What about the schools?

One of the most critical considerations for anyone moving with a family from one community to another is the quality of the schools. Dunwoody is blessed with great schools that thrive in spite of lackluster central office leadership, strangled budgets, self-protective personnel policies, and education pedagogy that change with the whims of state and county administrations. 

All those woes are well documented in DeKalb County School Watch, a blog that serves as watchdog and gadfly for our local system.  If you're a parent, you should read it. Knowledge is power.

For awhile, there was a grassroots effort underway to consider turning Dunwoody High School and all its feeder schools into a single Charter Cluster. I don't know if the steam has run out of that effort, if the folks engaged in the foundational work have turned to other issues, or where things stand today, but I hope the concept finds new energy in the near future.  Fulton County Schools are considering charter status, one of many school systems and clusters willing to tackle the massive documentation, research, and development work required to satisfy the state's evolving requirements.

DeKalb Schools has a new superintendent. Maybe she's a rainmaker and something good will finally come out of that dysfunctional nexus. We have an outstanding School Board representative in Nancy Jester, who is often the lone voice of pragmatism in a group of people who seem to add to our problems rather than solve them. Georgia is requesting a waiver from the illogical No Child Left Behind paradigm and trying on yet another measurement tool that ignores the realities of student capabilities and inconsistent parent support. Our state level elected representatives would have to change state regulations and budget limitations that prevent Dunwoody from having greater control over our schools. There are lots of obstacles (costs are #1) to having our own school system. But there are many, many positives to having our cluster go charter.

By the time the education juggernaut changes direction, my kids will likely no longer be in Dunwoody's public schools. But I'll still be a taxpayer, homeowner, and passionate booster of this community.

Schools are relevant now and for the future.

Just because ...

Just because the federal government proclaims that no child should be left behind doesn't mean every child is capable of going to college.

One of my favorite cranky bloggers, The Other Dunwoody, today blasts education academia for its emphasis on pedagogy over content.  I agree just a bit ... I've encountered one too many teachers in the public school system who regurgitate the same tired lesson plans year after year because they fit the bureaucracy's paper trail and formulations. (Bless the teachers who figure out how to write to the form and then proceed to teach with professionalism and excellence far beyond the understanding of their administrative superiors ... and they've been the rule, not the exception, in Dunwoody schools.) A critical piece of legislation may finally get through the Georgia state morass allowing principals to fire incompetent and lackluster teachers on the basis of poor classroom skills and judgment rather than wade through years of documentation and supplication to highers up. Shuffling them to another school so they can be someone else's problem is currently the only solution available.

I also disagree, for one simple reason: the emphasis on college prep as the end all and be all of high school education leaves too many children behind, in remediation the moment they step into college, in debt because they can't keep that almighty Hope B average, and feeling less than stellar about a vocational track when they have every reason to be proud of those skills.

That isn't a teacher issue. It's another intrusive legislation from the Federal level down.

I believe in multiple tracks: college, technical, arts, so-called career, and more. If we are truly preparing every child for a life of financial independence and self-reliance, then we need to give them the tools to excel with whatever talent or passion they possess. Public (and private) education is failing the carpenters and electricians, early childhood educators and auto mechanics, multi-media electronic technicians and small business entrepreneurs, chefs and store owners, learning disabled and emotionally delayed who don't need a four-year college degree as much as they need the opportunity to explore basic skills that prepare them for a job or technical school, and then forge productive, well paying careers.

No B. A. or B. S. required.

Go outside.

A major perk of my job at Dunwoody Nature Center is that I get to take a walk in the park whenever I need one. Two hours straight on the keyboard followed by a twenty-minute pass through trails, picking up trash around the picnic area, and deep, cleansing breaths of fresh air: not a bad schedule.

It's a shame that the testing-focused education of our kids precludes such outside breaks. Every minute of the school day is so precious that administrators feel they have to command students' attention lest they fail the almighty No Child Left Behind federal mandate. Of course, by now we all know that this particular educational philosophy du jour isn't such a success after all. It's surreal that our government insists that one size fits all, ergo one educational model (everyone goes to college) fits every student's need.

So fresh air has to come before and after school. It's imperative for the tween and teen to get away from computers and books and soak in the sun, ride a bike or take the dog for a walk, toss a ball around, and enjoy some freedom from must-do's.


Just as we've invested in math and music tutors, we must ensure that our kids get the essentials they don't have at school.

Two of the more evocative memories of my childhood  are indelibly linked to the outdoors: my mom yelling at her kids to "go play outside and don't come back until it's dinner time" when we'd gotten too rambunctious and the slamming of my grandmother's screen door during visits as we passed back and forth for drinks and food and bathroom breaks.

I really, really miss the creaky, springy, slammy sound of a screen door.

It's Labor Day Weekend. The teen is headed to Dragon Con (that guarantees miles of walking around downtown Atlanta), I have some gardening chores to do with the vegetables and landscape, the tween has a dog-sitting job and wants to ride her bike all over Dunwoody, and the family will enjoy a picnic and hike on Monday . . . in a park.

Rain or shine, we'll be outside this weekend. 

It's always something.

I had such a peaceful weekend. A few have-to's and chores, an enjoyable concert in the park, a calm morning in church, and enough down time to make progress on blanket squares for our church's outreach ministry as well as the Central Park Hoodie. 

Even as I sat there Sunday evening, knitting happily away, I thought to myself . . . this won't last.

It never does.

Monday and Tuesday hit with a crescendo of school meetings, from son's AP World History 101 for parents and PTSO board meeting to a Dunwoody School Cluster Council meeting, as well as added work at the Nature Center. (With our exec on vacation and a newbie driving our programs, I've been lobbing quite a few balls from left field. I must say - the added duties have been stimulating.) 

Is it just Wednesday? 

The hottest issue on my agenda is the debacle arising from Every Child Left Behind. Dunwoody High School was designated a receiving school for students transfering from the  multitude of failing schools throughout DeKalb County.  The storm surge of arrivals started the week before school, flowed through the first week, and continued, unabated, despite a shortage of teachers, trailers, cafeteria space, textbooks, et al. It took news crews and a fire marshall to finally get the county-level school administration to listen, let alone come see what they had done to Dunwoody High School.

It's time to retreat back to knitting. I need the calming rhythm of knits and purls and the sense of accomplishment as the Central Park Hoodie comes closer to completion. 

A few moments on the soapbox

The Knitternall Clan has returned to Dunwoody, with memories of NYC flashbacking like the neon signs in Times Square.  We had a really nice time and managed to get in and out of LaGuardia and Hartsfield despite multiple thunderstorms, airport shutdowns, baggage backlogs, and other mainstays of summer travel.

I worked  on the Central Park Hoodie and have made it through the back and left front; the right front is well underway. I think it'll be finished for fall (which, in the South, often comes after Halloween).  With weather delays and cancelled flights, I had lots of time in the plane for knitting. 

While the kids were exploring Nintendo World (nirvana for A), I chatted with a mom from New Jersey. We talked about the coming school year and she was astonished that ours was starting in just a week, during the peak heat of the season. 

And now, a brief moment for the soapbox . . . 

High standards in teaching, curriculum, resources, and achievement are absolutely essential to a quality education system. No Child Left Behind isn't that system.  

It is disingenuous to believe that every kid can master every subject.  Can a CPA write prose like Hemingway? Can an acclaimed dancer solve advanced calculus problems with aplomb? Can a child who cannot speak or understand English comprehend a word problem in an English-language-only math test sufficiently to provide a correct answer?  Can someone with profound dyslexia read and process a story and answer questions in a strictly limited, timed test?

Federal mandates cannot legislate ability . . . or behavior. The connection between home and school is critical, but it isn't enforceable. 

We're very fortunate here in Dunwoody to have superb schools for our children.  Parent involvement has been integral to achievement. My kids have had and continue to benefit from amazingly gifted and well prepared teachers.  In spite of changing education theories du jour, they're thriving and advancing through each progressively challenging year. There are, naturally, areas of weakness, primarily among financially and linguistically disadvantaged children.  We're working on that.  As a community, we want every child to succeed. Too bad our hands are tied by state and federal mandates. In a perfect school system, we'd have a variety of education options, including trades and comprehensive English language classes, that we could custom fit to our specific needs. 

Maybe someday.