We had a mandatory meeting with the principal today regarding the dreadful writing scores. Somehow, it feels wrong to have the blame placed in my lap. Frankly, based on the evidence, I would have been able to predict who of my students would pass, who would fail. I don't want to sound like a whiner, but why is it my fault that students who have been doing poorly for years wind up failing the proficiency test?

The news, though, is bad. Only something like 39 percent of the students who took the test passed it. That number has dropped since 2008. then, over 65 percent passed the writing proficiency. So, why the drop?

So, I am being asked to tell my principal what I am going to do to get the students to pass. Hmmm....hold them captive? take the test for them? force them to do the work? I don't know what the right approach is. I go in every day wishing that the planned lesson I present grabs their attention. Often times it does not, yet I show up every day trying. I am making no progress. What am I going to do? Talk to these kids and say, "If you want to pass the proficiency in writing test, you better do what I teach. Write every day and stop telling me you have nothing else to write. Expand your horizons."

Sure hope that approach works.

Where are the jobs? Just today I was reading about how more teaching jobs will evaporate because stimulus money is not available. I hope my daughter finds work in a school, but what will I do next year?

Living alone has its benefits. I can do what I want when I want. The prospect of being here next year is less difficult to imagine than it was two months ago. I already have a place and a job. I've done the hard work already -- planning a class in any school for the first time is a very time consuming job. Doing it a second year in a row? Not too hard. Still, I'd like to be home -- and employed.

I hate that I'm approaching 50 and I am still worrying about employment. I think there are still about 17 more years for me to work before I can retire with benefits. But where are the jobs?

A nook for baby books? Really?

Nook is a great idea, but there really is no replacing the hands-on feeling of a real, live book. this is especially true for kids. I think they need to experience the book, not see it as though it's a TV. I am just too old fashioned, I guess.

Back to my own book.

What's more important: getting kids to pass school or getting them to learn?

I wonder about the education system. We pass the good, quiet kids along without pushing them to reach new heights while we pass the quiet kids with weak skills along because we feel bad that it would damage their psyche if we held them back. Perhaps it's time to reconsider the one room school house. Students moved forward when they were ready, not when their age indicated they needed to be at a certain level.

I have senior students in high school who cannot read well. I also receive pressure to get them to pass. At the same time, I was at a faculty meeting where the staff was told that they are not holding the bar high enough. Furthermore, the deans in the school are too focused on the legal parts of their job. As a teacher, I am only interested in the academic portion of my job. So, the deans and I don't see eye-to-eye because of the nature of our jobs.

American education needs a change but I don't think it's going to happen.