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Kevin Hampton · Joined: 10 Mar 2008 09:05 pm Posts: 48

When did this stigmatism that John Tyler is some sort of underachieving school occur? Did this thought process begin in 1971 when then School Board Trustees decided that Emmett Scott should be closed and the students dispersed between John Tyler and Robert E. Lee? Or maybe it was the actions by that board and others afterward by retiring, not renewing contracts and removing conscientious teachers from John Tyler? Or was it when the census indicated that John Tyler racial makeup was more minorities than Lee?

The fact about people sending their children to private schools have nothing to do with John Tyler or Lee. State mandates on public schools are not followed by private schools and therefore teachers in private school are allowed to teach. Public schools are restricted to testing. The failure is not in the children or the teachers, it�s the public conception and politicians who chase the winds of opinion. Let the teachers teach, exhort and inspire students as once they were empowered and this nonsense of labeling entire student bodies will diminish. It will never end because of lingering bias but it can be lessen when teachers are able to teach and reach students without fear of some formalized test that indicates only that a test was given.

It would remove the stigmatism if there was one school but there are those who feed on the misconception to justify their existence without fully understanding that many of the students at John Tyler see their denigration and wonder why should they try when people minimize their education as lacking. A teacher once told me, "Think before you open your mouth."

Dan Burgess · Joined: 17 Apr 2008 03:53 pm Posts: 2

I agree the inference that JT is a dumb school is extremely offensive. I am disgusted that the public opinion of JT is a school full of dumb, poor minorities. There is nothing further than the truth. I invite you to come spend a day with some of these kids and see. they are smart , and motivated and learning valuable life lessons of tolerance and understanding of others. We have digressed and the original topic was about IB no longer being at JT. There is a community forum being held Tuesday evening to inform the community about the decision and proposed new plan for academics. Please come and get educated fully on the subject, then form your opinion about one or two schools, TISD administration, The Board and even JT administration but stop making our kids feel inferior. It simply is not fair to them.

Bill Pelland · Joined: 25 Feb 2008 07:34 am Posts: 224

I am not a Tyler resident nor did I grow up in this area and so I must confess I do not understand this issue with Lee and John Tyler schools. Having said that I would like to comment on education in general and "No Child Left Behind" also.

The "No Child Left Behind" mandate passed early in the Bush administration was an attempt that evolved over many administrations to improve public education. Unfortunately, like many federal mandates, States are asked to do the federal governments bidding but are not provided the neccessary funds.

Nationwide, our public education is suffering and we should be looking at education as an investment in our future. Nationwide, the percentage of students that fail to graduate from high school is just under 25%. A little research points out that the median income for a high school grad is about 35,750 whereas a non grad makes about 26,250. An assosiate degree brings a median income of 44,400 while a bachelor degree 57,225.

The benefits therefore to local communities that improve their educational system are: 1. Higher sales tax revenues 2. Higher property tax revenues assuming higher income people buy more expensive housing 3. More taxes paid into social security and 4. higher income taxes paid. 5. Higher graduation rates and a better educated public also draws business to open up new employment opportunities thus providing more jobs.

Now somehow we do have to measure both student and teacher performance but teaching to a test seems counter productive. There is a great joy to learning and once children discover this there is no limit to where they can go. Nationwide testing for purposes of measuring successes and identifing where we need to improve could be productive but as it stands now it seems it is just a tool to withdraw federal funds when in fact more resources are needed.

I think a discussion of methods to improve education is most important. The first step to solving problems is to figure out what is working and what is not. It's been proved that a lower teacher to student ratio enhances results. Another writer mentioned the new technologies now available that was not available in years past. Training and re-training teachers and administrators as new technology is developed is also important.

I graduated High School over 40 years ago but even then the High School I attended had an electronics lab to train High School students. There were other vocational oportunities as well both in the High School and after High School in the form of apprenticeships. Of course the school also had an excellant college prep curriculum.

It would be interesting to hear, in this forum, ideas from parents, teachers, school administrators, and (yes) even politicians. How can we move forward and what monies are we willing to invest?

Bill Pelland
Murchison Tx

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