End of an Era

Today marks the end of an era.  No longer will I have the moniker “The Detention Dude”.  I am stepping down from a position that I have held for the past  six years: after school detention monitor.  It marks the end of a reign of terror on students and drudgery on me.  As expectations of student behavior continue to decline along with enforcement of existing policies and rules, I found it increasingly difficult to maintain a positive attitude.

I am passionate about the importance of the education profession and the role public education plays in our society.  I am also passionate about the role the family plays in a child’s behavior and education.  However, I believe this generation has forgotten this key component.     

I don’t want to beat a proverbial dead horse, but we are giving away our culture of academia and allowing it to be replaced by a culture of chaos.  It is difficult, if not impossible to enforce rules subjectively and have any sense of order.  However that seems to be the case not only with our schools, but with our society as a whole.  I digress…..

When we mistakenly try to be accepting and accommodating to every different culture and sub-culture that enters a public school’s doors, we are effectively lowering the bar.  We now tollerate behaviors and performance levels in public schools that only a generation ago would have been unheard of , let alone tolerated.   No matter what the behavior that student has the right to a free public education….no matter what the academic performance the student advances.

Hopefully I am wrong about this and removing myself from the detention crowd will provide evidence of hope.

Just call me “Plain Ole Dude”, RT.

Egg Shells and Elephants

You go along just fine minding your own business for years, trying  not to  make any waves (well maybe a few) only to wake up one day with a huge elephant s(h)itting in your living room.  As if the elephant and  it’s by-products aren’t enough you find that your rock-solid concrete slab has been replace with  a floor made entirely of egg shells.

Unfortunately, I did what most people do and I reacted on emotion rather than logic.  A word to the wise and dim-witted alike here; never startled an elephant who has taken up residence in your living room, the results can be quite catastrophic and costly.  Had I left it alone it might have moseyed out the same way it came in, but instead I am trying to rebuild a house.

The egg shells are another matter entirely.  You know, if you walk on them long enough they turn into a fairly fine powder.  With any luck at all they will eventually blow away on the winds of time.  On the other hand, they might just clog the floor drains and cause all kinds of nasty things to back up…

All is not lost though, I can sweep up the elephant dung and egg shells from the shambles of  my living room and spread them on my garden plot.  I have read they make fertile mulch.

Looking at the bright side, RT.