The muddy process of discovery in DPS
Today I finally looked closely at my district’s teacher appreciation gift to us, one which, by the way, arrived well after the end of Teacher Appreciation Week. We were given a plastic tumbler equipped with lid and straw which has a Mark Van Doren quote affixed to it, declaring: “The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.” Those are nice words, and ones worth applying in my own teaching practice, yet they have an ironic ring to them considering the source sharing them. My distaste for the contradictory use of this quote stems from DPS’ ongoing, increased lack of transparency. Imprinting the quote on the tumblers may suggest that the discovery process is important to DPS leadership, but recent actions tend to muddy the water, provoking additional questions, rather than answering the ones at hand. For example:
- Top-down “grassroots” effort in the Far Northeast claimed to seek community input on
