Let me first apologize to Catherine for my use of
hyperbole. However, she did state that "legal action"
is one of the three most valuable points (in The Plan)
to combat poor student achievement - I cannot agree
with this.
What this means is that it is not "our" (the school
system's) fault - it is the student, it is the family,
the community, maybe a poorly trained teacher, but it
is not systemic. Catherine states "that our emphasis
should be and is on building relationships between
students and teachers, providing quality instruction
and rigorous, challenging curriculum that will engage
students and make them want to attend school" - while
this all sounds quite good, and I essentially agree
with what must be done - it is not CFL, the School
Board, or District that must be charged with these
duties. Here is where too often problems crop up in
our current bureaucracy. These emphases should be of
the individual schools, and of each classroom. Our
top-heavy system loses the students in the curriculum.
Catherine did not address my suggestion that school
ought to be responsive to the interests of students.
Is this a bad idea? Instead, she states that legal
action does not criminalize students, it merely
redirects them into "alternative schools" - seperate
but equal, all over again. If we are not literally
criminalizing students, we are essentially relegating
them to a second-class, "alternative" environment.
This is not the answer, we need to make schools work
for all students.
I understand that Catherine wants the best education
possible for all students, but I wonder if what we are
doing will lead to that. I would like to see reforms
made to the bureaucracy, less top-down, micro-managing
of classrooms. Each classroom, and each student, is
too different from the next to believe that there is
any possible panecea from above. Instead we need to
allow teachers the freedom to teach, to instinctively
lead each new daily environment without the
constrictive mandates of CFL or the district.
Jon Kelland
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