Just in: Hillsboro High students forced to learn Shakespeare

Hillsboro High student and chairman of the Mayor's Youth Council, Yousuf Ahmad writes in today's Tennessean about a classmate who aspires to be a mechanic but is losing interest in school because he is "forced to learn about Shakespeare."

Oh dear.

Ponder for a moment, if you will, the millions of people in this world that would love to be forced to learn about Shakespeare. Yeah, I know, he's a dead white guy. But he's a dead white guy who added thousands of words to the English vocabulary - at a time when the average Englishman's total vocabulary was about 500 words. He gave us phrases like "star crossed lovers," "it was Greek to me," and "the lady doth protest too much." He wrote 38 plays, 15 sonnets and 5 poems.

His tragic plays and comedies are timeless stories of humanity's struggle. His history plays tell us that when it comes to power, love and war, very little has changed in 500 years. The structure and rhythm of Shakespeare's writing has informed the writing styles of almost every author and speechwriter since. It is hard to imagine John F. Kennedy's "ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country" without "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears."

I will concede that Shakespeare did not write anything about rebuilding '67 Corvette engines. I will also concede that Mr. Ahmad's friend will make a fine mechanic without learning about Shakespeare. But I submit to you that learning what you think you don't need to know is one of the most important skills you will acquire in school. Your future is not cast in stone. What you find irrelevant today may become important tomorrow.

Even if Shakespeare never becomes relevant in your life, it will enrich it. My father owned an auto repair/tire distribution business. He could quote Shakespeare from memory until the day he died.

The why oh why oh why

After a recent tour of schools in my district, I observed that residents of the 23rd district appear to have abandoned zoned public schools for the private and magnets. This purely anecdotal observation is or should be disturbing to public school educators because my district is predominately middle class, property owning and educated. In most cities, people like those who live in the 23rd district form the backbone of the public school system. They are more likely to have the kind of job that lets them out of work to participate in parent-teacher conferences or volunteer as a tutor or teacher"s aide. They are more likely to have a parent that does not work outside the home and is available to organize and execute fundraisers. They are more likely to be educated themselves and as a result have high expectation for the education of their children. They are also generally politically aware and inclined to become activists in support of public education.

So, last week, I posed the question as to why these irreplaceable people appear to have abandoned the zoned schools in their midst for other options. Since there are a bunch of smart and thoughtful people who live in the 23rd District, I got a few answers. (Before we begin, a couple of warnings, disclaimers and caveats: People make educational choices for all kinds of reasons. This is by no means an exhaustive list. Middle class does not mean white. We are lucky in Nashville to have a healthy non-white middle class thanks in large part to the prominent role institutions like Vanderbilt, Fisk and TSU play in our community. Not all private schools are perfect, to die for examples of educational excellence. Private schools in Nashville exist for a host of reasons and to varying degrees of success.

1. Influence and Control: This really tops the list of many parents. Being able to go to a school director and provide advice, suggestions or criticism and knowing that you are taken seriously and your input thoughtfully considered is important to many parents. Frankly, it is probably important to many private schools because they can hear what their customers are saying and respond accordingly. Which is not to say that our public schools should be run entirely by parent whim. I think most private school directors will tell you that they don't accede to every wish of their parents. But information provided by parents about divorces, health, safety, developmental issues, lunch menu are taken into account, along with other factors.

2. Plant and Equipment: Let's face it, private schools look nice. They are well landscaped, painted and cleaned regularly. Stuff that breaks gets fixed quickly. Public schools - in the words of one parent - usually look more like prisons than schools. The architecture is bland and unappealing, the landscaping is limited or non-existent. Almost everything is built and maintained on the cheap and it shows. Is all that green grass and mulch worth $10-15K a year in private school tuition? Maybe not, but perhaps some think it reflects an attention to detail and dedication to high standards inside the building. It is inexcusable and unacceptable but public schools frequently find themselves beginning the year without the supplies and equipment they need to operate. That sort of thing rarely happens in the private schools.

3. Teachers: My generation was probably the last to be educated by women who had few career opportunities. They were limited to things like teaching and nursing. As a result, the school systems could pick and choose the best and the brightest of women and pay them next to nothing. Now the best and the brightest can choose pretty much any profession they want and it is a much tougher job market for school systems. Spoiled by high quality, low cost labor, political leaders were not prepared for the sea change that was the 1970's. With salaries falling behind the competition, quality suffered. Much has been done to recover and compensation is rising back to the appropriate levels. But the chain was broken. The place of teacher in our culture was diminished. Those brilliant men and women who enter the teaching profession because they have a passion and a commitment to their art can choose between public, private and magnet schools. Private schools regularly pick off some of Metro's best talent and offer them the autonomy that site-based management brings even if it is for less money. To sweeten the pot, private schools often provide guaranteed admission and reduced tuition for a teacher's children.

4. Safety: The kind of violence that makes the newspapers is rare in our schools. But, for the involved, concerned and active parent, it only takes one incident. Parents still talk about the shooting at JT Moore which was what? Ten years ago? The lock down/arrest debacle at Hillwood was also quite some time ago but parents offer it as anecdotal evidence that our schools are not safe. They know about a few incidents and wonder about what they do not know or hear about. Is it fair? No. But it is a fact.

5. K-4, 5-8 and 9-12: My constituents who send their children to public school K-4, frequently move on to other alternatives in 5th grade because they find it completely inappropriate to put 5th graders on the same campus as 8th graders when peer influence is becoming a factor in their child's development. Peer influence tends to travel down the age scale. A 5th grader is more likely to pick up the habits and behaviors - good and bad - of an 8th grader than the other way around. Hillwood has found this to be a problem for the adjustment of 9th graders and in an acknowledgement of what every parent knows, segregated them in the Freshman Academy.

6. School size: An elementary or middle school should only be as large as the Principal's capacity to remember everyone's name. Anything bigger and anonymity provides refuge for cut-ups and a wilderness to get lost in for kids who need attention.

7. Academic Excellence: I put this last because it the first thing most parents look at. Poorly performing schools cannot attract families who care about their children's education and have the resources to find other alternatives. In turn, these schools have difficulty raising performance level because the kids left behind are often the most difficult and expensive to educate. Thus begins a downward spiral of deteriorating performance and loss of motivated and involved kids and families. For many middle class families, college preparedness is important. We appear to have this notion that middle school or 9th or 10th graders have some notion about what they want to do with their life. So, we let kids decide NOT to get on the college track before they actually have to decide if they are going to college. Whether you go to college or not, there are simply things you should know and intellectual skills you should have. Every kid should be educated as if they were going to college. If they don't actually go, they will likely prove themselves to be highly trainable in a trade.

I kind of breezed by a discussion of the magnet school option. A lot of my constituents send their kids to magnets and several teach at them. Magnet schools prove how great public education can be. Our academic magnets provide an education second to nothing else in this city. The college entrance statistics on kids who graduate from Hume Fogg and MLK rival those of top college prep schools in this country. As one parent says "private school education at public school prices." Without magnets, much of the parent support that still exists for public education in Nashville will deteriorate further. But magnets, like private schools, skim the best teachers, students and families off the zoned schools and educate in a way that should be the norm, not the exception. Academic magnets are one of the few ways we keep a limited grip on middle class families. But for reasons I have never fully understood, we only offer this option to a limited number of families each year and force the rest to find other alternatives.

Back to School

Sorry to be away so long. But, I just haven't had too much to say until now.

Last week, I toured the schools in my district with Mayor Dean and his very sharp Director of Children and Youth, Danielle Mazera. We started at West Meade Elementary on Carnavon Parkway. West Meade Elementary is a darling school in the middle of a picture perfect residential neighborhood. Unfortunately, very little of the neighborhood actually attends West Meade. Demographically, the population of West Meade has moved beyond their child-rearing years and those that have not are affluent enough to send their children to private school or smart enough to send them to magnet schools. The school is operating at only 79% capacity with the prediction that will continue to fall. Approximately 50% of the children that attend West Meade are eligible for free or reduced lunch.

We were met by Steve Breese, the principle of West Meade. Steve seems like a pleasant and energetic man. We toured the school, visited several classrooms, including a resource room and PE. In one class, children were watching the show Arthur and discussing story elements. In another, they had just broken for snack. I learned that the school started the year with 4 first grade classes but 4 weeks into the year, a teacher was tranferred to Julia Green and the children re-assigned to other classrooms. So, that means your young child gets acclimated with one teacher and class and then gets to do it again a month later. In the latest round of the perpetual blame game between Council and School Board, I was told that the transfers happened because the budget would not support classrooms with less than the requisite number of students. The school was slated to lose one of its PE teachers because of under-enrollment but managed to hang on to him because he provided the necessary African American role model for the children. He is likely to be re-assigned next year.

Next we went to Hillwood High School. Karl Lang is the principle at Hillwood. He is appears to have a pretty good command of his school. The atmosphere is orderly and respectful. The classes we visited - American History and Ecology - were small. The library is large but sparse. The cafeteria was well run and pleasant but that might have had something to do with the two uniformed Metro police officers that are posted there. Hillwood operates at about 80% capacity. About 43% of the kids are on free or reduced lunch. Only about a 1/3 of children make it to school 95% of the time.

At HG Hill Middle we met up with Julie Simone. Julie strikes me as one of those rare teachers for whom teaching is a calling not a job. We talked about the children at HG Hill who rode the bus 30 minutes each way and how difficult it was for their parents to get to school for conferences. Julie told me that if a parent won't come to her, she gets in her car and goes to them. Julie's class presented the Mayor with a homemade hoola-hoop. In the ongoing effort to burden the education system with correcting every single pathology that affects our society, kids must get 90 minutes of activity a day. So, they have came up with the hoola-hoop as something they can squeeze in. The Mayor promised to return in March and demonstrate his hoola-hooping skills. I plan to attend and watch.

We had lunch at HG Hill. Tater Tots (which I love) and hambugers. I sat with several girls who were trying to get an assignment on plant biology done so they could go to recess. The worksheet called for them to draw a picture of a plant's egg cell but the text book had no illustration or description. I could remember the basic differences between plant and animal cells but could not help with the egg cell picture. The girls told me that they ride the bus about 30 minutes each way from their home in "Dodge City." Why do you call it "Dodge City?" I asked. They told me that was what everyone calls it. (No snarky emails. I know why they call it "Dodge City.") I asked what they did on the bus for 30 minutes. One girl said that they get wild. Another girl said they were quiet and stayed in their seats because the bus driver was very strict. They were very sweet and were thrilled the Mayor came to visit their school.

Like Hillwood and West Meade, HG Hill Middle stands in the middle of one of Nashville's most affluent neighborhoods. Some of the richest people on this planet live within 1/2 mile. Yet, HG Middle is 52% free and reduced lunch particpants. Like West Meade, the Hillwood neighbohood has - and not for good reason - abandoned the schools in their midsts for magnet or private schools.

The question is: "Why?"