As I mention in my e mails I am in the field-there has been a massive brain washing against the teaching of sounds by the International Reading Association-the overthrow of phonics teaching is accompanied with vitriolic discussion-John Dewey and Ken and Yetta Goodman did a good job-even though I myself MUST add-the teaching of Reading must commence with phonemic awareness and not phonics which is far less accurate.
Anyway-we are not done that is for sure-the Universities continue the brain washing annually so all of us on this website have our hands full!It is akin to a conversion and it must be handled delicately and strategically for the sake of the children

We DO need the best teachers possible, that is why we should shift towrds the Finland model, MA to be admitted to three year program paid by the state at first year rates. World’s #1. Can’t get higher than that.

Doug-it sounds good as long as the course expands teacher`s knowledge in the reading research that is empirical-right now we have a real problem-the modern research discoveries are sitting on the shelf because the profs haven`t taught personally for years.I have taught many Masters teachers and PHD’s who tell me they have looked for years for practical technical help on how to help their students-certainly the teachers are misguided..

Yes, but poor teachers make a difference too—not in a way the “Finland model” would accomodate.

Doretta, you right! The Finland model might work If we slashed the wages to $60K max then we could hire a few more teachers. Do they work a longer day too? I know that they have afterschool tutoring and such. Take a pay cut and I bet you would have that respect you want too. Cool!

Sound good Doug?

I have from personal experience and observations,to conclude in the same light as J. Taylor, that poor learning instruction, and the interaction of genetic differences, where learning does not take place.

I have lost track how many times, reporting to the school that ineffective teaching methods, are more to blame to increase learning difficulties, than any other factor.

The study above is just another piece of evidence that shows the correlations between quality and poor teaching methods. What was no compared in the study, is the general knowledge of the teachers regarding the reading processes. I bet the quality teacher had increase knowledge, compared to the teacher who had poorer instruction methods.

If my child had teachers who were well-skilled in the reading processes, I bet my child would never have the difficulties she did have, when learning how to read and the ensuring difficulties after primary. It is this lack of knowledge that the majority of primary and elementary teachers that they do not have, mainly because it is not a requirement to obtain a teacher’s certificate.

As Joanne has suggested, “Anyway-we are not done that is for sure-the Universities continue the brain washing annually so all of us on this website have our hands full!It is akin to a conversion and it must be handled delicately and strategically for the sake of the children.” And I second that one.

The Finns make a northern European average wage for teachers. It is all relative to other wages in a socialist society.

You are stuck with this explanation. Teachers use generally the same methods in all our schools so why do the top 85 percent by income,learn to read very well and the weak readers are overwhelmingly poor. It has little to do with methods. It has everything to do with SES.

Doug,why do you turn everything into a money and salary discussion-we`re discussing apples and you are talking money….?

Please look at EQAO scores-I have a personal friend who works in a downtown Toronto Board-a speech path-the results show that 55-65% of kids are learning to read by grade 3-a far cry from your 85% and that another 15% of students are exempt-
Stuff your 855-it is a complete fabrication of your wishful imagination-an out and out lie!

Doug you are ignoring the results of the twin-study.
The twins had the same SES but had very different outcomes—it’s the teaching!!!

The point is how many can read how well at age 15. Canada second in the world at 85%

You were totally wrong about literacy the last exchange Jo Anne, want to try again?

Doretta started the money talk. Look above. Get over yourself. I do not accept your “expertese” on the time of day.

Money talk?  I did?  When did I do that?  you brought up the Finland model, I spoke of poor teachers and I didn’t mean in the monetary sense.

If you knew anything about Reading you would know that 74% of children who are behind in Grade 3 never catch up-why do you think we work so hard to teach them by Grade 3-All universities accept this fact!

Whether or not you accept her “expertese”, er expertise, is irrelevent to most of us.  You’re not the one she needs to impress.  This isn’t high school and you’re not a teacher.

When you can offering a more compelling case it’ll matter.

On the issue of us having the “2nd best system in the world” that hardly makes a good case that we need to emulate anyone else.

I shall have to put my stamp on Doug’s remarks. The highest income groups down to the lowest income groups, there is a wide variety of reading skills. Someone earning a $120,000 does not mean good reading skills. There is some billionaires that do not have good reading skills. And if you want proof, just check out the retraining facilities, for people who have lost their well-paying jobs, and cannot take retraining, until they upgrade their poor reading , writing and numeracy skills. The majority of these people are in their 30s, and not what has been reported in the media, as the medium age is 55.

As for wealthy people, I do not think you have met too many in your circle of friends. I have, from childhood. Number one reason, to send their children to private school, better teaching methods. If by chance the child is having learning difficulties, number one choice, is to hire a tutor. Number one client?le for tutors, are the wealthy parents who can easily afford their services.  Then for some well-to-do parents, they send their children to a public school, located in the same high rent district as they themselves live in. These schools are noted for their teaching methods, and knowledge of the teachers concerning learning development and difficulties. Unlike the majority of schools, that are largely middle-class to low-income.

What Joanne has stated, “in a downtown Toronto Board-a speech path-the results show that 55-65% of kids are learning to read by grade 3-a far cry from your 85% and that another 15% of students are exempt-”
And Doug that depends on the meaning of learning to read, Few are learning to read well, with fluency and good reading strategies.

That rare reading disorder is acting up on Doug again. In the same reports, that Canada, like the United States, have a serious problem where the 40 to 60 % of the population between 15 to 24 have very weak set of sub-skills in reading, writing, numeracy and general knowledge, in either all aspects or in some aspect. Doug due to his condition, only reads what he wants to read.

We have debated this many times before.

Canada illiteracy rate (adults) = 1%

Functional Illiteracy Rate (adults) = 15%

The vast majority of adult illiterates live in urban ghettos on welfare or in rural resource extraction hinterlands being left behind by technology.

I was in a debate at our board when a conservative trustee gassed off that John Ross Robertson in the richest neighbourhood had the best results because their teachers cared and worked hard but Park School (Regent’s Park since renamed Nelson Mandela) had the worst results obviously because their teachers didn’t care and didn’t work hard enough.

I said that is easy to fix, next year we will switch the entire staffs of JR Robertson PS and Park PS and according to the other trustee the results will switch as well. Everybody in the room realized instantly that the proposition was absurd because the rich school would still come 1st even with the lazy good for nothing teachers from Park next year and vice versa.

Teachers matter but there is no comparison to the power of social class. Time to deal with the REAL. problem.

Stats are wrong, and argue with Literacy Canada or the other groups dealing with Literacy.

As for your second, equity issues. Not much one can do. The school in the wealthy area, even if the school was stripped, they will easily replace it. What you should have said, was half of the students from Park School, will go to JR Ross, and take half of the JR Ross students and place them in Park School. Than you got yourself a little research project, covering not only equity issues, but also achievement rates.
But it is a pipe dream, kids who go to schools is well-heel areas, go there for a reason, their parents want them there, and not the school 5 blocks away. They simply do not want their kids handing around other kids who are beneath them in social standing. At least this is a city problem, and a rare problem in rural area.
You had an opportunity to debate with someone, or more to advance your cause. What happen?  I would have gone after the teacher remark. The teachers at Park School, are probably very skillfully, and they would have to be at that school. If any teacher had the opportunity to teach at Ross, they would probably not have any problems dealing with the kids who are the bad actors. In fact, it would be a piece of cake, and the poor rich kids would be scratching their heads, what happen….....I don’t think the difference is with teachers, but with the resources and the number of teachers, and types of teachers. If Park School had all the resources, plus the extra staff for the learning and behaviour problems, there would not be a problem.
As you moved down the ladder, there is plenty of have-not schools, with smaller poor of resources to choose from, compared to the have-schools. They get less resources, not so much of student population, but what the board deems fit to fund the school. Often what the board’s picture is and the school’s picture is are two different things. I still believe the problem is with resources, poor libraries, leaky windows, and some probably need a whole makeover on the inside. I bet Ross school, is not suffering from leaky windows, and the other problems that have been mentioned.

-it`s the methodology-kids from poor neighbourhoods need to have a program taught to them that addresses their phonological deficit-very common in low literacy socioeconomic neighbourhoods because parents sometimes struggled with literacy and didn` read to them enough also in ESL districts where the phonemes need to be taught explicitly.AFTER ALL THEY NEED TO GET EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION TO FIGURE OUT THE NEW LANGUAGE-duh!!!!

Doug,you need to accept methodology as a huge problem-it will help the kids-don`t just need to win.
I am doing a lot of training of teachers in First Nations communities this year-it helps them immensely to be taught with research based methods..
If Reading and spelling were so easy and require so little knowledge the whole world would be literate.
Get over yourself and your competitive desire to win the debate-you lose-period!

As I mentioned Nancy, I based my MEd on Adult Literacy in Canada. Functional illiteracy rate 19% then now about 15%. Attempts to redefine it by groups who’s grants are based on a continuing problem are not credible.

In fact the teachers at Park are probably better due to their daily challenge. They get more resources not less, smaller classes etc. It is still not nearly enough.

Yes in smaller centres social class is not as obvious but I will bet my bottom dollar it is every bit as strong. I grew up in a small city. Everybody knew the middle class kids went to Ryerson, Dufferin and Hillcrest schools and working class kids went to Strathcona, Alexandra, and Victoria PSs. In high school everybody knew that the Adademic program was 90% middle class while the general, trades oriented level was blue collar and the 2 year terminal vocational program was overwhelmingly drawn from the very poor families.

You folks can go on and on about DI, Phonemic awareness, bad unions, bad bureaucrats, and on and on but social class explains almost all eductional difference.

Methodology is not the problem and BTW, you don’t get to declare the winners. Your position is a minority position in the education community and I know you find that frustrating but buck up.

Please supply whatever the stats you have, for your literacy rates. I am talking about the nice things, like smart boards, lots of computer hardware, art supplies, books that are not falling apart, well-resourced library, fully staff, excellent cafeteria, smartly decorated, well equipped music room, a gym fully equipped, plus a stage to put on events, drama room, and nicely landscape. I bet the Ross school has it in spades.

The days you are talking about are more or less gone. Even buying a house, can be a costly adventure, in rural Ontario. Society is what it is, people buy homes that they can afford, or rent what they can afford. The better-off will always buy a home that is in a nicer district, or rent. Some move into an area, just to send their kids to a school that they think would be best for their children. What are parents going to do, when most are dealing with the rules of the school board. The child has to attend the local school. This rule may not exist in Toronto, but it certainly does in other places. It is some hard to get permission to go to a school outside your zone. Sometimes it is easier to move.

Social class plays only a small part, and if it does have an effect, it is the adults (the teachers), bringing in their own biases, perceptions, and assumptions. Had to deal with that one too, but thanks to my mother, who trained her kids with manners, and other such things, one can go anywhere in Canadian society, including mingling outside your class, to view the latest art in a gallery to talking respectfully to the homeless person. A bit old-fashioned, but manners should be taught at school, and not leave it wholly to the parents.

You keep using income level, but if the curriculum was easy to follow, perhaps parents from lower incomes, more of them would become more engage with their kids homework. I spent quite a few evenings, in the lower grades, trying to figure out what are they asking for. Some of the questions are so poorly worded, others are just plain stupid, and I was not the only parent to do so. One day, I sent a math question, to Dr. Math, and they wrote back, I think this is the answer. I think, was used, and he kindly asked me to check if it was correct. The following day, I wrote back, no it was not. Than they responded, not surprise at all, and went into detail the problems with math curriculum. Most parents would not bother, and I don’t blame them one bit. Any parent no matter what income level, should be able to follow the curriculum with ease, in K to 8 grades.  The math curriculum that is used across Canada, are very poorly designed, and certainly does not create a firm foundation, to do advance math.

I really feel sorry for any of your past students. The curriculum was correct, the methodology was correct, the teaching methods was correct. the amount of time spent was correct, the school environment was correct, and everyone at the school, including yourself was looking after each student’s welfare to their best ability. If a student failed to thrive under your teaching, the student was blame for not taking responsibility. It was their own fault.

Great education theory, make the kids take the responsibility for their own education, and have them be accountable for it at the same time. It nice to be able to abdicate your responsibilities as a teacher, and never be held accountable for any actions on your part. But remember the Moore case is on appeal, a man who have spent over $100,000 in legal fees, despite the fact his boy has now graduated from high school.

“Mr. Moore filed a human rights complaint against the district and the ministry.  The BC Human Rights Tribunal found in their favour.  However in early March 2008, their decision was overturned by the BC Supreme Court.  The Supreme Court concluded that as long as those suffering a different or more severe type of disability did not receive a similar benefit or specialized program, there was no discrimination against Jeff Moore.

?We were very disappointed with the decision of the Supreme Court.  This case is a real setback for all students with special needs,? says Lanzinger.  ?Imagine the Supreme Court deciding that it is okay to discriminate against students with learning disabilities so long as all students with learning disabilities are discriminated against in the same way.?

Since 2001, BC schools have lost over 600 special-education teachers and over 10,000 classes have four or more students with special education needs.  In addition, 3,179 classes have more than 30 students enrolled.

?Many students with special needs in our schools today are struggling without the support they deserve,? says Lanzinger.  ?This situation for students with special needs is proof that the education minister?s mantra about providing the highest funding ever for BC schools is false.?

http://bctf.ca/NewsReleases.aspx?id=15350

Moore is awaiting a decision by the appeal court.The court is in a bind. ” We were very disappointed with the decision of the Supreme Court.  This case is a real setback for all students with special needs,? says Lanzinger.  ?Imagine the Supreme Court deciding that it is okay to discriminate against students with learning disabilities so long as all students with learning disabilities are discriminated against in the same way.?

This is the pivotal case that is being watch. It will turn special education and services upside down, and force the public education system to stop discriminating , and provide all services to the individual unique needs. It is why SE is such a mess in the public schools. These kids are being discriminated each and every day, especially when it comes to their education. No matter what the problem is, they are only entitle to specific programs that all the SE kids have. And you wonder why SE math class, is dumb-down to the lowest benchmark, and where some kids are getting prefect grades. My kid was one of them, and she was eventually kick back in the regular class by grade 6, without supports in the classroom, having only grade 4 math under her belt.She would have failed, but she did quite well under my re-teaching. As for the supports, that took 6 months to get back, and a whole lot of fighting at the school.

And all I heard that perhaps she is not one to understand math. There is a few in the classroom like that. By helping your child. you are not helping your child in my class. I want her to learn in the way I have instructed. And the list goes on and on.
Even a particular math method, called a triangle, to replace the crazy stair method, was not allowed. I had to get my child to memorized it and lock it in her long-term memory, so she could quickly draw the triangle at a test, and than she convert measurements with ease. Another crazy math method is the instruction of the 2400 hour time. My child knew the 2400 clock, This was taught to her first, because she always had trouble reading an analog clock.  By the time she was 8, she pipe out the time using 1125 hours or 1300 hours, and before she turned 9, she was reading an analog clock like a pro. She came home, saying the teacher told her, she was instructed wrong. It certainly made her father hopping mad, and it is good thing he was on a ship, his place of work. The only plus, she was very excited she knew how to do the homework, and of course, I sent a note of my displeasure once again directed at the teacher.

M.ED. in adult literacy-so that`s what makes you the expert over and above Dr.Reid Lyon who oversaw half a billion dollars of research on Reading for 20 years at the National Institute of Child Health and Development and coordinated grants at 11 prestigious research centres that included Harvard,Yale etc…
Now we know why you know everything.
You also might enjoy a chat with Dr.Keith Stanovich from OISE(retired)who tired of guys like you or Dr.Linda Siegel at UBC..still there.

This is typical of education-one guys writes a thesis and he`s an expert-rather we need to defer to the research synthesis-medical model!

Doug, You sound like some doctors probably did before the turn of the last century.  “Too bad the patients keep dying from disease.  We don’t understand it, we bleed them and amputate, but nothing works.  If they’d just send us healthier patients, we’d do so much better”

You sound so defeatist.  If the problem is poverty, the cure is education using proven methods.

I can also add, each and every researcher in the reading field, including adult literacy in all countries are advocating the same type of approaches, systematic phonological approaches.

“What is the best way to teach children to read?
The National Reading Panel developed recommendations based on the findings in reading research on the best way to teach children to read. They found that explicit instruction in the major parts of reading (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension) was the best approach to teaching most children to read. To learn more about these recommendations, visit the National Reading Panel health topic.
In addition, NICHD-supported researchers have learned other things about learning to read including:

Researchers showed that the number of poor readers in the early grades could be reduced by providing students with explicit instruction (like that recommended by the National Reading Panel). By working more intensively on reading with those in the lowest one-fifth of the classes, researchers taught all but a very few children to read.
Using neuroimaging studies, researchers observed which parts of the brain are active when someone is reading. They also saw that the active areas of the brain were slightly different for poor readers and for good readers. After poor readers become better readers and overcome their earlier reading difficulties, their brain activity patterns during reading can change to look more like those who did not have reading problems.”
http://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/reading.cfm

http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/pubs/upload/EEL_workshop.pdf

Titled:Adult and Family Literacy: Current and Future Research Directions?A Workshop Summary

http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/pubs/upload/PRFbooklet.pdf

Titled: Put Reading First 2006

http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/pubs/child_adol_dev_teacher_ed.pdf

Titled: Child and Adolescent Development Research and Teacher Education: Evidence-based Pedagogy, Policy, and Practice

****Excellent read

As for the Dougs of the world, who do not do links. the above links brings a deeper understanding , on reading. The site called the National Institute of Childhood and Development, has other research related to children and learning. One way, of combating the Dougs of the world, is the true knowledge, and not the misconceptions that the Dougs of the world purports to be the true ones.

http://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/reading.cfm

StatisticsCanada

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/eucation/canada/shame.html

Functional Illiteracy rate in Canada 14.6%

Melody Paruboczy, executive director of the Movement for Canadian
Literacy, says approximately 46 per cent of adults in Canada aged 16 to
65 don’t have literacy skills at the level needed to function fully in
our information-based society.

“If we could improve the literacy of the children within the school
system, that would certainly go a long way towards helping us deal with
the literacy issues in the adult population.”

Doug-you better call her-her stats are wrong!

You are out of your mind if you call that illiteracy. They keep moving the goal posts. Functional illiteracy relates to people with less than grade 9 education. This is less than 15%. Will we say next that 40 % of Canadians cannot make sense of a nuclear physics text.

Nobody does it better, even Sweden.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2hi/uk_news/Education/392439.stm

When I chaired the Adult Literacy Task Force at the former TBE, we sent staff around the world, UK, USA, Sweden, studying illiteracy, we brought in OISE experts including Dr Budd Hall to supervise our task force, we had presentations from OISE experts. We asked OISE who their #1 guy was on this file. Budd Hall was offered.  Conclusion, adult functional illiteracy rate in Canada = 19% at that time, now 14.6%.

A good 20% of the functional illiteracy rate in Canada is born outside Canada, most of the rest are scattered in small resource extraction centres across Canada, including our Aboriginal population. In urban centres there is a high rate in the very poorest neighbourhoods and in jails.

Well Doug, the rarest of reading disorders, is acting up again. You only read what you want to read.
Here what it really said;

“For years Scott Murray crunched numbers on illiteracy and administered two major international surveys at Statistics Canada. And what his numbers say is that Canada’s situation is particularly shameful when you look at the two worst categories:

?Nearly 15 per cent of Canadians can’t understand the writing on simple medicine labels such as on an Aspirin bottle, a failing that could seriously limit the ability of a parent, for example, to determine the dangers for a child.
?An additional 27 per cent can’t figure out simple information like the warnings on a hazardous materials sheet, the kinds of warning that set out workplace dangers such as risks to the eyes and skin.
In total, 42 per cent of Canadians are semi-illiterate. The proportion is even worse for those in middle age. And even when new immigrants are excluded, the numbers remains pretty much the same.

But what’s worse is that for the past 15 years there’s been scarcely any improvement.”

Far cry from 14.6 %. Since that was 2006, the 42% is climbing, and in most circles, these are very conservative numbers. Quite a few think the number for poor reading skills, is a lot higher ranging in the high 50s.

And Doug, the world has change, where all people need to be able to read well to navigate throughout society. Filling out forms, reading important credit card statements, and understanding the details of interest charges, understand written language, at a good enough level, to determine if one is qualified for a tax credit. As we all know, Revenue Canada is not about to tell you that you are entitled to the tax credit. Reading well enough, to understand the instructions of a product that if used improperly, could be harmful to your health and well being.

The requirement has never been to be able to read a rather complicated piece of science, such as nuclear knowledge. The requirement in this case, would be knowing the effects of radiation to life and the environment. Often pieces like this are in newspapers, informing people of potential radiation of products in your home. A lot of people do not become aware, until they read the article. For others, they hear it on TV, because they never read the instructions, warnings, etc supplied by the manufacturer, because of their poor reading skills.either they cannot read well, or very poor reading comprehension skills.

The goal posts have not change, but the goal posts in the public education system has change, where the only requirement is the ability to be able to read, but not the requirement to read well, to navigate through life.

Read it again Nancy. Functional illiteracy rate is 14.6 percent. You cannot keep moving the goalposts on this. We have never read better than we do today. We read better than almost every country on Earth. We make progress every generation. FI rate was 19 pc now 14.6. Take off foreign born now about 10 pc. About 3pc of this is Aboriginal. Always a disaster. Most of the remaining in hinterland resource work.

Am I satisfied with this? No being the best is not good enough but Harris gov’t slashed funding for adult ed. We have never approached spending enough. UNESCO says adult literacy problem a function of gov’ts slashing education funding. Teaching methods an insignificant part of this problem.

UNESCO says adult literacy problem a function of gov?ts slashing education funding. Teaching methods an insignificant part of this problem.

Always about money-this is my last post on this subject-we have teachers to train….it is about methodology-
One researcher said-the teaching of Reading today considering what we know is akin to doing knee replacement surgery with a saw…

We`ve actually deteriorated our teaching greatly as Europe stated on another post-so we`ll get worse and worse-all in an era where quality of life and work are so dependent on literacy-
We waste millions on things that don`t work and teachers that lack training.
And we really cause irreparable damage to children`s lives-it affects their mental health-their parents-we have a far greater number of illiterate youth in juvenile courts and jails-It`s not about money it`s about how we spend it…we need to train the teachers.

It’s always money with you.

My kids were illiterate both in reading and math because of their schools incompetence. Our school was 4th from the bottom in EQAO testing. 
My kids can read now, but that’s no thanks to your “great” system.
What an I doing different? Phonics and Jump math. No guessing or calculators required.

I’d even let them write an exit exam come the end of the school year. In fact I’m looking at the EQAO primary division test and I bet my grade 3 can pass the math portion right now….and he can do it without a calculator.

It is about the money.I have said repeatedly we can solve the problem easily. Since Liberals and socialists generally favour more money and Conservatives do not we can solve the problem by adding money to the ridings that vote Liberal or NDP!!! The Conservative ridings will know before the election that if they vote Tory no money for their schools since they don’t believe it helps.this leaves more money for those who believe it helps. Problem solved.Of course ev eryone would pay the same taxes. No money for privateers.

We could double the money and it still wouldn’t make a difference if the same ineffective methods are used. Read Hanushek.

To bad only a small band of true believers has access to the secret truths.You sound like a very small church that has all the secret answers.

Zzzzzzzzz

And what church would that be Father Doug?

You sound a bit like the Moonies or Scientology to be frank about it.

Doug, another common piece of erroneous information, that the functional illiterate are mainly composed of the immigrant population, the aboriginals and whatever the hinterland resource work means, is so very untrue.

Doug, how you define literacy, is at the very lowest benchmark. And that the benchmark is the ability to read the words. It is a lot more complicated than that, where a host of factors come into play, that impacts comprehension and the ability to understand all the text, and the hidden meanings. Might be find, in the 19th century, but not for the 21st century. People really do need to understand the information that they see and read daily, to make good decisions for themselves, and to determine if the information is true or false.

Literacy, like many things in education have been twisted to serve political goals, and create a cover for the disturbing trends in education. The goal is to keep the status-quo, and as my late husband has always stated, maintain a certain percentage of the population around 40 % for the next generation of minimum-wage jobs. In my opinion, it is why the public education system, employs the use of ineffective teaching methods, to ensure that there will always have the manpower for low-skill jobs.

Did I say most? 20% not educated in Canada, big slice of Aboriginals as well, Franco-Ontarians, hinterland resource extraction, urban very poor, makes up 90% when you add them up.

Yes their is some corporate job slotting involved. They don’t want to pay to educate fst food workers when you can put a picture of a hamberger on the till.

It’d be useful if some folks would stick to facts and not wander off into attacking everyone else here. 

This isn’t high school anymore; the boorish attempts to dominate the proceedings don’t work here.