You can tell that Tonyaa Weathersbee really loves Raines and Ribault high schools. She writes about them often and she takes any of their successes and contrary to popular opinion there are some, and shouts about them from the rooftops. Unfortunately more often than not, most of the successes fly in the face of overwhelming and systemic failure, though I believe if more people had her passion about those two chronically struggling north side schools they would undoubtedly be doing better.
She recently wrote about Ribault’s fledgling International Baccalaureate or IB program and how important it was and I have to say I agree. I have long thought we should have special programs in the neighborhood schools that play to the strengths and desires of the students. I just think it’s a shame that the program they put into Ribault High School and now several other neighborhood schools only plays to the strengths and desires of a handful of its students. The rest, the vast majority of the children are instead saddled taking a curriculum that many are neither prepared for nor interested in.
I think Tanyaa and the Duval County school district would love for every student to start, excel in and finish a rigorous academic program and if you think about it, who wouldn’t? Unfortunately our schools aren’t populated with the students they or maybe I wish they were. No, they are populated with who we have and at Ribault high school that means most can’t read or write at grade level. It means most won’t graduate on time and it means many will drop out. It means many students have schedules that don’t include electives and even though we don’t like to admit it, they go to a school where many children will have meager future prospects.
Instead of introducing programs to Raines and Ribault that the powers-that-be have created academic magnet schools to house, why don’t they introduce programs that would benefit the majority of the students those two schools have. Furthermore why does the district even have dedicated magnet schools if all the schools are going to have the same programs? And then it’s not like these neighborhood IB programs are very successful anyways. The IB program at Ribault started with about five percent of the schools population finished with less than one percent and graduated just two students.
The fifty-four students who started the program, the thirteen that completed it and the two that actually received the IB diploma should all be applauded but how about we now start serving the needs of the thousand plus other students attending Ribault as well? I’ll tell you why they are not serviced, it’s because the district thought they would throw the struggling neighborhood schools and the neighborhoods themselves a bone and that would be good enough, they figured nobody would question them. After all who would question advanced academic programs.
Well my hand is up. The top kids in the county already have two schools dedicated to them, what about dedicating resources and developing programs to those students who are a few rungs down the latter. How many kids would have graduated a graphic arts, auto mechanic or other skills program had they been offered at Ribault? I bet it would have been more than two, a lot more than two.
When Tanyaa Weathersbee beats the drum about two kids graduating an IB program, as impressive and they may be, she does the schools of Ribault and Raines a disservice. She attempts to convince people that Raines and Ribault are things they are not. She says if these two kids can do it any kid can but the sad truth is, if more could have done it, they already would have done it.
If our school system starts education the kids we have rather than educating them like they were the kids they wish they had, then we might just have a chance of getting a few more through. We might have a chance of putting a few more on the right path. Could we do worse if we decided we wanted to play to kids strengths and desires? I don’t think so, after all, all we would have to do is better than two.
I have to say though; I like Ms. Weatherbees’s passion it’s just her message that I find lacking.
Kids who are at the top of the ladder do well, some attention is paid to those at the bottom, but the vast majority in the middle are just kind of an afterthought in the mindlessness and incompetency that is the Duval County School Board. Though DCPS blather on and on about "world class" education, I doubt that they would be able to define what "world class" means. Why in the world are kids who read at a leve 1 or 2 taking AP courses? How is that supposed to help them? IB programs cost lots o' money, money that would be better spent on things such as, oh, I don't know, toilet paper, or basic supplies. By the way, if one would look at the racial makeup of the IB classes at Stanton and Paxon, they are mostly white and asian. Sadly, the black kids don't last very long in those programs and drop out. Since the county is so broke, it would make sense money wise to send kids who are interested in the IB and other programs to schools that already specialize in those programs. Or is this just another cynical excercise in balancing the books racially? I think you know the answer.
ReplyDeleteWe don't need any more liberal arts majors who can barely read and write. We need people who can THINK and DO THINGS.