Within my school board district, nobody is allowed to address the school board(sb) unless you first send a request through the Superintendent's office for his approval. If he likes your proposal he will put you on the agenda, if he does not think your ideas have merit you will not be on the agenda. Nor is there a way to address the sb during the meeting. If you raise your hand, even to ask for clairity on something said, you will be called out and told to speak after the meeting is adjourned. Plus, as I found out today, you cannot approach a school board member at his place of work, on the street, or even call the member without first going through the Superintendent's office. I cannot go to my elected officials place of business and ask a few questions about my school system. Hmmm..something does not smell right here. But I do understand their concern for their safety and their time while on the job is for their employers. But, when they own the business and THEY said come by later and "I will chat with you", and then tell the school Superintendent about this encounter and the Superintendent then called me and told me I could not contact my elected school board members, for some reason the hair on the back of my neck began to stand up.

After last week's SB meeting I presented to each member a letter I wrote stating that it would be a good idea to bring back cursive writing to the school district in order to bring up the reading comprehension scores from 44% to some where higher. The gentleman (SB member) I went and talked with stated to me that he read my letter, "well, I read a few lines of it", is what he actually said, so that tells me he does not care to even read two pages of paper that a concerned citizen offers up to him. Instead he goes to the Superintendent and complains that citizens are showing up at his business and asking questions about the school district. Hmmm.

I chatted with the Superintendent for about a half hour. During this call I felt he was defensive and maybe even worried that someone would be contacting SB members and trying to go around his authority. I think the electors have the ultimate say in what his authority is, right? IDK, but that is how I feel.

Look, if you haven't read my previous posts, all I want is for the kindergarteners and 1st graders to begin using a pencil to write the alphabet and then graduate to writing in cursive. Studies have shown that this simple everyday practice opens neural pathways within the kids' brains and thus, the reading comprehension scores should go up. Not a hard thing to implement, yet going outside of the normal channels seems to have sparked concern within the SB. Am I wrong? IDK, but asking a SB member to consider putting a pencil in kids hands isn't too far out of the mainstream.

Oh, and then the Superintendent stated that cursive is taught in 3rd grade. I then began wondering if that were so, why do the high school students not even know how to write their names in cursive? He was more interested in teaching the kids how to keyboard so they could integrate into the university system when they graduate. I told him I had no problem with the use of computers. I repeatedly told him that using cursive opens up neural pathways, and that was something he didn't seem to want to consider in our conversation. Computers are the future and present, the pencil is so old fashioned, I guess. I wish I would have asked him how the kids would communicate if this country ever lost its electrical grid to a EMP.

Thanks for reading. Hope some of you will comment, whether good or bad, it might help me understand how and why elected school board members are so trusting of a Superintendent who is heck bent on not wanting to increase the school's overall reading comprehension grades, but thinks throwing money into building and other non-educaitonal endeavors is the wave of the future.