Proper grammar, spelling, punctuation and the ability to compose a coherent written sentence ….. should any of these be part of the job requirements to be a
school board president?
Do DPS control the Foundation or outside group? If an outside group control the foundation, then what is DPS Board row with selection of is director? Our we mixing DPS and None DPS row’s, and who is the watch dog? – email sent by Otis Mathis Detroit School Board president
According to the Detroit Public School Board , no.
Before we get into the school board’s most recent decision let’s review the state of Detroit Public Schools …..
- $219 Billion dollar budget deficit (source)
- Worst scores in the nation on a national math achievement test. (source)
- Not just the worst scores but the worst scores ever in the history of the test.
“These numbers are only slightly better than what one would expect by chance as if the kids had never gone to school and simply guessed at the answers,” said Michael Casserly, executive director of the Washington-based Council of the Great City Schools, which represents large urban school districts. “These numbers … are shocking and appalling and should not be allowed to stand.” (source)
- 58% graduation rate for public high school students (source)
- Only 25% of Detroit high school graduates go on to college (source)
- Lowest graduation rate of the nation’s 50 largest school districts in the country (source – USA Today)
- Only 27% of Detroit Public Schools made AYP in 08-09 (source)
- Only 10% of Detroit Public School students have test scores higher than the state average (source)
- In the second half of 2009 nearly 500 computers – $600,000 worth – were stolen from the schools (source)
- Average days missed by Detroit Public School Students (source)
- High School : 46
- Middle School : 30
- Elementary School : 18
- During the 07-08 school year (source)
- More than 40,000 students were suspended
- 191 students were expelled
- By the time Detroit students reach the 3rd Grade they already have a 20% percentage point achievement gap (source)
The numbers (mostly all negative …. really, really negative) go on and on but suffice it to say that the Detroit Public Schools are a white hot mess of poor quality, low expectations, corruption and adults that have either forgotten their roles or have flat out walked away from the responsibilities.
In fairness, the State of Michigan has begun an intense push for revolutionary changes in the district. Change being lead in large part by Emergency Financial Manager - Robert Bobb – who has been attacking the problems head on …. quite bluntly at times:
“The system is academically bankrupt. This is almost academic homicide,” Bobb says.
This post isn’t to rant about the poor quality of education in Detroit. The situation does raise questions about leadership and what is required to be an educational leader. Which brings us back to Mr. Mathis ….
D o DPS control the Foundation or outside group? If an outside group control the foundation, then what is DPS Board row with selection of is director? Our we mixing DPS and None DPS row’s, and who is the watch dog?
That was an email written by the newly elected Detroit Public School board president, sent out to his followers and supporters last August.
Rare occurrence, hurried email … nope.
If you saw Sunday’s Free Press that shown Robert Bobb the emergency financial manager for Detroit Public Schools, move Mark Twain to Boynton which have three times the number seats then students and was one of the reason’s he gave for closing school to many empty seats.
In an excellent piece by Laura Berman (columnist for the Detroit News) she asks the question “Does DPS Leader’s Writing Send Wrong Message?” and for me the answer is a resounding YES.
Mr. Mathis admits that he’s always been a horrible writer and that it was a contributing factor to a high school GPA of 1.8 (that’s the GPA he claims, though earlier reports have put it at a .98 average). It also led to a stay in college that lasted 15 years because he was unable to pass an English proficiency test required for graduation. A test that he sued the school over as a requirement for graduation (he lost the suit but the school eventually did drop the requirement … hence is graduation after 15 years). His writing was such that he was put into special education classes when he was in the 4th grade.
So, should he be allowed to be the school board president? Is he a shining example of potential that has overcome challenges or is he an example of a broken system and laziness? According to Mr. Mathis he’s an example, not surprisingly, of triumph over adversity:
“Instead of telling them that they can’t write and won’t be anything, I show that cannot stop you,” Mathis says. “If Detroit Public Schools can allow kids to dream, with whatever weakness they have, that’s something. …It’s not about what you don’t have. It’s what you cando.”
Mr. Mathis even goes as far as to describe himself as a role model and Detroit parent and activist Ida Byrd-Hill agrees …
“His job, though, is to represent the community. His lack of writing skills is prevalent in the community. If anybody does, he understands the struggles of what it’s like to go through an institution and not be properly prepared.”
When Ms. Berman’s article appeared it caused the radio airwaves to light up with hot debates. As you’d expect there was a variety of opinions and the “special education” tag was quickly latched onto.
Afterall, if he had a learning disability that makes his writing difficult should that really be held against him?
If he has a learning disability it’s not his fault, so why should he be punished?
It’s even an argument that Mr. Mathis is quick to make when referring to himself:
“You survive. You made it. Now, you’re telling me people with disability can not be leaders,” said Otis Mathis.
There, for me, lies the problem. With Mr. Mathis, with our education and special education systems and the reason that we’re F-A-I-L-I-N-G our children and grandchildren. We don’t care about end results anymore, as long as everybody tried to do something. Results don’t matter nor do we even require the argument that we tried our BEST. As long as we tried or at least showed up – WE’RE A SUCCESS.
If you have a reason, real or not, why getting a quality result or showing up would be difficult then we’ll lower the bar even faster.
By all accounts, aside from his horrific writing ability, Mr. Mathis is a nice guy and otherwise qualified for the job.
So should this failing be enough to hold him out of the job?
YES.
If his writing difficulties are related to a learning disability aren’t they outside of his control?
NO.
If they are related to a learning disability should we still let that keep him out of the job?
YES.
How can I say that? How can I be so mean and heartless? How can I advocate and fight for children with learning, developmental and educational challenges and then be this ….. discriminating?
I discriminate because life does.
Life is hard.
Life is not fair.
And because Mr. Mathis is not a good role model or an example of overcoming your challenges.
Mr. Mathis is an example of an educational system that didn’t work. I won’t say that the educational system is solely responsible for his failure because I imagine a portion of it certainly resides with Mr. Mathis who describes his own education experience like this:
“I was kicked out and kicked in and kicked out (of high schools),” he says with a chuckle. He credits a high school English teacher with encouraging him to graduate, getting him to attend school “once a week instead of every two weeks” by giving him an audio version of Alex Haley’s “Roots,” one vinyl record at a time.
Nothing funnier than the school board president joking about getting kicked out of school and improving his attendance from once every two to once a week, huh? What a fine glowing role model for our kids. The very picture of overcoming difficulty.
As for the learning disability which may, or may not, be a factor?
Here’s the facts …. the cold hard, nasty, mean facts…. the world doesn’t care about your personal, emotional, cognitive challenges are or how they hold you back.
We make laws to protect against unnecessary discrimination. Discrimination that keeps someone from access to a building or a job or a group because of a disability that has no bearing on their ability to perform.
But a school board president who can’t write a sentence? A school board president who hasn’t figured out how to represent the district in writing in a way that doesn’t publicly embarrass them?
If Mr. Mathis has a legitimate learning disability that holds him back and he COULD have overcome it in this situation by having someone proof his emails or better yet dictate them and have someone else type it for him.
Having a challenge, learning disability or “special need” doesn’t mean that you can do an inferior job and then fall back on it as an excuse. When people do that it does nothing but make it that much harder for all of the people out working hard and TRULY OVERCOMING their challenges.
People like Mr. Mathis hurt EVERY person out there that has real challenges. They lower the bar for what should be expected. They plant into the collective mind that rather than working to overcome your challenges you can just throw them out there and make other people deal with them. They reinforce the attitude that it’s okay to lower OUR standards as a group and lower OUR standards for a child simply because they’ve got a challenge. They reinforce the can’t and the negative.
Education SHOULD not…..no, that’s not right, it CANNOT be about accepting lower standards. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about a child who is disadvantaged because of their income level, family background, physical, mental or cognitive challenges once you lower the bar you lower their horizon and we all suffer.
Any successful society has social standards and norms that must be maintained to allow it to continue successfully.
In our society those standards include the rules for successful written communication. Mr. Mathis fails that standard miserably. That’s not a sin. Mr. Mathis doesn’t care and that is a sin. Mr. Mathis falls back on a “learning disability” and that is insulting. Mr. Mathis has decided that there’s nothing he can do about it and there’s no reason to worry about it. Mr. Mathis has decided to simply allow his writing to continue to fall short because in his mind it’s not his fault ….. he’s got a learning disability.
Mr. Mathis, as the school board president, represents the community. Google his name with Detroit school board president and you’ll quickly see he’s certainly bringing attention to the district …. unfortunately not the right kind. Not the kind that get’s people excited to send their kids there, get a job there or to issue grants and funds there.
There is a lack of writing and reading skills in our communities. But is that something we should be celebrating or rewarding? At least in the schools isn’t that something we should be ashamed of and working hard to fix?
Mr. Mathis might understand some of the struggles that poor skills create but he DOES not understand the struggles involved with overcoming those challenges because he’s not overcoming them ….. we’ve simply lowered the bar for him. He’s not an example of overcoming, he’s an example of the rest of us allowing ourselves to be “dumbed down” of accepting and expecting less.
“Instead of telling them that they can’t write and won’t be anything, I show that cannot stop you,” Mathis says
Actually, an inability to write in most occupations IS something that can stop you. In most instances it WILL stop you. At the very least it will stop you from rising to a high level in just about any occupation. Mr. Mathis lucked out, he stayed in education, even working as a substitute teacher for a stretch which evidently is not a place where a poor academic skills hold you back .
“If Detroit Public Schools can allow kids to dream, with whatever weakness they have, that’s something. …
A school system that allows kids to dream …. yup, that’s something all right. Dreams are important but the missing piece for too many kids in Detroit (and around this country) isn’t a shortage of the ability to dream but a shortage in the ability TO DO.
Life doesn’t say – “Hey kid have a dream and we’ll ignore your “weaknesses”".
Life, and reality, makes you earn things the hard way. You earn things by overcoming the weaknesses that make the accomplishment of your dream difficult.
Mr. Mathis doesn’t understand that and evidently neither does the school board that elected him 10-1 to be President.
The man he beat out for the job?
His name was Mr. Tyrone Winfrey and he is the Associate Director at the University of Michigan Office of Undergraduate Admissions and th
e Director of the University of Michigan Detroit Admissions Office. Now, I’m not going to say he would have been a better president but I’m going to guess he could:
a) write an intelligent, coherent sentence
b) represent – in writing – the district in a way that wouldn’t bring it national ridicule
c) ALSO have been held up as a REAL example of someone who’s used education to better himself.
But hey, why send that message to families and school students across the country when you can just tell them that an inability to write won’t stop you.
It’s like one of our radio show guests pointed out recently …… we shouldn’t be against testing students in the schools to measure their level of achievement and preparation but when are we going to start testing the teachers, administrators and leaders for the same things?
Mr. Mathis better hope that test doesn’t come anytime soon.
Additional Articles of Interest
- Robert Bobb Biography
- Can Robert Bobb Fix Detroit’s Public Schools?
- Robert Bobb’s Biggest Challenge ~ Create A New Detroit Public Schools
- Laura Berman’s Article : Does DPS Leader’s Writing Send Wrong Message?
- Detroit School Leader Sends Wrong Message
They should have gotten jobs running the school district instead.
