A while ago Holiday Inn Express enjoyed using “I’m not a rocket scientist, but I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night” as an indicator of the smart and well-informed traveler in their clientele. They seemed to say, “smart is as smart does”, a reverse paraphrase of Forest Gump.
Almost every public conversation today about school is overly loaded with Holiday Inn Express overnighters and back door Forest Gumps. A great many, no matter where they spend the night, speak like an expert on educational subjects. Truth be told, many a speaker’s most recent personal experience with 4K-12 education was their last day of school prior to graduation.
That written, public education is all about the opportunity for any person to speak their mind regarding the life and times of their local schools, teachers, curriculum, instruction, and school taxes. School boards meet in public sessions with scheduled times on the posted agenda for any person to speak to the board members. In the past two years the public has spoken to school boards, sometimes loudly and passionately, sometimes raucously, and many more times with explicit commentary.
Professional educators are often baffled by the real outcomes when the public speaks to the school board. Long-standing past practice, sound theory and research, and well-laid out plans can be cancelled by the requests, demands, and wants of the lay public. This is not say that a parent or community member is not informed and well-prepared in their speech. They frequently are. It is, however, to poke a solid hole in the mantle professionals wear. School boards can discount professional education and professional experience in the face of a teary, angry, and demanding public in the blink of an eye or the casting of an “aye” vote.
Often, on the night before a school board meeting, I am tempted to drive 200 miles round trip in order to say at the meeting, “I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express” last night. That may be all the context and perspective that is warranted today.