stewart had sent this around via email, wanted to share:
"All teams must make the state playoffs and all MUST win the championship. If a team does not win the championship, they will be on probation until they are the champions, and coaches will be held accountable. If, after two years, they have not won the championship their footballs and equipment will be taken away UNTIL they do win the championship.
All students will be expected to have the same football skills at the same time even if they do not have the same conditions or opportunities to practice on their own. NO exceptions will be made for lack of interest in football, a desire to perform athletically, or genetic abilities or disabilities of themselves or their parents.
ALL STUDENTS WILL PLAY FOOTBALL AT A PROFICIENT LEVEL!
Talented players will be asked to workout on their own, without instruction. This is because the coaches will be using all their instructional time with the athletes who aren't interested in football, have limited athletic ability or whose parents do not like football.
Games will be played year round, but statistics will only be kept in the 4th, 8th, and 11th game. It will create a New Age of Sports where every school is expected to have the same level of talent and all teams will reach the same minimum goals. If no child gets ahead, then no child gets left behind. If parent do not like this new law, they are encouraged to support private schools that can screen out the non-athletes and prevent their children from having to go to school with bad football players."
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i like that taking it out of context, you see that no child left behind just doesn't make sense! i mean, i already knew that, but i liked the way that this illustrated it so simply.
but what i really wanted to comment on was how, in addition to blogging, the email list that we use for the MAC group (and sub-groups, as we set off to do some projects) has become another kind of community for us, as well. i have gotten to know c-tools by wading through it and asking my classmates for help/clarification. it is really exciting that we are already teaching each other from our own specific backrgrounds, and moreso, that we are all open to learning from each other. i feel that there are so many ways to connect with one another, and organically, opportunities are opening up as people learn each others' hobbies, interests and extra-curriculars. i suggest that everyone gets involved with some sort of outside of class activity -- i have a feeling that we will need something else to think about, something to provide balance and a break.
just some saturday thoughts...
xo
lo
3 comments:
I've been musing on our MAC community all day, Lauren. It's such a 180 from my experience as an undergrad here--in class, that is. I was lucky enough to form a really fabulous community outside of school, but the classes themselves that I was in did absolutely nothing to foster community. I wonder if it's the intensity of the program? And surely the way Pat et al. has been encouraging open communication & collaboration. It's really wonderful, methinks.
I agree. Having a sense of community makes all the difference in a learning environment. Humans are social animals, and having a group to rely on is our default setting - without it, we go a bit crazy! So much of how humans live has drastically changed in the span of the last 200 years that we are all just now trying to figure out how to adapt to the world we've created. I think that many of the "innovations" in learning (and other fields) are really just new ways to make sure we get what we've always had BACK in our lives. Communication technology allows us to connect to a close-knit group; we used to live our entire LIVES in close-knit groups. I loved the football example too - very accurate. I think another issue is the fact that we don't teach how to survive in the bizarre environment we live in - we don't teach finance in schools, we don't teach enough about how to job search, how to use computers to simplify a very complex life, how to pay taxes - all things that have only become crucial and unavoidable elements of life during the last 50 years or so. Just think about the amount of bureaucratic hoops we're all having to attempt flying leaps through at the moment - there is NOTHING in our evolutionary history which could have prepared us for them!
Woof. Loads to think about.
I love that you use "methinks" too, Abby.
:D
Humor can still be hard hitting. This is a perfect example.
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