Five Questions To Ask Every Teaching Candidate

“By now, there is little point asking teaching candidates to write a personal philosophy of education. Anyone who has spent ten minutes browsing classical school websites can cobble together an adequate series of statements about virtue, the “image of God,” and the seven liberal arts. Here are five better questions to ask.”

-“Five Questions To Ask Every Teaching Candidate” is my latest for CiRCE

Does Handwriting Matter?

“Student: My handwriting is naturally messy. I can’t help it. It isn’t fair that you graded me down on this week’s essay simply because my handwriting was messy. I can’t help it. Besides, don’t my ideas matter more than my handwriting?

Gibbs: What do you mean your handwriting is “naturally messy”?

Student: No matter how hard I try, my handwriting is messy.

Gibbs: How much practice do you get handwriting?

Student: I don’t practice handwriting. Nobody in high school practices handwriting. That’s for little kids.

Gibbs: You don’t practice your handwriting, but you’re positive your handwriting couldn’t possibly get any better?”

-from “Grade My Ideas, Not My Sloppy Handwriting,” my latest for CiRCE

Names Of Things

I wish people would say “hard” or “difficult” instead of “challenging.”

It’s impossible to tell what someone means when they say something is “challenging.” Eight times out of ten, “challenging” means, “I am trying to put a positive spin on something which is tearing me apart,” or, “I am too proud to say just how vexing I find the world.”