Thursday, October 13, 2005

Failure By Inaction Will Not Be Acceptable

In Tuesday's school board meeting, several board members and the superintendent commented after the announcement that they were giving the anti-MCPS groups two more weeks to apply for the new committee. It started when board President Pat O'Neill called on board member Steve Abrams:
PO: All right, Mr. Abrams.

SA: Specifically I want to reference the comments that were made by Michelle Turner this morning. In conjunction with the correspondence that Mrs. O' Neill has stated, I think from my perspective, I think we want to make this thing work right and we want to make sure that the focus of this advisory committee gets to the task of providing us with insights onto an appropriate curriculum to be implemented during the second semester of this school year. Very fortunately, we have a little bit of time but not a great deal of time.

So I would certainly urge the three groups to take the opportunity they have to prefect their applications to the process. It should be quite clear to them what the process is, what the qualifications are, what the expectations are. I'm hopeful that we will be able to go forward and see a full advisory committee appointed on the 24th but certainly that decision rests on the applicants.

This struck me as a positive comment. Abrams is a Republican, a conservative, and he plays his cards close to his chest. We never know how excited he is about the curriculum or the controversy, but he seems fair and he pays attention, and he did vote for it the last time. And here he mentioned a pretty ambitious but perfectly reasonable plan to get the curriculum up and running for the Spring semester. He doesn't want to waste time, he wants to get this thing off his desk, up and running, and that's what we want, too.

Then board member Sharon Cox spoke up:
S. Cox: Just a point of information. I thought I heard Mr. Abrams say "the curriculum to be implemented in the Second semester of this school year" and the green sheet that we originally passed said that the recommendation would be brought to the Board by the end of the school year but it did not, you know, with training issues, etc., it may not be implemented in the second semester. (CROSS TALK) I just didn't want to set, create an expectation to the public.

Ah, the public. We do have an expectation, actually. We expect our kids to get a first rate education in Montgomery County public schools.

Abrams clarifies:
S.Abrams: I appreciate that. I didn't mean to misspeak but clearly when we deferred last years, we deferred the portion of the curriculum that would normally be given towards the latter part of the second semester. Ideally, we would certainly like to see something if ready.

This interlude of spontaneous discussion ended with a pessimistic, even fatalistic, summary by Superintendent Weast:
Dr. Weast: Yeah. I think it's going to be as you can see a fairly complicated process. I've talked to Jody [?] and she gave me a report this last week that she just believes that probably it's going to be very difficult to achieve that spring implementation. Now that doesn't mean that we won't have what we currently have and which has stood the test of time but she believes because of all the attention that has to be paid to each of these details, that we probably won't get that rolled out in that time frame.

In fact, she was certain that she wouldn't get it rolled out in that time frame. And I kept telling her please try but you understand.

OK, look, I don't know who Jody is, but what do you say you get somebody in there who can do this?

They've got half a year to put together two 45-minute classes -- and it's already been done once. Plan A: Throw out offensive background resources, vote on it, and go. Elapsed Time: near zero.

And if the crybabies miss the meeting ... oh well. They did have seats.

And that thing about "what we currently have and which has stood the test of time?" Did he mean that? Dr. Weast is on record saying that a new curriculum was overdue -- he said that last year, as I recall. This thing hasn't stood the test of time, it's way out of date and it needs to be replaced. Let's not get sentimental about how well the old curriculum has stood the "test of time."

We supported the board's adoption of the curriculum last year, and now we support their efforts to develop and approve another one. We will not support them if they sit around doing nothing. And we will make sure people notice.

The MCPS Board of Education just gave us two big fat weeks of Absolutely Nothing. For now, we will trust that they did this on sound legal advice, but it's still two weeks gone.

We will not agree to failure by inaction.

13 Comments:

Blogger Kay2898 said...

"Jody" would be....

Office of Curriculum and Instructional Programs

Jody A. Leleck
Acting Associate Superintendent

*******************

Question should be what has MCPS been doing since taking back control of curriculum?

October 13, 2005 5:29 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jim,

Don't you get it? Read between the lines. What they're all saying is "Let's put off implementation until after the next election, so we won't be accountable to the voters." History will repeat itself.

You see, Jim, there is no political risk in doing nothing because there's no real outcry from the public to teach kids sexual amorality. Most parents would be perfectly happy with the status quo.

October 13, 2005 7:18 PM  
Blogger JimK said...

Good one, Anon, confounding two things. The first part of what you say is at least plausible, that the board would want to avoid controversy going into an election where, I think, four seats will be contested. If they think this will just flow under the bridge quietly though, I am saying here, we will make a loud noise and make sure the public is aware of the situation.

And so to the other part of what you said. Most of the people in this county do want an objective and scientifically-sound curriculum. There are a few haters, but generally people here want students to be knowledgeable and they want to treat sexual minorities with respect. So ... if it happens that the board tries to let this blow over, and TeachTheFacts keeps that fact in the public eye, people -- that is, voters -- will not be pleased.

But let us, for the moment, assume that it won't come to that. I don't think it will, I still believe the board intends to do the right thing, even though it will be tough.

JimK

October 13, 2005 7:44 PM  
Blogger andrea said...

Slightly off-topic but a CRCer- or supporter- suggested that the resources would be used to develop the curriculum as if all that existed for teaching the health class was what was posted as the curriculum(which is more of an outline) and assumed teachers would take the resources and teach from them. I was asked for the title of the textbook s -Lifetime Health by Holt, Rinehart & Winston Publishers, 2004 / 2005- it is the newest one being used by MCPS- not all schools have this book yet- but they all have textbooks. My daughter used it this summer at Blair- it has extensive info on STIs- which CRC keeps claiming isn't being taught, and is a fairly large text. The book also has web connections for more information- probably supported by the publisher.

October 13, 2005 9:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Because it hasn't been said often enough, I'll say it here: It is the extreme right as represented by CRC nad PFOX that is immoral, not the moderate middle that respects everyone and teaches facts.

October 13, 2005 10:02 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"I was asked for the title of the textbook s -Lifetime Health by Holt, Rinehart & Winston Publishers, 2004 / 2005-"

Thanks for following through, Andrea.

October 14, 2005 8:23 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Because it hasn't been said often enough, I'll say it here: It is the irresponsible extremists as represented by TTF that is immoral, not the moderate middle that has compassion for everyone and teaches truth.

October 14, 2005 8:25 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Hooray for facts!!!
I love it when they teach those in school, you know?"

Alex,

If you'll return to your cage, bananas will be distributed.

Sheriff Andy

October 14, 2005 8:28 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"I can obtain my own bananas, thanks."

You can do that now. Wow, maybe evolution is true after all.

October 14, 2005 9:41 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sheriff Andy said, "If you'll
return to your cage, bananas will
be distributed."

This is very similar to what the
ex-gay movement says. "If you'll
return to the closet, love and
acceptance will be distributed."

How sad that some parents can't
love and accept their own children
the way God made them.

MCPS Mom

October 14, 2005 9:43 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Shazam! I just got a great idea for a new day off for the school kids. Let's have "Get Back in the Closet" Day!

I'll tell the board.

Gomer

October 14, 2005 9:57 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anon says, "It is the irresponsible extremists as represented by TTF that is immoral, not the moderate middle that has compassion for everyone and teaches truth."

So, according to Anon, the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics are immoral and ignore the "truth."

Thanks for clearing that up.

David

October 14, 2005 1:45 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anon says, "It is the irresponsible extremists as represented by TTF that is immoral, not the moderate middle that has compassion for everyone and teaches truth."

"So, according to Anon, the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics are immoral and ignore the "truth."

Thanks for clearing that up.

David"

That's brilliant, David. Thanks for sharing.

October 15, 2005 9:24 AM  

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