Guest Essayist, Bernie Keller
Retired Bronx high school Master English teacher
In the interest of full disclosure, I have to say that I am not a big supporter of charter schools or the current reform efforts. While those who espouse and advocate the current “solutions” may be well meaning, I am reminded of a saying I used to hear growing up that asserted, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”For me, if we are talking about people’s lives, (and we are), we can’t just “mean well”. Whatever we propose has got to work, it can’t be some experiment-in-progress or theory. In theory, the reforms and the charter schools will change the landscape of education. That sounds great, but here’s the problem I have with the theory. I taught forty years. I, along with my colleagues during those years, and traditional schools and practices produced or helped to produce doctors, lawyers, civil servants, policemen, firemen, CEO’s, teachers, counselors, social workers, principals, parents and a whole bunch of contributing members of society. In fact, former chancellor of New York City schools millionaire Joel Klein and John King, formerly the commissioner of education for the state of New York and currently the replacement for the former head of the United States Department of Education, Arne Duncan are not only graduates or products of the traditional public school setting, but both men assert that public schools saved and changed their lives. Not charter schools, not reforms- traditional public schools!
Seeing as how these men, (and millions of others), are successful, contributing members of society, produced by these traditional schools, it strikes me that the reforms we need are those qualities that existed when these men, and those like them, attended school and school empowered them to enjoy success. Just think, there were no SmartBoards, the teachers were Seems to Me… | DCGEducator: Doing The Right Thing:
