Cult of hippie-ality

So at work, we had a Staff Day, and after meeting at school briefly, we all trundled out to three cars and drove the forty minutes or so to Ruralville, where The Boss's daughter goes to a non-traditional, constructivist school. They were having a week of staff development, so The Boss wanted us to see how things were done there. Now, I'm all for constructivism, but this place was a bit beyond the pale. The training day was begun with a big hand-holding circle and chant ("we are one with all things" was a quite typical line), which I did not join in. Then a bunch of spacey New Age nonsense (sample: "the four tetrahedrons of the World Core Curriculum, including the Four Atmospheres, the Four Harmonies, the four Basic Premises, and the Consitution of the Human Being"). There was a lot of self-congratulatory mental masturbation about how public schools are evil --- evil! --- for making kids sit in rows, and isn't it great that we can learn from kids, and yadda yadda. One parent and teacher spoke in awed tones about how her child, without any instruction from her, had grown up with same values as her! Amazing! It's almost as if children take all their social cues from the adults in their lives or something!

I didn't go in to this meaning to be negative, but it really was ridiculous.

After we left Ruralville, we all met at the Capo's house to discuss some of the reforms brought about by the meeting organized by C's father, which had raised so many issues. Now this, I thought, was a productive meeting, and despite a couple of coworkers who are nattering ninnies of negativism, I was very pleased with some of the efforts The Boss et al seem to have made or will make.

***

Then I went home and did all the homework for Reading II that I had put off until the last minute (today). Now I've always been a procrastinator, but I think I have a mental block when it comes to this class; my brain is revolting against the mind-sapping boredom of the assigments.

***

Say, Veruca Salt is kind of a boring band, eh?