Roy Exum
Here is hope that common sense and cooler heads will prevail when the Hamilton County School Board convenes later this afternoon. Board Chairman Tucker McClendon wants the group to issue a resolution that will lambast Hillsdale College president Larry Arnn for calling teachers dumb which, of course, never happened.
On Tuesday of this week, the same Larry Arnn penned an opinion piece in the Nashville Tennessean that proved a lie can travel across the state of Tennessee much faster than the truth but … wait … the visionary Arnn is solidly fed up with the bureaucrats and their leftist activists, however, who work to use Hillsdale’s curriculum to fight their partisan ideological battles.
We all know the present education system in America is broken.
We know that a full 65 percent of our school children cannot read at grade level and that quite nearly over half of the Hamilton County graduating seniors who enter Chattanooga State next month will be taking some type of remedial classes.
First, here is a segment of what Arnn just wrote in the Tennessean:
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HILLSDALE COLLEGE PRESIDENT LARRY ARNN: “WHY I DEFEND EDUCATION SCHOOLS CRITICISM”
(This excerpt in from an opinion piece that appeared the Nashville Tennessean on Tuesday, July 19, 2020)
At a recent event with Gov. Bill Lee, I remarked that “Teachers are trained in the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges in the country.” I’ve made similar critiques of the education bureaucracy my entire career.
This does not contradict my deep and abiding affection for teachers. After the students, the most important people in the college where I work are teachers (the maintenance workers are third - and I tell everyone this often).
Dumb can mean “unintelligent,” which I did not mean. Dumb also means “ill-conceived” or “misdirected,” which is, sadly, a fitting description for many education schools today.
Professors of college and graduate education programs primarily teach methods. To be sure, methods are important in almost any human activity, but they are seldom the chief object. Watch orators speak: method matters, but only insofar as it contributes to persuasion. The quality of the text and the ideas matter far more.
Many education schools elevate methods over content as a way for a few to control many. They believe they can engineer society by “scientific” criteria, thereby effectively reducing children to mere subjects of ongoing social experiments.
More importantly, the education bureaucracy has controlled America’s schools for too long. Consider the current attack to deprive parents of charter school options - depriving them of the educational opportunities they desire and need for their children.
Hillsdale College offers free curriculum and advice to assist charter schools in Tennessee and other states. The bureaucrats and their leftist activists, however, work to use Hillsdale’s curriculum - and by extension, our children’s education options - to fight their partisan ideological battles.
The solution is clear: recognize that the sovereign location in education is the local school, parents, and teachers, and not the district or the state. Give parents and teachers a choice.
Nationally, 7 of every 10 voters support school choice. Well-run charter schools deliver on this desire for a genuine, excellent education option for parents and students. Via greater local oversight and increased freedom, charter schools are better able to serve the unique needs of their community. The education establishment objects to such positive developments, however, as school choice hurts their monopoly and limits their control.
Indeed, it’s because of their opposition to school choice and parental rights that the Tennessee Education Association has called on Governor Lee to “sever ties” with Hillsdale College and “limit the power of the state charter commission.” Yet, the TEA’s true allegiance is revealed by the fact that parents aren’t mentioned a single time in either the TEA’s “Fire Hillsdale” letter or in the “Mission and Vision” section of the TEA’s webpage.
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What good would it serve, pray tell, for the School Board to issue some resolution critical of Hillsdale President Arnn and Governor Bill Lee, most particularly in the midst of an election cycle? Several school board members are in contested races and any type of “resolution” makes some people happy and some people mad – never forget both types vote.
Board Chairman McClendon has one more monthly meeting and he’s out of politics, having lost a bid for the County Commission in the primary. Hopefully we’ll see more of Tucker so why is he wanting to exit on a bully’s note?
Instead, listen to board member Joe Wingate: “I'm just not interested in a political moment, I'm just not," he wisely offered. "My job here is to try to help this school system, support this school system to a level where it can add value to our county, and it has done that."
I’m telling you … leave this senseless resolution idea alone. And if the School Board really wants to help the county’s teachers, figure ways to ease their non-classroom duties that today takes away more and more of their time.
And did you see where the Nashville Metro Schools are offering every student free lunches this year?
royexum@aol.com