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logo    Open Letter to the Mesquite Independent School District


Prologue

This letter was e-mailed to the seven members of the Mesquite ISD School Board (Robert Seward,  Greg Everett, Cary Tanamachi, M.D., Gary Bingham, Kevin Carbo, Rita Crump, Randy Dobbs) and Dr. Linda Henrie, the district's superintendent on November 20, 2008. Each was invited to reply; none has. Either no one cared enough to, had the ability to, or had anything to say that might justify the actions described below. Anyone interested in the quality of education offered by the MISD or by any America school should be aware of the kinds of things our school children are being subjected to.

Letter

I am a retired college professor with three grandchildren enrolled in the Mesquite ISD. All are good students by MISD measures and one is enrolled in Quest. But I want to tell you about some things I recently learned about MISD that everyone should know.

Firstly, about two weeks ago, my wife came home with the trunk of her car fully loaded with things she needed help unloading. She asked our eldest grandson and one of his schoolmates for help, and one asked, "Where is it at?" When I heard that question, I asked the boy if he had ever been taught the difference between transitive and linking verbs. I might just have well been speaking Farsi.

Secondly, a few days later, my wife asked our granddaughter where her mother was, and she answered, "Her and Margie went to the mall." I was appalled.

Thirdly, the following Sunday, while having lunch with some members of our Sunday School class, I asked two members, a husband and wife who both teach in MISD, whether teachers corrected students heard speaking bad English? Incredibly, both lowered their heads and said they didn't know. I wondered silently, how could they not know? Then one said, "You ought hear how the teachers talk in the break room."

Fourthly, our youngest grandson came home from primary school one day and said he spent the afternoon in detention. We asked him why. He said he was talking during lunch. When I asked, "Can't you talk during lunch?" he said, "We can't talk in class, in the hallways, or anywhere else." At that point I knew exactly why the two teachers in our Sunday School class said they didn't know if teachers corrected students' speech. Incorrect speech cannot be corrected if students are not permitted to speak, can it?

Fifthly, about a week later, my wife took our youngest grandson to a physician. While examining our grandson, the physician asked if he liked school. He answered, "No!" The physician told my wife that that was the answer he got from almost all of his school age patients, and added that he was fed up with the Mesquite school system. No wonder!

Speech is the foundation of all language. A person who cannot speak correctly cannot learn to read comprehendingly or write literately. A person who cannot read or write properly cannot learn. The environment in MISD is aimed at failure. If a learning environment is not relaxed and, at least, conducive of fun, it is not a learning environment at all. How can a child enjoy being in such a silent, restrictive environment six hours, five days a week? Why would any child want to go to such a place? Why is anyone surprised when students become truants and dropouts? Try requiring spectator silence at sporting events. How many people do you believe would attend? How would any of you to whom this message is being sent like having to spend your workday hours in such an environment week after week for twelve years? I suggest you try living by this schoolroom code for just one week to see just how onerous it is. And every time you fail this self-test, put yourselves in detention where you are forced to do nothing for the rest of the day. Learn to deal with the boredom you are forcing on our schoolchildren. You'll learn a lot about what's wrong with MISD.

And how does detention contribute to learning? The classroom is where learning takes place. A child speaks, is taken out of the classroom, and placed in detention. People, detention is jail! Jails are not educational institutions, punishment is not a teaching method that any noted educator has ever recommended, and recidivism rates demonstrate that it does not alter behavior.

Ask yourselves, "My God, what are we doing to these children?" Ask yourselves whether you aren't guilty of intellectual and emotional child abuse? A parent who abuses a single child in far less abusive ways often is severely punished, while this educational system abuses thousands of children daily, year after year, stunting their intellectual and emotional growths, while those of you engaged in running this system get paid or honored for it. Aren't you ashamed? If not, consider this: USA Today has recently reported that "the United States now ranks a desultory 18th among 36 nations examined by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. . . . Educators and economists alike bemoan the nation's lost excellence, linking the failure to make better use of the nation's human capital to both rising income inequality and growing insecurity among the hard-hit middle class." Schoolroom environments that are not conducive to learning are to some extent surely responsible for this situation. Even more shameful: South Korea ranks seventeen places higher on the list than the United States.

You know, huge conspiracies aren't what wreck the world, the accumulation of errors, failed policies, and little and big injustices does. You all need to remember that the child you subject to this abominable system may be your own child or grandchild. When the ignorance you are promoting results in horrific consequences to either them or society, you can all blame yourselves. Then someone may intone, "May God have mercy on your souls." But I doubt that He will.

Epilogue

In seeking ways to transmit this piece I went to the MISD website. It too was very revealing. It displays no biographies of board members. I found that strange. Applicants for almost any job are routinely asked to list their educational backgrounds and major courses of study if they are college graduates. But the board members of MISD reveal nothing that could be used to assess their qualifications for the job. Have any of them graduated from college cum laude? If not, they were at best mediocre students themselves. Even the superintendent's biography lists not a single academic subject she is schooled in (as a secondary education teacher, she taught business in MISD). Whether she ever worked in another school district is unclear, and in academic circles, "inbreeding" is usually frowned upon. Internet searches reveal that the seven member board is made up of one physician (most likely the most well educated of the seven), two who hold bachelor of business administration degrees, one retired MISD school teacher (no degree or subject specified), one insurance agent (no degree specified), and two others about whom no information can be found. Any reader can judge these qualifications for him/herself.

Postscript

After adding a navigation paragraph to the beginning of this piece, I intend to post it on the internet. If any recipient wishes to reply, I will append any replies to the piece before posting it.

None has replied. (12/23/2008)