Now I know what Richard Clarke feels like

I think my roommate is right. I think I'm being scapegoated by my administrators, right now.

I think they've figured out that if the school does not make AYP this year, then they've figured out who to blame. And it's me. It really couldn't get more obvious, could it?

You know what the sleazy part is? If they make AYP or do well on those tests, guess who'll be taking credit? You guessed it.

I think I'm losing respect for my administrators by the minute. Richard Clarke stood up in the middle of a ideologically-blinded and stubbornly determined Administration and said, "The reality is not going as well as you were hoping it would." And the Administration demoted him and then fired him.

I'm standing up in the middle of a public school struggling to make AYP and to cope with the impossible expectations of IDEA and saying, "The reality is not going as well as you were hoping it would."

And my administrators are setting me up to take the fall, I think.

Amazing thing about Richard Clarke, though, wasn't it, that the problems didn't go away when Richard went away. And then George Bush looked like the worlds' biggest ass, and Richard Clarke looked like a goddamn prophet.

It makes more sense to face the realities than it does to scapegoat people because reality is not going as well as you were hoping it would.

And it certainly is more honest, at the very least.

Love,
Ben