I’m not going to give an endorsement in the selection process of the new Oshkosh School District Superintendent. But I do have to laud some of the comments I heard from interim Beloit Superintendent Darrell Williams during our conversation last night.
First off, I give Williams credit for not being the usual academic in his interactions with people. He’s a two-hand hand-shaker–which invariably makes you a two-hand-shaker and pretty soon you feel like you’ve just signed the Camp David Accords to bring peace to the Middle East. And not everyone is addressed as “sir” or “madam” during an introduction with Darrell. But I digress.
In answering my question about the role of schools in the community, Williams mentioned the standard “closing the achievement gap”, but he also brought up something that I haven’t heard from many in education anymore: “closing the attitude gap”. And he specifically called out students and parents that make no effort to take advantage of the myriad programs and services school districts already have in place–and then end up blaming “the schools” for the child’s lack of education.
Williams got another two-hand-shake from me after that answer, because it shows that he “gets it”. To say that today’s education system “doesn’t do enough” is disingenuous to those working in the system–and insulting to those that fund the system. Consider that we feed kids two meals a day–even during the summer, provide them with modern technology and internet access for free, we artificially reduce class sizes, offer before and after school babysitting services, counseling services, healthcare services, reading specialists, math tutoring, one-on-one specialized instruction, an alternative high school, mentoring programs, work-to-learn programs and student-directed learning.
And yet, what is the only message we hear? “We need to do more for our schools–because there are still kids falling through the cracks”. Now we need to pay for older students to ride the bus for free because they don’t want to walk in the cold. Or we should pay for free broadband internet at home so there is no “technology gap”. The ugly truth–as Mr Williams points out in his “attitude gap” response–is that those kids are looking for the cracks and their parents are helping to find them.
It would be incredibly refreshing to have a Superintendent that demands accountability from all students and parents–and not treat them like “victims of the system”. It would be nice to hear that we the taxpayers are going above and beyond in providing equal opportunities for all students–and that “doing more for our schools” will in no way guarantee equal results for all kids. And that’s why Darrell Williams probably has no chance to be the next Oshkosh School Superintendent.
