With school closures pitch, District needs to improve its art of persuasion
by Samuel Reed III on Jan 18 2013 Posted in Commentary
Photo: Flickr/Brett Jordan
I have attended several of the community forums where the public has weighed in on the Philadelphia School District's facilities master plan. The comments and counterproposals regarding the closing of 37 schools and relocation of others have been passionate, provocative, and persuasive.The District, on the other hand, needs to study up on the art of persuasion.
There's a language problem with the way the District discusses underutilized school buildings. The language of "empty seats" is just that -- empty.
Seats are inanimate objects, which mean nothing to affected parents and students. As this tweet from the Philadelphia Student Union noted, “Students aren't good seats or bad seats. They are people who have the right to a quality education.”
The language of empty seats is not persuading the public that the District's closings and relocation plan will improve the fiscal or educational outcomes for the district.
I teach my middle school students to read, write, and think critically. One of my