That Ten Foot Pole album is really good. You should give it a listen. "Dying Duck in a Thunderstorm" was on repeat after this girl dumped me sometime in 1994.
After your post of pushy parents, I wouldn't want their kid in my class.
Could you imagine what a phone call to the parent would be like:
"Excuse me for bothering you, but it is with humble respect that I inform you that I am concerned about Little Joey. He is so bright and motivated, yet I was surprised when he hit Little Mikey with a baseball bat in gym...
Exucse me....
Did you just say that Little Mikey is a bully and...
I'm fired????
But, but...
Hello, are you still there..."
(No wonder my principal refused to address this incident)
There were quite a few stories circulated about Al D'Amato's kids in Island Park. I don't know how true they were, but they do indeed give you pause.
Guess who started as a 9th grade student at my school? You guessed it, the principal's daughter. There was instant improvement....for that one kid.
The principal personally picked her program and teachers, this of course involved changing several teacher's schedules but hey, it's the principal's kid.
I have no problem with a parent wanting the best for their kid but an administrator's kid in their school doesn't really have anything to do with improving conditions for the other 3,000 who don't have an advocate with that kind of power.
^My principal admitted as much to us at my school, and explained that while he intends to send his eighth-grade daughter to an NYC public school, he knows he would micromanage her at his own and is encouraging her to go elsewhere. Admirable, IMO, that he recognizes this tendency in himself and believes enough in the NYC public schools to send his own children there.
It's encouraging to see an honest administrator with integrity. Now if we could only clone him a few thousand times, we'd make some real progress.
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