I attended and was not impressed. It really should have been called the "RDale: Let's Clap Ourselves on the Back While We Dream" Now I do agree that there were many people in attendance who deserved the applause and congratulations, especially the kids.
A lot of the Supt's talk was based on the new Equity Mission Statement and the Unified District Vision. Which apparently means we are going to keep kid's in the classroom no matter how challenging or dysfunctional they are. This sounds like a very idealistic and great concept, except for one point...
Parent(s) who can move will move rather than leave their kids in a disruptive school or classroom. They are not going to say... "We will leave little Janie in the chaotic classroom / school while little Bobbie is straightened out."
They are going to focus on the needs of their child and move them to a school / classroom where all the kid's listen and learn. That is the blessing and curse of school choice, Parent's can choose what is best for their child and take the tax payer's money with them...
It was humorous and sad as the Supt. preached about how it was our duty to ensure all kid's learned.
A lot of the Supt's talk was based on the new Equity Mission Statement and the Unified District Vision. Which apparently means we are going to keep kid's in the classroom no matter how challenging or dysfunctional they are. This sounds like a very idealistic and great concept, except for one point...
Parent(s) who can move will move rather than leave their kids in a disruptive school or classroom. They are not going to say... "We will leave little Janie in the chaotic classroom / school while little Bobbie is straightened out."
They are going to focus on the needs of their child and move them to a school / classroom where all the kid's listen and learn. That is the blessing and curse of school choice, Parent's can choose what is best for their child and take the tax payer's money with them...
It was humorous and sad as the Supt. preached about how it was our duty to ensure all kid's learned.
- I mean I agree with him on a community level...
- However from a Parent's perspective it so naive...
- The Parent(s) job to ensure their child learns...
One last thought, it is odd the Supt's seem to be like Business Managers in that they move around a lot. Which to the cynic in me means that they move before they actually prove themselves or learn from their screw ups. Being at CAT for 16 years gave me many opportunities to learn from my mistakes. (too many... :-)) I am not sure what I would learn from spending less than 3 years in each place?
3 comments:
in my district (where I live) they decided this year to get rid of honors classes at the middle school and mix students together for all classes (not sure about math)
When my kids went there they had almost all honors classes, but I think the staff found teaching the non-honors classes quite difficult. Anyway, my neighbor whose youngest child is in 6th grade, open enrolled him to another district and now drives him and 2 other students to a middle school about 10 miles away. The other district is less diverse and much less low income than the district in which I live. Not sure if they have honors type classes or just classes with less misbehavior due to their demographics.
Yes, that is what I fear will happen at RDale now that they are eliminating seperation between focused students with good grades and the others. The hallways of the schools held there own challenges, but we knew the classrooms were more stable.
Now folks like me will be even more concerned about keeping our kids in the district. 😩
And if they leave and take with them their child’s funding, their financial and time donations, and the stabilizing influence their focused kids provide... The whole school, district and community will suffer.
The same thing that happened to most challenged schools. Those who can run do so, and leave the trouble makers behind.
Which I guess is what a good parent who wants the best for their child would do.
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