Good News

Tuesday night as I was trying to get to the School Board meeting I turned on the radio to hear the broadcast. I knew teachers were going to be there to speak to the adoption of the social studies textbook series and I didn't want to miss that. When I heard then that the Board had withdrawn its recommendation for adopting a textbook series, I smiled with excitement. This meant a win--a win on behalf of the educators that stood up and spoke out against the adoption of a textbook series for social studies that failed to give accurate and adequate coverage to issues of racism, discrimination, immigration among others.
At that moment I really wished I wasn't listening to the car radio. I wanted to be at the Board meeting able to enjoy this with other colleagues. When I did arrive I saw Bob Peterson (see previous post)handed me a packet of information that examined and compared the textbooks that were up for consideration. He pointed out to me the page that discussed the text for second grade students and this example clearly points out the text's bias. From the Houghton Mifflin series being considered entitled, Neighborhoods, our children would've learned about being a citizen:
You are a Citizen
A citizen is a person who belongs to a place. You are a citizen of the community where you live and the nation where you were born. You can also become a citizen of the United States even if you were not born here
To that Bob Peterson wrote, "This last sentence is a nod to naturalized citizens, but it simply is not true. Not everyone who is here can become a citizen. But if, as children are told in this passage, everyone can become a citizen of the United States, then obviously the non-citizens in our midst are choosing to not join "us". Shame on them."
The text continues to be exclusive when it begins to speak of "rights" and how as a citizen has rights that are protected by the government. The text only speaks of rights as it relates to citizenship--not all of our children are citizens. Not all of our children's parents or relatives are citizens. What about their rights?
The Board has expressed interest to work with educators in developing an improved proposal to deal with the teaching of social studies and this is fantastic news. I offer a huge congratulations to the teachers and individuals that organized and spoke out on this issue.
We need to continue to speak out and that includes at tonight's Board meeting at 6:30, the last public hearing on the proposed budget.
Oh, I also wanted to mention that on Tuesday's meeting a number of school counselors came out to speak to the issue of the lack of counselors in K-8 schools. (A letter was sent to the Board on this subject from Tom Morgan, the MTEA Executive Director). One of the Board members posed the question whether or not it was a requirement that each school had a guidance counselor. Now, at this point, I have to admit that I was driving into the parking lot of Central Services and the radio reception was going in and out but I heard enough of the answer to catch the drift and spoke to a guidance counselor afterwards who confirmed what I had heard. The answer was that some schools didn't have counselors because they "chose" to keep other positions, such as art teachers or gym teachers. This line is infuriating and Tuesday night was NOT the first time this has been uttered. When the administration refers to cutting positions at schools as a "choice" each school community is making, I get angry because it never feels like a choice. Choice implies power and when schools are faced with paltry numbers for their budget, it all feels pretty powerless. And then to have it turned around as some kind of reprimand is just insulting.