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Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Not Your Mama’s Public Schools
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
My mother graduated from the same small-town public high school in Reisterstown, Md., that her mother did. And, if my family hadn’t moved out to the country a year earlier, I would have attended Franklin High School, too.
Sometimes I wonder if I had gone there how different it would have been from when my mother and grandmother were students.
I started thinking about this after reading about all the changes that may be coming to DeKalb County public schools in the next four years — including single-gender academies for middle school, world language programs starting in elementary school and more career-focused or college-oriented high schools.
According to DeKalb education reporter Kristina Torres’ article, Superintendent Crawford Lewis wants to build on the county’s already successful and substantial magnet and theme programs to give parents even more opportunities to find the best academic offerings for their children.
This year in Gwinnett County, the state’s largest school system opened its first charter school, which draws high school students from across Gwinnett to study engineering, biosciences and emerging technologies. Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks promises that this is only the first of new, more innovative schools.
Public schools are often criticized for being stuck in the same old ways. But it seems to me that every time I turn around another campus in metro Atlanta is trying something new.
So which is it: Are public schools holding onto the past or are they embracing the future?
UPDATE: Maureen Downey’s latest Opinion piece supports the DeKalb plan. Downey says the program should only strengthen the county’s public schools.
“Too often in the past, alleged innovations in education have failed because the changes have amounted to cosmetic surgery. Schools have gotten a face-lift when they need a heart transplant,” she writes. “DeKalb officials seem to understand that won’t work much longer.”
