It's Time You Paid Attention

Onaway's current school board is a mess, and it came about in a series of odd events.

First we had agitators, obnoxious types spreading discontent with loud rhetoric, lies, half-truths, and misunderstanding/misuse of Christian beliefs. If you apply reason to what they say, their claims don't hold up to scrutiny. Sadly, some don’t care. These "believers" come in two types: those too weak-minded to examine what they hear and think it through, and those who see an opportunity to get something they want out of the uproar.

Ask yourself why a radio show host would jump into a situation he knows nothing about, interview only one side of the issue, and use his platform to support people he chooses to believe without the slightest attempt to present facts or alternate views. (Hint: He does it all the time. He's twice been convicted of felony fraud.)

Ask yourself why a parent would take issue with a teacher's methods but never speak to the teacher about it.

Ask yourself why people would band together under the banner of a political party and run for school board, a supposedly non-political office.

Most of us weren't even aware this was going on until it was late in the game, but now we are in a bad situation, and we must decide how we're going to deal with it.

Comments

What Is Education?

I once had a student chastise me—gently, but sincerely—for telling my class that Richard the Lionheart might have been homosexual. It isn’t a big deal, except it’s one explanation for why he left no heirs, despite having a lovely bride. It meant we got his half-crazed brother John as king when Richard died. Hence the Magna Carta. The student stayed after class to share her opinion that kids (in this case 10 th graders) should only be told “good things” about famous people. History should be uplifting, she maintained, showing us how to be the best we can be. Knowing that came straight from her father’s mouth, I didn’t argue, but thanked her for her input. Too many are sliding into that mindset these days. According to some, it’s bad to admit that our country has faults. It makes students feel “ashamed” of their race and their heritage. I have issues with that mindset. First, truth is truth , no matter how much we might dislike it. I admired Bill Clinton as a President, but wh

Progress?

Last night, I attended my first board meeting in person since January. (The whole broken leg thing has been a real downer.) I’ve been watching them on FB (thanks, Stacey), but it was good to be there and be able to hear and see better. It was great to see the board functioning as it’s supposed to. The event was a workshop to examine ways to update the school, a process that has been planned for some time now. A citizen committee has looked into the possibilities. Community members were canvassed as to which updates they thought were most important. A firm was hired to look the campus over and make recommendations. Now the board is hearing from those entities, and they will decide what we must have, what we should have, and (maybe) what we’d like to have. The recommendations will be made public soon so the taxpayers are informed. It’s the way school business goes. Always has. What was great to me was seeing our board members interacting with each other in a civil manner. They

Shooting Down the Rumors

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 mowed 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

Looking for Truth in Onaway

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