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	<title>Comments on: Half Empty or Half Full?</title>
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	<link>http://www.gothamgazette.com/blogs/wonkster/2006/09/25/half-empty-or-half-full/</link>
	<description>A blog about the views and spews of editorialists, bloggers and other unsavory opinionated New Yorkers.</description>
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		<title>By: richard</title>
		<link>http://www.gothamgazette.com/blogs/wonkster/2006/09/25/half-empty-or-half-full/comment-page-1/#comment-12226</link>
		<dc:creator>richard</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 04 Oct 2006 12:48:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.gothamgazette.com/blogs/wonkster/2006/09/25/half-empty-or-half-full/#comment-12226</guid>
		<description>here it is</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>here it is</p>
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		<title>By: Murieo Mandell</title>
		<link>http://www.gothamgazette.com/blogs/wonkster/2006/09/25/half-empty-or-half-full/comment-page-1/#comment-11253</link>
		<dc:creator>Murieo Mandell</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 26 Sep 2006 14:42:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.gothamgazette.com/blogs/wonkster/2006/09/25/half-empty-or-half-full/#comment-11253</guid>
		<description>Just a slight correction to Allen Salzberg&#039;s date about the beginnings of the junior high system.   I was graduated from Boody Junior High School SP system in 1935.  I have only fond memories of both clever students and gifted teachers.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Just a slight correction to Allen Salzberg&#8217;s date about the beginnings of the junior high system.   I was graduated from Boody Junior High School SP system in 1935.  I have only fond memories of both clever students and gifted teachers.</p>
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		<title>By: Allen Salzberg</title>
		<link>http://www.gothamgazette.com/blogs/wonkster/2006/09/25/half-empty-or-half-full/comment-page-1/#comment-11251</link>
		<dc:creator>Allen Salzberg</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 26 Sep 2006 14:05:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.gothamgazette.com/blogs/wonkster/2006/09/25/half-empty-or-half-full/#comment-11251</guid>
		<description>Its been almost 40 years since Jr. H.S. That is what it was called then. And I hear that the SP program has been discontinued (you spend two years instead of three, skip 8h grade basically.) I remember being very happy at the idea of spending less time in J.H.S. I dn&#039;t remember anything I was taught in 7th grade. And it felt like the teachers didn&#039;t know either. And then there was the social pressure that arised from puberty. The confusion of what was happening to your body. Fear maybe, so you form clicks for support. (Anthropologists see this in social primates, at pre-adoloscent ages they form groups.)
So it becomes the hell with grades are you in the in crowd or out. Someone the pretty girls admired or a nerd. Not a very good environment to want to go to everyday. Also there was the universal definition of being what qualifies you to be in the in crowd. Guys and girls who didn&#039;t excel in class no matter how well they looked were in. Looks social status counted, being the first in school with the lastest fad counted as much. Nerd, someone who did well in class were the rejects. The kids the in-crowd loved to sit next to class to cheat off, help -blink-blink smile, tease, get help with papers. I swear one of the girls who sat next to me in 9th grade science received the honor as being a Playboy Center fold as soon as she was of legal age. And boy did she cheat off me in Science class.
My friends with kids in what is now middle school says it hasn&#039;t changed. So perhaps the middle school teachers should have take an extra course in puberty, how to take advantage of it, control it, before they start to teach middle school. It&#039;s not just a phase you go through. Ask almost anyone and they remember those years. It helped form their attitude in latter years. Maybe why those scores go down. Just a thought.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Its been almost 40 years since Jr. H.S. That is what it was called then. And I hear that the SP program has been discontinued (you spend two years instead of three, skip 8h grade basically.) I remember being very happy at the idea of spending less time in J.H.S. I dn&#8217;t remember anything I was taught in 7th grade. And it felt like the teachers didn&#8217;t know either. And then there was the social pressure that arised from puberty. The confusion of what was happening to your body. Fear maybe, so you form clicks for support. (Anthropologists see this in social primates, at pre-adoloscent ages they form groups.)<br />
So it becomes the hell with grades are you in the in crowd or out. Someone the pretty girls admired or a nerd. Not a very good environment to want to go to everyday. Also there was the universal definition of being what qualifies you to be in the in crowd. Guys and girls who didn&#8217;t excel in class no matter how well they looked were in. Looks social status counted, being the first in school with the lastest fad counted as much. Nerd, someone who did well in class were the rejects. The kids the in-crowd loved to sit next to class to cheat off, help -blink-blink smile, tease, get help with papers. I swear one of the girls who sat next to me in 9th grade science received the honor as being a Playboy Center fold as soon as she was of legal age. And boy did she cheat off me in Science class.<br />
My friends with kids in what is now middle school says it hasn&#8217;t changed. So perhaps the middle school teachers should have take an extra course in puberty, how to take advantage of it, control it, before they start to teach middle school. It&#8217;s not just a phase you go through. Ask almost anyone and they remember those years. It helped form their attitude in latter years. Maybe why those scores go down. Just a thought.</p>
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		<title>By: Larry Littlefield</title>
		<link>http://www.gothamgazette.com/blogs/wonkster/2006/09/25/half-empty-or-half-full/comment-page-1/#comment-11206</link>
		<dc:creator>Larry Littlefield</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 25 Sep 2006 19:23:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.gothamgazette.com/blogs/wonkster/2006/09/25/half-empty-or-half-full/#comment-11206</guid>
		<description>I&#039;ll bet that middle schools get the worst teachers.

Why?  Because it&#039;s the toughest job.  It requires more subject matter knowledge than elementary school, and more class control ability than high school.  And in some ways, the job is less fulfilling than either.  But it is essential.

In a fair world, middle school teachers would be paid more.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;ll bet that middle schools get the worst teachers.</p>
<p>Why?  Because it&#8217;s the toughest job.  It requires more subject matter knowledge than elementary school, and more class control ability than high school.  And in some ways, the job is less fulfilling than either.  But it is essential.</p>
<p>In a fair world, middle school teachers would be paid more.</p>
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