Monthly Archives: January 2009

Want to Retire Early?

8 Replies

Go to Michigan! The state wants you to retire. Save the state money and retire, so they can higher younger teachers at a lower cost.

The perceived benefits are:

  • saving schools money,
  • allowing younger teachers to be hired, and
  • bringing into the state younger teachers with kids to boost enrollments.

While those who accept the retirement will receive a 1/3 bump in retirement pay, I think this is a fairly cynical policy decision. How much experience and expertise is lost? From bloggers around the nation, I hear that teacher shortages rather than surpluses are the norm, so is this sound policy? I also wonder about younger teachers putting families on their insurance. Will this deplete the coffers at the same or greater rate?

I tend to joke that I’ll die in the classroom one day (I hope the students notice unlike the poor “ditto king” in the movie Teachers), but I joke about it because I can’t imagine affording retirement the way the economy is going. Granted, I have quite a few years to go, but I still think forced retirements seem to suggest that certain people, based on age really, are less coveted and valuable.

What do you think? Would you take the deal? Is this good policy?

Reduce the Week

2 Replies

Stories are starting to be written about reducing the school week to four longer days rather than the current five day week (read about it here and here and here). Have you heard anything about this? Know anybody trying it? What do you think about it?

One school reported:

  • better attendance rates,
  • higher student achievement,
  • fewer discipline problems, and
  • lower transportation and overall costs.

The New Education

1 Reply

I’m not joking when I say this: maybe we need to incorporate what’s in this cartoon into our classes.

and061007b

Maybe we can bring this celebrity worship into our classes. Fahrenheit 451 is a quick example where this (frightening) hero worship could be commented upon; maybe the “breads and circuses” of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar could be another literary work to tie in.

I don’t believe bringing in celebrity magazines is the way to go, but I do think the consequences of such idle idol worship is a part of numerous pieces of literature I teach; besides those mentioned above, I could suggest The Great Gatsby, The Red Badge of Courage, The Princess Bride, and more.

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Side note: I once had kids complain about all the “dead, old white guys” we learn about, so I conducted a lesson a couple days later where the students had to compile a list of writers, leaders, and other famous people of their time. Wouldn’t you know that their lists were basically full of old, white guys? Even though their lists weren’t 100% old, white guys, the majority of the lists were comprised of them. Notable exceptions were musicians, Hillary Clinton, and J.K. Rowling. This led right into a discussion about fame and celebrity. It was quite a remarkable discussion.

Cartoon source material here.