Thursday, March 15, 2007
The Writing On The Wall
You ever get the feeling something bad is about to happen?
Some news from my high school Alma Mater has me a bit worried; the first item is that our superintendent is retiring, the second is that our school board held a "closed door" meeting. I can only think that this is leading to one thing.
That one thing is that my hometown school district will soon be taken over by the State of Pennsylvania. The State has a system whereby is schools can't meet certain academic performance standards, the State can come in an take control of them. Once they improve, the school is returned to the control of the community/district. I don't believe any school that has been put on this list has gotten off--yet.
But at some level this may be just the "wake-up call" my hometown needs. The way members of my hometown have criticized the high school principal, whose efforts to try and enforce some academic standards affected our football team, may show a kind of "tunnel vision" that affects many small towns and minority communities alike. The idea that athletics is about the only way for young people to escape. A media and shoe industry that fuels this false hope isn't helping matters much either.
The other issue is that this may be a bit generational. Years ago, students in my hometown could go from high school to a steel mill. The union would make sure wages kept pace with cost of living and maybe one of their kids would go off to college, get a better job and kinda help the family along.
Now the reality is college, trade school, or Wal-Mart. Where one gets trapped in a low-wage, low-benefit job (or jobs), and it's likely that the kids will get trapped in the same cycle. Many schools haven't, or don't want to, adjust to the reality that there are few low-skill jobs that pay decently.
Now I also have some ideas on what steps the State should take should they come in and take over; for one, keep the principal, since I think he has the right idea, two, uniforms, maybe if the kids weren't so concerned about looking like what they see on MTv or BET they'd put some more energy into study, third, parental accountability, I think the parents need to learn how media and culture may be affecting their children and how to create a sense of resistance to it, finally, if all else fails, suspend all extra-curricular activities that aren't co-curricular, in short school musicals, etc are OK, but no more sports teams until things get better.
This situation may be the big decision that my hometown needs to make, a decision to fight back and try to live, or truly decide to simply die.
You ever get the feeling something bad is about to happen?
Some news from my high school Alma Mater has me a bit worried; the first item is that our superintendent is retiring, the second is that our school board held a "closed door" meeting. I can only think that this is leading to one thing.
That one thing is that my hometown school district will soon be taken over by the State of Pennsylvania. The State has a system whereby is schools can't meet certain academic performance standards, the State can come in an take control of them. Once they improve, the school is returned to the control of the community/district. I don't believe any school that has been put on this list has gotten off--yet.
But at some level this may be just the "wake-up call" my hometown needs. The way members of my hometown have criticized the high school principal, whose efforts to try and enforce some academic standards affected our football team, may show a kind of "tunnel vision" that affects many small towns and minority communities alike. The idea that athletics is about the only way for young people to escape. A media and shoe industry that fuels this false hope isn't helping matters much either.
The other issue is that this may be a bit generational. Years ago, students in my hometown could go from high school to a steel mill. The union would make sure wages kept pace with cost of living and maybe one of their kids would go off to college, get a better job and kinda help the family along.
Now the reality is college, trade school, or Wal-Mart. Where one gets trapped in a low-wage, low-benefit job (or jobs), and it's likely that the kids will get trapped in the same cycle. Many schools haven't, or don't want to, adjust to the reality that there are few low-skill jobs that pay decently.
Now I also have some ideas on what steps the State should take should they come in and take over; for one, keep the principal, since I think he has the right idea, two, uniforms, maybe if the kids weren't so concerned about looking like what they see on MTv or BET they'd put some more energy into study, third, parental accountability, I think the parents need to learn how media and culture may be affecting their children and how to create a sense of resistance to it, finally, if all else fails, suspend all extra-curricular activities that aren't co-curricular, in short school musicals, etc are OK, but no more sports teams until things get better.
This situation may be the big decision that my hometown needs to make, a decision to fight back and try to live, or truly decide to simply die.
Labels: Farrell, schools, sports
¶ 9:43 AM
