I’ve assigned homework once this semester. That was Geometry. In Algebra, I’m not sure I’ve assigned any. I rarely talk about this particular paragraph of my personal Manifesto du Education, simply because, unlike assessment reform, for example, this has always felt a bit disgraceful.

So here it is, and don’t expect this one to surface Whack-A-Mole-style like this again for a long time:

• The kids who need math homework least (A and B students) will do it.
• The kids who need it most (D and F students), won’t, or else they’ll do it halfassedly, gaining as much credit with the least effort possible.
• This goes double for high-poverty students, where I performed a Master’s thesis study that concluded as much.

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The carnival is over at la casa de Science Goddess. ¶ Dig the Tips for New Teachers by Right Wing Prof. I find nothing quite as altruistic as a veteran teacher helping a noob through those wobbly early years. It’s a strong list, though I find the frequent cynicism towards teacher education dispiriting. (So, seriously, everyone’s program pushed sappy social justice and hand-holding cultural sensitivity in lieu of methodology? Really? Without my own program, I wouldn’t be an eighth the teacher I am now. Let’s talk about this sometime.) ¶ Mr. Chips brings a triple feature of Educator’s Educators Gone Wild and then offers “the job gets to some people” as a rationale for all the educator-related debauchery in his area. Seems too cheap, esp. when so many teachers manage the load without (e.g.) dealing crystal meth but, to be fair, this is only my third year. Give me a couple more of this and I’ll be staring back at you from a post office wall.  ¶ [Update: Liz busted my chops for excessive apostrophizing.]

I watched Freedom Writers two weeks ago and have tried, since then, to graft several different structures to a post which has pitilessly rejected each of them.

There was the drinking game. I had the first rule:

Whenever anyone affirms the heroism, nobility, passion, or self-abnegation of the teacher, take a drink.

I quit that, however, when it became clear I’d be legally blitzed by the first reel change.

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I finally read Eight for 2008 and it’s like someone ran the collective blogospheric wisdom through the Nonpartisanship Machine. Seriously, if you’ve ranted or enthused about it sometime in the last year, it’s probably in there. ¶ (Oh, and I think I want to be a SuperPrincipal. Half killing machine, half principal, sent from the third moon of Mars to help teachers teach and students learn. Don’t cut the lunch line though, ’cause he’s still got that killing machine thing going for him.)