wizardmarks wrote: > Michael Atherton wrote: > Her role is to keep people happy > > And, as Ms. Shreves points out, to provide a positive face for corporate > > donors. The fact is that any superintendent who tried to implement real reforms >that would truly have beneficial effects would end up > > alienating so many people that they wouldn't last a year before the > > school board would be forced to terminate their contact. > > Is there no superintendent of schools who initiatied solid > reforms? I'm having a tough time believing that a > Superintendent cannot weild some power.
I still have been able to communicate this issue well. It's not that you can't find superintendents who could drastically improve the performance of the public schools; it's that the public, the parents, the teachers, the students, the administrators, and the legislators are not ready to change their perspectives of what the schools should be. You need look no further than this list to see evidence of this. Look at the opposition to using a business efficiency model; look at the lack of response to reasoned proposals for parent involvement; look at the ambivalence of middle-class parents to the plight of poor families; and look at the reaction of all of these when you mention "discipline and hard work." I think that an analogous reaction is that of a welfare recipient interviewed on TV about the end of welfare benefits who said, "Why change a system that has worked for thirty years." People just don't have the concept yet, but I'm working on it. Michael Atherton Prospect Park _______________________________________ 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
