Weekly Update 6.12.09
June 13th, 2009One of the things I think our public school system must do well is to train men and women to be citizens in a democracy. It sounds like an easy task (all it takes is being born, right?) but it’s deceptive. One of the primary arguments against democracy and freedom for thousands of years were that people were too stupid, too selfish, and too fickle to be in control of their own lives. The average individual needed to be subject to the state, not a citizen of it.
If we accept that our schools are to be teachers of the skills needed for democracy, we ought to be terrified when those institutions—such as the school board—don’t have the representation of the people to do their task effectively.
Presently the Monadnock Regional School Board has two member vacancies—and it has been this way for months, one from Roxbury and one from Troy. The Roxbury position has been vacant since Karen Cota resigned in November 2008, and the Troy vacancy occurred with the resignation of Doug Lyman in April 2009.
This ought to scare Joe Average. It certainly scares me. When the average person ceases to be involved, the fanatics are empowered—the margins assume greater prominence over the middle. It’s vital that citizens serve the state—even if only for a few hours each month.
The MRSD school Board meets the first and third Tuesday of each month September through June. There is one meeting held in July and August.
Know somebody? Tell them. Are somebody? Contact Dr. Dassau.
Terrifying article.
Thursday night was the first of two senior project nights, and it went very well. As usual, it was astounding what the kids have done and the quality of some of the work. Stepping back and seeing what’s possible—and the extent to which the senior project has the potential to drive student success and achievement—it merely reinforces how much the students are capable and how much they’ve learned.
But there’s something else I like—that it brings the whole school out, that it brings, to some extent, the community out. You see people that haven’t been in the school in years, and they come because what they see is worthwhile, because it’s amazing, and because it’s a chance to come into the building and see good things.
Personally, I would love it were it an hour longer—or even, just a half-hour, with that first half hour with all the projects on display throughout the school and a chance for the whole community to come into the school, see what’s been done, talk to the students, and then choose which one they would like to see.
That’d be cool.
If the first night was missed, the second night is equally great—this Tuesday, 6pm.
Thoughts worth mining in this article. We move a little at a time.
I noticed Seth Godin agreeing with me about textbooks.
June 17th, 2009 at 8:12 am
There are two items I would like to comment about. First of all, serving on the School Board. It isn’t or rather it shouldn’t be about just doing a few hours every other week at a meeting. There are subcommittee meetings and then there are other activities that you might be asked to do. It should be a committment about the students. As a school board member it shouldn’t be about arriving late to a meeting and then leaving early. More than 1/2 of the School Board members only go to the meeting and maybe their subcommittee meeting. You are representing your town. Do you go to the different functions that a student might be in? Do you go to all of the graduations (elementary, middle and high schools)? It can be very frustrating when it becomes about poltics and not about the students. It isn’t about furthering your own personal agenda. I personally miss doing all of those different activities but at some point my daughter had to come first. To me it isn’t about having a warm body in that seat as much as it is to have someone who has a committment to the students.
The second comment was about Senior Projects. I have been asking this question for a few years now. Why aren’t Juniors having to see senior projects? This would be a great opportunity for them to observe what they have to do next year. I know quite a few juniors this year that did not see a senior project given and then next year they will be what is that about. Maybe someone could make that their senior project about teaching the juniors what it is all about.
June 18th, 2009 at 6:22 am
Hi Sue,
I would agree that any public official has a huge responsibility, not only to his or her role, but in a larger sense to the other elements that come into play when one holds elected office. All that you say is true, and were the world the place it ought to be, than every school board member would be as described.
Andthere are many who are. I remember Jane Forsten and Eric Stanley appearing at a Destination Imagination event at MRHS (there may have been others as well) and Colline Dryfuss (as well as Bob Smith) helped run a junior high newspaper and appeared at nearly every MC2 Graduation.
And then there are those who do not… But before I condemn them for that, I’m going to remember that I don’t get to the school board meetings I want to, and I don’t have a child at home, or any of the million things that sometimes we run into. I think I’ll be gentle here…knowing, of course, that there are those as you describe.
But we need the voters for that. We don’t see enough of them at school board meetings, either. Personally, I’d like to see Cheshire TV filming them as much as they do the ones in Keene.
As for the senior project… Well, that’s something that I’ll be working on this summer (with many others!) and something that I hope to address. For my part, I hope to have a corner of my wall dedicated to “ideas I’d like to see” (including the creation of a writing lab for students who need help with papers) and I’ll add this idea to it—it would be a good project!
Best,
RJH
June 21st, 2009 at 6:18 pm
[...] projects, for example, Tuesday night. Once again, they were solid, though I’m still confident they could be made considerably [...]