And now for something weird...

cmartinez

Joined Jan 17, 2007
8,782
https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news...yed-Train-NYC-Brooklyn-Station-479656443.html

The panicked wail heard around the subway station could easily have been the rallying cry of so many New Yorkers taking the subway on any given day: "I'M GONNA BE LAAAAATE!"
Much ado about arriving in time for a job from which you don't receive any remuneration ... and why compound her problem with unwarranted bigotry? : "I'm a native New Yorker so leaving for New Jersey is hard."
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
32,894
Yep -- he sure knew how to cheat. What an inspiration and role model.

Makes you wonder how he filled out his grade sheets each term. Since he couldn't read the names, did he just assign them randomly, perhaps giving everyone A's and B's after making everyone think that they were going to get a B or below so that no one would complain?

He said in staff meetings that if he was called on he would fake a heart attack and hope someone called 9-1-1. He must have lived in one of the handful of places that even had 9-1-1 since, when he left teaching in 1978, only about 20% of the population had access to the system. But that probably was the case since he was more likely to be able to hide his illiteracy in a large school district than in a small one.
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
32,894
Makes you wonder how he filled out his grade sheets each term. Since he couldn't read the names, did he just assign them randomly, perhaps giving everyone A's and B's after making everyone think that they were going to get a B or below so that no one would complain?
I tracked down his site. Mystery solved -- his wife filled them out.

That at least takes care of the mechanics. As to how he kept track of who should get what grade, that's a different matter. Not surprisingly, grades didn't matter to him so he didn't care about being diligent or accurate -- but you can bet that there were a fair number of students in his classes that DID care about their grades and who tried to keep track of exactly where they stood. My guess is that he got good at identifying them and found ways to ensure that they ended up with the grade they were expecting (or higher), possibly by late-term "extra credit" assignments that weren't returned by were used to "push people close to a grade break over the edge".
 

cmartinez

Joined Jan 17, 2007
8,782
I tracked down his site. Mystery solved -- his wife filled them out.

That at least takes care of the mechanics. As to how he kept track of who should get what grade, that's a different matter. Not surprisingly, grades didn't matter to him so he didn't care about being diligent or accurate -- but you can bet that there were a fair number of students in his classes that DID care about their grades and who tried to keep track of exactly where they stood. My guess is that he got good at identifying them and found ways to ensure that they ended up with the grade they were expecting (or higher), possibly by late-term "extra credit" assignments that weren't returned by were used to "push people close to a grade break over the edge".
At least he didn't pretend to be a doctor ... which has been known to happen ...
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
32,894
Sometimes I try to put myself in a situation like that and ask how I think I would respond. Not surprisingly, I seldom can be positive how I would act and, not surprisingly, how I would like to respond and how I suspect I would respond are not always the same.

I tend not to care too much about doing so for the situation he was in, since it was largely of his own doing. But his wife is a different story. Apparently she never addressed his illiteracy once she realized it was there, but just silently decided to actively support him in continuing his charade. I have a hard time respecting that, though I have absolutely no doubt that it was not an easy choice for her to make.

I think a more honorable, while still a reasonable, realistic, supporting, and loving approach, would have been to encourage and pressure him to finally overcome the literacy problem and given him a deadline to either do so or leave teaching and, more importantly, living a lie. Something like, "Honey, I don't know if you can overcome the reading problem or not. I will help you any way I can to do so and, if you can't, then we still have options. Worst case is we move to a new part of the country and you either find work or go we go into business for ourselves doing something that doesn't require you to lie about it -- you've more than shown you are capable of functioning very successfully despite not being able to read. But, darling, I won't live a lie the rest of my life or support you doing so; so we need to make a plan that moves us onto an honest path."

I think his story would have been far more inspiring had that been the route that was followed and I don't see any reason why he couldn't have gone on to do the same good works that his is trying to do now.
 

killivolt

Joined Jan 10, 2010
836
Is see this as FAKE it till you make it. But, with a book deal his wife will write.

I think he also makes a point that anyone can Teach, poor example but Hey.......

kv
 
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