The Salt-Box

George Vecsey’s column this Sunday is about Steve Dalkowski, the fireballing pitcher who struck Maris out on three pitches, convinced Ted Williams to bow out of trying to hit him, and served, in part, as the inspiration for Nuke LaLoosh.

Turns out he’s living in New Britain:

After decades of alcohol abuse, Dalkowski lives in Walnut Hill Care Center in New Britain, Conn., a block from the park where he was a high school star and a bonus baby in the mid-1950s.

His story’s a sad one–he hurt his arm in an era before the surgical reconstruction of pitchers’ arms was commonplace–but it’s a treat to know that he’s living here!

So, this weekend we received a document with two forms: the teacher of the year nomination and a parent survey, largely about satisfaction with the school.  We’re pretty happy with the school, and very happy with the teacher, so no worries there.  (Readers with long memories will recall that I think the district . . . makes poor decisions, but we like our kid’s school.)

The parent survey is labeled “Holmes Brand Survey,” and, after a demographic question about grade-level, the first two questions are . . . wait for it . . . these:

Holmes School focuses on

1. Leadership
2. Higher Order Thinking Skills
3. Science and technology
4. Global Community

Holmes School’s (motto/slogan/tagline) is:

1. Raising Readers!
2. A formula for success!
3. Launching Leaders!
4. Scholars at Work!

(The answers, for the curious, are “Science and technology” and “A formula for success,” respectively.  And, yes, the fact that the correct answers have lower-case words is reproduced faithfully from the handout, as if it’s a tell.)

After these critical questions come more usual questions about whether the child’s being challenged, etc.

I hear the Connecticut State University system is redesigning and standardizing our student evaluations–I think we should look to the public schools!  Start all student evaluations (sorry, student opinion surveys [!]) by asking them to correctly identify the motto of the system and of their particular university.*  Because that’s what matters in education: maintaining your brand.

</sarcasm>

*Every single day it amuses me a little that my school’s slogan/motto/tagline (”Start with a dream. Finish with a future.”) is basically indistinguishable from my father’s community college’s (”From here, go anywhere.”).  I’m *very* easily amused.

I know typo-blogging is a bit unfair, but this one’s pretty funny.  From today’s New Britain Herald:

The story, of course, is deeply unfunny.  While I’m prepared in theory to agree that throwing money at problems isn’t always a good solution, it does strike me as unreasonable to take a state “Educational Cost Sharing” grant and apply it to . . . tax relief, at a time when the city’s high school risks losing accreditation.

The thing that nearly prevented us from moving to New Britain wasn’t the tax burden, though I recognize it’s relatively high; rather, it was the reputation of the schools, particularly the high school.

Yesterday’s post at Blog of a Bookslut was later than usual, but did make it up.

I’m excited about a mini-interview with Angus McLaren (author of Impotence: A Cultural History) that I’ll be posting Monday to Re:Print.

Also, yesterday I stopped by the department to retrieve something for A. Since my own office is across campus from my department, it was the first time I’d been by since getting the iPhone. One of the department’s administrative assistants had just gotten a digital camera, and she snapped this picture (t-shirt by 30boxes, the excellent calendar web app):

Then, my chair came bursting out of his office to compare the iPhone with his disposable phone:

Good times. Back to prepping the living room for painting . . .

If your kid is 4, is it too early to worry about the fact that the local high school flunked it’s NEASC accreditation visit?  The only real reporting on this story has come from NBBlogs.  Today Patrick Thibodeau had the link to the NEASC report, but Elisa Hutcoe Krochmalnyckyj had the story first, plus a follow-up.

Patrick’s post today looks at the way the budget processes of the city and the board of education impede the ready flow of resources.  Reading the report, I was naturally more drawn to curricular questions (no lab science in 9th & 10th grade!) and opportunities for students.  In particular, one bit jumped out:

New Britain High School provides many opportunities for students to extend learning
beyond the normal course offerings and the school campus.  Students have the
opportunity to participate in partnership programs with the University of Hartford, St.
Joseph College, and Tunxis Community College.  Summer programs such as the Choate
Rosemary Hall Connecticut Scholars Program and the Center for Creative Youth at
Wesleyan University are also available.

If only there were a university in New Britain . . . I am somewhat surprised not to see CCSU in the forefront of this list.  I know faculty who have partnered with teachers in Hartford, and I know that there are a lot of CCSU students who work with New Britain rec sports.  Plus, there are a pretty fair number of us who live in the city, and many of us have kids.

Then again, some times education people crack me up:

Several teachers report using personal funds to
purchase equipment such as DVD players, TVs, printers, and projectors in order to
deliver the curriculum as written and to allow students to participate as active learners.

I’ve heard that about TVs and DVD players–they definitely “allow students to participate as active learners.”