JON GLOVER CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST
When I said, “I’ll/we’ll be good,” someone listened. John and Georgia Shaffer listened. John and Georgia Shaffer heard my tiny little voice, and they adopted me and my sister. They heard my voice. They listened.
When I stood and stand before a board of 12 people and a superintendent and cry for the children, students of Caddo Parish public schools, who is listening?
For decades in Caddo, masses of children fail academically and continue to fall behind. Is there anyone really listening?
For many years, I have stood at school board meetings sharing data, data that shows that many of our children are in great need of academic help. Who is listening?
In a public school system, educators are entrusted with the lives of the children who walk through the schoolhouse doors to be educated — or in recent months to receive their education virtually — and still today too many children in our area are undereducated. Why is no one listening?
As the 2020-2021 school year opens with new plans, new options being made available, who is prepared to steward educational opportunities for the children, educators, parents? Who is listening?
From time to time as adults, we need to stop and tend the roses. The roses, our children and our grandchildren, are entrusted to a group of people who spew they are equipped to educate our children, and yet something is missing. The educational gap continues to widen.
Who is listening now?
The data, often presented to the Caddo Parish School Board, supports academic inferiority for many students and, in my opinion, no true change for the students of the Caddo Parish public school system. Why? Could it be that no one really is listening?
COVID-19 came and disrupted our educational system, and that was not good. It was not good because the masses of children who were already in jeopardy are now in even greater peril. That peril may be irreversible. Who is listening?
I sat in the recent Caddo Parish School Board’s Executive Committee meeting listening to a presentation that had no teeth. A plan not designed to meet the true needs of children who were already disadvantaged academically would not have done any good. What I heard at the end of the presentation was our school board members giving kudos for a plan that, in my opinion, will not meet the academic needs of children dying academically. Sadly, leaders are not listening.
Hearing words, “It’s all about the children” and witnessing plans that do not demonstrate “it’s all about the children” bothers me. Traditional, virtual or hybrid learning for students, particularly those already in peril academically, leaves me asking that question: “Who is listening”?
Did I surprise you by not giving data? We all know that data can be manipulated and used to convince others that their actions are indeed “all about the children,” but is it?
For decades children, precious children are being lost because no one is listening. What will it take to make you listen? Our boys and girls are crying for help, and I cry with them. Who is listening?
THIS ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED IN THE August 14 ISSUE OF FOCUS SB - THE INQUISITOR.