We are sharing a Letter to the Editor this morning, submitted by F. Scott Tonges, wherein he suggests a rather radical experiment for our local governments:
How about we tell the county and city employees to just cancel any and all meetings regarding growth and development? Just make our town the best that it can be “as is.”
We actually had such an experiment take place here in Pagosa Springs — according to the U.S. Census. In 1920, the population of Archuleta County totaled 3,590 residents. During the 1980 Census, the population was 3,664.
Basically, 60 years of zero population growth. (You can download the historic Census data here… and find “Colorado counties” on page 35.)
I estimate that at least 80 percent of the current full-time residents of Archuleta County arrived after 1990… helping to generate our present population of about 13,000.
We must assume that the rural folks who occupied the ranches and homes, scattered across the county during the middle of the 20th century, were a lot like us: unsatisfied. It’s part of the human condition, to be thinking about how things could be better.
Just last week, for example, the five members of the Archuleta School Board sat around a table, for about 7 hours, discussing how the School District could provide better education to the area’s children. Most of the “Board Retreat” discussion focused on the current activities of teachers and staff, as summarized and explained by Superintendent Linda Reed. Some of the new processes have been mandated by the state or federal government — by the bureaucrats charged with fulfilling recently-approved laws and rules imposed by legislators — but some of the ideas are being promoted and developed locally, by Archuleta School District (ASD) staff.
Everyone, from the legislators down to the classroom teachers, is looking for better ways to educate. Yes, we all have unsatisfied minds. Yes, we all believe there is a better way, around the corner… if only we had a bit more tax revenue…
And, yes, the direction of the changes tends to flow from the legislators gathered in the Capitol, through the bureaucrats in their Denver offices, down to the teachers in the classrooms, and ultimately down to the schoolchildren.
At the conclusion of the Board Retreat, the agenda suggested that the individual School Board members would discuss their own ideas about how ASD could improve its outcomes.
We are listening here to Board member Jason Peterson, discussing the concept of ‘rigor’ — a term that has been brought up at numerous previous School Board meetings.
“The idea of rigor is multifaceted, but it gets down to just the basics of what we are teaching our students as they go through our education system.
“One of the things I’ve always questioned — and we’ve talked about the High School grading policy, but it starts in the Middle School, which is where I first saw it — is about how we’re teaching our student to get their work done.
“There’s two facets to education that we’ve talked about, and they are the academic side — learning the material — but then the other part that I think is just as important is teaching them to do it on a schedule. And I think our system has failed in that area. Even with the changed that have happened at the High School, I’m not a proponent of a standard ‘two week extension’ for every test or assessment that the kids do.”
Apparently, Pagosa Springs High School has implemented a standard ‘two week extension’ that allows students to skip a test, without penalty, and take the test up to two weeks later. Mr. Peterson suggested that the teachers at the High School are also concerned about this policy, as he himself is.
“I completely agree with the idea that students should take ownership of their education — that it’s not just being spoon-fed, just choose A-B-C-D-E and then you get out. Thinking back on our lives, we’ve all had jobs, we’ve had employees that we’ve managed. We need structure in our lives. And I just think that we’ve really not had that developed.
“So when I talk about rigor, I mean the academic side — what we’re providing in the math classes and the science classes — but also tying in how we develop [character] in the students.
“And another thing that we’ve talked about over the last couple of years, but we’ve never actually done — and we need to — is to have some sort of metric or measurement system that we are working towards, as a District. It can be whatever we subscribe to. At a previous discussion, I mentioned the SAT scores, for lack of anything else that’s universal, that we can work towards… Something we can work towards, this is what we want to hit as a goal, this is what we want our students to achieve.”
The School Board proceeded to discuss Mr. Peterson’s ideas at some length, with each Board members offering his or her own thoughts about making ASD into a more effective educational organization.
We all know that our schools could — in theory — provide a better education than what is currently being provided. We are not completely satisfied with the outcomes we are getting at the moment. The students are not completely satisfied. The parents are not completely satisfied. The staff is not completely satisfied.
In fact, we will never be satisfied. That’s just human nature. We can’t be satisfied.
Mr. Peterson mentioned, as a possible goal — for lack of anything that’s universal — the SAT Test. A little bit of research can easily reveal why SAT test scores might be a very poor choice for a school district’s metric.
I don’t believe Mr. Peterson was suggesting improved SAT scores is the most suitable goal for ASD; he merely referenced it as a ‘type’ of metric. School districts want some evidence that they are improving, year after year. Some proof that things are getting better and better.
The status quo is not acceptable.
I understand that desire. We live in a culture that attaches numbers to most everything, and that ranks options based on those numbers. We want the numbers to constantly improve, to get bigger, or maybe smaller.
We want better.
Better students. Better facilities. Better bank accounts. A better life.
Once I was winning
In fortune and fame
Everything that I dreamed for
To get a start in life’s game
Then suddenly it happened
I lost every dime
But I’m richer by far
With a satisfied mind…
— ‘A Satisfied Mind’ by Red Hayes and Jack Rhodes