Another Brick in the Wall

Let’s face it, as concerned parents, we don’t always have the best options when deciding which schools to send our children.

If we even have a choice.

More often than not, we have to sacrifice something. For better or worse, we deal with the community in which we live; its strengths and weaknesses are often reflected in its public school system. And private isn’t much better.

I always chuckle when parents pay an arm and a leg for a house in the “best school district.” Those “best schools” are often filled with privileged children whose parents make excuses instead of instilling good work ethics. Teachers tend to inflate test scores and grades. And check the discipline records of those pristine institutions of learning. One word will repeat itself often: Drugs.

One such school in Colorado Springs has a teacher who marked a fact/opinion question wrong because the child answered “fact” to a question about evolution.

I sh*t you not.

A reminder to everyone that even the best schools require vigilance because even the best schools hire whacko teachers.

And what about whacko parents?

Another of The Springs “best” schools is The Classical Academy. I know several people who send their children to this charter school and overall they are thrilled with the education their young ones are receiving.

But last week, the director of the school’s board, Matt Carpenter, sent an email out to the entire TCA community reporting that he’s been targeted by an anonymous hater who threatens to reveal details of Carpenter’s personal life if “certain demands” aren’t met.

The fact that Mr. Carpenter told parents and local media about these threats says a lot about the man and his refusal to be bullied. Good for him.

I believe wholeheartedly in not catering to anonymous a*holes.

But the fact that Mr. Carpenter also felt the need to apologize for these details of his personal life (he says he courted his wife while she was married to someone else and even though he knows this isn’t how "God intended" it, he loves his wife very much) and *evoke God’s name* speaks volumes about this community and its sanctimonious residents.

I hope the parents and TCA community rally behind Mr. Carpenter and dismiss threats from someone who has no business judging anyone.

But if we don’t question the atmosphere in which this person feels so comfortable throwing such threats around, obviously convinced they'd be viewed a certain way within the community, such behavior will continue.

And, don’t get me wrong, middle class and poverty-stricken schools have their own set of issues. Like I said, as parents, we have to sacrifice something no matter where our children go to school.

I suppose, in the end, we all need to work for better choices and a better community because it’d be nice if the best schools in our area really were.