I Got Your Dance of the Lemons Right Here

See Bob.

Bob is a Superintendent.

Bob is not a good Superintendent.

Bob is a bad Superintendent.

See Bob's employees.

These teachers are Bob's employees.

See these teachers vote No Confidence in Bob, because he is a bad superintendent.

These parapros are Bob's employees.

See these parapros vote No Confidence in Bob, because he is a bad superintendent.

See Bob's dog Spot.

See Spot vote No Confidence in Bob, because he is also a bad dog owner.

See the school board.

The school board is very smart. The school board will think!

Think, think, think.

See the school board's heads.

The school board's heads are up their asses. Silly, silly school board!

See the community.

See the community say to the school board, "Look, you don't have to listen to the teachers or the paras, but this crap has gone on long enough. Fire Bob, or face the consequences."

See the school board pull their heads out of their collective ass.

Let's see Bob again.

See Bob's friend, Rob.

Rob is a superintendent, too. Rob is leaving his job for a different job.

See Rob shuffle off to his new job. Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle.

See Rob tell his school board, "Bob's swell!"

See Rob's school board pretend to be bobbleheads. Bobble, bobble, bobble.

See Bob shuffle into Rob's old district just days after Rob announced he was leaving.

Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle.

See Bob, who has never been good at his job, continue making six figures.

See Dick and Jane and Teacher Sally pay the price for years to come.

Read more here, if any.

Would the Public Schools Be Better if Tenure Was More Like the Colleges?

The April 25th edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education has an interesting commentary from the pseudonymous Philip Drew on the process of getting tenure in academe; the byline introduction states plainly, “Here’s why it’s usually a bad idea to promote assistant professors before the six-year mark.”

Six years. Golly Ned, that’s a long time. But is two years, like we have here in Washington for public school teachers, too short?

In reading the accounts of assistant professors on the Chronicle message boards it’s pretty apparent that those pre-tenure years are a special kind of hell. The trick is that when they attain the security that tenure provides, they’ve attained something pretty incredible, and they’ve damn well earned it. Can the same be said for teaching?

Governor Schwartzeneggedegegger was burned hard a few years back when he proposed raising the minimum number of years required to earn tenure in the California public schools from two to three; he might have had a point.

What are your thoughts on tenure for teachers? Is two years enough? Should it even exist?

Read more here, if any.