No New Thing Under The Sun

Who better to “examin[e] everything from teacher recruitment and performance, to whether the current school calendar is appropriate, and how the state’s more than 700 school districts are structured” than a “retired Citibank Chair and Time Warner President Richard Parsons . . . the SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher, State Education Commissioner John King, and the chairs of the Senate and Assembly Education committees, as well as private sector advocate[s] . . . Geoffrey Canada.” At least that is the thought process of Governor Cuomo.

This is the makeup and charge of Guomo’s newly appointed education commission that includes a banker, a businessmen, a lawyer, two politicians, and an educator thrown in for good measure.

It is unclear how, but the Governor expects this group to be more interested in the educational needs of children than “the priorities of the financial interests.” Cuomo also named Randi Weingarten to the panel with no response from the President of the American Federation of Teachers.

There are however no parents on the panel, no education advocates, no students, no in-class or even retired teachers or administrators on the panel, except for Geoffrey Canada. This is no surprise since this is almost the same make-up as the State’s Board of Regents.

Is there any wonder why our system of education is in the failing condition that it is? Both locally and in the State, businessmen, lawyers, and politicians are running the educational show and have been doing so for years. And for years, education, locally and in the State, has been failing our children miserably.

We, the people of the United States, have the ultimate say in the policies our elected officials create and the decisions they make. When our voices are not heard the educational failure our children experience is not attributable to those we elected, the onus is on us for continuing to re-elect the individuals who choose not to listen. Our voice is our vote, it is time we speak up.

Our children suffer educationally and because of the lack of an excellent education provided our society suffers with them.

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Regents – Get To Know Them

The New York State Board of Regents are responsible for the general supervision of all educational activities within the State, presiding over The University and the New York State Education Department. The University of the State of New York is the nation’s most comprehensive and unified educational system. It consists of all elementary, secondary, and postsecondary educational institutions, libraries, museums, public broadcasting, records and archives, professions, Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities, and such other institutions, organizations, and agencies as may be admitted to The University.

Regents are elected to office by the State Legislature and serve a five year term. They serve on a volunteer basis and generally have little to do with or in the field of education in their professional lives.

Recently Rochester attorney T. Andrew Brown was elected to the Board of Regents filling the position left by Vice-Chancellor Milton Coefield. Rochester has one other representative on the Board, Regent Wade Norwood.

Most people have no idea who the New York Sate Board of Regents are or what they do. Yet, this body of individuals is responsible for making decisions that have severely impacted education throughout New York State.

Special education policy, standardized testing policy, charter school policy, teacher and administrator evaluation policy, and funding policy, for New York State, all fall under the purview of the Board of Regents. Yet, by Vice-Chancellor Coefield’s own admission, the Board of Regents exacts little to no accountability from local school district’s or school boards. However, they will withhold funding from our children in order to force compliance with their regulations.

When we talk about the failing system of education, that discussion has to include the Board of Regents. We must understand that this body enacts policy and legislation that districts are bound by and then accepts no responsibility for the unprecedented failure of education in New York State. In order to change the system of education we must change the entire system which includes the Board of Regents. Educators must conduct education not politics.

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Sticks and Stones vs Politically Correct

Freedom of Speech, Press, Religion and Petition
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Hyperbole: Exaggerations to create emphasis or effect.

Political correctness: A term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts.

There was a time when children were taught to ignore the ignorance of someone who called them a “bad” name. Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me.

While there can be no law abridging the freedom of speech, that freedom has been usurped by political correctness. People have become so sensitive to “words” that they will go so far as to terrorize a child for speaking the truth. At a public hearing where the community was encouraged to speak out School Board commissioners made a speaker apologize for using hyperbole to make a point. Yet, those same commissioners had no problem using words to deride and abash the speaker to the point of making her feel threatened and in danger of her safety.

Is this the example we want to set for our children?

Have we become so weak mentally, physically, and spiritually that mere words can cause such intense emotion that we are willing to do harm to one another?

If this is the sanity that we live in today then it very well may be that the “inmates are running the asylum.”

We must teach our children to be strong. We must teach our children to have the courage to speak freely. We must teach our children to stand up for themselves and their rights.

We are not free to speak if we are afraid of being hurt for what we say.

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On The Road To Success

School Board Commissioners Adams, Elliott, and White hosted a public forum to gather parent, student, teacher and community input concerning the direction of the proposed All City High program. The meeting, which began at 6PM lasted until 9 o’clock as people came to the podium to vent their frustrations and offer viable suggestions and solutions for addressing the district’s population of mis-educated students.

Commissioner White was instrumental in convening the forum which sought to include the community in the process of creating an alternative to the traditional methods of instruction that failed to engage and educate approximately 2% of the district’s 9th through 12th grade students.

It was encouraging to see a diverse group of nearly fifty students, parents, teachers, ministers, community members, and community leaders assembled to offer input. Suggestions and comments were written down and Commissioner White made a point of saying that everything that was recorded would be shared, on the district website, with the larger community.

The question is however, will the suggestions made be seriously considered and properly implemented? The All City High proposal is supposed to go before the Board at the next business meeting on March 22, 2010. Will there be an upgraded model for the program or will the proposal be submitted in its original form? Was the request for community input genuine or simply a move to placate the burgeoning crowd of discontent in the district?

As a community we must appreciate the effort of members of the Board to reach out and involve us in the decision making process. We must also make sure that our ideas and suggestions are taken seriously and included in the process. Any measure taken without accountability for the outcome is a measure taken in vain.

While it is important not to dwell on the past, it is necessary to learn from it so that mistakes are not repeated. Lack of trust is a very serious issue in this district, between and among all stakeholder groups. Building trust is a difficult process that takes time and patience. Our children deserve both.

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It’s The First Amendment

“I may not agree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it” - Evelyn Beatrice Hall

RCSD Board Commissioners should be ashamed of themselves for not defending Jada Williams. This is another indication of why, in this district, adults succeed while our children fail.

Every teacher has the responsibility to put personal feelings aside and provide guidance and support to students in their endeavors. Teachers must provide students with a safe learning environment so that they will feel free to express their opinions and openly discuss their feelings and beliefs. It is only through open and honest dialogue that we can progress as a people.

Jada Williams, wrote an essay which said that there were teachers who were unable to effectively manage their classrooms, teachers who were unable to effectively connect with their students culturally. Jada told the truth. Her English teacher did not approve of the essay’s content and decided not to submit it. She also decided to copy the essay and circulate it among her colleagues. The adults in the school began to harass both Jada and her family until eventually Jada’s mother made the decision to take her out of school. Jada’s mother tried to settle the matter amicably. The district supported the adults.

Unable to accept the truth that Jada exposed, teachers, the administrator, and district leaders, decided to make Jada’s comments racial. Instead of using the truth as an opportunity to better meet the needs of their students, teachers decided to bully the student who was brave enough to say, “The emperor has no clothes.” Instead of moving the teachers out of the classroom, the district moved Jada out of her school and placed her in a totally foreign environment. Jada was persecuted and punished for telling the truth.

This community must support Jada Williams. To allow the district to deny Jada’s right to freedom of speech and then to punish her for telling her truth is to allow anarchy to reign within our district.

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Take Issue Not Sides

In the Glen Beck interview of Jada Williams it is made very clear that what was done to Jada was wrong, not white.

For years this community has worked diligently to overcome the racial barriers that have kept us from uniting in our efforts to affect change in the failing system of education for our children.

Working together, parents, community members, and educators, have stopped the closings of numerous schools, removed the Brizard threat, forced the district to retain the arts and librarians in our schools, voted a new voice and perspective onto the school board, created a superintendent search committee, stopped the adoption of an unsanctioned high school program, and exposed a fraudulent attempt to increase trade union quotas without increasing women and minority employment in the construction trades.

We now have another, even greater reason to remain united as a community Jada Williams. Jada Williams was not discriminated against, she was silenced. She was denied her rights as an American, she was denied her Constitutional right to freedom of speech.

The issue is a group of adults, who are not only to teach citizenship but should role model and protect the constitutional rights of every child in their purview, chose to harass and bully a child until she no longer felt comfortable attending school.

To reduce this situation to a matter of black and white is to devalue Jada Williams as a human being and as a United States citizen.

To allow this situation to divide this community, pitting parents and students against teachers and administrators is to fall prey to the hundreds of years of ignorance that has brought this country to the educational failure in which we now live.

We must not forget how long we have fought, together, how hard we have fought, together, to bring about change. We must not forget that it is only by working together that change in the system of education for our children can be accomplished.

What was done to Jada was wrong and we must work together as a community to make it right.

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