Something is Rotten in the State of Denmark

I have always been “politically savvy” – that is, I have always been savvy enough to stay far away from politics. When I have had occasion to discuss the “movers and the shakers” in Morganton with friends and acquaintances, I have always been shocked at 1 – how clueless I am about who people perceive as being “in control,” and 2 - how these people who are perceived to have “power” intimidate and threaten people who disagree with them. No one in public office should ever abuse their office by threatening the jobs of those whose jobs they are supposed to oversee. That is an abuse of public office and an abuse of the public’s trust.

My exposure to this school board came when I had questions about the transfer and athletic eligibility policies in the summer of 2008. I happened to be in attendance when Mr. Buff and Ms. Norman stopped the meeting several times to demand that whoever was commenting in the audience stand up and be identified. I thought I was watching some dark episode of “Reno 911,” or “Hogan’s Heroes” – I became nauseous that the officers of the board had so little self control. (It didn’t help that the person who decided to take the fall for one inappropriately outspoken audience member was my father.) I continued to attend meetings to see if the first meeting I had attended was an anomaly. However, since then every meeting has followed the same pattern. There seems to come a point in every meeting where certain members of the board have to ”flex their (perceived) muscle”, self-righteously pontificate a bit, bully a teacher or another board member, congratulate themselves for being the saviors of the school system and sigh that they are martyrs for the common folk of Burke county.

The real martyrs and saviors of the school system are our teachers. The great majority of teachers work really hard. They trudge to work early in the morning and many leave after 5:00 pm. Primary and elementary school teachers rarely get bathroom breaks. They deal with our unrefined, difficult, demanding children every day. They struggle to provide some kind of personal experience for the students while at the same time trying to stay “on task” and on track for end of grade testing. Middle school and high school teachers have no easy job either – they often have to deal with depressed, apathetic and physically intimidating teenagers, and are often the last best hope for teenagers who haven’t matured enough to figure out how they want their lives to progress. And unlike the upper echelons at the central office, they are not paid nearly what they are worth.

At the same time, many teachers are afraid of the school board. Teachers have many de facto immediate supervisors – their student’s parents, their principal, and now, the school board. I have spoken to countless teachers who have told me that they support my candidacy but that they couldn’t do so publicly because they feared that certain members of the school board would retaliate against them. Several employees of the school system feel that an atmosphere of intimidation pervades their daily work life. Teachers have a really difficult, draining and often thankless job. They should not be worried about offending a member of the school board. That. Really.Stinks.

BARNARD, HAIRFIELD, WILKINSON, ARMOUR - THANKS!

It took one last comment by lawyer John Ervin to finally get the attention of open-minded school board members to rethink the aspect of the book challenge policy that tried to give citizens who don't have children in the affected classes the right to challenge books. Although the Board could have amended the policy to remove that language, the Board Chair seemed too flustered to consider parliamentary procedure that would have allowed the Board to table the policy or amend the motion. At the same time, the Vice Chair took over the meeting and bullied the policy through - he loudly and firmly insisted that he would not amend his motion and wanted the policy voted on. So, they called for the vote, and to their chagrin, the policy was defeated.

I am not saying the battle is over.

I am sure that the folks whose activities/motives/weltanschauung were thwarted will be back again. It is not the parents of the pupils in the affected classes who are unhappy about the reading material - it is a parent who has no child in the class, and who continually requests access to those teachers so that they can explain to her why they teach the books they teach.


Ms. Sain took issue with a statement that Mr. Armour had made in a previous meeting - something to the effect of "I don't think we need to change the entire policy because a few Christian Conservatives don't like what other people's children are reading." Ms. Sain stated (and this is not verbatim - I cannot bring myself to listen to the audio yet) "And although Mr. Armour said we can't change the policy because of a few Christian Conservatives, I happen to know there are hundreds of Christian Conservatives that would like to see the policy changed, and that is why I will vote for it."

The pertinent provision in the Constitution that Ms. Sain violates with this statement is called "The Establishment Clause," and as Justice Souter opined in Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v Grummet: "government should not prefer one religion to another, or religion to irreligion." Now Ms. Sain, in this situation, is the "government," and she is preferring one religion.

Another interesting comment last night was Mr. Buff's contention (and again, I can't bring myself to listen to the audio to get the words right) that foreign schools' elicit higher achievement from their students than we do, and the "common denominator" between those schools is a dress code.

There are, of course, many "common denominators." Like length of school year and length of school day.

China , whose education was deemed superior to Burke county's in a previous meeting due to adherence to a dress code, actually requires their children to be schooled 9 to 12 hours a day. Students in some provinces go to school a half day on Saturday.

Japan - who mandates school uniforms - holds school Monday to Saturday. School begins the second week in April and ends the third week in March. It is not uncommon for a high schooler's day to be 12 hours long (before homework.)

Another example of a country who had a superior education because of their dress code was . . . India. I still can't get my head around that one. I am pretty sure, without checking, that India is pretty far down on the list of countries by literacy rate. If someone else knows differently and can attribute India's successful education to school dress code, please feel free to email me. (Maybe I misheard that? I will have to listen to that audio. However, if I misheard it, so did many other people who were left shaking their heads.)

I am not against the dress code. Really. I am not for it either. I am just entertained by the Board's reasoning and the time, effort and emotional energy that the Board is spending on this issue. And I can't understand why they think that making kids wear solid colored pants will protect them from interlopers meaning to do the children harm. I don't know that shooters always wear plaid pants. But I could be wrong.

I do appreciate so much that those who voted down the policy had the moral fortitude to follow their consciences. Thank you for not giving in to the bullying by those who would control what other people's children read.

Thanks again, guys.