August 2, 2007
Who Is The Biggest Buffoon In This Story?
I thought for sure that this Sam Freedman story from yesterday would have created a bigger buzz by now. (Perhaps people got sidetracked by Frank Bruni's masterpiece on people who have vomited/gotten naked at Manhattan's most exclusive restaurants.)
So read Sam's piece and join us as we play "Who Is The Biggest Buffoon"... Warning: This is the kind of piece that makes education reform seem completely hopeless at times.
Is the biggest buffoon:
1. Ann Geiger, the principal at Arts and Technology High School in Manhattan, who seemingly allowerd an idiot of a student to pass math (against the urging of the actual teacher) so that she could improve her school's (and the city's) abysmal graduation rate.
2. Indira Fernandez, the not-so-bright student who blew off dozens of classes, never bothered to turn in stacks of homework, seemingly had something better to do on the day of the final exam in math, but who had the you-know-whats to see if there was anything that could be done to help her pass. She was given exclusive one-on-one tutoring for several days and still managed to fail the special final exam that she was allowed to take to help pad the school's numbers. (Despite all sorts of reasons for her absences, she did manage to attend her senior prom in 2006, and then another senior prom her second go-around as a senior in 2007.)
3. Austin Lampros, the math teacher who had the courage to fight his principal and attempt to maintain some academic standards for his students, but who, himself, played hooky from school for 24 days last year and blew off two out of three parent-teacher conferences at the school, and who, after all of the grade-changing stuff, packed up his marbles and headed back home to Michigan.
4. Samantha Fernandez, the girl's mother, who honestly seemed to believe that her daughter had "earned" something in the class, and who made comments that he daughter needed to graduate because she couldn't afford to keep paying for all these senior proms year after year.
Which one is it? Or are they all just awful? It serves as a reminder that focusing too much of our attention on the nation's horrific drop-out problem can sometimes make you forget that many of the kids who are managing to graduate are going out into the world with very little to show for it.
Special Sherman Dorn side-note: I do want to point out that even though the teachers union rep at the school only played a bit part in the telling of the story, I think that he or she clearly emerged as the only person remotely interested in doing his or her job. Seriously.
