteShe cared about the kids though...and her staff. Her successor did not.