Arkansas Blog

Cheers and Bravo to the student and to the school that encourages and supports students to learn and APPLY their knowledge in real world situations!
Questions for public school districts:
Would a public school trust a group of talented students to evaluate its computer system and actually implement the change they recommend?
Why does it take about 3 weeks for the LRSD to send end of 9 weeks report cards to parents? By the time you receive the official statement, the next nine weeks is about 1/2 over? edline "reports", what a joke. It's an electronic reporting system that's rarely up to date and accurate. We're checking it 3-4x a week.
If your child needs some help in subjects, "tutoring" is offered at LRCentral with days/times reported on the Central website. Yet our experience has been that the teachers get credit for "offering tutoring" yet many spend that hour having coffee with colleagues or chatting on their phones rather than instructing the students who show up for "tutoring". What's a parent to do?
Did anyone see the news story on the "educators code of ethics"? It included BS such as "professional relationships with students"; educators and coaches cannot require paid tutoring or sports involvement outside the school system and educators should be "ethical".
This was just an additional revelation about the coaches that are too highly paid and then hold their players hostage by requiring them to play in the summer leagues that the coach runs. Classroom teachers should not be lumped in with these overpaid Bubbas.
Is it any wonder that academics are not the focal point when the high school coaches make 6 figures? And the school superintendents make $85k average plus car plus housing plus benefits! When are we going to awake up and smell the coffee on our academic priorities?
Wish some of that natural gas royalty $$ were going to acacdemic scholarships.
Why and Where did the Arkansas School Boards Association move? Did they need higher quality digs like the Student Loan Association that could have loaned more money or lowered the loan rate and fees for students rather than move to cushy new luxury digs on Riverfront Drive. Are other parents bothered by these issues?

Here, let me fix that for you:

"Would a GROUP OF SCHOOL DISTRICT TAXPAYERS trust a group of talented students to evaluate its computer system and actually implement the change they recommend?"

I would venture, on the whole, the answer is no.

The sentiment is nice, that kids can manage a network and embrace technology and all of that, but kids (and I wasn't one too long ago, definitely within the information age of present) also have a habit of using computers for less-than-appropriate things that can expose those computer, and in turn the network, to particular vulnerabilities.

Now a class about managing an network, that's a different thing, than actually being responsible for the real thing. I personally would love to see such classes available in our public schools. We talk a big game about courting "information" and "technology" jobs, but where are we laying the groundwork? It's got to be in the schools.

Now really, shouldn't all the credit be going to God?

Do you think I could get him to change the time on my car radio?

When I was his age we were entrusted with digging out the drainage line from a rarely used outdoor privy.