Old Curricula Never Dies...

It just gets put in a closet or storage room or warehouse (depending on the size of your school/district) to be slowly eaten away by whatever varieties of pestilence enjoy feasting on textbooks, consumables, reproducibles, manipulatives, teachers' manuals, and other assorded funnitudes.

Seriously, no profession is as fickle as the education field. Every year, it seems, there's a "New Best Way To Teach _______," and corresponding STUFF that goes along with it.

As part of our federally mandated "Site Improvement Plan," we have purchased all these fancy new programs and book sets and whathaveyou. Our principals ACTUAL STATEMENT (and I have a good memory for stuff like this, so trust me) was, "Well, we can try them out, and if they don't work, they'll just go upstairs."

Now wait a gosh darn minute.

We don't need new programs. Well, maybe in a few areas, but really, most "programs" are just general good teaching practice regurgitated in a new way. We need another three classrooms added onto our building and the certfied staff to fill them. What we need are students who come to school with full bellies and a good night sleep. Zoo Phonics (or whatever program) doesn't do jack squat unless the rest of the "package" is there (school, family, etc...).

/bitch mode