So there are big changes brewing in our little corner of the school district universe, and I'm not entirely sure I'm all on board with them. There's not a lot of information being distributed about it at the moment, but it appears that all the elementary and middle schools in our district, as well as the "small schools" that make up the high school, are going to be converted into some type of magnet school. Every school (except the one serving very pronounced special needs kids) will be either a S.T.E.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math), International Baccalaureate, or fine arts/performing arts school. Elementary and middle school parents can send their children either to the closest neighborhood school or to the closest school on the educational track that most interests them. You know what? I'm not sold. I allow for the possibility that I'll be won over once they actually start giving out a lot more information about it, but for right now, I'm not sold.
For one thing, all I know about the whole thing comes from what the school district put up on its website: a message from the Superintendent, a video of the Board of Education meeting where this was announced, and the power point presentation that was done. The speech began with rather dire sounding statistics about, surprise surprise, China and India. I admit that I sort of mentally roll my eyes these days at any presentation that begins with ominous warnings about the Asian Hordes that are coming to beat us up and take our lunch money. I also confess that both the power point presentation and the bit of the video that I watched went pretty heavy on the silly corporate crap-speak: "Integrated pathways" and "rigor leads to relevance" and other such nonsense. Puh-leez.
But I just find myself scratching my head with all of this. I feel myself being pressed by my school board into an unnecessary sense of panic, and I don't like it. I get that China and India are improving their education systems. Good for them. Does that threaten the U.S.'s historically preeminent place in the world economy? I don't know. Maybe. The fact is that China at #1 and India at #2 are by far the two most populous nations on Earth--the U.S. is #3 and India's population is more than three times ours. And I'm not silly enough to think that the world in which my children will have to find themselves and find careers will be anything like the one into which I ventured at age 25. But because the two most populous nations on the face of the Earth are improving their education systems, this means I have to choose an educational and career track for my own kids right freaking now or they're doomed to flip burgers the rest of their lives? Really? They're nine and seven for cripes sakes. What if we choose wrong?
If these separate educational tracks had been in place in the school district I attended growing up, there's no question what I would have done. Nurturing visions of avoiding as many math, science, grammar, and composition classes as possible, and with fantastical dreams of unlimited music and acting classes dancing in my head, I'd have nagged my mom incessantly to let me go to the performing arts school. And for all I know it would have been a real mistake. The only adult person I know who really knew at age five what he'd be when he grew up is my husband. He always knew he wanted to study the stars, and that's what he does. This of course has required a science-intensive education. But he will tell you that his favorite, and possibly most educationally useful, high school classes were his AP English and AP History courses. So would it have been educationally a mistake to send him to a S.T.E.M. magnet school?
It is of course entirely possible that I'm overreacting. I assume that, regardless of which schools my kids attend, they're going to get opportunities to take Math, Science, Literature, and History classes. At least minimally, they're going to have to pass basic high school proficiency exams. But for right now, without admittedly having enough information to make a judgment, I'm having a vague feeling of hostility. Fair or not, it's there. I shall keep you posted, gentle reader....
2 comments:
I don't think you're over-reacting at all. Just my two cents. As an educator, I've always been cautious about educational swings, and believe me they are huge, and often capricious, swings. Sometimes even hideous mistakes. One example of this is the late, and I hope permanently deceased, "whole language" calamity. Well-meant and hugely ill-conceived, this whim cost us a generation of readers and spellers. Ok. I'll stop. It's my soap box. sorry. I'll climb back under it.
No need to scurry under the soap box. In general I agree with your observations about educational swings. My mom is also a teacher, though now retired, and I know they get sick of being told every few years that the sky is falling and they have to implement new curriculum/procedures/whatever. It's exhausting.
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