John Tedesco responds to Wake school board attack ads

1. People of all ethnicities who earn good incomes (are affluent) usually move into affluent neighborhoods.
2. Students from affluent neighborhoods usually prosper in public schools and get a good education.
3. Students who get a good education usually go on to college and graduate if they apply themselves and select a good major.
4. College graduates with good majors usually get good jobs and earn good incomes.

See step one above.

It is up to the student, not the:

1. Parent(s)
2. Teachers
3. Principal
4. Guidance councilor
5. Superintendent
6. School board

If the student:

1)      Sets some lifetime goals

2)      Sets some academic goals

3)      Develops good reading and study skills

4)      Sets some vocational goals

5)      Sets some financial goals

6)      Exercises good personal judgment

7)      Exercises personal discipline and time management

8)      Makes a commitment to follow through on the above.

A student does not need a $50,000,000 high school facility to learn the basics that are needed to get a good college education.

A student does not need a trust account to get into and graduate from a really good college.  There are lots of ways to get the funds besides athletic scholarships and wealthy parents.

Any or all of the above are helpful but not necessary.

I submit that we need to focus on the very two first and most critical issues:

1. Student inspiration
2. Optimum method of learning for each student

Let’s take “STUDENT INSPIRATION”:  All students have different interests and different levels of internal motivation.  Some are inquisitive, some are lazy, some are academically gifted and learn quicker, some have learning disorders such as attention deficit disorder, dyslexia, etc. (and these must be diagnosed and addressed). One of the main problems is that most students do not understand the relevance of many of the subjects being taught.  Examples are: “I already know how to talk English so why should I have to study English?”.  “I want to be a fireman when I grow up so why do I need to study geography?”.  “I want to write novels so why do I need to study physics?”  “I want to be a chef, so why to I need to study music?’  For my own part, I always wanted to be an engineer and I wondered about all this, but I studied them on faith and got through it all.  After I became an adult, it all became clear but I understand why a child would question these and also use his doubts as excuses not to study and learn.  I had a discussion with two of my grown sons and two of their daughters still in public school last week.  They asked: “what would you say are the three most important subjects a student needs to learn.  My answer surprised even my two grown sons.  I said: “English, psychology and economics.”  Everyone needs to communicate effectively, be an effective advocate and manage one’s own finances.  For students that come from a poor and/or minority setting, I submit that young students need to hear from successful adults who came from poor and/or minority backgrounds to demonstrate that success can be achieved.  We need a speaker’s bureau of speakers who will visit individual third grade classrooms and talk to 8-year olds about the path to success.  This should be repeated once a year at all grades up through grade 12.  Field trips could be arranged through middle class, upper middle class and wealthy neighborhoods and then past a prison facility and then ask the class which they plan to live in when they grow up.  They don’t have to be Oprah, Michael Jordan, Colin Powell or President Obama, but these people were not born rich.  They should read biographies of successful people who started out at the bottom.

Let’s take: “OPTIMUM METHODS OF LEARNING FOR EACH STUDENT”.  I have not even heard this topic discussed.  Some students learn best by reading, others by observing, others by listening, others by actually doing, others by rote memory, etc.  Blind people don’t learn by observing, deaf don’t learn by listening, some are too nervous to take written tests and others are nervous taking oral tests.  Beethoven went deaf and yet continued to write classical music because he could “hear” it in his head.  For thousands of years, people could not read, but learned from watching and listening to others.  There are still millions of people today around the world who cannot read yet learn what they need to know in their own culture.  I submit that we could eliminate many of the other jobs in the school system and hire councilors to evaluate students one at a time in grades K, 1 and 2 to determine if a given student needs to be taught in a special manner.  We cannot afford the “one size fits all” method of teaching in use today.  I feel we could better teach students to read, comprehend, etc. if we understood better their optimum way of learning.  I would be better for the students, and for society and for our economy if we could teach ALL students to read, comprehend and to keep up with their classmates.  This is imperative if we are going to reduce dropouts and increase graduations.  If schools are cheaper that prisons, it follows that counselors are cheaper than round-the-clock correctional officers.

I submit that we have been arguing over the wrong issues in our schools.  We don’t need to reduce our dropout rate.  We need to eliminate our dropout rate.

With all due respect, I do not consider the high school graduation rate to be "some stat."

Nice try.

Halifax County schools far outperform Wake County schools in addressing the needs of economically disadvantaged (ED) students. It is simple fact. If you dismiss it, as you seem to be doing, it suggests you are avoiding the central issue of the Wake County school board race.

We've been told that the constant reassignments, stress-inducing calendar options and busing are to address the challenges of ED students and to raise their level of achievement. It is a lie. In Wake County the Ed graduation rate averages 54%, in Halifax County it is 64%, surpassing the state-wide rate of 58%. 

One can conclude that if you are a student from a low income family, your chances are better in Halifax County than they are in Wake.

 The charade about the benefits of the WCPSS reassignment/diversity policy is over.

It demonstrates they are more focused on picking out some stat for a
talking point to run down WCPSS for votes rather than reality.

Actually, the point is pretty easy to understand.  The socioeconomic diversity policy does not benefit low income students to the point where one of the worst school systems in the state graduates a higher percentage of low income students than Wake County.

You seem so gung-ho to stick with what you see as a successful policy.  Can you show any evidence of low income student academic performance improvements in Wake County?