Monday, June 15, 2009
Some are above any blame in Fleming situation
From the RoundTable blog
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Nathan T. Hansard
Hansard teaches mathematics at William Fleming High School.
There have been some pretty serious charges in the media of late about goings on at William Fleming High School. Whether there is anything to them remains to be seen, and I would urge everyone to refrain from leaping to judgment before the investigation is concluded.
That said, there are three groups that should not be allowed to have their reputations sullied by this, regardless of the outcome: the central office, teachers and, most important, students.
First: the central office. As a teacher of mathematics at Fleming, I was called in to central office early in this investigation. I was asked to tell what I knew about what, if anything, was going on at my school regarding SOL testing.
In my case in terms of direct knowledge, this was honestly not much. Still I was left with the impression that Vella Wright (who conducted my interview) and Rita Bishop (her boss, the superintendant) took any threat to the academic integrity of any Roanoke city public school to be of the highest importance.
It was clear to me that they were interested in the truth and the truth only. This takes courage and is a sign of character, a characteristic that I value above all others and a core value of Roanoke City Public Schools in general. I left my interview more proud than ever to be an employee of the system.
Second: teachers. The issue here has to do with scheduling, something over which teachers have no say whatsoever, period, full stop. In my time as a Colonel, I have been honored to work with the members of the Fleming staff in general and of the math department in particular. The professionals I have worked alongside have taken up the challenges of working in an urban school with dedication and love.
Some would even agree that we are doing the Lord's work at Fleming, and this calling is something you give yourself to with a pure heart or not at all. No one should doubt the dedication of the teachers at Fleming. I am proud to call them my sisters and brothers.
Finally: the students. Yes, they are teenagers, and sometimes they have driven me to distraction. Yet they have taught me things about perseverance that no one else could, and some of them are better students, perhaps even better people, than you or I ever were or are.
When they walked into my classroom they became my children, as they are all of ours whether we are parents or not, and they deserve nothing less than our love and support.
If there is any blame to come from this investigation, then to allow any of it to attach to these young people would not just be wrong, it would be evil, and I, for one, stand proud to call them, even those who sometimes drove me crazy, my own.
