There are some times when I feel the need to remove the mantle of “journalist” from who I am and speak to you all as Private Citizen Cliff.
Journalists are supposed to try to remove all forms of bias and personal feelings from the subjects on which they report. If such a bias exists, a good journalist would ask to be transferred from that beat, avoiding even the appearance of a conflict of interest.
Thankfully, I’ve never claimed to be a “good” journalist - in fact, I think I’ve made it abundantly clear that, at best, I’m an English major who writes vaguely journalistic style stories from time to time.
In my capacity as News Editor, one of my beats is the Opelika City School System. From the monthly school board meetings to special events like Young Writers Day or (what we used to call "Jellybean") Field Day, I’m there attempting to cover said events the best way I know how.
However, as I cover these events, I am forced to recognize my own bias with regards to our school system.
I’m a proud 2004 graduate of Opelika High School. I bleed red and black - always have, always will.
The same goes for most of the McCollum family - my sister, my cousins, my uncle and my father are all Opelika graduates.
We’re a family that has and always will support our local school system - a school system where every child, from the lowest achievers to the brightest of the bright - can receive a quality education with the added benefits of excellent athletics and amazing arts programs.
I know most of you feel the same way, which is why I’ve become confused by some news that has recently come to my attention.
It seems that a number of school system employees have chosen not to “embrace the awesomeness” that the rest of us believe in.
These employees, including some at Central Office, choose to send their children to some local private schools.
While this is completely within their rights as parents to choose what education they want for their child, I’m somewhat taken aback by these actions.
Our local public school system is “awesome” enough for these people to work here (and to cash the paycheck paid for by public tax dollars from you and from me), but not “awesome” enough for you to deign to send your children here?
You may wish to claim the “religious education” argument offered by sending your children to said schools, which (again) is your right, but are you really doing your children a service by doing this? The diversity of thought, opinion and life experiences offered at our local public school better prepares your children for the real world than the homogenized, pasteurized private alternative.
How can this town and its children trust that you believe our schools “invite us to be our best,” when you don’t believe enough to just send your kids into one of the classrooms you help to oversee?
While I tend to be for freedom of choice, maybe our school system needs to adopt some rules changes - specifically that anyone employed by our school system and that lives in our town should be required to send their children to our schools. (Author's note: I was informed after this column was published that such a policy would, in fact, be illegal. Only a slight hurdle, I say. Our city and state governments do a vast number of illegal things almost daily; surely one more won't hurt.)
If this school system is good enough to work for, then you ought to back it up by setting an example for your children that isn’t laced with hypocrisy.
You can’t praise the school system with your mouth while slandering it with your actions. A good many of us are tired of the insincerity.
Our public city schools have educated astronauts, Harvard medical students, Academy Award winners, top ranking military officers and amazing, talented athletes. No local pay-for-play school can boast such a resume.
...
But, as I said, perhaps I’m too biased on this issue.
I probably won’t accept any reason given as to why rational, thinking people would do such things.
“Dear OHS” is the school for me and countless others.
We just wish you and your families would join us.
Thank you for asking this question. Almost all the Opelika city school students I've ever known will tell you they are saved by Jesus. (And the small minority who don't claim that are unlikely to say it's because of something the public schools did to them.) I'm also willing to bet that most of the teachers in the Opelika system are seen by their neighbors as God-fearing Christians too. So I fail to see how going to public schools in Opelika is detrimental to a Christian upbringing.
ReplyDeleteLaura, I think the "Christian" argument might be used to deflect from the real reasons why some people leave the Opelika system, reasons that might be less savory if spoken aloud.
DeleteI agree with you, some of the strongest Christian role models I had growing up were teachers and administrators at our Opelika public school system.
What both of you are failing to realize is that our public school systems have been forced to take God out of everything. Therefore, both comments reflect an attack on individual and personal beliefs, not what our school systems are allowed to incorporate in their teaching. Yes, I am including Opelika and the like. I am also a graduate of OHS. I am failing to realize how such "concern" has anything to do with the credibility and integrity of said people as well as their academic abilities. Sounds like contradiction and jealousy is in the mix here.
DeleteCliff, you're the bomb.com
ReplyDeleteWhy don't you state what you think the "real" reasons are?
ReplyDeleteVery, very well written Cliff!
ReplyDeleteI think everyone should choose what's best for their own individual child. I have never personally been pro private schools, Christian schools, or homeschool. But I did consider all my options when I finally had my own kids. I do believe that each individual child is different and each parent should determine what is best for each of their own children. We recently moved to Opelika. Prior to our move we lived in Auburn. I teach with Lee County schools. My children go with me to Lee County--not because I am opposed to Opelika or Auburn or because I think they fit better there, but simply because it is just more convenient for our family at this time. Each year we reevaluate the situation. I have the type of children that thrive in a public school setting. They WOULD NOT do well in a homeschool situation--it just does not fit their personalities. I'm sure they would do well in private school as well. However, being a public school teacher I would only consider a private school if I thought the curriculum would strengthen my child's spiritual life beyond what we currently teach at home; or if the school catered to a specific area in which my child showed a gift in (such as a math or science school). As a matter of fact, we did consider a Christian school for their younger grades, because we knew they could get a firmer scriptural foundation than what we could readily teach at home. But looking at our family budget we ruled this option out. Because I teach with the county school system this debate has never been brought to me. No one cares where my child goes to school. And quite frankly I don't care where my children's teachers or administrators send their kids. So long as they work hard to benefit my child I don't really feel it has any reflection on the school or school system. I trust that they are going to do what is best for their child while still providing what's best for my child. I am more concerned with their job performance and the way interact with those within the school. What they do with their own kids isn't my problem or my business. Maybe my perspective is different because I am in the county & am not originally from this area. But I figured since you shared your opinion I'd share mine. On a side note--We plan on moving our children into the Opelika system within the next year or two, but are trying to determine right now which grade will provide the smoothest transition. We have fallen in love with Opelika and despite what we heard about the school system before moving here, we feel the school system is wonderful as well. And FYI the handful of people we know who work for OCS that don't send their kids there--Those are the same ones that raved to us about how great the schools in Opelika were & how we wouldn't regret moving here & putting our kids in the Opelika school system.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree. I could not have said it better!!! Find a bigger problem that has to do with yourself and your kids. Do not try to control or judge other people or their actions.
DeletePicturePerson, I'm not completely bullheaded enough to think I'm 100 percent right on this issue. What I wrote, and why I usually write, is to foster discussion just like what you wrote.
DeleteThank you for your thoughtful comment, and for providing the real-life issues that a family like yours faces. You said some things I hadn't considered. I may still maintain my stated belief, but I can understand why your family makes the decisions that are best for you, and I certainly didn't wish to deman that in any way.
We'd love to have you share your story in a Letter to the Editor, if you feel so inclined. You can send it to our e-mail at opelikaobserver@att.net . We would need your name and address with that (to verify who you are), so if you don't want to do that, that's fine, too. I just was very impressed by your comment, and thought our readers in the print version could also appreciate a good, differing opinion.
Thanks again,
Cliff
I agree. It is a parent's right to choose based on what is best for their own child. Their first allegiance is to their family. Many people who work at establishments or institutions favor other establishments or institutions with their business, that is the beauty of freedom of choice. It amazes me when liberals do not want to extend the freedoms they so insist upon to those who think differently.
DeleteNot poking at you, Cliff, my dear sweet smart nephew; raiser of important questions..fellow OHS graduate...but at the mindset that picks and chooses what "freedoms" are worth protecting or accepting. Why would we even question these individual choices any more than we would question others?
Just because a person works at a school, does not mean they have any duty to send their child there any more than one who works at a hospital is obligated (or morally dictated) to have their family member treated there. ie. all the people who go to B'ham for certain procedures that are offered here at EAMC.
It is a case by case situation that, thank God, is protected by individual liberty. However, the question you raised is an important one...maybe there are reasons that have not been stated publicly why some parents feel the need to send their children to a private school?
Maybe their employment at OHS chills their liberty to say what it is? I don't know, I just throw this out there for thought. Love always, Aunt Gail...Proud to be an OHS graduate.
Before you do another "attack" on someone why don't you just go to them personally and ask and I am sure they will be glad to give you facts. Please don't keep this fire going. One reply in this arena called you the "bomb" Well one just exploded in the lives of the people you called hypocrites. Did you ever stop to think what kind of job they do, how much they love the children that are in their charge for more hours than they spend with their own, how much these children's parent appreciate what they do for their children, No or you would not have let someone with envy and a jealous spirits lead you to write what you did. By the way, how many hours have you ever volunteered at any school in the OCS?
ReplyDeleteThese people live in Opelika, pay taxes in Opelika, shop in Opelika, eat in restaurants in Opelika and worship in Opelika. AND are loyal to Opelika.
Anonymous, I've volunteered countless hours over the years with the Opelika High Theatre Soicety, helping with tryouts, rehersals and serving as a judge for the Trumbauer District Drama festival every year since 2005. And, starting this year, I'll be working the concession stands at each Opelika home football game with my fellow Lions Club members. I fully believe in being an active alumnus of my school, and will continue to just as I have since my graduation in 2004.
DeleteThank God we live in a country where we can choose where we want to educate our children. Move to China or North Korea if you want to be a part of a dictatorship that mandates where children are educated. You are way off on this subject, but then again, you are usually way off on all subjects.
ReplyDeleteI know these people personally Cliff. How can you dispute what God has called them to do with their children? Why didnt you go to these people and ask their reasons for sending their children to private schools?
ReplyDeleteBefore you attach the word "awesomeness" to anything, please know that nothing or no one deserves that title other than the Lord God.
Anonymous, "Embrace the awesomeness" is one of the Opelika School System's new slogans. My repeated usage of the phrase and wordage of "awesomeness" was playing off of that.
DeletePeople be crazy!!! Annonimi, Cliff obviously wasn't attacking anyone. How can you attack cliff and be in the right? If you are so passionate about this, don't post annomously.
ReplyDeleteYou be crazy. You can't even spell annomyously. Hell, I can't even spell it. We obviously need more schooling. Wish I had went to ohs
DeleteCliff, when you have children your point of view may change. I am also a "Dear OHS" graduate. I had the one and only Dr. Hannah, Mr. Spain, Senor Sterns....all of the great and memorable ones. Now I have found myself in the situation that public school isn't always the best fit for all children. I would have never imagined that my children would have been anywhere other than the same system that I graduated from, but in the best interest of my child, we chose a different path. As a parent, we make choices, often difficult ones, to pursue what we feel most fits the needs of our kids, for that given season of their life. It is likely that the parents that you speak of found themselves in that same conflict. Did you ask them? As a journalist, did you investigate both sides of the story? Special needs sometimes require great sacrifices, but once the need is met the sacrifice is worth all the heat that we take for making it. Go ask them and get back with me....class of 95.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this thoughtful reply, Anonymous. And, for students with special needs, sometimes other considerations must come into account - I agree.
DeleteThat being said, from covering Opelika's special education classes fairly extensively over the last few years, I see a group of dedicated professionals who try their best to work with and for those students who need a little extra help to get by. Through programs like their job placement rounds and other vocational training opportunities, they try to help our students succeed the best way they can. In fact, I'm going to have lunch today at Chick-fil-A at the mall to support one such student who got a job there through her own hard work and with the help of her OHS teachers.
This piece wasn't an article, but my weekly opinions column. With stories, I always try to get the other side's views, but, with columns such as this, my opinion can just be my opinion. I rely on good people like yourself to offer rebuttals and point out flaws in my argument - just as you have here. Sometimes, the point of my column is to demonstrate absurdity by being absurd.
Thanks for the response. I think that calling it slander is too far of a stretch. And how do you answer the faculty that lives in Auburn so that their kids can go to ACS? Do you mandate that they live in Opelika (and pay taxes to our city instead), or is it only for those that send their kid to "religous" choices? As far as your quote on helping those students, sometimes the best they can do isn't the best for my child. As a "teacher" myself, I can't be all things and meet all the needs all of the time. You are right that OCS has had some great success stories and I would dare say that those people would have been great no matter where they were. Acknowledge that those same great students were also in the same system that has had a great number of delinquents. I just don't believe "the system" gets majority of the credit; they are willing to take responsibility of the failures as well. And well you know what they say about opinions....
DeleteI meant to say that unless they are willing to take the responsibilities of the failures. Which we know they are not willing to do. And by the way, where are all of those successes now? Do they have their children in our dear Opelika City Schools?
DeleteThe teachers who make the responsible decision to send their kids to school elsewhere, or better yet teach their kids themselves, do so because they are the closest to and most aware of the propaganda/statist machine known as OHS. From the outside the establishment may look shiny and nice, but only from the inside can one witness the mind numbing, tax supported thieftank known as the public school system.
ReplyDeleteClass of '95 Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteI feel like our school system does own up to some of its shortcomings and failures. When kids at Opelika High have difficulty passing the graduation exam, they are given the opportunity to take remedial classes with small student to teacher ratios so they have the time and individualized attention to help them work through issues and problems they may have on a closer basis with their teachers. And most of the teachers who work with these classes are what I would describe as some of the best teachers at Opelika High - veterans like Gloria Campbell, for example.
And while our test scores may not be as high as we would like them to be, they are, at least, honest. We're not trying to reclassify students with mild to moderate learning impairments as severe cases to try to keep them from having to take said high-stakes tests, unlike some other school systems we know.
And as for those talented students being able to thrive anywhere else they might go, you're probably right. The cream always rises to the top. However, Opelika's arts education programs and athletics are markedly better than many in our surrounding area, so it could be argued that some of the successes seen by those "talented tenth" members may not have been as great in other systems that don't support the arts like we do here in Opelika.
As for your comment about "you know what they say about opinions..." I think you're better than stooping to that cliche, but, you're right ... Opinions are like assholes. We all have them, and occasionally, we show them. But, when I show mine, I have the decency to put my name to it. It appears you don't.
I was actually referring to the part that everyone's stink, except our own. I would never take away from the wonderful teachers that the system has. Some of the best I know. Decency...come on Cliff. Go read what your aunt said. Maybe it is a matter of being very close to the situation at hand.
Delete'95 Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteI was merely finishing the cliche you started, and I believe I can use whatever language and wordage I choose on my personal blog. You are free to do the same. I just may not subscribe to the same list of "taboo words" that you personally subscribe to, and I'm sorry if you couldn't handle that one word.
I don't think I ever pretended I wasn't close to the situation, hence why I spent a majority of the column discussing my personal bias on the issue. Believe me, '95 Anonymous, I'm usually the first person to deflate my own argument. We all may "stink," (to continue your cliche) but that doesn't mean they aren't valid, too.
"You may wish to claim the 'religious education' argument offered by sending your children to said schools, which (again) is your right, but are you really doing your children a service by doing this? The diversity of thought, opinion and life experiences offered at our local public school better prepares your children for the real world than the homogenized, pasteurized private alternative."
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a valid point here, Cliff. Back in my early college years, a youth ministry I was working from had to do demographics for the schools we served. The local private schools were over 99% white and claimed a socioeconomic status of upper-middle class at the least. And it showed in the students behavior.
From what I can remember of private schools kids (blurred by 6 years of being out of OHS and having a teenager's perspective at the time), the private school students (most of them, not all) were arrogant, pretentious, socially exclusive, and even hateful towards public school kids. Back then, I felt like more OHS students were actual Christians and more private students were "Christian" only by claim.
Fast-forwarding to being in college, there doesn't seem to be much difference between private school and public school kids as far as faith and religion. At Auburn University, I have seen people who, back in high school, were Christian only in name or were completely faithless do beautiful things in the name of God while I have seen others who appeared to be wholeheartedly faithful back then fall down the path of sin now. The only difference I see between the two is the lack of social success of private school children their first semester or year.
Private school children take the shock of going to college worse than public school children. The few that I saw at Auburn had trouble breaking into new social groups, especially when they were confronted with people outside the social niche they were raised in. The even fewer private school kids that I saw succeed socially were the ones that joined fraternities and sororities that socially reflected their schools, which also seem "Christian" in name more than actions, but that's another gripe for another time.
All in all, the argument for private school over public school for "religious education" seems invalid. I believe it's more up to the churches, parents, and students themselves to foster a Christian education because outside of whichever school system teaches these kids, the foundation established outside of school in the faith shows more in college rather than in an environment where they are inclined to behave in a Christian manner. The local private schools may teach children more *about* the faith, but the environment doesn't teach them how to *live* with faith.
Cliff, the question you have posed is important in the life of our community and school system. If we have problems, they need to be on the table in order to correct them. When school system employees feel a need to send their children to other schools, we must know why so we can address their concerns. As a former teacher, I am frankly hurt that our schools are not considered good enough for our employees' children. I appreciate your concern for our schools.
ReplyDeleteCliff,
ReplyDeleteWell written and valid points. I have my children in private school and thank you for respecting my choice, although you did throw a few stings my way that upset me. That being said I do agree with the perception that it can be upsetting that employees choose other options, but it is a very personal choice. My question to you is how to you feel about the large number of children in the Opelika school system that have a parent that teach in other school systems? Should they choose to take their kids out of the city to support their place of employment?
On the pay to play, I don't know of any of our local private schools that pay to play.
Large private schools have plenty to offer, at the same time the small private ones have opportunities as well and I think "the homogenized, pasteurized private alternative" is a description that comes from someone who hasn't experienced small school life, as I have not experienced the large Alabama 6A school system I try not to make judgments on the "real world" experiences my children will not get.
Thanks for being my favorite journalist :)
*teaches in other school systems
DeleteIt is 1:30 in the morning!
I do feel like I should stick with the standard of "If you work for a school system, you should try to send your kids there" - unless the school system in question doesn't have a good academic record or athletics/arts programs for the kids (I recognize that some teachers have to take jobs where they can find them.)
DeleteI really didn't mean to demean our local private schools (who do have great academics and excellent programs). And the "real world" argument is simply based on anecdotal evidence by observing the lives of some graduates from said schools (but there are folks I graduated with from Opelika that also had problems relating to the "real world"). I think I may have just been a bit overzealous in my defense of our dear old Opelika schools.
I'm glad you commented, Coach. You know me, and know I can sometimes get a bit heated when defending something I'm passionate about.
DeleteHope to see you soon, and keep me posted on soccer this fall. We want to be sure to get the best coverage we can for y'all.