pedablogical

I swear there are monkeys involved in this roofing project. You’d think that propping a ladder up against a house required a degree in astrophysics for the noise and nonsense going on outside my window. Hell, I looked out the window. They saw me, of course; but the bigger issue is that they dropped the ladder. How the hell do guys who do this for a living drop a ladder when they try to prop it up against a house? Now I could certainly drop a ladder, because I don’t know what I’m doing; but this is a roofing company with their name on a sign out in my front yard…

While the roofing today was clearly, um, a different event, the strangest event of the day may have been the prom and bridesmaid dresses strewn all over the office. Several folks, including Lisa, are going to do 80s prom for the Halloween Party Friday. I’ve never seen so many crinolines, and there was puffy fabric everywhere. There’s still fabric everywhere. It looks like everyone was playing dress up, which, let’s face it, they were.

I’m bah humbug and not participating. Where would we find a formal gown to fit me? Especially a formal gown from the 80s. I never went to any dance, so I don’t have these dresses in the back of my closet. Everyone seems to assume that everyone else goes to the prom and has ugly bridesmaid’s dresses around. That has never been my life. The only dances I ever went to, I went alone. I think I remember 2. Once in junior high, when I really had no idea what I was supposed to be there for. Once in high school, when I collected money and tickets at the door and did various set-up things as a student government member, because I was one of the losers who wasn’t already occupied with a real life. I have such a stupid life when you really look at the details.

The number one link in last week’s Inbox was English “Must Reflect Technology”—an article that I found in the BBC and passed along to the newsletter’s News section editors. I forgot to mention it here though. Silly me.

The article examines a research report by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, which argues that “English in schools must adapt to reflect the use of text messaging and communication via new technologies.” I’d say American schools might want to pay attention too.

Tags: English language arts

I know that a school can place limits on what students can write. I have personally asked that students avoid some topics at various points in my career (e.g., please don’t write about abortion). I learned eventually that there were better, and easier, ways to avoid those sorts of papers, of course.

That kind of limiting seems completely different from the new censorship move at Pope John XIII Regional High School. As “Principal curbs kids’ Internet activity” from Asbury Park Press Online explains, students are being forbidden to blog in school OR AT HOME:

Effective immediately, and over student complaints, the teens were told to dismantle their Myspace.com accounts or similar sites with personal profiles and blogs. Defy the order and face suspension, students were told.

That’s right. Students’ independent, out-of-school activity is being limited by the school they attend. My hope? My making the act of writing illegal the school will turn them all into prolific bloggers. Viva la résistance!

Roofing people are crawling all over. There is a lot of heavy dropping of things up on the roof. The whole house rumbles. My own mini-earthquake. I’m expecting the windows to all be broken by the end of the day. I think this is all just the truck that’s putting all the shingles up there, but I have this fear of people falling through my roof. I’d call it an irrational fear, but well, they’ve already dropped things through the ceiling.