A wheel of misfortune

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				THE
Latest Column				VIRGINIA GAZETTE
				WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA
A wheel of misfortune				May 10, 2008

Thanks to flag lapel pins, sniper fire in Bosnia, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and other flap-inducing issues of absolutely no importance whatsoever, the scores of dreary debates with which we’ve been water boarded of late have produced no insightful discussion of one of the greatest crises facing the country: the collapse of our public education system.

While the infamous No Child Left Behind Act has been poked in the belly at times, there’s been no mention of the fact that one-third of American high school students drop out every year and that very few who do graduate are prepared adequately to face the challenges of college or productive citizenry. We sit at the bottom of the list of industrialized countries in terms of the ability of graduates to perform reasonably in reading, writing, math and science. Foreign language training is too frequently a joke.

One of the biggest problems faced by public high schools is that middle school curriculums are simply not doing the job. This is one reason why the whole concept of the middle school is under heavy scrutiny in many parts of the country and why some systems in New Jersey and elsewhere have junked them completely and returned to the more traditional K-8 schools.

Imagine being a parent in Williamsburg or James City County who would like his son or daughter to get an early start in Latin. What you face immediately is a convoluted construct known as the “wheel.” In addition to the wheel, you also learn that days are color-coded, so that on “white days” the wheel spins in one direction and on “red days” it reverses course.

As this wheel of fortune rotates, so do students and teachers, with the result that some teachers are racing between schools to catch up with the constantly-rolling unicycle. They’re like Ixion, whom Zeus attached to an ever-spinning fiery wheel because he made goo-goo eyes at Hera. Once you’re on the wheel, you can’t get off.

Thus, if your son goes to Berkeley Middle School, he can get on the French and German wheel, but will never whirl around in Latin or Spanish. If he goes to Toano Middle School, he can ride the Spanish and German wheel, but has no shot at the Latin or French rotation. But if he goes to James Blair Middle School, he can wheel around in Latin or Spanish, with the option of French and German in the sixth grade.

Finally you learn that, even if the Latin spoke of the wheel is available, it is taught by a teacher certified only in Spanish or French.

Last Tuesday the School Board voted to rework the middle school curriculum and dispense with this menacingly uncompromising wheel. This is all to the good, though the future of foreign languages seems occluded.

Under the wheel system, the depth of instruction in any foreign language is less than that of a hole you would dig to stick a tomato plant in. Why bother to dabble in French or German in middle school when Latin is the foundation not only of all Romance languages, but lies at the very core of English itself?

English vocabulary, sentence structure and grammar all owe so much to Latin that you would think it would be a required subject. Where better to start students on the path to better English reading and writing competency than in full-fledged middle school Latin classes?

As for Spanish, its importance should be clear to anyone who is aware of the Hispanic population explosion the country is currently undergoing. Spanish too is a direct derivative of Latin and hence could be nicely worked into a joint language program on the middle school level. Leave French and German for high school or college study.

In the end, we must be careful that in our zeal to provide remediation services to students and enhance their performance in so-called core courses we don’t sacrifice on the altar of standardized tests the broad cultural experiences provided by courses in the arts, music and foreign languages. To toss these studies into the ancillary pot of not-so-important electives would be a grave mistake, as would hauling less-than-stupendous students out of such classes for remedial work.

It was recently announced that a new charter middle-high school would be established on the outskirts of Harlem in New York City. The salary for teachers in the new school will be $125,000 a year. The principal will bring in $90,000. As you might imagine, all the teaching positions have been filled, many of them by former college professors highly qualified and certified in their subject fields.

Only two subjects will be required of all students each year: Latin and music.

How refreshing that someone finally has realized that highly qualified teachers are the life blood of any superior school system and that the whole issue of core courses desperately needs to be rethought.