Lessons in literacy in high places and small - Leadership Lite

School Administrator, Nov, 2003

Quick Evaluation

Jeff Mulford, who recently retired from the superintendency of the Valley Center district near San Diego, Calif., has one unusual way to size up the fitness of a prospective teacher.

Mulford, a critic of slovenly grammar use, called a candidate for an English teaching vacancy in his district. The extent of the conversation went this way:

Superintendent: "Is Mrs. Smith there?"

Candidate: "This is her."

Superintendent: "Never mind."

Click.

E-mail Illiteracy

School leaders who still don't feel comfortable using the latest personal technology can take some solace in the fact that neither does one state's governor.

Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack admitted publicly that he does not know how to send an e-mail message.

Vilsack, who is 52, told the Des Moines Register: "I'm technologically deficient and I don't understand it. I probably should but I don't."

Language Lesson

If you want to understand the shortcut communication used by teens and preteens in their e-mailing, you may need translation of a few code words.

Try these:

Brb--be right back

Gtg or gtr--got to go or got to run

Ttyl--talk to you later

w/b--write back

Not Teenspeak

Debbie Rodriguez was new to the high school counseling staff in Friendswood, Texas, a mostly white, middle-class Houston suburb, where she discovered her Hispanic surname brought preconceived notions about her.

During the opening week of school, some 9th-grade boys came to her to make schedule changes. She invited them into her as-yet undecorated and rather drab office. One young man looked around as he entered and said, "Hmmm--nice office."

Surprised, Rodriguez tried to read his meaning. "Well thank you," she said, "but are you trying to be facetious ?"

He appeared taken aback and replied politely, "Oh ma'am. I don't speak Spanish."

An Elusive Clan

While working as a K-8 principal in Omaha, Debra Turner heard the tornado sirens sound on a balmy spring afternoon in central Nebraska. Students and staff, in an orderly procession, quickly evacuated to the lower level of the building.

The mother of one family, which had five children attending the school, came to the basement to pick them up to return home. As Turner made her way through the 400 students taking cover, she called out, "Are there any Willits here? Are there any Willits here?"

After passing through a group of the smallest pupils, a little boy looked up to his teacher and innocently asked:

"What's a Willits?"

Time Warp

Consider what life was like in the typical American community 100 years ago:

* The average life expectancy was 47;

* Only 8 percent of homes had telephones;

* The nation had only 144 miles of paved roads;

* The average wage was 22 cents an hour;

* Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.

Short humorous anecdotes, quips, quotations and malapropisms for this column relating to school district administration should he, addressed to: Editor, The School Administrator, 801 N. Quincy St., Suite 700, Arlington, VA 22203. Fax: 703-528-2146. E-mail: magazine@aasa.org. Upon request, names may be withheld in print.