Dear Editor

I finally put my issues about the fighting from both sides of the Common Core "discussion" on paper and wrote to the newspaper this week.  Last Saturday there were two long essays--from the proponents, and the opponents of this new initiative.  I agreed with the gal who wrote in favor of the CCSI.  Plus the guy who wrote against it is a notorious trouble maker in our district and I have nothing terribly nice to say about him beyond he must have cult-leader-like charisma because people certainly fall in line behind him and eat every word he tells them without any source checking of their own.  And I guess that isn't really very nice.

Here is what I sent the paper:

Dear Editor—

I read with appreciation the opposing opinions of the Common Core in the Saturday, May 18^th, Daily Herald.  I see the enthusiasm each contributor has for his/her side of this discussion.  But the discussion statewide has gone beyond the discussion into an ideological battlefield.  I’d sincerely hope that concerned citizens could take a deep breath, a step back and return to the discussion of this issue.

The current state of our public education is one that deserves enthusiasm and efforts and energy of all our citizenry.   Our kids are worth nothing less.  However, are opponents of the Common Core Standards Initiative directing their efforts and energies to the solution of this problem?  

The concerned conservatives who see the CCSI as a federal conspiracy, who quote a myriad of experts and implore us to “follow the money” have yet to propose an alternative solution.  Like many of the leaders we keep sending to Washington DC, there seems to be much complaining about what the “other guy” is doing, but not enough talk about how they propose to solve the problems we are facing.

Personally, I support the CCSI.  The standards themselves are not to blame or fear.  I want my children to have the very best educational foundation I can find and provide for them.  And as a parent, I have CHOSEN our local public educational system.  But this is Utah, and there are there are MANY other choices available.  We have a host of Charter schools that cater to nearly every educational niche there is.  There are some superbly run private school options in our area.  And if all those fail to meet a parent’s approval, homeschooling is one of the most personal and self-directed options there can be.  There isn’t even an argument about costs with this choice.

Why should the opponents of the CCSI remove the choice I have to send my kids to the local public school and the standards it now espouses from me just because they don’t agree with this new shift?  My choice is to send my kids, to spend my time volunteering there and to even write a check a few times a year to support the programs, teams, and clubs these local public schools offer.

My children have had wonderful, inventive and inspiring teachers over the course of their public education.  The administrators I have seen at work do their jobs with honor, diligence and an overarching goal to see ALL the children in their stewardship find success at school.  The efforts made on behalf of my children and their classmates are astounding.   If the CCSI opponents aren’t seeing the same thing I am, what is keeping them in the local public schools? 

I was over their "suggested length" but I said what I wanted to say.  In the meantime, I will put my head down and work as hard as I can to see our schools be as successful as they can for the kids they are stuck with as well as those who really want to be there.

Editor's Response

Here is what I heard back fro the Sports Editor of our local paper via email yesterday, following my letter--emailed--to him.

I first want to thank you for taking the time to send us such a carefully thought out email to discuss your point of view. I'm sure it required quite a bit of effort on your part as you attempted to express your disappointment in the lack of coverage for the swimming teams.

By way of response, let me assure you that I too am disappointed that we were unable to have a reporter at the event or at least have the results published in our paper. I sincerely appreciate all of the high school athletes and recognize that it requires incredible dedication and effort to be successful at any level. My goal as the sports editor (and as a former high school sports reporter) is to attempt to provide the most complete and exceptional high school athletics coverage possible.

There are, as you know, always scheduling issues to resolved as we attempt to utilize our few resources to appropriately represent what happens in Utah Valley. With schools belonging to at least six regions that include all five different classifications, it's a constant struggle.

I do, however, endeavor to make sure we get whatever we can from each event, particular region and state competitions. The problem in this case was that I wasn't aware of where or when the Region 4 swimming meet (or the swimming meets for any of the regions) was taking place. We rely on our network of coaches and athletic directors to make sure we have complete schedules but this particular meet was never brought to my attention.

As I'm sure you've seen, we also get a variety of results from coaches and parents that provide information on events we are not able to personally attend. In this case, however, none of the swimming results were called in or emailed to us, so we had no knowledge about what had taken place. If those had been received, we certainly would've gotten them both in the paper and onto our high school sports Web site.

With the upcoming state swimming meets taking place both this weekend and next, we are planning to have articles and coverage for every event. I hope your daughter qualified to compete there because it really is a great event to participate in.

If you have questions or comments, please feel free to call me so we can discuss the matter further.

Again, thank you for your time and your enthusiasm for high school athletics.

J. L.
Daily Herald Sports Editor

Letter to the Editor

After waiting all week to see ANYTHING in the local paper about our swim team's region finals, I got mad enough to write a letter to the editor of our county paper.  Here it is.  I'll let you know if any of it gets printed.

Dear Editor:

I generally appreciate all the coverage of local high school sports. I love to hear about the athletes who play their hearts out for their schools.  However, this week I was really looking forward to seeing the results of the Region 4 (5A) Swim championships.  This event was held on Saturday, January 28th at the beautiful South Davis Recreation Center aquatic facility. 

As you know, Region 4 includes Lehi, American Fork, Lone Peak, Pleasant Grove, Riverton and Bingham high schools.  Considering that 4 of those 6 schools involved in this championship swim meet were Utah County schools, I figured The Daily Herald would cover it.  I hoped, at the very least, the results would be listed in the “scoreboard” section of the paper on Sunday or Monday.  I have been wrong in assuming that, as not a single word was mentioned.

I am a mom of a high school swimmer.  My daughter and many other high school swimmers have spent much their spare time since September —including over their Christmas vacation-- in the pool.  In our team’s case, much of that pool time is only available because they swim in a neighboring city’s pool because our own city pool is not just closed, but empty, from October through April.  These kids have to be really committed if they want to swim for our high school team. The swim season is the longest season of any of the local high school sports, as far as I can tell.  Yet, there is minimal or no coverage of their achievements in your paper.

I understand that the basketball games are better attended and more frequently played and that football and wrestling are more popular.  But, as the big local paper in the county, I would hope that all sports within the season would be covered by the paper.  Every student athlete is giving their all.  Every student athlete who has committed to playing for their school deserves some recognition. 

There were region records shattered at the swim meet Saturday.  Student athletes made personal best times and helped their schools advance to the state finals.  Coaches watched their student athletes achieve their goals.  Parents and families cheered on our kids until our voices were gone. All these kids had a great swim meet!  And it was a lot of fun to watch.

I urge you to please reconsider your coverage of ALL the high school sports.  Please include the lesser recognized sports each season and give those kids their due.  For most of these kids, their athletic career ends with their high school sports.  Please cover their achievements as well as those who may go on to sign with a Division I university.  Not every student chooses to play football or basketball. But they each have the same athletic heart and high school team spirit.  Please make it a point to celebrate those kids too.

Ghosts of Terror Past

Yesterday I held my monthly PTA meeting with the ten schools I supervise.  These are great people I work with, but like any organization, there is always the random personality conflict.  Each of these ten PTA presidents have their own boards and these personality conflicts arise within their realm of authority as well.  As a training point in my meeting I decided to address some of that now that school is well underway, and people are getting into their jobs.

To really introduce things, I chose to share part of a letter I received from a parent about 4 or 5 years ago, while I served as a PTA president at our local elemenatry school.  It was a full page, single spaced, typed venom filled diatribe on my leadership, the organization of PTA itself, and the personal grievances this woman had across the board. 

Without any details to identify this letter's author I read the letter directly as she wrote it.  As I read it, I could feel hot, red, splotches rising on my neck and higher chest--all this, or course, was clearly visible to my PTA friends in the group.

This letter was 4 or 5 years old, and yet my immediate physical reaction was as strong as if I has just received it.  Even just the idea of the hatred and vitriol this woman wrote to me made me upset.  I knew that I had handled the things she was complaining about with fairness and equity, and yet, with all the pity and compassion I could muster for her, and any other parents who felt left out, over looked, under utilized, or not needed, her letter still addressed her issues without any sense of compromise or cooperation.  She was just lashing out.  I knew that then, and I know it still now, and it still made me upset.

The group I shared this with could identify with the conflict.  They may not have received a letter like this, but they all could connect with the idea of angry, unappreciative parents and the "if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem" mentality in which these kind of people fit.

We talked about the prickly people that inevitably are found in any group.  We also spoke of being "professional" in our leadership, and more importantly in finding ways to make use of ANY volunteer who offers to serve in our schools.  Sadly, the volunteers we get are not all the crispy, happy, pleasant types we'd prefer.  But, a volunteer needs to be thanked and appreciated and put to work.  Maybe that would be enough to help the angry, lashing out types feel better.

But, then again, those kind of people are not happy with themselves, and therefore, nothing I do will ever make them happy either.  But if I can teach my PTA friends better how to deal with those kind of prickly people--with or without a nasty letter--I know that I have done the best work I can, and made things better for the kids in my community.

What an Honor!

Yesterday evening I was surprised by Bronze, one of my Trek Boys, who stopped the house by to ask me to write him a letter of recommendation for his Eagle Scout award. I was thrilled to see him and delighted he would ask me to do that.

His birthday is coming up and that must have put the fire under him to get this done. The paperwork, apparently, is almost as tedious as the Eagle Project. Our nephew, Bryce, just turned 18 the end of June and he got his final paperwork done by the skin of his teeth. Bronze told me that he was done dragging his feet and was ready to get this done. I am more than happy to oblige.

After the surprise note from Andera about Girls' Camp long ago, and now this little honor from Bronze, I realize that there are so many wonderful kids with whom I have had the privilege of working over the years I have served in Young Women and at school. I hope I have had some positive effect on each of them, but more than likely I may never know about it. I am just fine with that. These "once in a while" moments of knowing I meant something to one of them means an awful lot. And I can live with that.

Rightous Indignation Fuels Letter Writing

Last month our local HS presented a week of marvelous performances of the classic Broadway musical Les Miserables. It is the story of Jean Valjean, who leaves a French prison after serving 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread to save his nephew from straving. His story details his attempts to live up to the faith that a local, charitable priest places in him when the priest generously gives him a set of silver, directing Valjean to live a better life. Valjean is hunted throughout the story by the to-the-letter-law-enforcing policeman, Javert. The universal good versus evil story is played out on stage in vivid detail.

I have seen this show professionally presented three times, and loved every minute of it. I have also read the novel this musical was adapted from. I loved it. In its essence, this is the story of how the Savior's atonement affected this one man, and his efforts to make things right with the Lord. What is not to love about that storyline? It is the most spiritual experience I have ever had in a theatrical setting.

In our local, small-town, closed-minded society here, apparently there was something else that some very vocal people didn't get from that story. Some have been quick to judge the entire story on the fact that there are a couple scenes with prostitutes (the most modestly dressed whores, by the way) and some scenes with a little blue language (when the dregs of society are speaking it is difficult to impress their rottenness on the audience with "shucks" or "darn"). Yet there were spots where the director got permission to alter or adapt to fit our local culture (which is a legal requirement when you try to change a copyrighted show you have bought the rights to produce). Other nearby schools shave done this same show in the past but they must have cut whatever they liked to "fit the culture". But that wasn't legal...hummm. Something else to think about.

And these quick-to-judge, holier-than-thou types have actually made a point of complaining so loudly about this production to the district bosses. Trying in some way to get the teachers who pulled this tremendous effort off so successfully written up or fired, if they had their way. The standing ovations every night by the entire auditorium must have just showed how out of tune the whole crowd was, according to these few whiners.

So, I first wrote the director a thank you note for having the courage to do what was right and giving the kids at our HS a chance to learn more than the songs and dances. Furthermore, I wrote this letter to our school district superintendent and the assistant superintendent over the high schools, and to the HS principal.

I felt better once I go this off my chest. Righteous indignation letters always do that for me.

Dear Sirs:
I recently attended a production of Les Miserables at the _____ High School. It was a marvelous experience! I wanted to let you know how much I, as a parent and a community member, appreciated the beautiful presentation of such an iconic musical theater masterpiece.

My hat is off to Mr. S. S., Mr. V. B., and Mr. J. W. for their tremendous work with terrifically talented students to pull off such a production. I was so pleased to see those talents displayed at such a high level and in such a professional way.

This specific production is certainly not without its challenges, especially for a high school production. There are necessary thematic elements that directly and poignantly show the inherent conflict of the story, but the material was presented true to the original production thus honoring the legal contractual agreement that is required by a publishing house for such a show as this. Thank you for backing that agreement and allowing your gifted educators the opportunity to teach integrity, by their example, as well as their musical theater skills to their students.

This show has so much more to teach our students than just the lyrics, dance, and blocking. There is an element with a show of this caliber that teaches positive moral values, interpersonal understanding, patience, forgiveness and mercy. This presentation demonstrated that the students learned all those and more from the text and context of this show. This production, especially, being taken from such a classic piece of beloved world literature, embodies that additional personal learning that each student could gain as they opened their hearts to the message it presented.

Thank you for allowing and supporting productions like this that display the value of a quality arts education. The arts provide more than a creative outlet for students. This production, particularly, teaches beyond an academic or even a creative sphere. That element of personal enrichment comes from seeing 'good versus evil' in whatever sense that conflict is presented within the storyline. A theatrical presentation of such conflict is a safe but empowering method of teaching that universal dichotomy.

Please continue to give support to the productions, schools, and educators that take a chance and give our students an opportunity to grow more than their talents. Please continue to support these kinds of learning opportunities for our community. We would all be better off if we could learn these life lessons presented in dramatic fashion. It was a delight to see such a production done so well by our wonderful HS students.

Thank you for your time and attention to this and for your continuing support of our students', and community's, education.

Sincerely,
Signed Me
Council PTA President