Mulgrew Mangles Democracy

Dissension not allowed--James Eterno tells about delegate meeting at which it was agreed to send contract to teachers.

DON'T VOTE FOR A CONTRACT THAT CAN COST YOU YOUR JOB

MORE Press Advisory: NYC Public School Educators to UFT Leaders: “Go Back to the Bargaining Table!”

This was sent out to the press last night. Even if you are not part of MORE, join the campaign by downloading and printing leaflets for your school. MORE is willing to help organize events in your local area around your school to discuss the contract to counter the Unity spin.

**News Advisory**

UFT CONTRACT: NOT A DONE DEAL UNTIL THE MEMBERSHIP VOTES

NYC Public School Educators to UFT Leaders: “Go Back to the Bargaining Table!”

MORE --  A UFT Caucus -- Calls for Teachers to Vote “No!;

Launches grassroots campaign for “Contract NYC Educators Deserve”

WHEN: Wednesday, May 7 2014, approximately 6:15pm (After UFT Delegate Assembly)

WHERE: SW Corner of 6th Ave and 54th St, in front of Hilton (1335 Ave of Americas, NYC)

WHAT: MORE-UFT (Movement of Rank and File Educators) calls for UFT members to vote “no” on the leadership’s contract proposal. The bargain under consideration:

• Spreads what UFT leaders call an “18% raise” over nine years. This amounts to a 2% raise per year - the approximate rate of inflation.
• Ratifies a teacher evaluation system based on the use of student test scores to evaluate teachers, despite a growing movement against over-testing, including parents who are opting children out of the tests.
• Does not address pay disparities, such as the salary cap for Occupational Therapists and Physical Therapists and low starting salaries for teachers.
• Ignores members’ calls for stronger checks against abusive administrators.
• Divides teachers with extra “merit pay” for those picked by administrators.
• Undermines due process protections for teachers in the Absent Teacher Reserve.

MORE calls for a grassroots negotiation process driven by members’ participation. Teachers across the city generated MORE’s, “The Contract NYC’s Educators Deserve.”

WHO: MORE, a growing UFT caucus in the UFT, organizes for a democratic, militant union, based on the motto "Our working conditions are our students’ learning conditions!”  In 2013 MORE co-organized the “More than a Score: Talking Back to Testing Forum” with parents in Change the Stakes and the “Fair Pay for City Workers Forum” with members of over a dozen unions. MORE ran candidates in the New York State Teacher’s Union (NYSUT) elections in April (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbkqXmDz62Y).

VISUALS: Teachers wearing T-shirts and buttons will gather with signs and banners.

RSVP: e-mail media@morecaucusnyc.org

###

The Movement of Rank and File Educators is the Social Justice Caucus of the United Federation of Teachers.  To learn MORE, visit www.morecaucusnyc.or

The Sadist Within

Mr. Arrogant chose a seat in the back of the room for the exam.  He saved the seat next to him for a smart, quiet girl, a girl he knew he could browbeat into letting him cheat.

Mr. Arrogant should know by now I see through him.  I moved the girl far away.  He sat alone in the back, turning red and struggled.  I enjoyed every minute of his pain.

Tell me again how so many more students are graduating high school than ever before.  Tell me again how great our kids did under NCLB, RTTT and of course Bloomberg and Walcott's administration.

Stats Do Not Make A Good Teacher

Mr. H was considered the best teacher in the math department.  He got the best kids and always got the best results. There was just one problem. Mr. H did not teach math, he taught the kids how to do well on exams.  He taught them how to work backwards from multiple choices.  He told them not to bother remembering exact values of sin 60, tan 30 or any of the other special angles because working with a calculator they would always be able to figure out the exact answer from their decimal calculation.

Lots of kids loved Mr. H for the good grades they got in his class but not all of them were happy.  Many were unhappy about not being taught and challenged.  They planned on pursuing careers in math or engineering and knew they needed knowledge.  Mr. H realized he should have done a better job of teaching when he shared a room with a calculus class and saw the corners he cut were hurting kids he had taught.  Still, he never changed his ways.  His statistics insured him good classes and teaching honor students was all he wanted to do.

About Contract--By Arthur Goldstein

Dear colleagues,

My piece below is up at Diane Ravitch's blog right now. I'm not crazy about the formatting at Diane's place so I want to share the original with you. Our delegates and I have to vote on this proposal next Wednesday at the Delegate Assembly. Please feel free to share your thoughts on this proposal with me.

Best regards,

Arthur

It’s been almost six years since NYC teachers have received a raise. This was particularly frustrating since most NYC employees received twin raises of 4% in the 2008-2010 round of pattern bargaining. While they got more money with no givebacks, our leadership helped craft the junk-science based NY APPR law. The entire state got a junk-science based evaluation system. We were told the beauty of it was that it could be negotiated, but when that didn’t work out leadership allowed John King to write it for us.

Now there is an agreement, but UFT members will receive not only the retro money, but also the salary raises almost a decade later than FDNY, NYPD, or DSNY. Being a teacher, I don’t know a whole lot about money. Still, I’m fairly certain that money has more value in 2010 than 2020, when we will finally be made whole. It’s plainly disingenuous to argue we have parity with the other unions.

There are other issues in this contract that are troubling. Paramount to me is that of due process for ATR teachers. The UFT agreed in 2005 to create the Absent Teacher Reserve. The UFT had supported mayoral control, which helped enable the massive school closures favored by Bloomberg, and rather than insist teachers in closing schools be placed in classrooms, it made them wandering subs, covering for absent teachers. They now wander from school to school, week to week. They are vilified and stereotyped in the media on a regular basis.

I’ve worked with and advocated for several ATR teachers. I can assure you, despite the nonsense propagated by self-styled expert Campbell Brown, that those teachers were guilty of nothing more than either being in the wrong school at the right time, or being targeted for no good reason .  Under our new system, any ATR teacher accused by two principals of ineffective behavior will receive an expedited one-day 3020a hearing, after which this person may be fired on the spot. I fail to see why ATR teachers should have fewer due process rights than I do.

As for Ms. Campbell Brown, apparently there is  hat tip in the agreement to her:

The rules also expand the definition of sexual misconduct, which will make it easier for the city to fire teachers for actions like inappropriate touching or texting, officials said.

I can’t really say whether or not this rule is reasonable, since neither I nor anyone who voted on this agreement has actually seen it. Generally, it would be shocking that a 300-member contract committee could approve an agreement it hadn’t seen. However since the overwhelming majority of that committee were members of the elite, invitation-only UFT Unity Caucus, and had signed an oath promising to support whatever leadership told them to, it would not be surprising to me if they had nominated a cheese sandwich for President of the United States.

We’re also looking at a program that strongly smells of merit pay, something that’s been tried and failed in the US for about a century. This is the UFT’s second flirtation with such a program, and like the last one, discarded as a failure, it is presented as not merit pay.

Another mysterious issue in the proposal is this:

Under the tentative deal, collaborative school communities will have new opportunities to innovate outside the confines of the UFT contract and DOE regulations. A new program known as Progressive Redesign Opportunity Schools for Excellence (PROSE) will give educators in participating schools greater voice in decision-making and a chance to experiment with new strategies.

This sounds very much like the original concept of charter schools, and we all know where that has led us. I’m wary of anything with “excellence” in the title, because it clearly implies those of us who do not participate somehow oppose excellence. Also, there is a clear implication in such programs that our Contract somehow hinders excellence, which I do not believe.

My experience and observation suggests schools do better with strong principals and strong chapter leaders being adversarial when necessary, but working together when it benefits the school. I’ve also observed schools with little or no union presence having programs imposed on them that are less than productive, and I can certainly envision that happening here.

I’m further puzzled by several things UFT President Michael Mulgrew wrote us when he announced the agreement.

The union won major changes, including a focus on eight instead of 22 Danielson components and a better system for rating teachers in non-tested subjects.

I have heard directly from union sources that they'd insisted on focusing on all of Danielson, and that making them focus on all aspects was a great victory. Apparently making them focus on fewer factors is also a victory. We shall see what happens with non-tested subjects.

A more substantive improvement might have been to let supervisors off the hook from so many observations. If a competent supervisor observes a teacher doing a good job, and receives no complaints about that teacher, the supervisor ought not to have to revisit that teacher 3 to 5 additional times that year. Supervisors ought to be focusing their attention on supporting teachers who actually need their help.

We succeeded in eliminating time-consuming teaching artifacts.

Again, union sources have told me directly that the inclusion of artifacts was a great union victory, empowering teachers. Apparently the exclusion is also a victory. When the union does one thing, it's a great victory. When they do the opposite, it's another great victory. I’m troubled by that.

Moving forward, fellow educators — rather than consultants or other third parties — will serve as the "validators" brought in the next year to review the work of a teacher rated ineffective.

In 3020a hearings, in which teachers can be fired, the burden of proof has traditionally been on the DOE to establish teacher incompetence. The validators would have had the option of placing the burden on teachers to establish they were not incompetent, a very high hurdle. Now, though this practice has never even been tested, with no evidence whatsoever, it is deemed to be improved. I would not wish to ever sit in judgment of my colleagues as to whether or not the city should have to establish their incompetence. I would question the motives of any colleague who would.

I fail to see why my brother and sister UFT members deserve any less financial consideration than those in other municipal unions. As for the other factors in this contract, the devil is in the details. Thus far we haven’t seen them, but history suggests a lack of foresight in insular UFT leadership, which has supported allowing teachers to become ATRs, charter schools, co-locations, the NYS APPR law, junk science teacher rating, Common Core, and mayoral control, none of which have helped public school teachers, parents or children.

Finally, I’m not particularly proud that we’re set to impose a pattern for all other city unions that will not allow them even to keep up with inflation for the next 7 years. If the best we can do is worsen conditions for our brother and sister unionists, we’re not doing our jobs very well at all.

Power of Blogging

I just opened an e-mail from a UNITY hack who used to come to my former school weekly to "answer" questions and to promote the UNITY ideals.  Mostly, he told senior teachers to retire.

He began the e-mail telling members to pay no attention to what they read on blogs and newspapers about the contract.  I think we our writings in blogosphere are scaring them.  GOOD!

Inner Circle Of Unions

My husband just told me the new contract can't be bad because NYC union leaders, 20 out of 22, gave their blessings to the new contract.  (Only fire and detective unions voted no because of health care concerns.)  My husband is not a union member and is sometimes too easily swayed by the media.  He is bright, informed and has lived for over 40 years with a NYC teacher and still doesn't get it all.  No wonder others don't get it either.

These 20 labor leaders voting yes does not make it a good contract.  They are all part of the inner circle brothers club.  Mulgrew is one of them.  They wouldn't think of opposing him.  The people that give them their jobs, pay their salaries and keep them where they are mean nothing compared to "family."

New Contract and the ATR

If two Principals rate an ATR unsatisfactory, that ATR is gone.

Principals often rely on APs for information. APs are more often than not, inexperienced teachers with no sense of what makes a good teacher.  Often they are not even good teachers themselves.  Some will have problems because the ATR did not jump high enough on command.  Principals talk to one another and opinions and ratings will be given before some ATRs even take a step in the building.

A teacher once told me she could never become an ATR because her Principal loved her.  She had no sympathy for ATRs and would not support anything that had to do with them.  This teacher is now an ATR, going from school to school and worried about keeping her job.

Teachers need to vote no for this contract.

Teacher Contract

The following article is from NBC news.  I'm not so sure about this contract.  As a retired teacher, it gives me more money, but not enough to have to start paying more for health coverage.  If I was a working teacher, I would not like it at all.  I don't like union rules being suspended at 200 schools.  I don't like changing definition of sexual misconduct and I don't like teacher evaluations. I hate bonus pay too.

City Hall and the teachers union have reached an agreement on a new contract that provides retroactive raises plus a 10 percent raise over seven years, with health care cost reductions promised by the union.
The proposed nine-year contract would begin on Nov. 1, 2009 and expire Oct. 31, 2018. 
It gives 1 percent raises each year until 2016, and then a 1.5 percent raise, a 2.5 percent raise and a 3 percent raise the final year. The 4 percent retroactive raises for 2009 and 2010 would be provided in increments from 2015 to 2020.
"This agreement will be a gateway to great progress in our school system," Mayor de Blasio said at a City Hall announcement Thursday.
The cost to the city through 2018 is $4 billion, which does not include some of the retroactive payments through 2020.
The union would reduce health care costs, in part through "centralized drug purchases," and other belt-tightening moves that were not detailed. The savings is estimated at $1 billion over the nine years.
City workers do not contribute to their health care costs.
The two sides also agreed on new criteria for permanently removing poorly performing teachers, and an expanded the definition of sexual misconduct to make it easier to get rid of teachers who commit those crimes.
The deal is the first labor agreement struck by de Blasio, and it could affect negotiations with the other nearly 150 city labor unions who have been working with expired contracts.
New York's 110,000 members, represented by the United Federation of Teachers, have been working without a contract since October 2009.
The deal must be approved by the members.

Truth Trips Up Administrator

The AP was caught red handed after she manipulated regents grades to improve her schools statistics.  The teachers she expected to come to her defense not only refused to help, they gave evidence to her prosecutors.  It was finally time, after years of abuse, to even the score and all they had to do was tell the truth.

Initially the AP got a slap on the hand and was moved to a better school, typical administrative punishment.  Unfortunately for her the new school didn't work out and she was once again moved, this time to a lower position in a school slated for closure.  Things didn't work out there either and the AP is back in the classroom, going from school to school and taking crap from the people she once considered colleagues, taking crap from the people she used to dish it out too.

So, if you have an AP who has done this, that AP might be under investigation soon too.  You might even get to tell your story and watch the AP fall to the heap s/he belongs in.  And all you will have to do is tell the truth.

Why Even Bother?

The class was given a major take home assignment over spring break.  They were told it would count as an exam and they should work in groups and get help in the lab if necessary. They were also told not to bother handing it in if they did not do a good job on it as it would count as an extra grade, a grade that should help, not hurt their average.

Student One left out 5 out of 15 problems and wanted to hand it in anyway.  When I told her the most she could score was 75 she picked up the paper and walked away in a huff.

Student Two handed in the paper and then tried to take it back so he could fill in more answers. When I told him if he took it back he couldn't resubmit, he took it back anyway.  He did not want a failing grade.

Student Three didn't bother doing it. He said it was too hard.  He then asked me if he should drop the class.  Although he is passing at the moment, I told him he should drop as the take home assignment was also a review for the final.  If he couldn't do it at home, he had no shot of doing it on final day.

I haven't looked at the papers yet and I am guessing I still have other missing papers.

This week I covered a class for a colleague.  Only a handful of students showed up, good conscientious students.  I told them I was impressed.  They told me the "do nothings" didn't bother showing up since their teacher would not be present. They told me he had a lot of patience.

I just don't understand today's college students.  They have every opportunity to get help and improve grades and do nothing about it. They want to pass but are unwilling to put forth any effort to do so.

Validation

I called the math department to tell them I would cover a pre-calculus class tonight and Tuesday.  The secretary thanked me.  She said they needed someone strong.

Hearing words like this shouldn't matter, but they do.  Everyone needs validation.

1964 World's fair 50th Anniversary

A unique opportunity to visit the NYS Pavillion from the 1964 World's Fair was available today, the 50th anniversary.  I remember going every week, on the Q44 bus from West Farms with my cousin.  World certainly has changed as I would never have allowed my young children to make that trip.

The lines were huge and we decided to skip it when we met friends who got us tickets.  It was definitely fun to see.

Teacher Evaluations For Promotion

The only place I ever read the Post is in a bar.  A beer makes is the only thing that makes it readable.  Last week it had an editorial berating Farina's back to teacher instead of test evaluations for promotion.  Here are a few answers to that editorial.

A Woman Of Valor

Six months ago my closest friend, the friend I call sister, was diagnosed with lung cancer.  Instead of getting into bed and crying she attacked the disease with all her might.  Thinking the chemo would cause her hair to fall out, she found a place that makes wigs for children, cut off her beautiful locks and sent them away.  She spent 6 weeks getting radiation and chemo treatments and her cute short hair grew longer.

Unfortunately the treatment did not work but she did not give up.  She found a new doctor and is bravely going under new treatment and starting to feel good.  Now, as she slowly looses her hair, she smiles as she dons a wig or a cap to keep her head warm.

Today I shaved the remaining hair off her head so she can adjust the wig to make it fit better.  She smiled as we checked the mirror for missed hairs and joked about the money she could now save on shampoo.  She even calls herself Kojak now.

My friend is a wonderful person.  I pray every day for her recovery and pray for the strength of face obstacles with the strength and courage she is facing hers.

Gotcha Mentality Not Good For Students Or Teachers

Teachers can be observed any day of the week.  But, when an AP chooses to observe a teacher the day before a long vacation something is not right.  Oh the AP might claim she wants to make sure teaching is going on all the time but, if the AP ever bothered to leave her office, she would know the teachers that work and those that don't.  Besides, a walk through the hall with a glance through a window should be enough to let a competent administrator know what is going on.

The AP who is doing this has an agenda and that agenda is "gotcha".  Too bad the gotcha hasn't worked very often because the teachers do what they are supposed to do, TEACH until the very last bell of the day rings.

I never understood this gotcha mentality.  Happy teachers are better teachers.  Why would an AP who cares about his charges do this  Why would a Principal who wants to run a good school condone such actions?  Is this because the AP and the Principal care more about making the life of the teacher uncomfortable than they care about the welfare of the students they are in charge of?

Empty Chairs

As I get ready for tonight's seder, I think about all the people the empty seats.

My grandpa who used to check every label to make sure things were kosher.
My grandma who made the world's best potato latkas and was never surprised they were all gone before we sat down to eat.
My father-in-law who didn't like to speak to anyone.
My mother-in-law who love the turkey butt and was always going out to smoke.
My sister-in-law who came in like a tornado and taught my kids how to fling food across the table.
My brother-in-law (he had a stroke and is in rehab) who loved being religious once a year.
My niece who has to work and her husband who doesn't want to come without her.

But mostly I miss my mom and my dad.  The first year without my mom was awful.  She loved the holiday. I still see her sitting at table, glasses on, reading from the Haggadah.  This is the first year without my dad.  I somehow knew last year would be his last.  I still prepared his favorite foods, meatballs, matzhoh balls, latkas from a mix and have the ketchup bottle ready to put on the table.

Two of the empty chairs are being filled by people very special to us, my daughter's special guy and my son's fiance.  But, these two have been around for years.  Still, their presence will make the holiday a little less sad.  Many of our loved ones are gone but our family is growing.

Happy Passover to all who celebrate and an early Happy Easter to others.

Biting The Hand That Feeds Her

He found the cutest, sweetest little dog in the pound.  Although she was dirty and untrained, he took her home.  He cleaned her up.  He set her up in the nicest surroundings anyone canine could ever want.  He spent hours and hours trying to train her to pee on the wee wee pads and to poop outside.  Nothing worked.    She crapped all over the place.  She bit him whenever he went near her.  Still, he never gave up on her.

She is still mean.  And now she bites him whenever he goes near her.

Watching TV and Heard This

I have a little chihuahua.

Small body, big head.

Falls a lot.

(From Friday night's Blue Bloods.)

Why I Still Write

I'm retired and many say I should enjoy my retirement and leave the schools alone.  Well, I am enjoying my retirement but I haven't forgotten those still working and as long as I can sit at this computer I never will forget them.  I want to be a voice of those still in the trenches, those unable, unwilling or afraid to speak for themselves.  If you happen to be an administrator, or a politician, or anyone else who is a pretty lame excuse for a human being you might want to think about what you are actually doing.  You see, my stories cover schools throughout the city, throughout the country and even schools as far away as England and France.  Chihuahuas are in charge everywhere and it is not right.

My friend from the south just wrote to me about evaluations in her school.  It seems almost every senior teacher is being told their lessons need developing while those straight out of college are always told they are highly effective.  The senior teachers are the ones that kept this school running and succeeding for years.  (The school is one of the top schools in the state.)  Now, they are considered incompetent, incapable of writing a lesson.  To me, this is insane.  To make matters worse, the math and English lessons are being graded by an assistant principal licensed in a totally different subject, an assistant principal who failed licensing exams in his subject and in supervision numerous times.

If you are one of those administrators who cringe when you read this blog, good.  Hopefully, enough people will see you for what you really are and do something.  You are hurting teachers and you are hurting children because you are putting the wrong people in the classroom with them.

(The above picture is from a recent trip to Sarasota, Florida.  In case you are wondering, I have been doing quite a bit of traveling, sight seeing in the city, visiting museums and hanging out with friends.  I will always leave time to write about your incompetence.)

Cynicism

I've covered classes and stood behind countless teachers who photocopy text book questions and handouts that parallel the wonderful text used in the college because the kids don't buy the books.  I am not one of those.  I understand the books are very expensive, but kids have options.  The texts are available for use in the lab and the library.  The library even lets them copy up to 300 pages free.  They all have phones that could take pictures of problems.  I refuse to baby them.

These college students come in expecting to be spoon fed like they were in high school.  They want everything done for them and want to do nothing for themselves. What are we teaching them if we don't teach them to be responsible adults?  Maybe I am wrong and these other teachers are right.  Maybe I am just getting too old and sinister to be teaching anymore.

Question

What does the little doggie do locked in the dog house all day?  There is lots of barking and yapping at anyone who dares to knock on the door.

Truth In Fiction

Reading about DeBlasio, Avella and others change of heart concerning charter schools makes me wonder how much of House of Cards, the fictionalized Netflix series about evil, corrupt politicians is actually true.

Something big must be going on that the public is not being made aware of, something sinister.

Evaluations

The best way to evaluate a teacher is to ask their students, the ones who spend multiple hours with them weekly.  They have been with this person on good days and bad days.  They sat through wonderful lessons and lessons that bombed.  They know which teachers get a point across, or do whatever is necessary to get that point across a second or third or tenth time and know which teachers are impossible to learn from.  Students know these things.  Standardized tests don't.  APs, even those who have been at their jobs for more than 5 minutes often miss the point too and those not even trained in the subject they are supervising are clueless.

I just opened an envelope with 27 forms like the one posted above.  This time they happened to be all good, but they aren't always as complimentary.  Still, mix in a few not so nice ones and anyone can see the type of teacher I am.  And yes, there were students in this group who were not passing so the evaluations had nothing to do with ease of grading.

Ah Chihuahau

Does the little Chihuahau have the big dog on a leash? 

Common Core

I will not defend Common Core.  I know little to nothing about what it entails.  What I do know is that kids today are not getting a real education.

Boo hoo to the failing scores.  This country needs a wake up call.  We have been failing our kids for years.  There might be problems with Common Core but kids not passing are not the problem.

I used to sit with my calculus students after the AP exam and help the foreign born ones with English assignments.  All had passed the regents.  All had passed out of ESL classes.  None were able to write coherent paragraphs.  Reading their work was painful.  All had to take ESL classes in college and couldn't understand why since they had done so well in high school.

Common core might be awful, but passing students who know nothing is probably worse.  There has got to be a better way.

You Would Think

You would think a Principal with a strong education background, one with years of experience both teaching and in supervision, would care about keeping the quality of education up.  You would think that a man or woman like this would want people under them who were quality teachers and who recognize quality teachers.  You would think a Principal like this would not empower an assistant who had no clue when it comes to the subject that assistant is in charge of.  You would think the Principal would stop the assistant from pushing experienced, valued teachers out the door while rewarding and commending newbies.

You would think all this if you have not been around NYC schools lately, but those who have been there know that the Principal cares about statistics and nothing else.  Empowering an assistant who knows nothing does not matter as long as that assistant is willing to do anything and everything to keep the statistics up.

Pleasure In Suffering

I got a perverse pleasure watching Billy take tonight's exam.

He found the exam difficult because he never bothered to do the review problems that were assigned.  He didn't even know how to use his calculator although that was gone over many times.  I enjoyed seeing his face turn red as he had no idea how to fix his graphing window and get out of his error message.

Billy is bright.  He wants A's.  Hopefully this test was a wake up call and he will realize he is not in high school anymore.

I Don't Blame The Kids

Billy was obnoxious Tuesday evening.  I was taking questions from the set of review problems I gave   the class the previous week to help them prepare for an upcoming exam.  Several students asked me to do all the problems.  I refused.  So many had not even looked at the study guide.  A few expected to be retaught the entire chapter. One student even had the nerve to tell me he wasn't getting his money worth for the course he paid for.

I don't blame these kids.  The worst offender, the boy who wasn't getting what he paid for, is a recent high school graduate.  He attended a fairly good high school in Queens.  Being bright, he was able to get by there with no work.  Everyone had to pass to keep the schools stats up so he grew up expecting to do nothing to achieve decent grades.  He doesn't understand why this is not happening in college.  He gets angry when I won't assign take home tests and when test answers cannot be found by plugging numbers in a calculator.  He has a brain but it hadn't been used.  Thinking is a skill he did not develop in high school.

I don't blame the students.  A Principal once told me we had to give diplomas to everyone as the diploma was the key to their futures.  If he saw some of my students he would change his tune.  He would see the diploma we give today is worse than no diploma at all.

Crazy: If I Did Not See It, I Would Not Believe It

Charles missed three classes, came back and scored 32 on his first exam.

He then missed 4 more classes.

I just opened an e-mail him with a medical note attached.  Unfortunately, the medical note is for his cousin and makes no mention of him.

I told him to drop the class.