It's probably time we changed the subject line on this thread, since it's obviously ridiculous. I only left it on this time to point out the hyperbole of the it's-always-midnight-in-the-schools crowd.
Having toured three south Minneapolis schools the day after Lynnell Mickelson's column appeared (including Lake Harriet, where her kids go, as well as Barton and Hale, with Burroughs to come), I appreciated the wisdom of her comments. Oscar Wilde (I think) defined a fool as someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. I think when it comes to writing, fools know the definition of every word and the context of nothing. Lynnell was writing for the people she sees on tours - good parents (not everyone takes energy to make it though 5 hours of tours back-to-back, with several more to come) selecting among several excellent schools. That was certainly my feeling after touring the three I found. My son Ian would probably do fine at any of them - and I think a far bigger variable for his ultimate success is my and my wife's relationship with him. Does that let schools off the hook? Of course not. The reason schools are not the biggest variable is that the ones in Lynnell's experience - mirrored by folks on my block and in my acquaintance - is that most are doing a very good job If they weren't, Lynnell would have written a different column. I don't want to deny Doug Mann's oft-repeated point that we have inequalities, even separatism, in our school system. But having attended the School Choice Fair last month, and seeing roughly 50 parents at the three schools we attended yesterday - those are not the parents on the hurting side of the divide. They are not the parents of the 50 percent (is that accurate?) of MPS kids who don't graduate. These are the parents who Lynnell is writing to, and who her column was meant for. There are real problems with the school system. But hyperbole such as Michael Atherton's "If you want your children to grow up to doctors, or lawyers, or scientists, then I think that you'd better be concerned about the state of the Minneapolis school system" is not backed by the data Michael often demands (sorry, a 50 percent drop-out rate does not prove that kids with the talent to become doctors, lawyers and scientists are thwarted by MPS). It's Michael's feeling - dare I say, his rather cement-firm worldview. But if feelings are what we're relying on, I trust less the midnight-in-the-schools people without kids in the system than the dozens of highly involved parents I know whose doctor, lawyer, and scientist children have graduated from MPS. Just on a common sense basis, if Minneapolis was failing to serve the proto-docs, pre-laws, and future scientists, property values in SW Minneapolis would be dropping like a rock, and it wouldn't be 25 percent of families with school-age kids opting for private schools, it would be 75 percent, or 90 percent. Once again, a reminder: Lynnell was writing for the SW Journal. David Brauer King Field - Ward 10 _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
