This is a letter I sent to our superintendent and school board this morning. I don't expect it to change my RIF status, but it did make me feel better to express my feelings...and, what do I have to lose anyway? :)
For the last 7 years I have taught Family and Consumer Sciences to middle school and high school students in both Pickerington and Gahanna. I feel very passionate about what I teach and I LOVE my students, so naturally I was heartbroken to find out that I, and several other related arts colleagues, was on the ‘reduction in force’ list. Even so, I understand cuts do need to be made and harbor no hard feelings. From what I understand, there is the opportunity to bring back several teachers as a result of the teacher contract agreement. I am sure there is already plan for how this will be handled, but I wanted to share my thoughts and feelings regardless of the outcome. However, I do not write you today as a ‘RIFed teacher’, I write you as a concerned parent and life long community member. On behalf of my daughter (who will be beginning her Gahanna-Jefferson education next year, as an All Day kindergartner at Blacklick Elementary) and all her future classmates, PLEASE consider fully reinstating the related arts programs at the middle school and high school level.
The Related Arts teach students that learning is not situated. FCS in particular helps students build connections between their academic subjects and the real world. That math can be used outside of the four walls of the math classroom (I have personally seen a countless number of students, who struggle with fractions, have a light bulb go off while in the foods labs.); and that proper English is not just for writing research papers. Students who find it difficult to maintain a passing grade in their core subjects have the chance to excel in related arts and build confidence in their abilities that will carry through out their lives. Not to mention those students who continue to be discipline problems for core teachers, yet find their niche in the elective programs Gahanna offers.
When I think about some of the major problems facing America today, I think of the obesity epidemic; fatherlessness and the growing number and duel income households; rising unemployment; and skyrocketing personal and national debt combined with a struggling economy. Looking at my curriculum, Family and Consumer Sciences specifically addresses nearly all of the nations most pressing concerns. Our curriculum also very closely aligns with the Gahanna Graduate Profile and supports core content by embedding academic standards within our Ohio FCS Standards. I fear what will happen if students don’t have access to this knowledge at school and resources are unavailable or faulty at home.
After attending the Ian Jukes in-service last year, I signed up to receive his email updates. This morning I received one that really caught my attention. The title was: Harvard Reports Calls for Less Emphasis on College Education. Here are some of the most striking things from this article:
“College for all” has been the mantra of education reform for decades. A new report from Harvard Graduate School of Education argues that greater emphasis on vocational training, apprenticeships, and technical job training outside of a formal college setting would better serve America’s young people.
“Behaving as though four-year college is the only acceptable route to success clearly still works well for many young adults, especially students fortunate enough to attend highly selective colleges and universities. It also works well for affluent students, who can often draw on family and social connections to find their way in the adult world. But it clearly does not work well for many, especially young men,” say the researchers in their report, Pathways to Prosperity: Meeting the Challenge of Preparing Young Americans for the 21st Century.
They point to the fact that men make up only 43% of enrolled students on American college campuses, that 30% of African Americans and fewer than 20% of Latinos in their mid-20s have an associate’s degree. The United States now has the highest college dropout rate in the industrialized world.
Most other advanced nations, notably Germany, place more emphasis on vocational training in high school. Structured programs that combine work and learning better enable adolescents to grasp how they’ll market and use their skills in the real world. “Consequently, these [vocational training] programs are not designed to serve those with a history of school failure.”
I am not saying we should lower our expectations of our students to achieve at a certain level or that some students are not capable of college. You can read the entire report, Pathways to Prosperity by downloading it from the link below. It is worth the read.
While I know serious and painful cuts are necessary in these tough economic times, I find current situation very sad. I do not have an answer for our current situation, but I do know of a High School that made the "US News and World Reports Best Schools in America" list:
The principal of Forest Grove High School, John O'Neil, spoke with a group of local FCS professionals. He introduced the mandatory Reading and Math Workshops for students below the state average to raise their performance. He informed his Math and Reading teachers that their class load would be heavy at the beginning of the year and light the remaining part of the year. He told his elective teachers just the opposite. The students were told they had to take these classes and pass the state tests to get out of them. Then they could take their choice of the other electives. (Their FCS classes are some of the most popular.) This and other changes helped to reduce the dropout rate and improve test scores at the school. For these improvements, in 2006 the school was presented the Closing the Achievement Gap award from the State of Oregon The following year, the 2,000-student school became the first high school to win the award two years in a row.
I have long believed that budget cuts that remove all of the "high interest" classes are a large part of the drop out problem. These classes use "hands on" experiences, which is more effective for Tactile/Kinesthetic Learner. FCS classes also utilize many math and reading skills in authentic setting, which assists the students in believing in the value of learning those lessons. I earned my degree at The Ohio State University in Family and Consumer Sciences Education. To do so, I was required to take multiple economics classes. Even in college I felt that the Personal Family Finance classes and the Cost Analysis used in Foods and Clothing classes covered the same materials in a much more effective manner. And, of course, they were using my math skills more effectively than drill and practice.
As I write this, my daughter is doing an art project on the floor next to me. She is a very smart child and my husband and I don’t anticipate academics being a problem for her. She loves to learn and cannot wait to begin ‘real school’. However, even with her love of learning and achievement in academics, there is a special part of her that lights up when she can express herself in other ways. I do worry about her education if she does not have to opportunity to experience art, FCS or even music in the school setting. My husband and I are both graduates of Gahanna-Lincoln from the class of 2000. What I appreciated most about our education, and what made us buy a home to raise our children here, are the opportunities offered to the students. This is what I fear our community is going to be losing. I have seen several local communities reduce or completely loose their FCS and Art programs. From my experience, those programs are never fully restored or brought back at all…and the students suffer. The students truly are whom I am thinking about.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. Even if nothing changes, please know that I have thoroughly enjoyed my time teaching in Gahanna and will continue to support our students!
Sincerely,
Jenn Bender
Parent and FCS Teacher
