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October 7

 I am at Charles Towne state park for LeadershipSC.  The environment is the focus of the session and we are in a building seeking gold level Leed certification which seems appropriate.  The morning session is an introduction to the Charles Towne state park and its history. It is a wonderful park and I look forward to bringing my children here in the near future.  This location is where many historians believe the first Charleston settlement was located. 
 
The next session is a discussion concerning the cultural changes that have taken place in the South, Charleston in particular, over the past thirty to sixty years.  The three panelists are a diverse group.  One is an AP reporter, another is a member of the Charleston Arts council, and the third is a minister.  The topic was an excellent one and the three panelists have seen a great deal of change in their lives.  The minister did a great job of answering the questions and providing excellent insights.   The AP reporter simply agreed with the responses of the minister and added a few additional comments.  The other panelist had one answer to all the ills of the world.   The answer …Spoleto festival!  No matter what the topic or question, it resulted in the same answer, Spoleto.  Civil unrest, Spoleto.  Economic disparity, Spoleto.  It became comical after awhile. 
 
The afternoon discussion revolved around the economic impact of population growth and the resulting property development’s effects on the environment.  The speaker was good and he probably could have talked for several hours and would have never needed to use notes. He used anecdotal examples and broad generalizations at times.  At one point he gave an example of a time he was speaking at an honors economics class.    He talked about how the class was unruly and students did not care, how students did not come to class with paper and pencil, and some just laid their heads down to sleep.  He began running down the path of “public schools and their teachers are the root of most of society’s social ills.” If you know me well then you know that I could not sit and let this group of leaders be lead down this false trail.  First, if what he said was not hyperbole then the teacher needed to be let go for dereliction of duty or receive intensive training.  Second, did he simply let this situation go by unreported?  Most importantly is the fact that this is not what takes place in classrooms of highly qualified teachers.  My hand shot in the air.  I had to let him know in no uncertain terms that this is not the case in my classroom or in any of my close colleague’s classes either. I asked him if it made logical sense for AT & T to have its entire reputation impugned by the actions of one anecdotal story.  Would he not contact a supervisor and demand redress if his service was subpar?  If a bank teller was of no assistance or not doing their job would he not report it or would he simply determine most bank tellers are bad and therefore banks were inferior institutions by default?
 
We cannot sit motionless and allow such statements to go by unanswered.  In the same vein, we cannot allow ineffective teachers to go on without assistance in order to either help them improve or to help them seek a different career.  We owe it to our profession and our students to help each other be the best we can be! 

 

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