Tora! Tora! Tora!

There's a lot of fuss in Alberta about this no-zero policy that some schools and/or school boards are instituting.  Basically, it's where teachers aren't allowed to give students a zero on a test or report. Instead, they have to mark it "incomplete".  There's a teacher who's being fired and may lose his teaching license for disobeying this rule, and another who's standing beside him in protest and may be fired.


Okay, so here's the thing...

The pro-zero people are adamant about how the world doesn't accept some layabout handing in his stuff after the buzzer, so why should schools reinforce this behaviour? Well, I guess there's two things about that:


1) Yes, it does. And it does it a lot.

Oh wait, you've never misgauged the time it takes to compile a report, write a computer program, paint a room, build an oil tank, convert a document, drive to work, figure out a problem, convince a group, etc. Did you get a zero? Perhaps, and being good and on time is obviously the best and always will be, but it's not always the end of the world if you're not. Have you ever shown up late for work, but then ended up putting in a much more productive day?

Would you, as a teacher, like to know that you finally got through to a student, even if it was outside the artificial boundary set by you or the curriculum? You might be the first person with enough patience to have waited and listened. You might be that teacher who's remembered for life. Remind me again why you got into teaching.

Perhaps you prefer the neatness of completely cutting off an effort based upon time. In the same way, multiple choice tests would be better...all those neat circles and overlays giving a quick, cold percentage...mmmmmm. Always the best way.


2) Since when are elementary, junior-high, and senior-high schools the last bastion of cruel-worldliness?

They weren't when you were there, but now they should be? Try not to be the old white male Republican for a second. Do you know anyone who is a slow starter, who chokes on tests? Did you have schoolwork at home not only unsupported, but actually as an object of derision? Did you have a shitty home life without supportive parents...or even a downright terrifying and dangerous home life such that doing schoolwork isn't even on your list? Were you able to safely sleep at night?

Thankfully I didn't have these issues thrust upon me at such an important time of my life, but I know people who did. I didn't used to understand that - that I wasn't always competing against someone with a similar support system - but to my small, slow-learning brain's credit, I now kind of get it.


Here's an excerpt from the Alberta Assessment Consortium on this:

One of the principles specifically relates to the need to separate achievement from effort.


4. Combining disparate kinds of results into a single summary should be done cautiously. To the extent possible, achievement, effort, participation, and other behaviors should be graded separately.
No-Zero Policy Alberta



So, to those brave teachers bucking an unjust system:

From my gut I understand your position and your frustration, but you've phrased the question wrongly, so you're getting the wrong answer. Now do your homework, go back to work, open your mind, and sit on the board that makes policy instead of being a rebel without a cause.

Thank you,
Paul

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What is it about this time of year and coincidences?

Cyclist Lance Armstrong, Astronaut Neil Armstrong

- In late August, Lance decided to quit fighting allegation of drug doping
- In late August, Neil lost his fight with heart disease

- Neil was the first man on the Moon
- Neil was just buried under a Blue Moon

- Lance trained for his comeback in North Carolina, home of Salem...home to witches
- Lance claims that he's the victim of a doping witchhunt

- When piloting the Lunar Lander, Neil had to keep the gyroscopic guidance system steady by focussing on 'the ball'
- Lance had testicular cancer and now only has one...

ZZ's - Buzz Aldrin was the second man on the Moon
ZZ's - Neil's family requested that, in Neil's memory, that they Wink at the Moon
ZZ's - Ozzie Osbourne sings Bark at the Moon

Tims, Hockey Player Bill Barilko

- Toronto Maple Leafs won 4 Stanley Cups in 5 years
- On Aug 26, Barilko died in a plane crash going on a fishing trip
- no cups for 11 years, and they won the Cup the year they found his body
- listen to The Tragically Hip's 50 Mission Cap for details

Creepy Double-H part:
 - Bill Barilko's pilot-friend was Henry Hudson
- A person named Henry Hudson* was mutineed against and set adrift just 200 miles north of Barilko's crash site

Creepy Double-Tims Double-Double part:
- Barilko crashed between Timmons, ON and Cochrane, ON
- Barilko was born in Timmons
- Timmons has a Tim Hortons coffee/doughnut shop
- Tim Hortons restaurant is named after Tim Horton, the hockey player, who also played for the Leafs
- Horton played in the NHL starting the year after Barilko disappeared
- Horton also died in a crash (car)

* named after Henry Hudson: Hudson Bay, Hudson River, Hudson Strait, Hudson County NJ, the Henry Hudson Bridge, and the town of Hudson, NY

Hockey Player Pelle Lindbergh, Aviator Charles Lindbergh

- Pelle died Aug 26 in an auto accident near an elementary school in New Jersey
- Charles's infant son was kidnapped in New Jersey

- Charles helped invent the precursor to the heart pump
- Pelle's heart was harvested after his accident

- before the war, Charles got to pilot a high-performance Bf 109 German fighter aircraft
- Pelle died in a high-performance Porsche 930 German sports car

- Charles believed in eugenics, which eliminates weaker people from the human race
- Pelle played on Philadelphia, who later eliminated Evgeni Malkin and the Penguins from the playoff race

- Charles's plane was called The Spirit of St Louis
- Pelle played with a lot of spirit in St Louis

- Charles was the first person to fly solo across the waters of the Atlantic; which is now common
- Pelle was the first goalie to take a water bottle to his net; which is now common