When will we learn?
I mean that in two senses. One: when will our city learn that school closings are not the best way to cut city spending? Two: if schools keep on closing, when are children literally supposed to learn?
Last week students rallied outside of a meeting of the Board of Education. This rally was scheduled on the day of the Prairie State Achievement exam – a standardized test required of many students in the Chicagoland area.
According to MSNBC’s recording of the event in the online article “Chicago students boycott standardized test in protest of mass school closings” by Meredith Clark, published on April 24: “Students active in the protests Wednesday alleged that teachers threatened them with retaliation if they participated in the boycott. According to one student, a teacher said that students who did not take the Prairie State Achievement exam today would have their ACT scores voided.”
Let us operate under the assumption that the report done by Ms. Clark for MSNBC is one hundred percent accurate (as I have done no investigative reporting into the matter myself).
First, I’d just like to say shame on those teachers who threatened students in an effort to keep them from protesting. Students who want to learn and are going to fight city hall to do it?
That seems like a worthy cause to support – especially if you are an educator.
These teachers shouldn’t have tried to stifle their student’s enthusiasm; they should be encouraging it.
These students are exercising their basic human right to practice the freedom of speech and to fight for their opportunity for an education.
That being said, I can understand why teachers may want students to be in class for the exam. Many teachers are judged on standardized test scores.
However, this seems like a worthy cause that, when measured against the importance of a standardized test, is far more important.
According to the same article by MSNBC, Barbara Byrd-Bennett – CEO of Chicago Public Schools – had this to say: “The only place that students should be during the school day is in the classroom with their teachers getting the education they need to be successful in life.”
Well Ms. Byrd-Bennett, if things go as they have been these youngsters won’t have a school to spend the day in, will they?
I could go through and name things that our city could cut in order to save money where it really counts, including cuts to the salaries of our city representatives and many of the tax-funded fringe benefits that they are entitled to, but I don’t think Mayor Emmanuel would listen to me.
(Unless he is an avid reader of my column; in that case, call me, Mayor Emmanuel. We’ll figure things out.)
It just saddens me to know that the one cause that abso-rootin’-tootin’-positively-lutely should be funded is shut down instead of down-sized or restructured, that because some students don’t want to show up and learn the ones who do are punished.
I stand beside my stance on the issue of education. You are entitled to the opportunity to be educated. What you do with that opportunity is your choice.
It seems to me, that the valiant young men and women who stood in protest feel the same way that I do.
They are protecting their opportunity (and that of their peers) to be educated, even if that means playing hooky.
Some things in this world are valuable and need to be fought for and I’m glad that there is an up-and-coming generation that’s willing to put up the fight.
Brian Laughran
Viewpoints Contributor