Thinking locally about schools

by Tom Ryan

The Kansas City Missouri School District decided last week to close 26 schools to save the requisite money just to break even this year.  More dramatic, 285 teachers will lose their jobs before the Fall.  It’s a tough time here and it may be tougher where you live.  Cuts look to probably continue over the next few years.

This morning, I met with Kyleen Carroll at the Westport Coffeehouse.  Kyleen is running for the city school board.  The election is on April 6th, two openings, six candidates.  We talked for a while about the election but most of our talk centered on the present fiscal challenges and impacts at the classroom level of life.

Public schools drive much of the political discussion in Kansas City. Is it that way where you live?  Have you discussed education at your gatherings?

I know Health Care is on our minds now, but from this local vantage point, faced with serious required cost cuts, our schools face fiscal pain that is a real human challenge visible from right outside our window. 

Here I sense that everyone in the city has good intentions and cares.  But power is unfortunately a commodity that gets in the way.  Governance in public schools relies on a hierarchical structure here.  Top down, linear thinking, superior to subordinate.  As former teachers, Kyleen and I talked about how perhaps we can begin to focus upon the classroom, the space where teachers and students learn together.  Administrators, school boards, taxpayers, businesses and citizens could facilitate more than dictate.

The real power is inside the classroom.

The best story I’ve read this year, dealing with local schools, is “How to Walk to School” by Jacqueline Edelberg and Susan Kurland.  Visit http://howtowalktoschool.com/  Jacqueline helped organize people in her neighborhood, partnered with the principal, Susan, and over time transformed the local elementary school, Nettelhorst, in Chicago.

Here’s one thing, of many, I learned from the Nettelhorst story…art can transform a school.  As an artist, I believe that art can make us feel.

A solution:  connect artists with your school…musicians, painters, dancers, architects, sculptors, writers, designers, actors, film makers…and watch what happens.