Letter: Local educators should be allowed more creativity in the classroom
In response to a recent MCSD Whiteboard column, I disagree. There is this ideology put forth that the teachers, support staff, technology team and nutrition team are providing the “perfect” services to students within the community. Not only is this a utopian idea, it’s simply impossible.
With this being said, it’s become apparent that teachers at MCSD are not allowed much creativity within the classroom, let alone the planning time to be creative should they be awarded the rare opportunity to do so.
How much good can come from a place where the fact is made that some students have no desire to be there? We must ask ourselves: Why? If teachers are stuck to a government-guided curriculum, not given the creative liberties for projects within their own classrooms, and taught from a screen all day, it begs the question: Would you want to be there? No. It comes as no surprise that students feel the same way.
The projection is made that many students are missing many lessons and that’s a problem. But I fail to see why every parent should be made to feel guilty for missing a day here and there, when it’s likely only a small percentage of students who miss the amount of school they’re implying. Also, just because students may not be present in school does not mean they are not present in life. School is not life and life should never be so intertwined with school that they go hand-in-hand. It is truly an inept mindset that believes that those two ideas correlate with one another.
It is also an unintelligent point to say, “You, in whose homes the children live … ” What you mean to say here is “parents and guardians,” because any other way is not only insulting, but takes the control of our children’s schooling out of our hands. That choice is always ours. As was pointed out earlier in the referenced article, there are always more options than MCSD. As well, I would like to make the concept clear that it’s not the trust of MCSD that we, as parents, need. As you are offering a public service to children within the community, it is our trust in you that you actually need.
It’s far more likely for students to want to be at school if those educators that you so claim to be “perfect” are allowed some creativity so that kids have the desire to attend.
Kaci Meek-Martin
Craig
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