Scheiss Weekly

category archive listing Category Archives: Education

Bring Back the All-School Sing

Mamacita says:  Back in the day (when dinosaurs roamed the earth) every American student knew hundreds of songs, all the same songs, for the most part. Every Wednesday morning, kids all over the town would gather in their school’s auditorium, or cafeteria, and sing. In my little grade school, it was called the All-School Sing. [...]

Show and Tell

Mamacita says:  Many years ago, I was teaching Public Speaking in a small farmland high school in southern Indiana. My students’ assignment, one week, was to give an informal “how-to” presentation, a brief demonstration of something they personally knew how to do. That week, we all learned how to crochet a chain stitch, how to [...]

The Time Is Always Right To Do What Is Right

Mamacita says: Why is this day a holiday in most communities? (This community doesn’t consider it a holiday, but that’s typical for this county.) (None of our schools closed. None of our schools has EVER closed for MLK Day.)(They don’t close for Veteran’s Day, either.) However, intelligent, sensitive, educated people understand that today deserves respect [...]

Plutarch Nailed It.

Mamacita says:  Guess what. Not every student is ‘more alert’ in the mornings. Believe it or not, many students are nearly comatose early in the morning and their brains spring into action later in the day. This is not always a result of staying up late playing video games, etc. Some people are just wired [...]

I See Stupid People

  Mamacita says:  It worries me that so many of our students don’t have enough schema to make simple connections – at least, what were once considered simple connections. You know.  Those people, places, events, and stories that EVERYBODY knows? Or, rather, these days, knew. . . . The universe is incomprehensible only to those [...]

Testicles. Testicles and Thighs. And Angels.

Mamacita says:  I am a ‘word’ person. A language person. In my classes, I jump on almost any excuse to highlight a particular word and force my students to take it back to its point of origin. I’ve done this for a zillion years, and I’m still doing this. It is , of course, the [...]

Mind Your Own Business

Mamacita says:  I have never been able to understand why some people consider other people’s business to be their business, too.  I mean, shouldn’t they at least wait to be asked before chiming in with an opinion, piece of advice, or any kind of diatribe? Some people prefer paper; others prefer plastic.  Is it any [...]

I Worry About the Future

Mamacita says:  I worry about the future. I worry about the future for different reasons than most people’s reasons.  I worry about the future because present generations aren’t learning about the past. Seriously.  Our students don’t seem to have anything to make connections to, these days.  They believe ridiculous things on Facebook updates.  They don’t [...]

Not To Mince Words: Some Parents Are Scum

Mamacita says:  I used to look at my young students every day and wonder what they went home to every night. Sometimes I did know, and my heart broke for them daily. With others, I had no idea. When a child comes to school in rags, shoes held together with tape and rubber bands, it’s [...]

Wherein I Mourn the Death of Common Sense, and Admit to my Fogeyness

Mamacita says:  I hate to think I’m turning into a fogey, or, even worse,  am already there, but it seems to me that people are getting more and more ignorant by the minute.  It doesn’t seem as though they’re doing it accidentally, or against their will, either; it seems as if they’re happy being ignorant  [...]