Cookie Cutters
So I get this e-mail from a concerned parent/citizen. There was lots of detail, but ultimately it comes down to a reality that the public school district Kid1 attends has recently passed a curriculum change that requires an extra year of science, math and English in order to graduate. Sounds fine to me...I mean, instead of three years of each you now have to have four.
The second part involved the way the school district gives raises to their teachers, and ultimately what this means is that teachers at the arts magnet school she attends that teach 9 classes will need to drop to 8 in order to qualify for these raises. It's complicated to explain it...but the bottom line to students is that these art students at an arts magnet high school will, in effect, lose an art class per year over their four-year tenure. It won't affect my kid as she'll be a junior next year.
Now, my guess is that this e-mail will stir up the pot of parents (it did me, and I'm considering being at a coffee with the principal scheduled for Friday morning) and what will happen is that the governing body will make some sort of waiver for the teachers at an art school to get raises in an appropriate manner. And they'll get one year of art electives back.
But it seems to me that the governing bodies always seem to think that...
...math...
...and science...
...and foreign language...
...and physical education...
...are the things that need to be added to the curriculums so we can "allow our kids to compete on a global scale."
But what I'm learning as I talk to more parents (which is more my job these days) is that all of our kids don't necessarily fit into those neat little compartments. Now, I'm not knocking math & science & foreign language & P.E. But let's keep the creative writing and the painting and the music classes and all that jazz, okay?
Like Mr. John Keating said in the movie Dead Poet's Society: "We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. "
Just a thought from your friendly neighborhood Diner today.
So I get this e-mail from a concerned parent/citizen. There was lots of detail, but ultimately it comes down to a reality that the public school district Kid1 attends has recently passed a curriculum change that requires an extra year of science, math and English in order to graduate. Sounds fine to me...I mean, instead of three years of each you now have to have four.
The second part involved the way the school district gives raises to their teachers, and ultimately what this means is that teachers at the arts magnet school she attends that teach 9 classes will need to drop to 8 in order to qualify for these raises. It's complicated to explain it...but the bottom line to students is that these art students at an arts magnet high school will, in effect, lose an art class per year over their four-year tenure. It won't affect my kid as she'll be a junior next year.
Now, my guess is that this e-mail will stir up the pot of parents (it did me, and I'm considering being at a coffee with the principal scheduled for Friday morning) and what will happen is that the governing body will make some sort of waiver for the teachers at an art school to get raises in an appropriate manner. And they'll get one year of art electives back.
But it seems to me that the governing bodies always seem to think that...
...math...
...and science...
...and foreign language...
...and physical education...
...are the things that need to be added to the curriculums so we can "allow our kids to compete on a global scale."
But what I'm learning as I talk to more parents (which is more my job these days) is that all of our kids don't necessarily fit into those neat little compartments. Now, I'm not knocking math & science & foreign language & P.E. But let's keep the creative writing and the painting and the music classes and all that jazz, okay?
Like Mr. John Keating said in the movie Dead Poet's Society: "We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. "
Just a thought from your friendly neighborhood Diner today.
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