School days, dear old golden rule days | News, Sports, Jobs – Alpena News
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Remember that old song? It makes for a good column title.
Now, I need a good lede.
A preacher friend of mine had a good one for a sermon he preached to new congregations: “Ladies and gentlemen,” he would begin, “my job as a preacher is to preach. Your job as a congregation is to have the capacity to know if what I’m preaching is a bunch of crap.”
It always got their attention — this need to be heedful of intolerance and hate.
Throughout the country, there has been increased interest in school boards. More people are seeking to serve on them, and issues are being raised that are of concern to many parents. It’s good this is occurring, for there is always a need for improvement and improvements that benefit our young people are of the utmost importance.
But some of what is being contemplated is a bunch of crap.
This column addresses that challenge together with a related issue raised by a person we all know:
“When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school,
It’s a wonder I can think at all.”
— Paul Simon
My preacher friend’s concern and Paul Simon’s lyrical exasperation have been addressed by the Michigan Department of Education in its vision statement:
“Michigan’s vision is every learner in Michigan’s public schools will have an inspiring, engaging, and caring learning environment that fosters creative and critical thinkers who believe in their ability to positively influence Michigan and the world beyond.”
We need school board members who will honor that vision.
In addition to my preacher friend and Paul Simon’s concerns regarding critical and creative thinking, what other problems does this vision statement address?
The 2015 Michigan Youth Risk Behavior Study found that 8.4% of all high school students identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual. In addition, they are 2.3 times more likely to be threatened or injured with a weapon on school property, and one in four was physically assaulted.
Twenty-six percent of the six-tenths of 1% of the school population identifying as transgender were victims of assault.
Others who don’t fit in can also experience despair.
The fight for “Good Old Golden Rule Days” continues in our schools, as it does elsewhere in society. Our nation’s boards of education are committed to creating a safe and supportive environment for all students.
Three bathrooms at the high school are similar to those at Alpena’s Wendy’s restaurant: single-stall, lockable restrooms that provide a degree of privacy not possible in a multi-stall configuration.
Wendy’s labels their bathrooms “all gender restrooms.” The high school denominates theirs as “unisex bathrooms.” Names of common meaning with a common purpose, but those at the high school serve an additional concern — sanctuary.
The banning of controversial books and critical race theory are two other issues of concern.
But the banning of books that are” inappropriate” to some can be appropriate to others. Censorship is the antithesis to critical and creative thinking, my preacher friend’s hope for his congregation, and a solution to Paul Simon’s exasperation.
Critical race theory is critical thinking applied to systems that perpetuate racism. It’s a college-level study.
It is not part of the curriculum in Alpena Public Schools. Copies of all curriculum documents are available for review by visiting the Office of Instruction. They only ask you call for an appointment. Questions regarding curriculum can be directed to the building principal or the director of instruction.
But critical race theory (CRT) has become a problem in many areas because it has become a Humpty Dumpty term. Before Humpty Dumpty took his great fall, he and Alice had a little chat:
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said — in a rather scornful tone, “it means just what I chose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, ” whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “who is to be master — that’s all.”
— Carroll, Lewis, Through The Looking Glass
This is the same guy who believed the king’s men could put him together again.
CRT has become a term of political theater, varying in its perverted meanings by people who would be our masters, controlling information they find uncomfortable.
Learning can be uncomfortable.
All young people deserve the opportunity to learn the truth — even uncomfortable truths. In a disinformation-plagued age, their intellectual integrity, creative capacity, and ability to survive optimistically in an increasingly competitive world depend on it.
The great continuum of time into which our young people have taken a place will pass faster than they know.
But we adults know:
They have no time to waste.
Doug Pugh’s “Vignettes” runs monthly. He can be reached at pughda@gmail.com.