I was pleased to see the Dispatch offering readers the chance to
send in questions for the new Gilroy High Principal. Having seen
the latest CST, advanced placement, and state high school exit exam
results, there is plenty to think about. My immediate question
is
”
where do we go from here?
”
I was pleased to see the Dispatch offering readers the chance to send in questions for the new Gilroy High Principal. Having seen the latest CST, advanced placement, and state high school exit exam results, there is plenty to think about. My immediate question is “where do we go from here?”
While there have been some gains at the high school, there are gaping holes that will need to be addressed. Only 10 percent of tested Gilroy High students are proficient or advanced in mathematics. Only 6 percent (that is not a typo) of advanced placement calculus students passed the AP exam last year.
There are 78 incoming seniors who have not yet passed the language arts portion of the California High School Exit Exam; 68 who have not yet passed the math portion. There is work to be done, and changes to be implemented. While there will be many questions for the principal to answer, and many things for him to learn about Gilroy High School, I know that where we need to go from here is “wherever it takes to get the job done.”
One place we don’t need to go to succeed is Washington D.C.
At a recent Gilroy School Board meeting that was laced with passionate rhetoric and circular logic, the trustees voted to approve a trip for six students and their FFA advisor to Washington D.C.
I have no problem with FFA students going to their national convention. I have a real problem with a side trip (regardless of how fun, exciting, educational or cheap it is) to Washington D.C. during the regular school session. High-performing public schools and private schools make educational trips out of state or country available to their students during the winter break, spring break or summer vacation.
High-performing schools recognize that this practice is a “best practice” because it does not unduly impact the instructional time of students.
If our latest test results show us anything, it is that our instructional minutes are needed for instruction – we do not have hours or days to spare. Having read the board policy on absences, it is very clear to me that the majority of the trustees chose to ignore the policy for the few to the detriment of the majority.
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I read a story three weeks ago that top U.S. Muslim scholars had issued a “fatwa'” or religious edict, against terrorism. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) offered its support for the fatwa, or Islamic religious ruling, against terrorism and extremism issued by the Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA) and endorsed by more than 120 U.S. Muslim groups, leaders and institutions. (The term “fiqh” refers to Islamic jurisprudence.) This item received little press, because we are being led to believe by the media and our national leaders that most Muslim people are too busy supporting a fatwa against the American way of life.
This week, Pat Robertson issued his own kind of personal fatwa; he called on the US government to assassinate the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez. I don’t know much about Hugo Chavez, but a quick Google search of him shows me that he is hated and loved in equal measure by his fellow countrymen. I believe the only reason Pat Robertson cares about Mr. Chavez is that he despises Socialists almost as much as he does feminists.
Until this week, I thought that Pat Robertson had hit an all-time low with his pronouncement that “Feminism encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.” (Will feminism soon be available in pill form?)
Not too long ago, we lived in a country where assassination was anathema of our values.
The assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, along with the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan brought us all together as a nation. The assassination of Archbishop Romero in El Salvador and the assassination of Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin were turning points in history. No respected religious or world leader would advocate assassination, and it certainly is not a Christian value. I have never gotten any sense of spiritual enlightenment from a televangelist, but I now find myself questioning the values of those millions of average Christian viewers whose loyalty keeps Pat Robertson in his expensive suits.
As a Christian; I don’t get to pass judgment on members of the religious right. That is way outside the scope of my mere humanity. I truly believe that most evangelical Christians are good people with whom I have some philosophical disagreements. It pains me to see Pat Robertson become the media poster boy/spokesman of any Christian group.
