A Tale of Two Schools Thinking Deeper
Posted: Wednesday, May 4, 2011 7:30 pm |Updated: 7:55 pm, Wed May 4, 2011.
"The Rainbow Fish" is a beautiful tale: A shimmering fish gives away its glittery scales one by one to befriend others. It's often seen as a parable about sharing and selfishness.
But one kid at Torrey Pines Elementary pointed out in an essay that there was something fishy about it.
"The adult writers did not realize that they were teaching kids an immoral way to make friends," the fifth grader wrote of "The Rainbow Fish" and two other books. The child said giving someone a gift the way the fish did might strengthen a bond of friendship, but couldn't actually create one.
Such sophisticated arguments might not seem so surprising at Torrey Pines,
The San Diego Unified human resources chief who had the unenviable job of overseeing the issuance of hundreds of pink slips to teachers, bus drivers and other school employees is leaving the school district at the end of June.
I haven't heard back from Sandra Huezo yet about why she's leaving, but it obviously hasn't been an easy time to be in her shoes.
Huezo took the job as the Chief Human Resources Officer in San Diego Unified more than a year and a half ago, a few months after former Superintendent Terry Grier announced his departure. The teachers union recently called out Huezo by name on its website, arguing she and her department "simply do not possess the organizational competence to issue layoff notices in a manner that is compliant with California state law."
She's also gotten grilled by the school board about staffing numbers, though school board frustrations with getting accurate, timely information about school staffing existed long before Huezo got to San Diego Unified.