Our most recent school board meeting was on March 17th, St. Patrick’s Day.
School Board meetings are no easy thing: much of the work of a board involves legally required procedures or budgetary matters. They cannot be avoided, but they are no more unique to education than a balance sheet is to a private business. In this latest meeting, we had a discussion of a field trip, addition of snow days to the calendar, and comments on the budget advisory committee.
(One quick note about the Budget Advisory Committee’s use of the term cluster for subgroups within the committee. Considering all our budgetary challenges, is it wise to call a subgroup a cluster? Any number of people have, perhaps, already appended another, shorter word to describe the workings of each cluster.)
No one thinks, though, that education is the same as widget-making. It is a public matter, involving public expenditures, to achieve the difficult end of teaching another generation. As a libertarian, I would prefer a vibrant private school running alongside the public one. I believe that it would offer an incentive for improvement, and innovative, effective approaches, all around.
We are a small city, however, and there is no reason to think that we’ll see a private alternative in Whitewater. That suggests two things to me: first, that we have no option but to commit to the betterment of our district; second, that we should emulate competitive approaches within our public district, using parental choice to spur better teaching and administration.
I suggested one option previously — establish different teaching methods in a given curriculum, and encourage parents to choose in which their children would participate. One teaching method of English literature might be based on a great books curriculum, and another might use a contemporary approach. After a few years, we would be able to see how students fared, in enjoyment and comprehension, in the two methods.
(I’ll reply to the principal from Lakeview School, who suggested that while our summer school does not have a great books class, the class summer school offers would produce a ‘similar outcome.’ I am confident that he underestimates the value and unique consequence of a great books offering. It’s only similar in outcome to current approaches to the extent that in both cases one would expect basic literacy; it differs, I think, in more important respects.)
We are mistaken to confine students, with no other educational alternative, to one teaching approach.
One more thing, I think, matters: that every school board meeting should include, at least, a beginning and ending that emphasizes some clear academic achievement. These achievements need not be confined to basic metrics; there are any number of creative achievements — in writing, art, athletics — that should be highlighted.