A former Jr. High teacher, Brenda Sellers, sent me a note of encouragement and support this morning and it got me thinking about how fortunate I was to receive the public school education experience that I did. I could write multiple pages about how the teachers, coaches, and administrators at Fountain Lake School near Hot Springs positively impacted my life. Stories about coaches like Jerry Clay, John Utley, Marc Davis, Robbie Hancock, and Sammy Lambert that taught us invaluable life lessons how to work hard, how to win, and how to regroup and try harder after defeats. They pushed us to be more than others, and sometimes even ourselves, gave us a chance to be. I remember my agri teacher, Albert McCoin, who spent many hours away from his family taking us to contests, fairs, and conventions. He took a shy kid in eighth grade and got me involved in creed speaking, public speaking, and parliamentary procedure contests. Eventually, he encouraged me and helped me get elected to State President of the Future Farmers of America (they just call it FFA now) where I traveled across the state speaking at banquets and events. Then there were the classroom teachers like Elaine Warrington who were much more than classroom teachers. They were encouragers that felt their biggest victories when they saw their students excel. Mrs. Warrington was far more than a good English teacher. It wasn’t in her contract but she would spend hours on her own time proof reading speeches, applications, and even assignments for other classes because what she desired most was to see her students succeed. I sometimes wonder if what I learned about service and dedication from Mrs. Warrington and other teachers like her was not more beneficial than the subject matter knowledge they imparted. My father served on the school board, and I learned to appreciate men like our superintendent, Irvin Bass, who was faced with financial challenges and very tight budgets but figured out how to make what we had work and taught us to appreciate and take care of what we did have. He showed us that community pride and spirit is not built around what you have or don’t have but who you are and how you represent yourselves and others in your community. Today, my kids attend public school. My brother, Donald Westerman, is a principal, and my wife, Sharon Westerman, teaches special education in the public school system. This coupled with having served on the local school board and serving in the state legislature, I’m confident that the problems in public schools are not with the hardworking teachers and administrators, but with the system of federal and state regulations they must operate under. As a special education teacher my wife is inundated with paperwork and forms she must keep updated and she is required to spend time out of the classroom learning about some new program or mandate instead of being in her most effective location…in her class, with her students, teaching them. From a typical poor execution of federal and state programs like Common Core or No Child Left Behind by the state and federal government to poorly conceived solutions that undermine the very purpose they were created like the recent “healthy guidelines” for school lunches, the state and federal governments have continually illustrated their incompetence at affecting positive changes on the local level. Although healthy food choices sounds good in the media, the reality is it taste bad and a lot more of it gets scrapped into the swill bucket than gets consumed by students. My wife tells me stories of her special education students that come to class starving right after lunch. When she asks why they are hungry their response is the food is terrible. These are the same kids that end up bringing high calorie processed foods to school to snack on or are the first ones in line at the fast food restaurant or the convenience store to load up on junk food when the school day ends. News flash for the federal government: kids don’t get fat from eating school lunches. A big yeast roll once a day or a little salt in the mashed potatoes are not the crux of our obesity problems, but if lunchroom workers were free to cook meals that the kids would actually eat then they might be able to concentrate better and perform better in the classroom. If public school lunches were the cause of obesity in this country, it would be safe to assume there would be no overweight kids in private schools or kids that are home schooled and that is simply not the case. I was truly fortunate to attend public school when I did and I’m grateful that my children have the opportunity to attend a good public school where the dedicated employees still make it work despite the obstacles placed in front of them by the state and federal government. Not only did I attend public school through twelfth grade, but I also attended public university for my undergraduate training. I was fortunate to get a taste of private education at the graduate level and I was duly impressed. I applaud private schools for their ability to perform well and get the results they do with the funding they have, but I would like to see our public schools be more than we, or maybe even they, think they can be. For this to happen, I believe it’s time for the state and federal government to be less than they want to be.
Posted on: Wed, 14 Aug 2013 16:52:29 +0000
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