For These Educators, The Diet of Worms Isn't Just History
Last winter, Principal Karla Onick issued a challenge to her students at L.B. Johnson Elementary School. If each grade met its goal in a book-reading contest, she would eat worms.
On May 21, Ms. Onick stood up in the school cafeteria and ate two 8-inch night crawlers sauteed with mushrooms and onions. The children squealed. Then Assistant Principal Alberto Reyes plucked two worms from a jar and ate them raw.
"I bit the first one and it squirted all over my mouth," he says. "So the second time, I just swallowed."
As state and federal pressure intensifies on public schools, outrageous acts by teachers and administrators are becoming increasingly popular motivational tools. Educators have long agreed to the dunking pool and a pie in the face to raise money. But now they're turning to stunts inspired by reality TV to get students to read and perform well on tests.
Under state and federal education programs, schools face penalties if students don't continue to improve on tests. In Texas, home to one of the strictest sets of standards in the nation, the state has already closed several charter schools for failing to show adequate progress.
Last month, Charles Bruner, the principal of Forest Meadow Junior High in Dallas, let his students clip his hair with dog shears after their test scores indicated the school would move up a notch in the state ranking system. Earlier this spring, Robert Gordon, principal of Hendrick Ranch Elementary School near Riverside, Calif., kissed a potbellied pig after students met a reading challenge. And in Hampton, Va., Principal David Gaston modeled a pink tutu for his students at Burbank Elementary after their state test scores improved.
"I even had a little tiara," says Mr. Gaston.
Last year, after Mr. Gaston made his challenge, the local newspaper, the Hampton Daily Press, editorialized against "principals promising to do silly things" if students pass the state test, known in Virginia as the Standards of Learning tests.
Such a "proliferation of hoopla," the paper wrote, "consumes time, ratchets up students' (and teachers') anxiety and feeds the perception that SOL tests are the focal point of education, not a tool."
Susan Ohanian, a former teacher, education critic and author of "One Size Fits Few: The Folly of Educational Standards," posted an item about Mr. Gaston on her Web site under the headline, "How does a principal dressing up in a pink tutu improve education?" Ms. Ohanian recalls a former student of hers who as a grown man told her she had taught him to love books. "I'm glad he can remember me for that," says Ms. Ohanian, "and not for eating worms."
Under the No Child Left Behind Act, signed into law by President Bush in 2002, schools have until 2014 to meet new testing standards. Meanwhile, they must show adequate yearly progress for specified ethnic and socioeconomic groups, special-education students and English-language learners. If all groups don't show improvement for two consecutive years, parents may take their children out of a school and send them to another.
So principals say they are doing what they can to ensure that their schools survive. One strategy is reading programs such as Accelerated Reader, a software package introduced in 1986 by Renaissance Learning Inc., in Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., It gives children points for reading books and passing a comprehension test. Schools often exchange the points for prizes, such as T-shirts, erasers, rulers and pencils. Until last year, children at Hendrick Ranch Elementary could also exchange their points for soft drinks.
"It was extremely popular," says Mr. Gordon. "But it wasn't healthy."
This year, Mr. Gordon told his students he would kiss a potbellied pig if they scored a total of 17,000 school-wide points during March. By the end of the month, the students had exceeded the goal. So, on an outdoor stage, after various pig songs and pig jokes, a teacher held a pig named Abner while Mr. Gordon kissed it. The event made the local newspaper, which ran a photo of the kiss. "It's all people want to talk about," says Mr. Gordon. "You'd think it was my greatest achievement as an educator."
Assistant Principal Alberto Reyes of El Paso's L.B. Johnson Elementary School eating a worm.
Many of the stunts come at schools facing a variety of social and economic challenges. El Paso's Johnson Elementary, which is in sight of the Mexican border, is 98% Hispanic. Half the school's students are learning English as their second language. Most live in housing projects or low-income apartments. And, Ms. Onick says, families are so transient, few children who start school in kindergarten are still in the school at the end of fifth grade.
Despite these obstacles, educational-testing experts say elementary-school children can be more easily motivated to perform on standardized tests than middle-school and even high-school students. While younger children are more likely to want to please, the older ones tend to see little point in most accountability tests. So sometimes they need an extra push.
Mr. Bruner took over at Forest Meadow Junior High in Dallas two years ago. This year, he promised the kids they could shave his head with dog shears if they moved the school up a notch to "acceptable" from a "low-performing" rating on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills tests. Results in hand, Mr. Bruner held an assembly where one assistant principal showed up with a Mohawk haircut and two others bleached their hair. Then six student leaders and six of the school's most improved students took clumps of hair from Mr. Bruner's head as their schoolmates cheered. "A barber from Super Cuts was waiting in the wings," says Mr. Bruner. "He took it to the skin."
In El Paso, Ms. Onick's stunt was the brainchild of Janet Pendygraft, a fourth-grade teacher and coordinator of the Accelerated Reader program at Johnson who was inspired by the hit TV show "Fear Factor" and by the popular children's book "How to Eat Fried Worms." After the challenge was made over the intercom in midyear, teachers posted pictures of Ms. Onick eating gummy worms in the hall under the caption "Guess who's going to eat worms?"
When the school's 765 students reached their reading goal, Ms. Pendygraft set out for the live bait section at Wal-Mart. With night crawlers in hand, she scoured the Internet for recipes and called Poison Control to ask whether worms would make her boss sick. The official couldn't say. "But I felt OK," says Ms. Pendygraft, "because on 'Survivor' they eat those sorts of things."
Just to be sure, Ms. Pendygraft boiled the worms three times. Then she cooked them in a skillet on the stage of Johnson's cafeteria, rolling them in flour before frying them and laying out mustard, ketchup and salsa for Ms. Onick. Since the cafeteria can accommodate only half of the school at one time, Ms. Onick did an encore.
Ms. Onick says she enjoyed the chance to show her students she could have fun. Next year, she intends to issue another reading challenge to her students, but not one involving worms. "We'll probably put on sumo suits," she says, "and do a little wrestling."
美国学校激励学生出怪招
去年冬天，L.B. Johnson小学的校长卡尔拉?昂尼克(Karla Onick)向她的学生们发出一项挑战：如果每一年级在阅读考试中都达到目标，她将吃下虫子。
5月21日，昂尼克在学校的餐厅里站著将两条8英寸长的夜间爬虫混合著蘑菇和洋葱片吃了下去。孩子们发出尖叫声。校长助理阿尔伯特?瑞耶斯(Alberto Reyes)从一个瓶子里面捏出两条虫子，直接放到嘴中。
他说，“我咬了第一条虫子，它喷的我满嘴都是。所以第二条我直接吞了下去。”
由于美国公立学校面临来自州和联邦越来越大的压力，学校教师和行政人员的一些疯狂举动正成为越来越受欢迎的激励手段。 教育工作者以前采取的激励方法是浸泡在游泳池中并在脸上放上一块馅饼。但是现在，受到电视真人秀的启发，他们开始通过一些惊人的举动来鼓励学生读书并在考试中取得好成绩。
按照美国州和联邦教育计划，如果学生的考试成绩不能持续进步，学校将面临惩罚。得克萨斯州是美国实行最严厉标准的州之一，州政府已经关闭了几所未能取得足够进步的注册学校。
上月，达拉斯Forest Meadow初中的校长查尔斯?布鲁纳(Charles Bruner)告诉他的学生，如果他们的考试成绩能提高学校在得克萨斯州的排名，他们可以用狗毛剪剪掉他的头发。亚罗伯特?高顿(Robert Gordon)是加利福尼利佛塞德Hendrick Ranch小学的校长，今年早春，由于学生们的阅读成绩达到了目标，他亲吻了一头大肚皮的猪。在弗吉尼亚的汉普顿，Burbank小学的校长戴维?伽斯顿(David Gaston)在学生的州考试成绩提高以后，穿上了一条粉红色的芭蕾舞裙。
伽斯顿说，“我甚至还有一个小的头饰。”
去年，在伽斯顿完成他的挑战之后，当地的报纸Hampton Daily Press发表社论，对如果学生通过弗吉尼亚州的州考试“校长允诺做蠢事“的做法进行了抨击。
社论写道，这种“闹剧的扩散消耗时间，加重学生（以及教师）的担忧，并让人感觉测试是教育的重点，而不是工具。”
以前曾做过教师的苏珊?奥汉尼安(Susan Ohanian)现在是一位教育批评家和《以偏概全：教育标注的荒唐》一书的作者。她在个人网站上张贴了一篇关于高顿的短文，标题是“身著粉红色芭蕾舞裙的校长如何提高教育质量？”奥汉尼安回忆到，她教过的一位现在已经长大成人的学生对她说，她曾经教育他要热爱书籍。奥汉尼安说，“我很高兴他能因为这句话而记住我，而不是吃虫子。”
根据美国总统布什(Bush)2002年签署成为法律的《不让任何一个孩子落后法令》，美国学校必须在2014年达到新的考试标准。与此同时，他们必须证明特定族裔、社会经济团体、特殊教育学生和英语学习者每年都取得一定进步。如果所有上述群体连续两年没能取得进步，父母可以给孩子转校。
因而校长们说，他们正在尽一切努力确保他们的学校生存下去。其中的一个策略是使用阅读软件，诸如Renaissance Learning Inc.1986年推出的Accelerated Reader。它给读书和通过阅读理解考试的儿童记点数。学校常常会根据点数给学生T恤衫、橡皮、标尺和铅笔等奖励。直到去年，Hendrick Ranch小学还可以用点数换软饮料。
高顿说，“这一做法极受欢迎，但是对学生无益。”
今年，高顿告诉学生，如果全校在3月份获得17,000点的总分，他将亲吻一头大肚皮猪。在3月底，学生们的成绩超过了这一目标。因此，在一个露天舞台上，在唱过很多
有关猪的歌曲和讲了各种有关猪的笑话后，高顿亲吻了一头叫Abner的猪。高顿说，“所有人都想谈论这个，你会认为这是我教育生涯中取得的最大成就。”
许多学生在学校面临各种社会和经济挑战。得克萨斯州埃尔帕索城的Johnson小学临近墨西哥边境，该学校中有98%的西班牙裔学生。半数的学生将英语作为第二语言学习。大多数人都住在居屋项目或低收入公寓中。昂尼克说，因为住所流动性很高，从幼稚园开始在此上学的学生很少能读到5年级。
尽管有这些困难，教育测试的专家称，与初中生甚至高中生相比，小学生更容易受到激励在标准考试中发挥出好成绩。尽管年幼的儿童更有可能希望得到愉悦，但是年长的学生对大多数必考科目通常不重视。因此他们有时需要进行更多的驱策。
布鲁纳两年前接手位于达拉斯的Forest Meadow初中。今年，他向孩子们做出了承诺：如果他们将学校在得克萨斯州知识和技巧评估考试中的评级从“低等表现”提高至“可接受”，他们可以用狗毛剪剃他的头发。他“得偿所愿”，布鲁纳把学生召集在一起，一位留著莫藿克发型的校长助理和另外两名剃光了头发的助理出现在众人面前。然后6个学生代表和6个进步最显著的学生剪掉了布鲁纳浓密的头发，学生发出了欢呼声。布鲁纳说，“一个来自Super Cuts的理发师在侧厅等候，他把我的头发剃光了。”
在埃尔帕索城，昂尼克的惊人之举是珍尼特?旁第格拉夫特(Janet Pendygraft)的主意，后者是一位四年级教师和Johnson学校Accelerated Reader软件的协调人。她受到了热门电视节目“恐惧要素”(Fear Factor)以及广受欢迎的儿童读物《如何食用油炸蠕虫》的启发。在昂尼克完成这一挑战之后，教师们在大厅张贴了昂尼克吞食虫子的照片，并配以标题“猜猜谁将吃掉虫子？”
当该校的765名学生达到了阅读测试目标之后，旁第格拉夫特就奔赴沃尔玛(Wal-Mart)的活诱饵区。买到夜间爬虫之后，她在网上搜索烹调方法并致电有毒物质控制中心(Poison Control)，询问吃食虫子是否会令人患病。有毒物质控制中心的人不能回答这个问题。但是旁第格拉夫特说，“我认为没事，因为在“幸存者”(Survivor)节目中，他们吃这类东西。”
为了确保万无一失，旁第格拉夫特将虫子煮了三边。然后在Johnson的餐厅用煎锅烹调，蘸上面粉，然后油炸，并给昂尼克的那份撒上芥末、番茄酱和沙拉。由于餐厅只能容纳该学校一半的学生，所以昂尼克吃了两次。
昂尼克说，她很喜欢这样的机会，向她的学生展示她是个有趣的人。明年，她打算给她的学生发出另外一个挑战，但是这次与虫子无关。“我们可能会穿上相扑服装，举行一场小型的摔跤比赛。”
