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Wifeswap: New York Yankees Edition

5 Mar

March 5, 2011

“Holy Cow, look at that!” That’s Phil Rizzuto, beloved, befuddled Yankees announcer and as usual he’s talking about anything except baseball. For decades he perfected his senile old man act on Yankees telecasts where he’d talk about his golf game, his grandkids, anything but the game. I actually heard him once say “I’ll get back to my story after this pitch.” Bill White deserves to be in the Hall of Fame simply for managing to get in a halfway decent broadcast while sitting next to Rizzuto. My favorite Phil Rizzuto story is one he once told himself. He somehow found an old gift certificate for a free suit he was given for being a guest on a sports show. It was at least twenty years old. Phil Rizzuto, former baseball player, Yankee icon, Hall of Famer, decided that he would go to the store and see if they would still honor the certificate and get a free suit. The decades old certificate. There is no way Phil Rizzuto was so hard up for a suit that he would stoop to that. He had plenty of money, but he went to the store anyway, and simply because he was Hall of Famer Phil Rizzuto, with a national platform to plug the store, they gave him a free suit. Joe Schmoe from Parsippany would get thrown out on his ass but they gave that second rate Yogi Berra a suit. And here’s the kicker- he never even offered to pay for it!

But the purpose of this blog is not to mock Phil Rizzuto, I can do that any time. Read this:

Rule Number One: If Ben Affleck is attached to a movie, it is a bad idea.
Rule Number Two:  Don’t need it, Rule One is enough for me.

Man, those swinging days of the 1970’s- key parties, sleeping around, no AIDS (plenty of gonorrhea and syphilis, not to mention crabs, but no AIDS). And where was I? Way too young for any of that.  And when I got old enough no one was interested.

This may have been a huge scandal in the Seventies, but today? Two words: Reality show.
This is the era of Charlie Sheen. A couple of guys swapping wives forty years ago? Yawn.

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“Think of the Children! But Only as Wonderful, Motivated Learners!”

4 Mar

March 4, 2011- midday

I’ll get back to the silly with Wifeswap: New York Yankees Edition later tonight, but first there is a story that caught my eye and I feel something needs to be said.

I am excerpting an article from the New York Post. The full text can be found here.

The thrust of the article is that three schools visited by experts deserve to be shut down. They are underperforming. Students are performing far below grade level. The graduation rates are low. I will not, cannot, and have no desire to argue that. Something has to be done. The main problems, the article contends, are the teachers and administrators. I am not prepared to argue that. I’m sure there are bad teachers and administrators there. However, I think- no sorry, after 10+ years as an educator I know– that the article is leaving something out. The teachers are blamed, the Principals are blamed, the entire school system is blamed. Read the excerpts and see if you can see what is being left out.

Don’t the kids have any responsibility? Don’t the parents? Did the teachers make the kids late? Did the teachers put the headphones over their ears? Did the teachers tuck them in at their desks and wish them goodnight?

No politician will ever blame their bread and butter- the voters. No UFT member can ever blame those whose support they need- the parents. But when a kid walks into a classroom late on day one of the school year, wearing headphones and texting their friends in another classroom, how is that the teacher’s fault? Don’t tell me they need to engage the kids, don’t tell me they need interesting lessons. Of course they do. But if a kid is already predetermined to not show up or pay attention, whose fault is that? If a kid doesn’t like math so he reads Low Rider during class, did the teacher hand him the magazine? If a kid in class has already been arrested three times what can the teacher possibly do to motivate him? If a high school student comes to class high did the teacher give him the pot when he walked in? And if a kid is basically a good kid but comes to school late everyday because she has to drop off her little sister on her way to school, whose fault is that?

Not every child shows up to school ready, willing, and prepared to learn. Some show up unable to learn.

Whatever happened to personal responsibility?

Are there bad teachers? Yes.
Are there bad Principals? Yes.
Are there bad students? Yes.
Are there bad parents? Yes.
But according to those running the schools, the last two only seem to exist in an educator’s imagination.

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