I will be voting no on the school bond despite the tent revival evangelism of its proponents.
Tens of thousands of schools in this country are in the same position the Orcas schools are in. They will not be replaced in this economic environment, if ever. Even if they are replaced, the amount children who will learn is not going to improve. I could fill a whole car with well documented studies on why the government monopoly public education system is a failed paradigm.
The children who excel in school excel despite it, not because of it. Now, there are those who will say that not all children come from healthy environments and the school is keeping them from falling off the cliff. If this is the case, then let’s call it what it is, a glorified Children’s House, and quit pretending education is happening. IT IS NOT!
My son Oliver (who never attended a day of school, public or otherwise) got a GED after 30 days of study. His percentile ranking against all high school graduates nationwide on the five exams was 93, 75, 66, 66, and 50.
My son Lennon (also school free) has just been accepted to the University of Washington.
My son Yonatan (also unschooled) has just graduated from The Evergreen State College.
Albert Einstein, perhaps the world’s most famous school dropout, commented that, “It is nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry.”
More famous dropouts here: http://www.angelfire.com/stars4/lists/dropouts.html
“We are students of words: we are shut up in schools and colleges and recitation- rooms for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a bag of wind, a memory of words, and do not know a thing,” said Ralph Waldo Emerson
If the middle school was gutted and brought to standard by bidding, with local contractors, for each aspect of the work, demolition of interior walls, earthquake reinforcement, interior shear walls, sheetrock, painting and HVAC. No gigantic performance bond would be necessary.
This is too rational for dreamers.
Save your money and vote no. Education will not suffer.
Harvey Aldort
Orcas Island
