<p>SS, I am not saying the yearbook issue is off topic. I am saying that the original post about a quote regarding chumminess with a teacher isn’t really the topic of this thread. Rather it became THIS teacher and the original issue with the yearbook. The quote and the chumminess is just one of many complaints B seemed to have with this teacher. We already had a thread on the yearbook saga. This just seems to be another thread on the same topic, if you ask me. I think the first post was part of a larger context of issues that B has with this teacher (the yearbook one). This thread really is not about the issue presented in the first post or the quote in the first post. It is about the yearbook issue and this teacher, and everything related to her.</p>
<p>^^soozie~</p>
<p>In my own defense, a rehash of the yearbook issue was <em>not</em> the reason I started this thread. I think that inappropriate “chumminess” between teachers and students can be VERY problematic. I would have this issue with ANY teacher who went this route. Opie asked a question about the yearbook issue, and I answered it. Then, this thread, like so many others on this site, got sidetracked. It was never intended to be another thread about the yearbook issue.</p>
<p>That said, the yearbook issue does demonstrate perfectly WHY I do have objections to the chumminess. I believe that the inappropriately intimate relationships between this sponsor and her journalism kids clouded her judgment and led to a more “equal” relationship that precluded her offering needed guidance to her staff. So, where they ARE related, this was not the original focus of the thread.</p>
<p>~berurah</p>
<p>To me the comment about “becoming friends with a nerd” is tongue-in-cheek and meant to be humorous, and not necessarily an endorsement of cheating.
Is there cheating in every school? Absolutely, even and perhaps especially in the most prestigious ones. Is it right? Absolutely not. </p>
<p>Did you ever stop to think that “becoming friends with a nerd” meant that the “nerds” are able to help explain things in ways that kids might be more open to or better able to understand?</p>
<p>^^wharfrat~</p>
<p>I’d be more inclined to agree with you if <em>any</em> positive coverage had been given to <em>any</em> academic kid. That ALL of these kids were omitted in favor of “edgy” layouts paints a bigger picture when combined with that quote. That was the ONLY reference to the highly academic kids in the entire book.</p>
<p>I think that it speaks volumes that those who actually SAW the yearbook have spoken and the result was what it was. There is really no way to convey to anyone online the inappropriety of that publication.</p>
<p>OK, so since this seems to be a thread about the yearbook controversy at Berurah’s school last year, even though there was a thread on it back then, I will offer up my thoughts. </p>
<p>Out of curiousity, I just grabbed one of my D’s yearbooks out of her bedroom to see what was in it. There are no academic awards or recognition of any sort in it, other than NHS under the “clubs.” I have a feeling this may be typical of most HS yearbooks. I think the yearbooks are a memory of who went to the school, their activities, and some fun memories. </p>
<p>Here is what is in our HS yearbook…</p>
<p>One full page memory of a senior’s dad who died…who also was a mentor and coach to a lot of kids in the high school in two sports growing up. </p>
<p>A dedication page to two teachers with quotes from various students about these two teachers. The students refer to one teacher as Maureen (she was my D’s TA and kids all called her by her first name) and also some refer to her as “Mo” and one mentions sadness of leaving Mo and her “MoSpeak”. The other teacher is referred to as Mr. _____. By the way, Mo is my age and also had a son in the senior class.</p>
<p>A two page spread of the entire senior class spelling out their year of graduation. </p>
<p>Many pages of each senior…one third of a page given to photos of that student (several), and whatver they chose to write…could be listing accomplishments, activities, messages to individual friends, parents, siblings, quotes, dedications, remembrances, etc. Usually a good solid block of text. Senior portraits are done by private photographers are are of the more informal sort, not cap and gown or anything like that. Many students include photos of themselves as children, with their friends, siblings, etc. </p>
<p>A few pages of school portraits of every senior but when in elementary school. </p>
<p>Several pages of candid photo collages of seniors in all sorts of activities over time. </p>
<p>A list of senior “favorites”…what they liked (must have conducted a poll) such as favorite teacher, favorite custodian, favorite restaurant, favorite song, favorite ski area, etc. </p>
<p>A few pages of photos of who won various “senior superlatives” by voting for one girl and one boy for each, along with photos of the “winners” such as “Best Smile”, “Class Complainer”, "Life of the Party, “Class Dreamer”, “Most Changed,” “Best Vermonter”, “Most Energetic,” etc.</p>
<p>Photo spreads of the prom and dinner dance from the previous year. </p>
<p>Individual portraits of everyone in the junior class, sophomore class, and freshmen class, along with some candids of each class. </p>
<p>A sports section starting with many candids, team photos and names of participants, and some text about the team, along with candids for each team. Sometimes the team record was included. </p>
<p>A section for clubs, again with group photos and candids and some text (ie., school musical, yearbook, GSA, Student Government, NHS, Band, Chorus.) There are also photos of who made regionals, All States and New Englands in music. </p>
<p>A photo spread of “Boys 'n Their Toys” which seems to include a lot of dirt bikes and ATVs, motorcycles, a golf cart, trucks, etc. with the boys who play with them. </p>
<p>A photo spread of “Bikes 'n boards” which are photos of particular kids (named) with them in action on bikes, skis, or snowboards. </p>
<p>(the above two categories must be what is significant for some kids and a bit akin to B’s yearbook with the tatoos)</p>
<p>A faculty section with photos of each faculty member by department, along with some candids. </p>
<p>A Middle school section with portraits of each student, candids, group photos of their teams and clubs. </p>
<p>Numerous ads bought by parents mostly as dedications and congrats to their children including many photos and wishes and text. </p>
<p>Many candid shots. </p>
<p>Many local Business ads with congratulatory messages to the senior class. </p>
<p>So, there is nothing academic in it. It is more a memory of who went, some fun times together, and who participated in which activities, and many remembrances of times spent together (each student had a third of a page to write what they wanted). </p>
<p>I agree with BethieVT that the quote about the student nerds doesn’t imply cheating. That quote could be taken to mean if you are struggling, befriend a nerdy academic star to help you. </p>
<p>While I don’t think pregnancy should be glorified or tatoos, etc, I realize it is a student publication and the student staff decides which memories or experiences they wish to recall. </p>
<p>I think that the best way to have input on the yearbook is to join the yearbook staff. Perhaps more academically oriented kids might have joined the staff and collaborated on what sorts of things should be in the yearbook as memories of their year together and to represent more kids. I suppose for some kids, the pregnancy stuff or tattoo stuff was significant. For others, it is something else. I don’t think the faculty really are the ones deciding what to remember about their four years of high school. IF this had been a faculty publication and they opted to focus on the pregnant teens and such, that is different. I think the fact that it was a student publication of what they felt was important has to be considered. The yearbook may not have been well balanced, but it is too bad that there were not student representatives working on the yearbook who advocated for some other types of kids and memories to be included to balance out what stood out for these other kids. </p>
<p>Once your child is in college, be aware that the publications are student run. Adults are not picking out what to include, nor OKing the contents. For instance, I recall reading in my kid’s student paper an article about where in town to find the best sex toys. I recall reading in another college paper (on a visit) about transgender issues, etc. </p>
<p>I am not sure why the yearbook is such a big deal. I personally don’t care a lot about it. It is more like a memory book of who you went to school with. I think the part that becomes most meaningful are the photos and also everyone signing it with personal messages by pen. </p>
<p>I think what is in our yearbook is rather typical (well, other yearbooks don’t have skiing photos and such!). The academic recognition happens in other avenues such as award ceremonies, not the yearbook.</p>
<p>I think the yearbook is different than, for example, a student assembly or ceremony, that calls up students to be recognized. It would be inappropriate to call up a student because she got pregnant or another who had gotten a bunch of tatoos behind his parents’ back. Such ceremonies are for recognizing achievements that schools care about, such as academics and accomplishment in EC endeavors. For instance, our school doesn’t recognize kids and their ATVs and dirtbikes but the kids on the yearbook staff must have felt this was a significant memory for their subset of peers. The yearbook is run by students to include whatever they wish to remember about high school. The more students who participate on the yearbook staff, the better the balance of representation of subgroup memories/activities, other than the usual sports, music, clubs.</p>
<p>^^If our yearbook had been just like yours, I’d have had no objection to it, soozie.</p>
<p>Just looked at my son’s last year’s yearbook. No academic awards. Those kids get all kinds of recognition elsewhere. There were sections about each area of student life, including academics, so English has a page, math a page etc., but nothing about awards. The student clubs each got a picture or two as well as band, chorus, the school play etc.</p>
<p>I agree with soozie that it is up to the people doing the yearbook what goes in, though I was upset when I heard that one girl at my son’s hs deliberately omitted the senior photo of someone she didn’t like. I read the AP article about this flap and it sounded like the advisor had discussed things with the kids and that no rules were broken.</p>
<p>berurah</p>
<p>Maybe we would be shocked if we saw the actual book. I’m just saying I haven’t heard anything with major shock value yet. Sounds like a matter of preferences.</p>
<p>If your school is like most, it goes to publication long before senior academic awards are announced.</p>
<p>wharfrat…B already clarified that their senior yearbook comes out the following fall post graduation. That does seem odd to me but that’s how they do it. I always thought of yearbook as a tradition in terms of the final weeks of school everyone signs everyone’s yearbook. It is almost the main thing in the yearbook that matters (along with photos of each senior). If it comes out the following fall, they totally miss out on everyone signing it with personal messages to one another!</p>
<p>I’d been very active as an elem and middle school mom, volunteering in the classroom, etc. It became evident when son hit hs that my role would be very duifferent. I went to all conferences and was supportive with fundraising, costumes, props, going to all competitions, etc., but it was time for son to learn to work things out with his teachers without me.</p>
<p>To me, the yearbook is a student driven activity and unless it contained illegal or pornographic material, I’d see it as off-limits for parents. The AP articles mentioned a parent complaint that there were pictures of tatoos without any info about the risks of infection. I just don’t see the yearbook as a teaching tool. I expect that stuff to be in the health curriculum. JMO</p>
<p>My own h.s. yearbook had tons of academic pages in it. The val and sal were each given his/her own page, and there were pages devoted to colleges and scholarships too, not surprising since I went to a very high level public in Austin, TX where education was valued highly.</p>
<p>I think academics ABSOLUTELY have a place in a h.s. yearbook. To say that they don’t is to deny the essence of the entity that publishes the yearbook–a SCHOOL. That said, if times have changed and no one else cares about academics being included besides me (alongside every other school-related activity), then I’d be happy to compromise.</p>
<p>What I objected to strongly then and still do today is the emphasis given to activities that are at odds with good educational philosophy and to kids who have put zero effort into their high school careers. To feature a pregnant girl simply because she GOT pregnant is not the same thing as featuring her as part of a school club or activity–for example, playing in a chess tournament. To feature someone because s/he got a tattoo is very different from featuring his arm washing a car at a school sponsored car wash. Some of the things featured were expressly at odds with the rules set out by our school administration (such as PDA, which I personally have no problem with). Why should a school be compelled to put its name on a publication that carries messages that are at odds with its own missions? That is simply ludicrous.</p>
<p>As it was, this book and the resulting publicity made our city council, developers, and realtors very nervous. Our bedroom community is marketed almost exclusively on the academic strength of its schools. It is quickly becoming evident that our district no longer makes academics a priority (it really doesn’t), and this book was just a symptom of the larger problem and less a problem in and of itself. Therefore, I suspect that the city council brought pressure to bear on the school board to rectify a situation that would prove financially disruptive to our community. Unfortunately for the yearbook sponsor, this is a reality of life, just like pregnancy and tattoos.</p>
<p>I ask you to please TRY to understand that this debate was never about “just a yearbook.” As someone pointed out, chances are that these books will end up collecting dust somewhere. What it WAS about was a district that has lost its bearings and has begun to promote in a positive way behaviors and actions that have detrimental effects on its own mission…education.</p>
<p>~berurah
now, OFF to graduation! :)</p>
<p>I agree with Soozie’s take on this thread. I responded to what I thought was the topic, got a post that made it clear that it was way more personal than that, and subsequently steered away.</p>
<p>And in agreement with yearbooks–kids don’t get influenced or educated by what’s in the yearbook, and we need to step back and let them decide what they want to commemorate there, as long as it’s not illegal or hurtful to other students. I don’t remember any academic stuff in either my or my kids’ yearbooks.</p>
<p>
What yearbooks do is reflect school and community priorities and values and preserve the memories of many. This book did a very poor job of both of those things. The fact that the book did not reflect the priorities and values of the school and its surrounding community resulted in this teacher not being welcomed back, as it should have been.</p>
<p>"Opie, I never changed the story! You clearly have a problem with the truth. The guy used a fake id to sneak into a bar. Whether he was earning $$ to save the planet or blow it up doesn’t matter. He introduced the idea of illegal entry into a bar to a class full of 5th graders. "</p>
<p>Ss Do you know we actually once committed several illegal acts to become a country? Dumping tea in a harbour was illegal and not even very green…
</p>
<p>And yes, you did change the story. It’s right there in your text. Sorry. </p>
<p>" If the sub was trying to inspire the kids, and let them know that music could turn into a career, there was absolutely NO REASON to mention the fake ID. "</p>
<p>How about somebody asked? Should he lie for your benefit? </p>
<p>I’m sorry but again you’ve bull in a china shopped your way through somebody’s else’s life. My spouse deals with kids who come to tattle about every little thing… “joey’s chewing on his pencil”… I guess some just don’t grow out of it.</p>
<p>
Seems as if they wouldn’t have had a chance to be heard with the teacher who was running the show. </p>
<p>Soozie, your description of your d’s yearbooks sound exactly like mine from 30 years ago. Wholesome. I just had my 30th reunion in the fall, so my friends & I had the books out when doing the planning. Lots of fun, lots of memories. We didn’t list specific academic awards, as they hadn’t been awarded prior to the book being sent to the printer. But NHS service projects weren’t eliminated because they were too mainstream or goody-goody. Nothing was. There was no agenda – no attempt to be edgy or shake things up. There was nothing but wholesome fun, and coverage of activities or hanging out type photos completely chosen by the students. I worked a bit on that yearbook, and we made sure EVERY graduate had at least one candid shot. It truly represented all groups, cliques, clubs, & activities. I’m quite sure Berurah would have been fine if these preganat girls were pictured hanging decorations for the prom, or sitting under a tree having a laugh with their friends. But the yearbook she describes was hi-jacked.</p>
<p>(Of course, it was pretty common back then to have some kid try to “flip the bird” in a group photo & sneak it past the editors and moderator. I guess that counted as shocking back in the day.)</p>
<p>
Yes, Opie, I’m sure all the ten year olds are well versed in the laws regarding admittance to establishments serving alcohol, as well as employment law and the rules & regulations surrounding how one obtains working papers. No doubt one or two kids inquired about the tax inplications of working in Manhattan when one is a NJ resident.
Your pesky reading comprehension problem is surfacing once again.</p>
<p>“I’d be more inclined to agree with you if <em>any</em> positive coverage had been given to <em>any</em> academic kid. That ALL of these kids were omitted in favor of “edgy” layouts paints a bigger picture when combined with that quote. That was the ONLY reference to the highly academic kids in the entire book.”</p>
<p>B do you own a TV?</p>
<p>What does America really value?</p>
<p>Big breasts, small waistlines, it used to include flashy underpants (Britany, a big thanks), text messaging and what ever… </p>
<p>As I said I don’t really disagree with you that much, but for good or bad these are reflections of what our culture IS. America has been changing for centuries usually at the dislike of it’s older members.</p>
<p>“Yes, Opie, I’m sure all the ten year olds are well versed in the laws regarding admittance to establishments serving alcohol, as well as employment law and the rules & regulations surrounding how one obtains working papers. No doubt one or two kids inquired about the tax inplications of working in Manhattan when one is a NJ resident.”</p>
<p>Well it’s good to know you’ve researched every possibility possible and eliminated anything that didn’t match your own opinion. It’s good to be king. </p>
<p>Maybe somebody else’s kid is smarter than yours? Naw. </p>
<p>You must explain to me how it feels to go through life so certain your pov is always spot on. I need a new god to worship.</p>
<p>
That settles it, I guess. Why go to the trouble of producing a yearbook? Just have copies of The National Enquirer laminated & hand them out at graduation as a momento.</p>
<p>Gosh. I can’t help but thinking that there are a lot of ways to look at this issue - many points to be made. Sorry to be wishy-washy but this is just so hard to analyze without full context, i.e. real familiarity with the community, the school, and the students. Carry on, but with respect?</p>