We had another lesson in high standards and rigor this week. It was public education with its biggest foot in its mouth.
The entire eighth grade for our school district was pulled out of class for half a day to go to a high school to have the different schools try to recruit them into what are called academies. One school had a special academy that was geared toward engineering. I am not an engineer and I may have missed something but I thought engineering involved a lot of boring math and science classes that form the foundation for the ability to create and design. All I saw in the presentation in the gym and later in the main auditorium were kids assembling robot kits and talking about fun and friends. Maybe my cynicism got in the way of the message.
And you would have loved the opening remarks of the woman in charge. Let me say that I do not know her or her name and I am sure she is a wonderful person. She started off talking about her dream of being a pediatrician. Good. Dreams are all these kids have at this point. Let’s get them setting their bar high. Unfortunately the next words destroyed the future of these kids. Her next sentence was something to the effect that when she got to college and realized she would need to take a lot of hard science courses she decided it wasn’t for her. Instead I guess she ended up as an administrator in our school district. Instead of challenging them to aim high, work hard and reach for their dream she reinforced what they already were quite willing to do: “Take the easy road.”
So we are off to another year of trying to give kids the skills they need, in spite of the leadership.
homo unius libri
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