More Coffee, Please

There’s a funny thing that happens when you talk to an educator who doesn’t know anything about MC² and the fights in the district and the constant attacks. They get this weird look on their face like they’ve just seen the light itself, and then, I usually get asked, “What private school is this?”

I really like answering, “It’s not a private school. It’s a part of Monadnock High School.” I love that answer, because when I say it, their eyes get wide, and they can’t even believe it. They’ve heard about Monadnock, and they know what it’s about—the falling down school, the voters that won’t vote to support it, the district they’re grateful they don’t teach in.¹

I love that moment of realization when they discover there’s something awesome going on there. I love that, for one second, rather than being the joke district, Monadnock is the way I remember it growing up and the way I feel about it now—a first class educational institute on par with anything around it.

We need it. Earlier this week, a group of college students presented on an issue to the kids at Upward Bound. They were great kids, very sincere, and very knowledgeable about their material.² I appreciated a great deal of what they had to say, and I appreciated what they were trying to do.

Still, what I couldn’t stand was how they presented, The posters were horrible, their presentation skills lousy. I’m sitting there thinking that I’ve seen much better in high school, and I know we demand more of our students for Gateways and graduations. I wasn’t alone; I leaned over to a friend who teaches middle school in Keene, and asked, “Is that even middle school work?” and he shook his head, “Barely sixth grade.”

We spoke some more as we left, and I was talking about the way we do things at MC², and more importantly the way I want to push things to continue. There is no reason not to have a poster that looks like it was done by a professional with the explosion of desktop publishing available. Large format printers are cheap, there’s one in every school, and it doesn’t take something from Adobe to make it look professional.

As I was talking with him, he looked at me and asked that common question, “what private school do you teach at again?” He was hearing something amazing, something which is the way it should be, and of course had to believe that it was a private school. He couldn’t imagine doing everything in the current school structure, which is fair—it’s not possible.

The idea of changing the school structure is a much bigger mental leap to take. Of course, if we want to really educate our kids, putting aside a model designed to teach farmers how to work on an assembly line is probably in our best interest.

1 I was talking with one of the classroom tutors who serves at Upward Bound, a Keene State graduate originally from Connecticut. He was commenting that New Hampshire is a wonderful state, if you want a retirement home, but never to raise kids in. “Have you seen that school down in Swanzey? It sits right off the road and looks like it ought to be condemned.” He was mortified when I told him I worked there, apologized profusely, but I didn’t mind. I try very hard to be able to see and hear the truth.↺

2 I’m being intentionally vague on the topic here, since I’ve no wish to target the students in question. Like always, there’s always a line between making a point and respecting the people in the world, their intentions, and their efforts. ↺

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Competency Based Education, Education, Monadnock Community Connections School, Monadnock Regional School District, School Change, School Funding

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