STUDENTS ARE NOT OBEDIENT NOR CONFORMING
SAM
We decided to keep this news to ourselves and just let our kids have an interesting experience and make sure they are treated positively and fairly. Earlier, I had been a little concerned about who our evaluators were, and I had checked whether they represented both traditional and progressive ideas on education.
Dr. Joe began to explain how the contest will be structured: “All four of us visited both of your campuses, and now we would like to ask you, students, a few questions about what you think of your schools and how you experience them. We will write up our thoughts, and these will be available to you after today’s exercise.” He had asked each principal to choose one boy and one girl to be spokespersons for their team. Bob and Veronica were chosen for Bayshore and Chris and Ella for Smiles. Dr. Davis asked our articulate Ella, “Ella, is calling your school Smiles rather than the rather lengthy full name okay with you?” Ella looked over at Chris, who nodded and said yes. “Good, thank you. So, Chris, I noticed that your 250 students and many others joined a sort of morning jamboree of singing and dancing, and I was told this happens every morning. What do you think about this?” Chris gave Joe a big smile and replied, “I love it. I’ve been at Smiles for five years and look forward to this event every day. I wish we had started this morning’s event with one.” All ten students and the two teachers from Bayshore frowned. Dr. Davis turned to Bob, Bayshore’s spokesman, and asked, “Well, Bob, why the frown?” Bob kept his frown and replied, “It just seems frivolous – because education is a serious business, and this gives the wrong message.” Ella jumped in and said, “I think education can be fun and serious – both/and, not either/or.”
Dr. Phyllis Langdon, another evaluator who looked nearly as old as Joe Davis but far more unsmilingly serious, asked Ella, “Well, young lady, how long does it take to get the students into their classrooms after this jamboree?” I was proud of Ella as she quickly responded, “I’ve never timed it, but I would guess about ten minutes. I wonder about how long it takes the Bayshore students?” Dr. Langdon turned to Bob and asked, “Do you know, Bob?” Bob replied, "As a matter of fact, I have timed it, and it is between eight and eleven minutes.” He looked quite proud of himself. The serious Dr. Langdon said, “Smiles School has about 250 students from first grade through twelfth grade, and Bayshore has only first grade through fifth grade, and each school has about the same number of students. Now, Ella, what do you think of this?” Ella smiled and answered, “I like our system. It is like having a big family. I know the founder of the Smiles schools; he’s my grandfather, and he says there is just too much age segregation and loneliness in our society, and it starts with the schools. At Smiles, I have a big sister whom I see every day and have lunch with two or three times a week, and a little brother whom I see every day. I like this; no, I love this family.” Dr Pheylus turned to Bayshore’s girl spokesperson, “Veronica, do you feel you have a big family at Bayshore as Ella describes? And would you like it?” Veronica frowned, shook her head, then smiled, “I might like it – these guys seem happier than Bayshore students. If they are learning as much as we do, then I’d like to be like them.” Dr. Langdon looked surprised and a bit puzzled.
Dr. Joe said. “That is all the time we have for this. Now let’s begin hearing how you students handle the topics we have for you. We will give you and your partners a topic on history, geography, or current events, and then you two will come up with your thoughts on that topic and problem. You will have 5 minutes to confer with one another, then share your thoughts with all of us. The four of us evaluators will be paying close attention to your discussions. Your opposing pair will be given the same topic and will be evaluated right after you. We will go back and forth, so it will, say, be Bayshore first, then Smiles, then Smiles with the second topic, then Bayshore, and so on. “So, now for Bayshore 1 and 2: Our first topic in history is for Veronica and Robert.”
Chris waved his hand vigorously, and Dr. Davis tried to ignore him. Chris would not be ignored, and so he nearly shouted, ”Dr. Davis, you said that I was a spokesman for our Smiles team, so I wish to speak. This back-and-forth for 5 minutes per team doesn’t make sense. As a senator recently said, ‘It is stupidity on stilts.” Dr. Davis looked stunned, and Dr. Langdon muttered, “Well, I never…” And I was so proud of Chris, and I’m sure it showed. My students smiled or chuckled, and the Bayshore kids gasped. Dr. Davis nervously looked around and, after a few moments and not finding a bell or a gavel, shouted, “I need to meet with the adults in the other room. You kids just stay here and behave yourselves.”
Patria, Sarah Busch, our principal, and I went to the adjoining room and sat smilingly in the same chairs we had occupied only an hour before. Unlike us, the other trio and quartet of evaluators looked very serious. Dr. Davis began. “Well, we’ve already learned that the Smiles students are not an obedient bunch.”
I said, “And Joe, what is the rule or command that Chris was supposed to be obedient to? I agree with Chris that this setup seems quite odd, to say the least, and I would have done my best to prevent our students from participating if I had learned of it earlier. So, now I hope you all will visualize this picture of two fifth graders grappling with a topic dictated by four Doctors of Education and then being scrutinized by them as they talked – rather like specimens in a jar. As I visualize this, I find myself angry that the four of you have even devised this tortuous exercise. So, let’s go back to the reason we are having this ‘contest,’ as you, Dr. Langdon, called it. I object to any exercise that causes any kind of pain, other than something like a flu shot. So, let’s go over what you plan to do. Patria and Sarah Busch smiled and nodded.
Before Langdon could respond, the youngest evaluator, Shirley Samper, who was not part of the planning committee, said, “Well, thank you, Dr. Collins, for suggesting we visualize being one of the students and having four serious adults evaluating me talking with another 5th grader for even 30 minutes, let alone four hours. I would have been terrified. Joe, what are we supposed to be learning about these children? Is it that they do or do not melt under pressure?” The two elderly E.Dr.’s gave Dr. Samper a rather cold and blank look, but Shirley continued, “And one thing I’ve learned, and it is, how out of touch you two are from elementary school students. I know I’m involved in this exercise because I’m being paid and it looked interesting. Now I’m wondering who the bankrollers are. Dr. Joe, do you know?”
Dr. Davis, looking a bit embarrassed, responded, “I must admit that I only know that I would receive a check from the State Superintendent and that I must keep it confidential. Now, I’m wondering if you all were given the same order?” I was surprised that both principals and two teachers nodded. "So, no one of us knows who the deep pocket is. I added, “And who chose the two teams?”
Sarah Busch, our principal, said, "I was asked specifically to send Dr. Sam Collin's 10 student cohort." Sarah turned to Teri Osman, Bayshore's principal, and asked, "What about you. Teri? "Dr. Teri Osman said. "I was simply asked to send 10 outstanding 5th-grade students - 5 boys and 5 girls. I wonder why the Super gave you, Dr. Collins, specific students to be our contestants?”
I looked at Patria and Sarah and mouthed, 'Now?' They both nodded, and I said, "I believe I know. First I need to tell you about an incident this last Fall involving two of my students who are here today. My two students, Ella Haloran and Danny Sherman, were taking the tram home from school and sitting together. Three non-Smiles students, at least one of whom was in high school, began harassing Ella and Danny, first verbally, then pawing at Ella and pulling his arm back to swing at Danny. Immediately, Danny grabbed his arm and threw him down on the bus floor and twisted his arms out of shape as the older boy screamed. The bus driver quickly slammed on the brakes, and the assailant's two buddies fell to the floor, and Ella jumped on the back of one and the driver on the other. Our school policewoman arrived and called an ambulance for Danny's screaming captive, who had two injured shoulders and arms. The father of the injured boy filed a suit against Danny for Assault and Battery. Now, Sarah, please tell them about the call from Sacramento.”
Sarah made eye contact with each one of us and then said, "Just before we started this morning, I got a call from a friend of mine in Sacramento. She knew of our event this morning and said she had accidentally heard a conversation of a few education department staffers who were going to help set up a sort of contest between a charter school with the ridiculous name School of Two Thousand School and an elite school in La Jolla to see which school is doing the best job of preparing children for the future. She thought it was strange that she would specify the class in our school but not in the other. Now, Dr. Collin and Sarah Busch believe that the bankroller of today's setup is Steve Norse, the father of the boy whom our Danny Sherman sent to the hospital. He can't believe a 12-year-old 5th-grader could take down his 15-year-old high schooler. He wants us to certify that Danny is from a school that develops vicious fighters.”
I said, "So, this is what we are being paid to do: To prove that Danny is educated to hurt people. And I ask you good folks, what should we do?
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