Tuesday, November 6

Finally, yesterday's video blog

It's 18 minutes but I was on a roll. Too bad Google Videos was not. But finally....here 'tis. Some stories about education.



The Eclipse Program is typical of pre-school early intervention programs around the country.

More on Hoover High School football coach Rush Propst here.

John Archibald's terrific column on the Birmingham School system's "dropout factories" is here.

9 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:19 AM

    Random comments. I'm not familiar with Eclipse, but maybe because its that my son just graduated early intervention services and now continues to receive therapy (speech and OT) at home through our school district's CPSE (My son is diagnosed with SID and speech apraxia)
    I could bitch forever about our SD's CPSE, but it would take up too much room in a comment field!

    About the coach. Did I hear that right? He makes 250k a year? ????!!!!! There was a lot of background "hum" in the video today so even with the volume maxed, I had a hard time hearing some things.

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  2. Yes. You did. 250K. Hoover High is considered an Elite coaching job, I guess because players from there go on to big time college teams. Wev.

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  3. Well, it certainly sounds as though the deliberate 'moronification' of your local school system is quite advanced...I can now hold up the muddled socialist fire drill that comprises my own district up approximately one half-inch higher.

    Yay team

    ;>)

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  4. Anonymous11:45 AM

    I don't think it's $250,000 a year. It's more like $100,000 a year, which is still outrageous, but not as staggering as $250,000.

    I completely understand your laughter at the whole ridiculous Hoover situation. I would definitely laugh too if I didn't have kids in 10th and 7th grades here. For years, all the good things about Hoover -- the excellent teachers, beautiful schools, interesting cultural and ethnic diversity -- outweighed the weird football sideshow at the high school. But in the 2004 elections, when Petelos and crew came in, a shift happened, and the balance of power got out of whack. Since then, funding was cut, experienced and dedicated teachers and administrators were forced out, morale plummeted, and the football cult literally ran wild, and it took less than a year for a major scandal to break.

    We're hoping that it is all salvageable. We'll be hanging in here, and I'm hoping that the good teachers do, too. My kids are still being taught by excellent teachers, and they are still benefiting from great programs and lots of cultural diversity. And I laugh too, when I can.

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  5. This is the second time I am trying this so lets see if the second time is a charm.

    There are two things I want to say. First, your little friend probably had fine motor delays as well. It is very unusual for a child to be able to have better control over small muscles than large muscles, but I guess it could happen, Two, and this is a pet peeve of mine, when speaking about children or anyone with a disability please use people first language. Here is the article
    that describes person first language, but basically it emphasizes that they are people first and their disability second so a child with a special need, rather than a special needs child.

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  6. The whole person first language thing always bothers me when I hear people not do it. For me it is like nails on a chalk board, it just irks me. So I try to inform people whenever I can and as nicely as I can.

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  7. Thanks Boxer. As a parent of two children with special needs (one has passed away but still) I appreciate any effort to put them first and their disability second.

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  8. I couldn't watch Two-A-Days. I watched ten minutes of one episode and it reminded me of everything I hated about high school.

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  9. Comrade Kevin should add that he is a graduate of Hoover High School.

    NCLB is a study in meaningless quantitative analysis. You can manipulate statistics and make them say whatever you want. I'm reminded of a debate between Clinton and Dole in the 1996 Campaign where both candidates threw contradictory statistics at each other, each of which supported their own campaign, all of which proved absolutely nothing.

    Welcome to the South, Blue Gal. Football is the opiate of the masses. But that's the role of Sports--it's a distraction for those who live lives of quiet desperation. *shrugs* That's how it goes.

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