Speaking of stupid, this just in from the Saturday edition of the Indianapolis Star. "Indiana's high school graduation rate dips." For clarification purposes, although I'm certain you don't need the clarification, dips means to drop. In response to this disappointing news one of our state wide lowest life forms responsible for the direction of education in Indiana was quoted as saying this, "we are pleased with the progress" the state's schools are showing.
The state of Indiana recently signed an agreement with Pearson Learning Services to take the lead on the Indiana STUPID Testing and Evaluation Process (ISTEP) for the next two years. In exchange for getting the STUPID testing contract, the state of Indiana is paying Pearson Learning Services $39,000,000.00 over the next two years. When I discussed Pearson Learning Services with my part time editor, part time consultant and full time spouse her response was, "Pearson doesn't have the best reputation." By the way, CTB-McGrawHill, who also was paid around $39,000,000.00, was unceremoniously dumped do to disastrous performance so they are being replaced with a company with a marginal reputation when it comes to administering the STUPID test. I believe this falls into the what the ...... category.
If you haven't figured it out, I'm not a big fan of ISTEP. Rather than go into a lengthy tirade on the subject I'll just tell you this. In February of 2015 (almost a year ago) the first round of ISTEP testing took place. We are now in January of 2016 and the final results of the test are still not available. During last year's ISTEP testing process there were computer hardware issues that disrupted the process, server issues that stopped the process, a difference in the test taken on the computer versus the hard copy of the test (apparently the hardcopy version of test was harder than the computer version), parents so upset that a couple hundred thousand parents demanded that their scholars test be rescored, and just this past week the lowest life forms decided to start all over on the grading of this test. Absolutely ridiculous and what did this disaster cost the taxpayers of Indiana? $39,000,000.00!!!
It's 9:00am and the scholars are walking into the classroom carrying their breakfast. EM walks up to may desk and places a carton of milk on it saying, "Mr. Schultz, I don't want this, you can drink it." I thank him for the milk but set it aside as some of the scholars have not arrived. When all of the scholars are in the room I'll ask them if anyone wants the milk. If there are no takers, I'll drink the milk. While waiting, I look at the nutrition facts label on this eight ounce carton of low fat white milk with vanilla flavoring. Because the vanilla is added I'm looking for one specific ingredient, sugar, and when I find sugar it states 22 grams. The sugar content seems high but what do I know as I'm just an old guy with a view from the back of the room so I look up daily sugar allowance for children on my device. I find what I'm looking for and it states 12 grams for children between 8 and 12 years of age. That age group is perfect as all of the scholars fall between the numbers. Before I go any farther let me tell you this. Our government, in particular the First Lady of the United States, started a campaign to address child obesity and rightfully so and you'd see why if you walked the corridors of my school. Our school corporation, being the good little soldier, followed along in the governments foot steps and are following their food guidelines. Let's get back on the subject of milk. Our school serves three kinds of milk, 1% low fat white, low fat chocolate, and low fat white with vanilla added. In the same order, here is the sugar content, 15 grams, 18 grams, and 22 grams. Here is the best part, our government can't figure out why our scholars are getting fatter given all of the low fat, low calorie food and drink items that are ordering them to eat.
Gnu and I discussed the milk issue at the end of the day and we decided we'd turn the subject into a science project for the scholars. Our task was to return to school the next day with food items that are routinely consumed during the day so we could have the scholars determine the sugar content in each item. The food items we brought in are in a picture on the upper right hand side of the blog if you are interested. Gnu's first assignment was for each scholar to choose the item that they thought had the most sugar and then the item that they thought had the least sugar. Not surprising, the Oreo cookies got everyone's attention when it came to sugar. Somewhat surprising, no one chose the bottle of water as having the least amount of sugar. The next assignment was for the scholars to divide all of the food items into two groups, those with high sugar content go on the left side of the table and those with low sugar content go on the right side of the table. From their Gnu went through each item and showed them how to read the nutrition fact sheet for each item. This was fun to watch as none of them ever looked at the nutrition fact sheet in their entire life. The comments they made were interesting, especially when it came to the high sugar items. Easily the most popular response was, "that's gross or I'm going to puke." Gnu's last assignment was thoroughly enjoyable to watch. She selected all of the items that were liquid and divided the liquids into two groups. She then divided the scholars into two groups and handed them their respective items. Then out came the scales and the scholars were told to pour the sugar onto the scales until the scales balance. I worked with Grrr! and Uh-Uh-Uh. They decided to start with the bottle of Coca Cola (16.9 fluid ounces/500mL). On the one side of the scale Uh-Uh-Uh put in the weights to represent the 65 grams of sugar. From there, Grrr! started pouring in the sugar. As he was pouring, Uh-Uh-Uh said to me, "Mr. Schultz, I don't think the scale works properly as it is not moving." I tell her, "the scale works fine, just keep watching Grrr!." Finally, the scale starts to move and eventually it is balanced. I then take the sugar and pour it into a clear plastic bag and label it as 65 grams of sugar. I then hand the plastic bag to Uh-Uh-Uh and say to her, "how does it feel?" "Mr. Schultz, that's a lot of sugar." she says I say to her, "yes it is and just think, some people drink two or three bottles of Coke a day."
That's enough for now about sugar as this is getting to be a rather lengthy blog. However, I do have one more item to mention. On Friday evening after school I was sitting at the kitchen table looking at the newspaper when my part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse says to me, "does Gnu say please when talking to the students?" "Please?" I say. "Yes," is her response and she continues. "I was watching a morning talk show today and the conversation was about teachers and the need for them to say 'please' when telling scholars to get to work on their assignment." Apparently, the guests on this show were quite put off that some teachers don't say please. I looked over at my part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse, laugh a little and tell her this. "Gnu's is very direct when it comes to scholars that are not doing what they are told. It's a three stage process. First, when a scholar is doing nothing she says, "you need to sit at your desk and get to work." The second time she sees the same scholar doing nothing she says, "you need to stop talking and get started on your work." The third time, and my personal favorite, "you still haven't done any work. If you are not going to do any work and just waste my time then pick up your worksheet and get out of my classroom. Go sit in the corridor outside the room and when you are ready to do some work you can come back in. Now get out." I'm sorry, but there is no "please" in classrooms when it comes to academics. "Please" leaves open the option to do nothing and there is no doing nothing in Gnu's classroom. I'm working with a great teacher who is busting her butt to give these scholars the best education possible and she is not a please person. I love it.
That was way to long. Good bye!
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