Everyone I talk to who was traumatized by the recent Sonia Diaz episode and its resulting crisis has told me that things are much, much calmer now that the new school board members have taken over and under the direction of Mr. Rounds. Thanks to all of them on behalf of my three kids--for now....NEVER AGAIN
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I have looked inside the minds of our leaders downtown, and here is what I have learned:What they say: Research based best practices. What they mean: I have no idea what I'm doing, I hope no one figures it out .
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When I used the term 'gobble-de-gook', I wasn't referring to anything in particular. There should be no problem with research based practices, provided that the research is done in a scientific, classic research manner... rather than the informal, 'prove anything you want to prove' kind of research that is typically done in the public schools, and in the teacher prep programs that affect the way we teach. The comments in this blog site indicate that there have been too many untested, unproven initiatives that have failed in our district. Anyone who has been in the district for at least a few years, will tell you about some of those failures. How about the many attempts that have been made to try to turn the low-English kids into strong achievers? The high schools are full of 'students' who are still reading at the primary school level, and it's not because the kids are stupid. It is, quite simply, because we haven't found an effective way to get that job done. A hundred to a hundred fifty years ago, it was common for an 'English-only' teacher (preparation: an eighth grade diploma, two carefully studied books on pedagogy and teaching methods, and a required exam) to be placed in a school in an almost totally non-English community. Everyone (German, Scandinavian, French, Italian, Spanish, etc.) worked hard, respected cultural differences, and the kids learned at a very acceptable rate. Those teachers who introduced immigrants to life in America were cherished, and celebrated, for the rest of their lives. Are we missing something today?
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What are the chances our district can seriously look at going back to the old grade level system? Elementary should be k-6, Jr. High should be 7-8 and High School should be 9-12. A lot of places around the country are getting away from the middle school concept and are having great success. Since the middle schools here have such problems, maybe we should look into it.
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Why is it that everyone has to be so critical of Mr. Rounds? It saddens me that people are so unwilling to give him a chance. He has not even been here for two months and is already undergoing such criticism. We all know that our district needs a lot of healing brought to it. We finally have someone that can, and is willing to do so. Let's let him do his job and I'm sure we will be just fine!