Warren Staley might be right. A couple things occur to me. His company gets to hide its failures. It doesn�t even have to report publicly its results. The public doesn�t allow that for school districts. Corporate employment is at-will. They can fire even a good employee if they want to. Public schools cannot easily fire a bad employee. In part, that�s because it is harder to define what that means. Cargill doesn�t need parent�s emotional support to succeed. Schools, public and private, do. Cargill can close one plant and open another if that will create better results. Schools must succeed where they are. Cargill can pick customers and pick suppliers. Schools just don�t have that luxury. Yep, he�s living the soft life now. And that may be why LOTS of teachers quit and go to corporate jobs. The appreciation is greater in those jobs and the chance for success is better. Teachers get hatred and scorn that few if any corporate employees ever have to deal with. And their corporate peers get PAID a lot more if successful. We think, somehow, that teacher awards should take care of it for the second most important people in the children�s lives.
Allegations of Police Assault
Dyna�s comments, though interesting, are of dubious relevance to the issue heading under which she writes. If she can CONVICT the �perps�, that�s one thing. If she can merely accuse without convincing proof, what difference do her accusations make to the case of police assault?
Why Teachers Change Careers
"Halpin clearly experienced his greatest professional frustration during his tenure at a high- profile but faltering charter school. As the school struggled to survive, he recounts, the administration became increasingly controlling. They hired a professional development firm that Halpin dubs 'the Buzzword Institute,' whose out-of-touch representative soon descended on the school. Halpin resented the arrogance of this approach. Reviewing his own respectable qualifications and track record, he remarks: 'And this unctuous, car-salesmany guy is telling me how to do my job.'
http://www.edweek.org/jobs/jobstory.cfm?slug=09teachers_tr.h03
Don't doubt for a SECOND that this is true. I know because when I was an employee with the city government, we got the SAME treatment. A private "consultant" came in to supposedly help us straighten out ITS. She basically was a yes-woman for the management of my department. She "helped" them come up with a "productivity program" that involved a huge increase in MEETINGS. City meetings are where productivity goes to die. I mentioned that (being a misfit there) and her EXPERT opinion was that I should teach my department "how to be productive in meetings". Private contractors are con operations. They just come in and rubber stamp whatever idiocy the top dogs believe in. It is my fear that Jennings would have "helped" the schools the same way. People who kiss up to business can never BELIEVE that they can do harm.
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Jim Mork
Cooper Neighborhood
Crimes against Peace: namely, planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances, or participation in a Common Plan or Conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the foregoing; -- Nuremberg War Tribunal
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