Meeting The Challenges With The Truth


Life reveals contrasts and if you're lucky enough to see them you can tell an important story.

Last night I attended a wonderful event at Eliot Arts Magnet Academy. It was a gallery exhibit of the Alice in Wonderland costumes. The principal and the teachers were there with PUSD administrators and school board members. It was happy, joyful and teeming with good will. I discussed the school, the community, and the purpose of public school with many people.

It was democracy in action.

The students were proud of their work and I was happy to be an Eliot parent.

After the event I got in my car and and checked my email. A post had gone up on a local neighborhood forum and it was filled with negativity (and untruths) about PUSD in general. The overall student body was mentioned in a negative light.

I responded immediately and spoke of the event I had just attended.

The sentiments expressed in the post are indicative of opinions that were rooted in our community a long time ago. Let's see our schools in a new light. Take a tour. Talk to a parent of a PUSD child. Attend an open house. Participate in the centers of our communities.

Let's strengthen the public in our public schools.

-JHL


"We began moving away from the “public” in public education a long time ago. In fact, treating public schools like a business these days is largely a matter of fact in many places"
- Nikole Hannah-Jones. Have We Lost Sight of the Public in Public Schools?





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