Attention Ruben Brosbe!

My wife is beginning to think I am more into Ruben Brosbe instead of her. The problem is, how did she find out?

I think Ruben is loving the attention he has been getting the past week. In fact basking in it. I don't think he has gotten this much attention since his senior year in high school when the freshman gave him wedgies, and like George McFly, they taped a big "kick me" sign taped to his back.

Yes, I am guilty of giving him the attention he so desperately craves, but why not out him? He backs it just so gosh darn easy.

Yesterday, in his blog he lamented about "What If I Get It Wrong?" Yeah, what if?

Ruben blabbered; My students were taking their midline math assessments when I noticed that The Scowler, a struggling special needs student of mine, had answers remarkably similar to his neighbor.

Special needs? In what way? Does the Scowler have an IEP? If not, then why are you calling him "special needs?" This seems rather condescending and insulting to the young man. In fact I wish I had a dime for every time I have read about the deformers calling out teachers for how we talk about children. What would your buddies at E4E and MichelleRheefirst.org say about this?

Now if the Scowler does have an IEP, why is he in your class during an exam and not getting testing accommodations? Shouldn't you be on top of that?

I've been known to lose my temper over copying,

Lose your temper? How so. Do describe. Yelling? Screaming? Perhaps Ruben, you should familiarize yourself with Chancellor's Regulation A-421, verbal abuse. This can be quite serious and the crack team here at SBSB neither condones nor encourages verbal abuse of students. You might just be in need of some type of anger management program.

I knelt down, and in a whisper I asked, "Are those your answers, or are those your neighbor's?" "Oh!" He looked surprised. In his disarmingly sweet way, he replied, "Their his." "Well, I need to see your answers, so I know what you need help with."

So the Scowler has cheated. Nowhere has the crack team read that the NYC DOE Discipline Code was enacted. It seems the Scowler violated,

A20 Engaging in scholastic dishonesty whichincludes but is not limited to:
a. Cheating (e.g., copying from another’s test paper; using material during a test which is not authorized by the person giving the test; collaborating with another student during the test without authorization; knowingly using, buying, selling, stealing, transporting, or soliciting, in whole or part, the contents of an unadministered test; substituting for another student or permitting another student to substitute for one’s self to take a test; bribing another person to obtain a test that is to be administered; or securing copies of the test or answers to the test in advance of the test)

Was the assistant principal notified? Was an incident report filed? Was there any followup? You, Ruben are responsible for the security of the tests whilst in your room. You have an ethical, moral, and professional duty to report this. As far as the crack team has ascertained you have yet to. You now are just as culpable as the Scowler.

But Ruben with what yo have written next, in some Freudian way, you are seeing the wrongs perpetuated on the students by your little friends at E4E and the big shots in the deform movement.

"But, what if I get it wrong?"

It was one of those so simple it's heartbreaking type questions that come so naturally to nine-year-olds. His voice was overwhelming with self-doubt and anxiety. But while my first impulse was sadness, I also admired The Scowler's straightforwardness.

Yes, Ruben. You are getting it. Yet you are afraid to grasp it, afraid to believe it, but you get it. This kid is being tested to death. He is representative of what all children at the age of 9 are being forced to do. This is a 9 year old boy!!! Look at the pressures being exerted on this this boy, this child. And who is doing it? The people you admire. The people you look up to. The people that for some reason you want to emulate. Is this the social justice you are seeking in what is being done to this boy and all children?

Later, I looked over his midline. Half the answers were blank, and my first reaction was utter frustration. But, I reminded myself, this was a true representation of what he understood. It wasn't pretty, but it was honest, and that was encouraging.

See what I wrote above. But I can get cynical as well. Can it just be that you are just not an effective teacher? If he doesn't understand what is on the test then by your rational, your theories, you are ineffective. Is that fair to you. No it is not. You don't know what goes through a child's mind when it comes to these high stakes tests and you have no idea how they will react to testing. It might be different one day from the other. There is nothing, nada you can do about it.

Come on leave the dark side. Come to the side of goodness and niceness. We are a heck of a lot more fun and throw better parties than E4E can ever.