Consultants get a lot of work in education, but I’m never quite sure what their qualifications are. Mostly, they seem to be having the title of consultant. This is like bringing in a florist to consult a surgeon before a heart transplant. Somehow, it just doesn’t make sense.
I’ve heard on occasion people push using random technologies more or less in class. Sometimes it’s texting, or PowerPoint, or Internet, or…whatever. Not that there can’t be any use for texting in a class, but it probably shouldn’t be forced.
This amused me that within days two people called press conferences to announce that they wouldn’t be doing something. How bizarre is that? That’s politics, and honestly is probably a bad sign when the populace is begging people to enter the race and they will not.
I ate so much garbage in college. Pixy Stix pizza would have been pretty good for my diet at the time. Thank goodness for high metabolism in college, and I suppose multivitamins. Otherwise I’d be dead.
Many students complain about having to take introductory classes because they “know it already.” These are usually the students who make a C or D in class. Perhaps because they do know it all and are simply bored. More likely they don’t know as much as they think.
You can’t please everyone, but meetings at universities often come down to this. I suppose this isn’t much of an issue if your school attracts a particular type of student, and only that type of student. Larger state schools do a constant dance trying not to step on toes. It’s like a ballet, but fun to watch.
There’s a great deal of social pressure to follow any crowd. If everyone else stands to cheer, then you feel the pressure to do the same. This is why every performance, literally any performance, now ends in a standing ovation. All it takes is one person rising and everyone around them feels uncomfortable until they join in.
I’m always amused at a meeting how many ideas sound suspiciously like plot lines from the past week in television. The people who write TV tend to be quite clever, so this isn’t always a bad thing. However, there are some shows you shouldn’t look to for inspiration. Law & Order and Breaking Bad are two such examples.
If there’s one line of logic that never makes sense to me in education reform, it’s the idea from some people that the best way to improve schools is to reduce their funding. I get the idea of doing more with less, but that only works up to a point. At some point a chemistry class needs Bunsen burners, like it or not.
I understand that many, many managers like to play power games, but it seems like some get dangerously close to someone getting hurt. A general rule might be to treat your employees in a meeting at least as well as Jigsaw would treat captives in the Saw films.
Facebook
Funny or Die
Google Plus
Twitter
Viddler
Vimeo
YouTube