"No Dentist Left Behind"

John Taylor, retired superintendent of schools in Lancaster, SC, offers this history of the essay which he wrote while leading that district:

"The parody was originally titled 'Absolutely the Best Dentists.' It was written and sent to every newspaper and legislator in South Carolina a number of years ago in an attempt to point out the absurdities inherent in South Carolina's then new accountability act which was focused on 'absolute' performance and threatened retention for every child who couldn't meet very challenging grade level standards. (Not to mention severe penalties for 'poorly performing' schools, teachers ands administrators.) Since then it has traveled widely to the point that I have not been able to keep up with the uses; but I know it has appeared in teacher association publications in at least three Canadian Provinces and in Australia, as well as dozens in the USA. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) seems to have given the story a new life."

Thus: No Dentist Left Behind.

http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/no-dentist.html

Going for Baroque and Loving It

Recently through Pandora.com I discovered these two CDs from the "Baroque" station I created. Wow. Andrew Manze plays the classical baroque style violin for both selections and his performance and interpretation of the music is amazing and stunning. I never heard of Mealli before and from the nonexistent bio on Pandora.com, it's obvious he's a recent find. Biber has a longer, well-documented history, yet his music has a fresh, avant guard sound for that time. Both CDs are breathtaking . . .

Heinrich Ignaz Franze von Biber (composer), Romanesca (performer), Nigel North (performer), Andrew Manze (performer)

Harmonia Mundi, 2002

Giovanni Mealli (composer), Richard Egarr (performer), Andrew Manze (performer)

Harmonia Mundi, 1999

If You Think You Have an Idiot Boss, Think Again . . .

"Spich EEmpadumeeent"

IB= Idiot Boss

M = Me

IB: Well . . . perhaps he is imitating how you are saying Bill

M: [Hunh?] I don’t say Bill like Beeeel. I say Bill.

IB: But maybe he thinks that is what YOU are saying.

M: [processing . . . processing . . . so you’re telling me that >>I<< have a speech impediment and that that this particular nine year old student who I’ve worked with for 2 months now, for one, half hour a day, five days/week, has through some miracle, picked up on how I MAY be mispronouncing a word????]

[And given that the name "Bill" comes up so infrequently in our conversations about books and reading, it must further be some kind of complex ability—a regular marvel to modern science—that he can remember and imitate a word that I "could" have mispronounced a few times to him. Hmmmm . . . this is a very profound conversation. It needs to stop now.]

But he is using the name "Bill" to decode other word with the same rime . . . like pill, will, mill . .

IB: But I heard a story once of a teacher who worked in Alabama who would pronounce the word "it’s" and the kids would pronounce it (to her) like "eats". Therefore the kids heard her pronounce the word like "eats".

M: [No, IB, that would mean they have what we call an "accent" and the kids are pronouncing the word according to how they were taught at home from the area of the country they live in not because they are misinterpreting her pronunciation of "it’s".]

[I shake my head inwardly as if I have just stepped into a very large icky cobweb.]

He is not hearing ME mispronounce the word. He already pronounces the word incorrectly and uses it to decode all words that end in ill as EEL . . . [You, freaking IB]

IB: Oh. So he is saying other words incorrectly.

M:[Did I not just say this??]

. . . . . And

M: [processing . . . No, of course, not. I just have a particular obsession with him mispronouncing the word "Bill". That is why I spent several emails trying to explain to the "misguidance counselor" my concerns that this decoding issue could be affecting his reading.]

Yes, IB, he is mispronouncing other words as well.

IB: Ohhh . . . .

M: [Well, I’m glad my resume has been recently updated. It could be useful in the year to come]