Re: Whitley vs City of Lawrence

[Aaron Read <aread@speakeasy.net>]

At 02:06 AM 8/5/2003, A. Joseph Ross wrote:
>On 4 Aug 2003 at 17:48, Dan Billings wrote:
>
> > I didn't hear it but I read the story.  It is bizarre in a state that now
> > requires teachers to pass tests to continue to teach and students to pass
> > tests to graduate.  What a great talk show topic: hypocrisy, abuse of
> > power,
>
>That isn't quite the entire story.  The superintendent actually is quite 
>literate -- in Spanish.
>He took the test in English and apparently didn't prepare for it well.
>
>I don't necessarily expect the Superintendent to be able to pass 
>second-year Algebra either.
>What I do hope he can do is run the school system.  What I haven't heard 
>is how well he
>does that.

Many of his defenders are saying he's doing a good job as superintendent, 
but you'd expect that after the controversy starts.

While I'm inclined to agree that as long as he's doing a good job as super 
- who cares if he passes the tests?   However, to play devil's advocate via 
analogy, I also think that you cannot truly be a good DJ unless you have a 
solid understanding of your equipment and how to make it best 
perform.   For example, you can't sound good on a Neumann U87a microphone 
if you put your mouth right up against the mic like you would with an RE20.

So I know that analogies are dangerous, but I can see the argument that you 
can't be an effective manager unless you have at least a good understanding 
of what your subordinates have to know, too.   Plus there is a certain 
hypocrisy about suspending teachers who couldn't pass the same test you 
couldn't pass (and are expected to pass) as well.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aaron "Bishop" Read             aread@speakeasy.net
FriedBagels Consulting          AOL-IM: readaaron
http://www.friedbagels.com      Boston, MA