Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for June 6, 2009 CATTINESS...FAR & NEAR

First, from across the pond...

...made an old saber-toothed CAT smile this morning!

Let's be honest, there are losers and winners in this world

By Celia Walden

The young, it appears, are becoming fragile. For the first time in 300 years, exam results at Cambridge are to be sent privately to students, to curb the "fear" and "humiliation" of finding out from the board outside the university's senate house that you got a 2:2, while standing next to someone you despised who got a first.

Meanwhile, Sir Ken Robinson, who is advising the Government on education, thinks we should do away with the whole exam thing, and leave children free to daub primitive murals along school walls. He didn't say that, but he did insist that we have to "develop children's creativity", and once the c-word has been mentioned pretty much anything goes.

Have you tried saying "creativity" without screwing up your face and affecting a peevish whine? It's impossible, and it's a whining, cloying, self-righteous word used by people who appear convinced that rigorous learning and a flourishing imagination are incompatible. Nothing in history suggests that this is true. Great painters studied the Old Masters to learn their craft: Turner, for one, worked at the Dutch masters as a preliminary to developing his freer, original style.

Those were the days when artists painted pictures rather than "creating art". Now, trendy educationalists would play down the nasty business of spelling, grammar and academic rigour, leaving us all free to emote. Yet many a parent would welcome some hard academic graft in state schools, when an increasing number of the most successful painters, actors, playwrights, musicians and even pop stars seem to have benefited from a more demanding education in the private sector.

In other areas, we seem bent on breeding emotional fragility into the young, from the egg and spoon race with no winners, to the diplomatic announcement of exam results, to produce a generation of brittle – but oh-so-"creative" - little souls.

Speaking of catty...

Started to post another article this morning...from a well-known New York "rag". Had nothing to do with humor...had nothing to do with education in Cairo (we hope. Oops...the "catty" just leaps to my fingertips...so hard to contain!)

Anyway...

When I read the article, my "fertile catty brain" experienced a "flash forward"...based upon "flashbacks" (and one in particular that is not so far back...seems like only yesterday!)

DISCLAIMER: Nothing I say refers to the current principals of Emerson, Bennett, or CJSHS! I ain't talkin' about them...

CSD #1 has a sad history when it comes to hiring administrators...hiring those who seem bound and determined to stir up racial unrest.

Therefore, when I read about this "good doctor" out in New York...who may soon enter the "job-hunting pool", my catty nature wanted to "seize the day"...to advise one and all to take note...to put "Dr. Claudia Moore-Hamilton" on the list...the "short list" in the next round of administrative hiring by CSD #1.

However, I reconsidered.

I won't, I won't...oops, guess I just did!

OUTRAGE AT 'RACE' PRINCIPAL

By YOAV GONEN

Enraged East Harlem parents and elected officials are calling for the ouster of a principal who asked teachers to report the numbers of disruptive kids by race.

The safety survey last month from PS 96 Principal Dr. Claudia Moore-Hamilton asked teachers questions such as, "How many of these students are daily disruptions?" and "How many of these students have been given Saturday detention?"

The figures were to be broken down under the categories, "Black," "Hispanic" or "Other."

"I just think it was ridiculous to put out something like this," said Vylmary Bennett, who has two kids in the K-through-8 school.

Education officials, who called the survey "inappropriate," said they were investigating.

In a written apology to parents and teachers, Moore-Hamilton, who is black, said, "I realize that my approach was inflammatory and for that I assume total responsibility."

Many at the school -- which is 71 percent Hispanic and 26 percent black -- said the survey was the last straw in a year during which kids would often hang out on the roof, start fires or fight.

In a letter this week to Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and Mayor Bloomberg calling for Moore-Hamilton's removal, Assemblyman Adam Powell IV cited complaints that she had given kids Christmas presents -- and then taken them back from those on the "naughty" list.

Speaking of cattiness, "good doctors", and New York...

Ascribing to an ancient Catonese Philosophy - that one might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb...

Took note of this little "travel alert" blurb and wondered if our favorite superintendent has made his reservations!

BLACKS IN EDUCATION

By TODD VENEZIA

A group of prominent African-American leaders will gather in New York next week for a meeting to discuss educational issues.

The June 10-14 conference -- sponsored in part by News Corp., the parent company of The Post -- will focus on the theme "Education on the Frontline."

In a final "shout out" to cattiness, we can be encouraged by the advertised theme of the meeting - "Education on the Frontline."

"The Frontline..."

Surely that means that the cutting-edge "handouts" will be from the 21st Century...not 1981.

One would ass-u-me...

MEOW!!!