The list goes on and on...

If you wish to continue your trip down memory lane...or for you "kittens" out there who weren't even alive in 1981 and wish to continue your magical history tour, visit the "What happened in 1981" link.

Okay, so what's it all about, Ronnie? (Nah, THAT movie was 1966, but what the hey?!)

Why I'm glad you asked!

Yesterday was the latest "School Improvement Day"...where teachers are kept abreast of the latest developments in educational research...a bestowing of "tools" that they can use in providing the much touted 21st Century education to the children of Cairo School District Number One!

Cairo Superintendent of Schools Leotis D. Swopes was prepared...armed with handouts to dazzle the assembled with the latest and greatest in the field of "best practices".

Although it is well known that "you can't teach an old dog new tricks", apparently, Superintendent Swopes believes "you CAN teach a bunch of CATs - young, old, and in-between - OLD tricks."

Don't believe me?

Well, see for yourself...

Actually, the handout was a total of three pages, but the first page explains my "intro" to this edition of CAT Tracks.

The date...April of 19-freaking-81???

WOW...I'd only been a teacher for 12 years...we'd just moved into the "new" Cairo High School the year before.

I guess it's kinda hypocritical of me to be "catty" about research from 1981...

I mean...THAT "timely" research should appeal to the dinosaur in me...it should "speak to me"!

Also, in one of yesterday's postings, I cited Socrates as my "champion" of best practices...how can I denigrate Superintendent Swopes' invoking research from 1981???

So...

I won't, I won't...the hell I won't!

Times have changed since 1981...

The Cairo Public Schools have changed since 1981...drastically.

The research in the article presented by Superintendent Swopes was racially motivated...

Time out!

Superintendent Swopes - to his credit - did NOT cite the racial angle (at least according to my "inside sources".)

However, Ron Edmonds' "Effective Schools Research" was in response to a paper written by James Coleman and funded by the U.S. Office of Education. (Yep...no "Department" of Education back in the day...only an "Office"!)

Coleman's assertion that touched off the controversy was that public school did NOT, could NOT, make a significant difference...that the success or failure of the child was all about the home...the student's family background. Education was, well, futile in overcoming this obstacle.

Ron Edmonds led the backlash...seeing the Coleman paper as "writing off" minority children, whose families had been relegated to inferior jobs and housing by a couple of hundred years of slavery, Jim Crow laws, and unofficial discrimination.

Thus my citing "racial motivation".

Well, in 1981, the article might well have been "on target".

I will be the first to attest that racism HAS been a part of the history of Cairo School District Number One. Much of the anger and hostility that is directed at teachers (especially white teachers) TODAY can be directly attributed to that history.

During the years following the full integration of Cairo schools in 1968 ("only" 14 years after Brown v. Board of Education), the "white establishment" - i.e. the all-white school board and white administration - DID take on the role of "protector" of the remaining white children (the ones who did not flee to Camelot School or Paducah or Cape Girardeau). The school board and administration DID turn a deaf ear to the black community, thus "earning" their ire. That distrust, so rightfully deserved in the 1960s, 1970s, and into the 1980s, haunts the district today even though the players and the playing field have totally changed.

Unfortunately, the teachers then and the teachers now - unfairly in my humble opinion - have inherited that wrath.

I cannot look into the hearts and souls of my colleagues over the years and know with certainty what personal feelings they harbored toward "children of color". However, I can truthfully say that I have never seen a fellow teacher outwardly discriminate against a child based upon their color or level of income. That's not to say it never happened, but IF it did, it was the rare exception and not the rule.

I have heard white teachers express concern and sympathy (often empathy) for the troubles routinely faced by their minority students. I have seen white teachers collect clothing and collect money for children in need...and search for a way to provide it without destroying the child's pride or undermining self-esteem. And, more importantly, I have seen white teachers provide the "shoulder to cry on" when their children had no one else to listen...no one at home who understood or cared.

In short...

I'm tired of hearing the false premise that is raised when "outsiders" (or educational experts like Ron Edmonds) state, as in the first sentence of the above article..."that public schools can teach all children if they have the will to do so."

I had the pleasure of working side-by-side with hundreds of teachers - white and black - over my 39 years in education. What did I see? I saw dedicated educators who DID try to teach EVERY child, regardless of color or economic status. It was NEVER about black or white...rich or poor! The only complaint voiced by the teachers in Cairo School District Number One was the child who REFUSED to learn...who made it his/her daily mission in life to insure that nobody else learned either.

BUT...even then...the teacher "sucked it up", slept on it, and gave it another try the very next day.

And, without commissioning a study, let me make one other observation...

Has anybody "in authority"...has anybody in the business of hurling stones...has even one of the naysayers about the dedication and skills of Cairo teachers taken a moment to look at the obvious???

Just who are the students of Cairo School District Number One?

Are they white?

Are they rich?

Take a look at the school report card and gaze upon the racial/economic make-up of the student population of CSD #1...

What?

Like 95% African American...like 100% poverty level!!!

So, when some "outsider" wants to cast stones...

Just who the hell do you think your teachers spend their day teaching...rich white kids?

Cairo School District Number One is blessed to have approximately 60 dedicated teachers who daily turn the other cheek to abuse from within and without, who walk into their classrooms and do their best to educate ALL kids.

Instead of castigating these professionals, instead of trying to make them feel guilty (for something they never did), instead of trying to run them off...

Instead...

Somebody out there needs to thank the teachers, encourage them, ask what can be done to make their job easier.

Otherwise, you critics and naysayers may end up with nobody at which to throw stones.

Hell, just remembered...I'm somebody "out there".

CATs...