As a 20 yr school board member in a public district whose scores since the API began consistently rival American Indian, and as a teacher for the past 2 years in underprivileged public schools, I have some comments on both sides.
First, let’s peel off the veneer of “test scores”, and ask the question “Is authentic and relevant learning happening in this sterile environment?” Is American Indian teaching kids how to deal with life or how to get really good at using paper and pencil? Where is the “whole child” in this prison-like environment? Should not school s be filled with some laughter and joy and discovery? And using humiliation and ridicule for discipline? Expelling a kid for a family event? This is getting very close to medieval conformity that translates into unquestioning acceptance of the faith–the antithesis of a free democratic society. If you want automatons who do not question the institution, who have no need of free expression, and whose docility makes them excellent and unquestioning soldiers of the faith or state, then AIS is the answer for all. Remember the Pink Floyd video of “Another Brick in The Wall”? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_bvT-DGcWw
Second, let’s look at the real value of the American Indian approach. In spite of all the bad press, public education in the US is working–for a significant number of students, year after year. Why else the intense competition for admittance to our universities? What doesn’t work is our “one size fits all” approach education. Our factory schools are designed for the college bound kids who can handle looking at the back of someone’s head for hours on end and who have the family support and drive to do well. There are many students like this. What we do not do well is meet the needs of kids who are not college bound, struggle with literacy, come from disadvantaged ‘hood, and deal with stuff that makes life a challenge. For these kids, let’s do “humane American Indian”. Why can’t one in three urban middle schools be like American Indian, or have “schools within a school” using the Chavis model? Is this discriminating? You bet. But rather than continuing to nurture drop outs, why not take those kids who need the AI approach (all teachers know who they are!) and help them succeed? They may not all get through quadratic equations, but they will certainly have been well trained in how to succeed in high school and beyond. The American Indian model is ideal for many students today, and with some creative re-engineering, could be embedded in our public schools. Tie this middle school solution to high schools that are integrated with the world of work via apprenticeships and school to work programs, and we may on the way to overcoming the NCLB-tainted “one size fits all” disaster. The time is now–

I worked for a man, a great man, Jim Kirchanski, who operated three private schools. The “Three R Schools” in Marin, and Sonoma counties, California. He stated in his brochures that, He would guarantee a parent, who enrolled their child in first grade in one of his schools at the start of the year, that by Christmas of that year, the child would be able to read newspapers, or you didn’t owe him a thing. Obviously he was successful or they’d have not lasted very long. Recall, he said, and meant, first grade. This man, and his schools, were featured on an NBC news program, which I watched. And yet,despite the results of his schools extraordinary teaching accomplishments, the NEA found fault with his use of The McGuffy reader as his principal reading, teaching, tool, as well as other imagined teaching slights, His life was made very difficult,after being featured on this program, by the teachers unions,and other politically powerful factions. Had Mr Kirchanski ever attained his, rightful position, as an education leader in California, the NEA would never have been, as successful as they have been, in Dumbing Down students. But one gruff man cannot fight an entrenched teachers union, when they are writing the rules. I do recall, though,that Charles Schultz’s kids, the cartoonist, went to Jim’s schools and recieved an exemplary education. You might ask them and see if they disagree. BTW “the Mcguffy Reader” was published in 1836. Frederick Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and many others, used it to learn to read and write. Can you, honestly, say that our nations writing skills have increased since Lincoln’s time? I don’t think so. And why should that be, since every other aspect of human development has increased exponentially during this period? Does one have to believe, then, that priceless phrases have been stifled, or may never have evolved, in plays, music, speeches, due to the teachers unions? For all those art lovers out there, and no true Liberal dismisses art,how does that make you feel? That supporting the NEA may ,actually, have cost you a wonderful musical, or literate moment? Imagine ,teachers ,the, perhaps, genius you’ve helped extinguish with your insistence that the clock is more important than the student. Shame on you.

Sorry about that double posting. The most important thought that I might have imparted , though, is, how many good, worthy, students have been denied because one teacher wants to work a bit of overtime with a student, and another tells her she cannot, because of Union rules. Hell that’s any nations’ rule for declination right there.