I sat through two-thirds of the policy committee's meeting on Wednesday, and here's what I took away. They had asked the school's law firm to send an attorney to answer questions. The man was polite and helpful, despite long, circular discussions that went on and on. He told the board some things that should clear up controversies that should never have happened. *They cannot go into classrooms and look at teachers' grade books. That information is available in other places, so they don't even need to. *They cannot wander the school halls looking for violations of the handbook. They should not consider themselves one-person investigators of any situation. *They should not take parent/citizen complaints that have not already been made to involved staff. Chain of command is important and works efficiently in most cases. *They can name a school board member to hiring committees. I'm thinking that question came in reaction to the football coaching job. *They can as
I was talking with someone yesterday who spoke of “stories” as the best way to convince people to believe a certain way. We can provide facts, numbers, graphs, testimony, whatever, but people who know nothing about a subject except a story they heard will often reject the truth and cling to the narrative. As a former English teacher, I understand the power of the story to hold the listener's heart, even when the story’s proven wrong. Stories are fun to tell and way more exciting than, “I moved the lawn yesterday.” When people pass shocking tales along, their listeners react with wide eyes and surprised exclamations. For some folks, “I heard that—” seems to excuse the most malicious gossip, no matter how outlandish it might be. An engaging story beats court documents, police reports, and scholarly research, because those things lack the story-telling spirit we enjoy. I love stories. I read stories. I write stories. But I also understand that we need to apply logic to the stori