The very fact that this disgusting behavior continues should be a wake-up call to society to change the way we operate. It's not just priests, folks. Get this on the front page. As a teacher, I want this information out there to protect students. AP story (via Curt Jester):

The young teacher hung his head, avoiding eye contact. Yes, he had touched a fifth-grader's breast during recess. "I guess it was just lust of the flesh," he told his boss.

That got Gary C. Lindsey fired from his first teaching job in Oelwein, Iowa. But it didn't end his career. He taught for decades in Illinois and Iowa, fending off at least a half-dozen more abuse accusations.

When he finally surrendered his teaching license in 2004 - 40 years after that first little girl came forward - it wasn't a principal or a state agency that ended his career. It was one persistent victim and her parents.

Lindsey's case is just a small example of a widespread problem in American schools: sexual misconduct by the very teachers who are supposed to be nurturing the nation's children.

Students in America's schools are groped. They're raped. They're pursued, seduced and think they're in love.

An Associated Press investigation found more than 2,500 cases over five years in which educators were punished for actions from bizarre to sadistic.

There are 3 million public school teachers nationwide, most devoted to their work. Yet the number of abusive educators - nearly three for every school day - speaks to a much larger problem in a system that is stacked against victims.

Labels: education, news

One controversial aspect of education today is the authority of a teacher to grade students. Few of us would dispute that it is the teacher's job to fairly assess the learning of a student, but many outside of the world of education do not see the dark side: administrators who change grades.

It's an ethical dilemma for every teacher at some point or another: when my principal asks me to change a grade, for example, to pass a student when he or she has failed, what do I do?

There are some great arguments on both sides. In the grand scheme of things, one could argue, it makes little difference. When was the last time you asked your landscaper or your doctor what his or her grades were in high school? When was the last time you thought about your own high school grades? But on the other hand, many argue that it's a matter of integrity and honesty.

For myself, failing students is not easy, even when they deserve it. I would never fail a student who missed by one or two points. Frankly, I can't swear before God that every test question was fair, so what if I made a mistake that would have made the difference? But there are students who fail by a long shot. My first quarter of this past year, a student failed. It was so hard to write the F on the grade sheet, but she went on to do well for the rest of the year. Lesson learned.

The NYTimes education section today has an article about this very topic. For educators, it's worth a look.

Labels: education

From CNA:

Seventy-five people, including teachers and students as young as eight years old, picketed the NEA convention in Philadelphia July 1.

Many NEA delegates openly expressed disbelief, skepticism and shock at the revelation that their union was involved in pro-abortion advocacy.

They seemed unaware of NEA's longstanding Family Planning Resolution, which supports "reproductive freedom" and "all methods of family planning", including abortion. They also seemed unaware that NEA is one of Planned Parenthood's primary advocates and had co-sponsored large pro-abortion rallies in Washington in 2004, 1992, and 1989.

Some delegates berated the pro-lifers and accused them of lying. Others thanked the demonstrators for underlining the issue. Others still, said they would raise the issue on the Convention floor and attempt to persuade NEA to abandon its pro-abortion agenda and activism.

"We joined NEA for collective bargaining representation; not to be misrepresented on socio-political or moral issues like abortion, homosexuality, or who to vote for,” said Bob Pawson, national coordinator of PLEAS and an NEA member. He requested that NEA totally disengage from the abortion issue in respect for the diversity of its 3.2 million members.

"Babies are our business,” he continued. “For NEA to condone, much less promote, killing babies in their wombs is not only a moral outrage; it's economic suicide. Abortion costs us our jobs."

The two-hour demonstration closed with prayer shortly after 3 p.m.

Labels: education

Those who know me, know I love Holy Week like nothing else. My whole world stops as I walk that week-long path with Jesus as best as I can. It's hard to impart this feeling of the holiness of time to students, especially high school students who are obsessed by their independence. This year, Holy Week is the first week of spring sports games. Just another hurdle to overcome.

This week, I plan to use some poetry to get them in the mood to commemorate the holiest days of the year. Here are some of my ideas. Please use the comment box or email me with any other ideas and I'll post them here.

• I see his blood upon the rose (Plunkett)
• When I survey the wondrous cross (Watts)
• O God, I love thee (Hopkins, S.J.)
• My loving Savior (Breviary page 411)
• Sonnet written in Holy Week at Genoa (Wilde)
• Good Friday, 1987 (Rosenbaum)

Any other ideas??

Labels: education, holy week, poetry

This past week we had our penance service at school. Talking to the pastor, we had decided that we would have each class go over to church individually for a 30 minute time slot. He would start with a short reading then we'd give the students an opportunity for individual confessions.

I had been talking up the penance service with my students for a few weeks. Many expressed an interest in receiving the sacrament which surprised me a bit. It doesn't seem as though confession was emphasized by my predecessor (though I can't say for sure). The day before, I had planned to prepare my students well. Of course, the best laid plans... the other theology teacher had to be out that day and he didn't prepare his students! So we improvised: I taught my students for twenty minutes, then I went down and taught his for twenty minutes (and the sub went up to mine). It was a long day of running around, but it all worked out in the end.

Here are some ideas and images I used with the students (remember that they're in high school so they were adapted based on class).

• I gave them five things to focus on in their examination of conscience: cheating, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, sex, and gossip.
• I asked them about how God used Moses to give the people the Ten Commandments and how Jesus expected the disciples to spread the Good News. God still uses people, specifically priests, to extend his forgiveness to us (this helps get beyond some of the awkwardness in their minds of confessing to a priest).
• Can't we ask God to forgive us directly, without the sacrament? Absolutely. However, it's not the same (especially in terms of mortal sin, of course). We know each other through our senses so we need to experience God that way too. Jesus wasn't all talk, he showed us his love: the Eucharist especially... how very sensory! Imagine getting into a fight with your boy/girlfriend and apologizing, expecting forgiveness in return and getting nothing but a silent blank stare. In the sacrament, we don't hear nothing, but we hear God speaking to us through the ministry of the priest. What a blessed guarantee of love! (An extra example are those recent cell phone commercials with the dropped calls).
  
• Is it possible for a high school student to wreck his/her relationship with God? Of course! Do you have to know it's wrecked for it to be so? Not necessarily. Imagine someone who lost all feeling in his hand. If he rests his hand on the hot stove, does it burn? Of course, even though he has no clue. (Think Adam Sandler's foot in Mr. Deeds!). Just so with us and sin and God. Just because we don't know our soul is messed up, doesn't mean it isn't!

So those are my unrefined ideas. You might be wondering... how did it go? More than 2/3 of the students went to confession and loved every minute of it. Many hadn't been since the 3rd grade! God will indeed bless our sincere efforts to bring others to the sacraments if only we are faithful and humble. We won't be waiting for next Lent for confessions again. We'll be offering them in the fall and maybe more often. God is good!

As a sidebar, two other thoughts: one is that I used the occasion to warn the freshmen about role models. This is the time of year when freshmen start to become sophomores. They should be encouraged to examine who they admire in the upper classes and why. Lastly, the pastor did something very important. When he introduced the confessors he mentioned that any non-Catholic students were welcome to speak to a priest if they wished, making clear that they were not receiving a sacrament, but just a chance to talk. Many took the opportunity. If done carefully, it's a nice idea.

Labels: confession, education, sacraments

OK, this is hardly theological but as an educator, this caught my attention. From this morning's New York Times:

The word “scrotum” does not often appear in polite conversation. Or children’s literature, for that matter.

Yet there it is on the first page of “The Higher Power of Lucky,” by Susan Patron, this year’s winner of the Newbery Medal, the most prestigious award in children’s literature. The book’s heroine, a scrappy 10-year-old orphan named Lucky Trimble, hears the word through a hole in a wall when another character says he saw a rattlesnake bite his dog, Roy, on the scrotum.

“Scrotum sounded to Lucky like something green that comes up when you have the flu and cough too much,” the book continues. “It sounded medical and secret, but also important.”

The inclusion of the word has shocked some school librarians, who have pledged to ban the book from elementary schools, and reopened the debate over what constitutes acceptable content in children’s books. The controversy was first reported by Publishers Weekly, a trade magazine.

OK, so far nothing too major here. But then this:

Pat Scales, a former chairwoman of the Newbery Award committee, said that declining to stock the book in libraries was nothing short of censorship.

“The people who are reacting to that word are not reading the book as a whole,” she said. “That’s what censors do — they pick out words and don’t look at the total merit of the book.”

Now getting beyond the definition of censorship... isn't censorship ok when it comes to dealing with children? Don't we say that they are not allowed by law to see R rated movies? Isn't that censorship? What about the v-chip? Don't we watch our language around kids?

Folks, if people think it's inappropriate for children, then it's ok not to show them. The real world is too much for a child. If you want proof, look at children who grow up seeing the "real world." They're a sad breed. Of course, the world should be revealed to them, but progressively, as they become ready. (On the flip side of my example, children who have absolutely no clue of the real world are a sad breed too!).

Later in the article:

Ms. Patron, who is a public librarian in Los Angeles, said the book was written for children 9 to 12 years old. But some librarians countered that since the heroine of “The Higher Power of Lucky” is 10, children older than that would not be interested in reading it.

“I think it’s a good case of an author not realizing her audience,” said Frederick Muller, a librarian at Halsted Middle School in Newton, N.J. “If I were a third- or fourth-grade teacher, I wouldn’t want to have to explain that.”

Neither would I.

Labels: education, literature