Top Down is the Wrong Direction

The problem with experts is they tend to self-isolate. Their opinion is rarely backed up with data not of their choosing. Arrogance replaces common sense. They live in the rarified air of their pedestals. If common man is suffering, it cannot be because of expert dictates but because common man didn't follow them. I understand the problem. Its pretty easy to fall victim to it. I can acknowledge the expert that has earned his status but I cannot condone his putting on blinders to maintain that status or silencing voices that challenge it.

School districts across the nation are suffering because experts are ignoring the obvious and plowing ahead. Decisions are made at the highest levels with a just a bogus appearance of collegiality. Mandates replace choice at the school level and the frontline educators gradually lose their professional status. Funding is diverted to programs without the buyin of teachers or parents. Noses get out of joint; morale affects instruction

It is hard to foster cooperation in a truly democratic fashion. It takes alot of time when deadlines always loom. Leadership is a rare gift. A "doer" isn't always a leader, a leader isn't necessarily a "doer". But a good leader is always backed up by incredible doers. If not, the leader is but a voice blowing in the wind.

When serious issues exist and children are at stake, no one can take the easy path. They are worth piles of research, every hour of debate, every consultation with every stakeholder. At the end of an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a Milwaukee Schools official , referring to revisions of the district' teen pregnancy prevention program, was quoted as saying "we worked on this for four days and that was enough". Thankfully, she added "need a lot more input from a lot more people" but if school starts in two weeks, will that happen?

Each of us needs to know our strengths and use them. But we also need to know that our weaknesses can undermine all we do. We should do less plowing ahead and far more withdrawing to do things the right way. If every effort is not made to include parents and teachers in those decisions, the final product will not work regardless of the expert viewpoint you're "selling".

Beware the new language!!!

As reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this week, the public school administration has changed course for its sex education efforts. According to Judy Gerrity, "the focus for us is reducing live births to teens" as the objective of their revised program that will start in grade four.

That is not a focus to reduce teen sexual activity, the first priority of the state health plan and state law that supports teaching abstinence. That is not the same as reducing teen pregnancy that had been the rationale for the contraception/condom education that the district mandated. This new statement opens the door for the unthinkable options as policy and programs fail--the abortion pill, abortion and sterilzation. Is this the idea we want planted in the minds of girls as young as fourth grade? How do you teach children that babies are disposable yet are the hope of our future simultaneously?