Teacher as Truth Teller, Part II

Over the past decade, I’ve often admired the op ed columns of Alexandria, VA High School English Teacher Patrick Welsh. He is practicing one of Gregory Pierce's ten disciplines of Worplace Spirituality, making the system work for it's intended purpose. In his WaPo column yesterday he writes

:

”…But lately, I see a disturbing trend emerging: The school system's current leadership is sacrificing genuine excellence for a warped notion of equity and wasting money trying to create the illusion that we are leveling the playing field when in fact we are not. And in the process, we run the risk of neglecting the middle-class kids while not really helping the lower-income ones.
…
Throughout the 1970s and '80s, the fear of white flight drove much of the school system's policy. In effect, T.C. ran a school within a school, where savvy white middle-class parents used honors and AP courses to keep their kids challenged. But now there's an assumption that middle-class kids are doing just fine -- that their parents can make up the slack for anything the school doesn't provide. Again and again, I have heard administrators say things like, "Those kids don't need us to succeed." In other words, kids who have the talent to get into places like U-Va. or Virginia Tech don't need to be challenged. That's a deadly anti-intellectual concept. But worse, it completely ignores the middle-class kids who are just average students and could use a lot more attention than I fear they're getting now.”

Sounds like Charlottesville.

Patrick Welsh has been teaching English at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria for over 30 years. He has been writing an occasional op-ed column for the WaPo for over a decade. For other links to Patrick Welsh see my postings on June 4, 2004 and September 15, 2004.

When I was working as a Department of the Army civilian we used to say that one way to risk our career was to “Commit Truth”. It looks like Patrick Welsh is committing truth – telling the public something that the School system does not want to hear. To me, it sounds as if he is far enough along in his career so that he can answer any administration objections by pointing to his invisible KMA badge.