I have some involvement with the schools, so I thought I too would weigh in. I am a parent of 2 middle school kids. Both have very different learning styles and needs. There is no doubt that most every parent agonizes over making the right choices for their children, and school selection is a big thing. It can be very confusing, but we have choices here, something that parents in other parts of the state don't have. I ended sending my kids to different schools because they have different learning needs. At the moment they are in the same school, but I know when High School rolls around, they probably will not be in the same school again. It takes work and effort for parents no matter what school your child attends. But I think that if parents look, they will find a niche for their child in the many offerings within the MPS. Does diversity add to a child's experience in school? You bet it does! Some of the worst racism and intolerance that has been expereinced in schools has been in schools that have very little diversity. My children were born in Africa. I sent them to a private preschool. My children are beautiful, but at the young age of three, my little girl came home and told me she was ugly because she didn't have blue eyes and "down" hair (flat hair like mine!) That did it, I couldn't get her in a public school fast enough! She also attended a birthday party while at that school where 3-4 year olds were chauffered around in limos to exclusive parties that cost a fortune. In the real world, most folks don't live that way, yet what an expectation my children had for their next birthday parties. I was (and still am) trying to save for college, braces, etc! My children have had fabulous opportunites in the public schools. Just this year, my son took part in history day at his school. The work done by the students in the middle schools was better than what many may ever do in college. The students had done projects on subjects ranging from the history of amusement parks to the Scopes trial. My son's was on King Philip's War of 1675. ( How many list members know any thing about that? ) We have several students from that school going to the national history project as contestants in Wash DC this June. We also have several going from other MP schools as well. That is not to say every thing is picture perfect, there are many problems. Too many children are not learning what they need to know or graduate. That needs fixing. It is hard work. To me diversity is not just another fair or special month celebration, it's about diversity in learning styles and teaching to reach every child. Every child has a key to open their individual door to knowledge. Good teachers are able to find that key, open that door and let the learning flow from there. We know what matters in education. Parental involvment is the largest indicator of a child's success. The next indicator is teacher quality. In MPS we are working to expand and improve our our teacher's professional development, and to do it in a meaningful way, on site, rather than at a workshop or seminar. There are certain practices in teaching that we must foster and others that must be overcome. We are having some of our most successful teachers mentor those that are struggling. We have written into our teacher contract provisions and steps to take to help underperforming teachers and if they do not improve, we have the abiltity to let them go, even if they are tenured. Children can get a good education, but not all our students are and I feel that as a district, we are working hard to address those things we can change. We are prioritizing teacher development, we are reforming our high schools to better meet the challenges of the future. We are working with the larger community to expand educational opportunites. We are holding policy study sessions where we, as the trustees of the public schools, can hear from interested folks on topics ranging from high school reform to advertising and vending, to site based leadership. We have set up feed back forums through the web page for the MPS. We know where the problems are and we are working to improve that so our all our students get a good education. Our Superintendent is doing a lot of restructuring within the administration so that the district is better able to provide the serives teachers need to do a good job. Educational institutions have remained largely unchanged for over a hundred years. Schools are based on an industrial anglo-saxon model that reaches less and less kids. We need more hands on, challenging teaching methods and we need to have high expectations of our students. There is no quick fix. Many of our students face incredible stresses in their young lives. Housing is a big issue. Mental health issues have been largely ignored for the youngest children entering into our schools. We have children who are orphaned from foreign countries who have witnessed first hand atrocities that we can hope to never see here. We have students who never spent one day in school until their arrival here. There are many challenges, there is a lot of work to do. We take everyone who comes to our schools. A small sidebar, I would like to mention a little bit about current practices of the legislature in regards to education. There is a lot of micro management of public education from the state. There are, for an example, practices that cause the public schools state wide to borrow money to cover expenses because the state releases money to schools based on unrealistic cycles so that the state can collect enormous sums in interest. The surplus comes partially from this practice, but as a district we have to take out short term loans, on which we must pay interest, to make expenses til the check shows up, in late June and December. I won't bore you with any more of the details. Just know that much of what does happen in the public schools is mandated by the state and federal governments, and lots of it is unfunded. (Some day we should discuss the meaning of local control of the list!) End of editorializing on that for the moment! Without support for public education, racism, classism and intolerance will get worse. I do not think of our schools as social experiments that I subject my children to for the sake of political correctness, I see it as a place where they can, with my involvment, get a good education and I feel that it is a good choice for my kids! Audrey Johnson 10th ward MPS BOE _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - Minnesota E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
