Being eighty one I have seen and participated in many things in my life. I remember the carnivals coming to town with their games and trying to win a prize. One of those games was the shell and pea game. The man would show the pea and seemingly placing it under a nut shell. He then would move the three shells around and when he stopped asked which shell the pea was under. Unless he wanted you to win you always were wrong. Some times the game used three playing cards known as "Three Card Monty." Same results.
It seems the HCDE has revised the game by moving many people around possibly to hide people and confuse the public about past wrongs. Just possibly a new approach to cause people to forget what has happened and who all were involved like three coaches hired by a principal. The school board is still playing the three monkeys, see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil. Before you go to sleep each night make a commitment to pray for the young men who were raped and injured. I will always believe the staff either heard or knew what was taking place.
N.D. Kennedy Sr. - Ooltewah
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N.D. Kennedy, Sr. hit it right. Three Card Monty is the game the HCDE school system just pulled on the public. Oh, this school system is not the first, nor will it be the last, that suggests moving people around changes what is a fundamental need for an entirely different way to educate children. Obviously, the old method works only for the child that has family, community and school support. The child of poverty has none of the three, but yet the schools operate using the model of Dick and Jane.
The professed objective of the shuffle of personnel is that all will be well, the experts are in charge now. Let me share an issue that has made news headlines of late. Sixty percent of the students that attend HCDE cannot read sufficient to one, advance up the grade ladder and two, have competencies to gain employment after high school. Pretty serious stuff but the school leaders choose to move people around. Oh, mercy, where are the leaders with vision for change?
I read the quote from one of the school leaders that these new principal assignments will bring change to scores recently reported. What is left out of that equation for change is how. The same classroom configuration is still status quo. One teacher, one class. Wonderful plan if the learners come to school with the support network; educational history of success via family and community. That level of teaching kids is easy. I meant to use the word easy. The real challenge and the real need is that child that does not have community or history of success on his side. Can that one teacher provide all that in 10 months?
I have suggested in previous postings that a new educational model is present to anyone willing to listen. We have all heard of thinking outside the box. The schools of yesterday did think outside the box and we have done some great things in education in this country, but it is time, past time actually, that that old school system of doers and thinkers is no longer relevant. The schools of large cities may be partially responsible for the rise of gangs, of drugs, of welfare, food stamps and an environment for millions that is closely akin to that of a plantation.
Can the school system change what is a culture of dependency? The simple answer is in two parts. One is who else can do it, and secondly, the schools are the only centralized system that can change society as we know it. Churches, agencies and so many doing good work cannot accomplish what the schools can. School attendance is required by law. Schools can be the change agent society needs. Nothing else can.
Robert Brooks