Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 29, 1995 TAG: 9510270110
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: G3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GLENN 0. THORNHILL JR.
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
As a parent and a Salem School Board member, I am uniquely aware of the importance of education, and I obviously support public education as the tool of choice for the majority of our children. In my dual role, however, I am also aware that education needs a constant supply of new ideas to maintain and improve the quality of our services.
The process of education has never been an easy one for children or adults. Throughout our history, we have battled a range of problems in education, from the basic reluctance of most children to cooperate in the tasks we as adults feel are critical to the painfully obvious desire of almost every child just to "finish school" and join the "real world." Even in our literature, including the Bard himself, we hear the wails of children dreading another school day. The lesson we learn from all that history, factual and fictional, is simply that we have not yet conquered all the mysteries of education: We just do not have all the answers to this most complex human process.
While many public schools offer excellent programs for children, the "perfect school" has yet to surface in any of our towns. As parents, educators and interested citizens, we always need better approaches and new ideas so we can really improve our schools, not just talk about the problems. The need for these ideas would seem to be obvious for school boards, but education has a sad history of resisting innovation and avoiding change. Gov. George Allen's recent effort to promote experimentation in education through the charter-schools program is a case in point.
Unfortunately, the initial charter-school discussions brought out some extremist rhetoric. The public watched certain religious and political groups quickly adopt the charter-school concept as their own, and many people consequently began to fear that those extremists in the commonwealth had somehow initiated charter-school legislation just to sustain their own financially stressed religious schools.
In my opinion,the governor's proposals are simple and devoid of such politics. Throughout his presentations on charter schools, he has stressed that these innovative schools would remain under the stringent control of local school boards, but - and this idea is critical - the schools could avoid many of the state regulations that currently hamper the educational process. He has never indicated that the charter schools would advance any one particular philosophy in the commonwealth.
In his proposals, the charter schools could adopt many of their own rules and regulations, each different from the others throughout Virginia. The schools could, for example, have their own calendars, beginning and ending their school years at completely different points. They would no longer have to adhere to an agrarian calendar, which once allowed our ancestors to keep their children home in the summer for farm work but which now has little significance beyond tradition.
Charter schools could also deal more effectively with staff members by rewarding creative work through a system of financial incentives. The many talented, dedicated teachers could receive better rewards for their long hours and hard work. in many ways, charter schools would venture into new territory, and the governor expects the resulting diversity to enrich schools for all Virginians.
Of course I understand that charter schools could become almost anything under the final language our legislature might adopt. But the concept could also become a superb laboratory for education and for children throughout Virginia. The opportunity for school boards to approve unique educational programs as experiments, and then glean every possible bit of knowledge from their novel approaches, could be extremely valuable. The schools boards would always retain the ultimate authority to continue or discontinue those experiments, gaining knowledge for their planning and minimizing waste of their precious resources.
In recent years, ideas seem to arrive in our culture clothed in political and religious idealism of one kind or another. Before we even examine ideas, we seem to want to first examine their bearers. If we as a culture like the group who brings us an idea, we stop to listen. If not, we begin to condemn.
I urge everyone to strip away the prejudice of political and religious extremism, and begin to give fresh new ideas, including charter schools, the attention they deserve. If the future of our children and our culture are not incentive enough, then perhaps we have truly sacrificed our love of ideas in favor of a grim dedication to tradition and demagogues.
Glenn O. Thornhill Jr. is president of Maid Bess Corp. and a member of the Salem School Board.
by CNB