oh, yeah

I never did tell you the answers from my iPod Suffle Thing. I’m sure you’ve all just been on the edges of your seats waiting for me to get around to revealing the songs!

1) Merry Christmas From The Family – Robert Earl Keene. Probably the most unlikely person on my iPod since I really hate country music. For some reason he appeals to me. I think it’s because his voice is so awful that it’s hilarious, especially in this, my favorite of all Christmas songs. The whole song is hysterical. Intentionally hysterical. In fact, I heard him interviewed once and he said the first time he heard a recording of himself singing, he thought, "oh my god – I can’t sing at all! Oh no!!"

2) Inflatable – Bush. From Golden State.

3) Cold Cold Ground – my hero Tom Waits. From Frank’s Wild Years.

4a) New Age, done by Tori Amos on Strange Little Girls, but originally done by Lou Reed. Like you could figure out which version I was actually listening to.

4b) You and Whose Army? – my other heroes, Radiohead. From Amnesiac.

5) The one everyone knew! Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds. But honestly, could you not tell that I was listening to Elton John’s version, not the Beatles version??? I mean, jeeze.  At least it WASN’T William Shatner’s version!

6) It’s the End of the World and We Know It (And I Feel Fine) – REM

7) Book of Saturdays – my favorite King Crimson song ever! From Lark’s Tongues and Aspic.

8) Golden Years – David Bowie, who I’ve been on a kind of peculiar listening spree of lately.

9) Downtown Train – Tom Waits again, oddly enough. Imagine there being about 50,000 songs by Tom Waits on my iPod!

10) High and Dry – Radiohead AGAIN. See #9, replacing Tom Waits with Radiohead. This one’s from The Bends.

Well, that was fun!

I’ve been thinking today about a very interesting editorial that was in the Charlotte paper a few days ago. (I’ve tried posting a link but you apparently have to sign up for the Observer to read the editorial, which was written by the oddly named but very talented Fannie Flono). It was about how teachers are treated in Finland. Very very well, as it turns out. Teachers in Finland are highly respected. Teachers in Finland make more money than doctors and lawyers, and only ten percent of teacher education applicants are accepted at Finnish universities. So, they end up with teachers who are, like, smart. (I’m sure we all know perfectly well where I’m going with this). And they end up with students who do very very well in school, too.  Having smart teachers and all.

Oh, to have a selective teacher education program! To get applications for student teaching from people who actually know how to make their subjects and verbs agree! To NOT get phonecalls from two different people in one day who tell me they have a degree and they’d like to come back and get certified to teach, and when I tell them that we will have to review their transcripts and I’ll be glad to send them an application to have that done and more information on the program, to NOT have them BOTH say to me, "I already have that application and information packet." So that I am not seriously tempted to reply, "Well, what the fuck are you calling me for, idiot? Do what it tells you to do: FILL IT OUT AND SEND IT BACK!!!"

I would not have someone else ask what to put for "Intended Licensure Area" and when I reply, "Put the area you’d like to get certified in," they would not say, "How do I know?" And when I say, "Ummmm…. that’s what you plan to teach," they would NOT say, "Well, how do I know that?"

I would also not have a student in my office near tears, needing advice, who tells me a very long tale about how she was a student teacher and her cooperating teacher didn’t want to pass her but her supervisor wouldn’t let them fail her  (I had a very hard time understanding that she meant LAST semester, because she was telling me this sad tale in present tense so I thought she meant THIS semester and was having quite a problem figuring out how her teacher and supervisor were already fighting about whether she’d pass or not when they’ve only been in the schools a few weeks, but that’s neither here nor there.)  And the point of her long and drawn out story would certainly not be that she keeps getting turned down for jobs because her cooperating teacher keeps giving her bad references. I mean, why on earth would you ever dream you’d get a bad reference from someone who didn’t think you should pass student teaching??? And what should you dooooooooo???? Well, for starters, stop using her as a reference.

I think it’s the severe lack of common sense that gets to me the most.

Oh, well. It’s a gorgeous day, it’s sunny and hot and cloudless, and it’s time for me to go home.