measi's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm traveling now, looking at history back... Two points for anyone who knows the movie... :) A dozen or so of us from Prentice Hall went to one of the local middle schools today. It's one of our requirements to go and visit schools and get feedback from teachers about the books they use--maybe there's something they're desperately looking for that just isn't in books and we can suggest it at the planning meetings for upcoming titles. It also gives us a good idea of what the kids are really doing in schools these days (and it's certainly different than what I remember in school.) For me personally, I'm there along for the ride more than anything. Since I'm the administrative assistant for the department, it's more of a chance to get out of the office than anything else. But visiting a junior high (*cough* I mean middle school... whatever...) is a strange thing when you're removed from it by at least a decade. First off, I felt wonderfully tall in my 5'4" height. And odd at the same time, because I distinctly remember being nearly my current height by age 13. These kids all looked really short for some reason. Second-- I was immediately jealous that these kids got to wear shorts to school. Yes, my childhood gripes about dress codes still remain. I hated that "end of your fingertips when your arms are flat at your sides" rule about all skirts in elementary and jr. high--particularly since I was in junior high when miniskirts were in style again in the mid to late 80's. Third-- *sniff* They get to use calculators in algebra class? What the heck is that?!? They're graphic linear equations on calculators. Did I get to do this? Noooooooo. Grrrrrr... Fourth-- the fact that Star Wars is now being used in Literary classes for essay discussions both thrills and disturbs me. The fact that the majority of these kids would attest to Star Wars being a "really old movie with bad effects" (and I heard that whispered in the class) disturbed me more. It's a classic, dammit! I'll sit those kids down and have them have to watch those 15-minute reel-to-reel nature movies that we had to watch... the ones that turned pink half-way through (with fuzzy sound) because of the degrading of the film. They get to watch and write about Star Wars. I'm up for that! It was fascinating, though-- I'd forgotten the structured dynamic of a school. Plus, this school was so much different than the one that I had attended, both in structure and in teaching style. And I feel so old after going through the school. Eeesh. --mel. 3:26 p.m. - 6 June 2001 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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