The FTF curriculum will exist in a 10-period day schedule. As shown above, the regular SUSA curriculum exists in a 5-period day schedule. The start-to-finish school day is the same in both cases.
The FTF program will use a small learning group model that will provide regular one-on-one student/teacher interaction for all students. With the exception of the science and physical education classes, all FTF classes will be taught in the same classroom.
Period: Duration: Learning Activity
01.... 40 minutes: Reading: use Read Right program or hybrid
02.... 40 minutes: Story: film-based teaching of literary analysis
>> 5-minute break
03.... 40 minutes: Writing: grammar, sentence structure, composition
04.... 40 minutes: History: film-based teaching of historical analysis
>> 5-minute break
05.... 40 minutes: Mathematics: basic skills as needed
>> Lunch: 30 minutes
06.... 40 minutes: Science: the scientific method of investigation / lab skills
>> 5-minute break
07.... 40 minutes: Physical Education: coordination exercises / play games
>> 5-minute break
08.... 40 minutes: Reading: use Read Right program or hybrid
09.... 40 minutes: Writing: grammar, sentence structure, composition
10.... 40 minutes: Mathematics: basic skills as needed
Again, no homework will ever be required of FTF students. Also, the curriculum will not include projects of any sort. The sole purpose of the curriculum is to as quickly as possible give its students the necessary reading, writing, and mathematics skills to pass the PST while at the same time developing basic critical thinking skills in literary, historical, and scientific analysis.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
FTF "No Required Homework" Policy
WHY THERE IS NO REQUIRED FTF HOMEWORK: If a student entering the 9th grade does not possess the basic skills that are necessary to pass the SUSA PST, then the harsh plain truth is either 1) that student is incapable of learning due to true physical defects that manifest in insurmountable learning disabilities or 2) that student is the victim of a home and school environment that has not been conducive to academic learning according to that student’s needs.
In the case of 1), all one-on-one teaching strategies must be accomplished in utter failure before any student can be dismissed as incapable of learning. The author of this statement has witnessed firsthand through the experience of being a Read Right tutor that many (perhaps most) near functionally illiterate high school students can in a matter of months learn to read at their enrolled grade level. The ability to read literately requires the ability to think critically, and achieving basic reading skills does not immediately translate to any mastery of critical thinking skills at all. However, going from near functional illiteracy to a competent enrolled grade level reading ability is a life-changing accomplishment that is achievable by more students than some would think. SUSA is willing to make the commitment to find out, and so welcomes all prospective students to its school.
In the case of 2), mastery of the basic skills that are necessary to pass the SUSA PST must be accomplished in a tightly-controlled learning environment that will not fail to fully support a student’s best efforts. FTF students are students who are familiar with academic failure and its attendant ridicules. They are extremely vulnerable to the consequences of further academic failures, and desperately need to achieve confidence and healthy self-worth as a necessary first step toward entering the regular SUSA curriculum—hence, First Things First.
And so the question of whether FTF students should have required homework is answered simply by stating: Required homework is not necessary. What is necessary is that FTF students learn, that they learn to “learn,” and that they learn to enjoy learning— and that they do so with growing confidence and self-worth that does not ever get nipped in the bud. In a real sense, FTF students cannot yet risk the downside of required homework—at least, not until their confidence is known by teachers to be intact and strong enough to weather the self-criticism that comes as a consequence of teacher-graded efforts.
Of course, a student’s interest in learning will never be discouraged or slowed down by the FTF program. Always, students—both as a whole and individually—will know what positive encouragement feels like. FTF students will be encouraged to continue their learning at home, but they will not be required to do so—and there is a big difference between those two realities.
In the case of 1), all one-on-one teaching strategies must be accomplished in utter failure before any student can be dismissed as incapable of learning. The author of this statement has witnessed firsthand through the experience of being a Read Right tutor that many (perhaps most) near functionally illiterate high school students can in a matter of months learn to read at their enrolled grade level. The ability to read literately requires the ability to think critically, and achieving basic reading skills does not immediately translate to any mastery of critical thinking skills at all. However, going from near functional illiteracy to a competent enrolled grade level reading ability is a life-changing accomplishment that is achievable by more students than some would think. SUSA is willing to make the commitment to find out, and so welcomes all prospective students to its school.
In the case of 2), mastery of the basic skills that are necessary to pass the SUSA PST must be accomplished in a tightly-controlled learning environment that will not fail to fully support a student’s best efforts. FTF students are students who are familiar with academic failure and its attendant ridicules. They are extremely vulnerable to the consequences of further academic failures, and desperately need to achieve confidence and healthy self-worth as a necessary first step toward entering the regular SUSA curriculum—hence, First Things First.
And so the question of whether FTF students should have required homework is answered simply by stating: Required homework is not necessary. What is necessary is that FTF students learn, that they learn to “learn,” and that they learn to enjoy learning— and that they do so with growing confidence and self-worth that does not ever get nipped in the bud. In a real sense, FTF students cannot yet risk the downside of required homework—at least, not until their confidence is known by teachers to be intact and strong enough to weather the self-criticism that comes as a consequence of teacher-graded efforts.
Of course, a student’s interest in learning will never be discouraged or slowed down by the FTF program. Always, students—both as a whole and individually—will know what positive encouragement feels like. FTF students will be encouraged to continue their learning at home, but they will not be required to do so—and there is a big difference between those two realities.
FTF Film-Based Teaching
FILM-BASED TEACHING: The need to establish and develop critical thinking skills among all SUSA students is so important that it must not be delayed in the FTF program due to poor reading skills. There is simply no reason at all that critical thinking skills must be accomplished through reading. One need only consider that William Shakespeare’s plays were written in a time when the audiences for the productions of those plays were largely comprised of illiterate people. Nevertheless, Shakespeare succeeded as a playwright. The lesson in this should ring loud and clear: achieving literacy of the written word is not a prerequisite for achieving literacy of a clear thought that is well-stated in an understood medium. Written words do not define a story any better than well-spoken words; indeed, experiencing a professional production of a Shakespeare play will better communicate the thoughtful contents of that play than any slavish read-through in a high school class can ever hope to accomplish. It is plain lunacy and the worst kind of destructive elitism to insist on reading-based learning of critical thinking skills in our present technological age. Readily available DVDs of great plays and great films along with PBS programs of all sorts from Masterpiece Theater to Nova, and also Discovery Channel programs, History Channel programs, and the whole range of independently-produced documentaries make ‘film-based teaching’ an excellent strategy for any school that truly cares about teaching all of its students, including those students whose reading skills are lacking. SUSA cares about teaching all of its students.
FTF Correcting Past Mistakes
CORRECTING PAST MISTAKES: As a society, Americans have established a public education system that endeavors to give all of its young citizens a fair shake at becoming successful as adults. Unfortunately, in many sad and regrettable ways, America’s public schools have grown tired of themselves. Plainly, in some cases, they have simply given up. Lack of money and lack of will have combined to create enormous cracks that too many students easily fall through. Consequently, the hope for productive lives is replaced with the reality of wasted and burdensome lives, and the joy of America becomes its despair.
The question must be asked: Why are students who have not achieved grade-level skills passed when they should be rightly failed? This is a moral question, not a practical consideration. Why are we not behaving ‘rightly’ with the lives of children when it is our solemn duty to do so? The only possible answer is that we simply do not care enough to do the right thing, especially when the wrong thing is such an easy alternative. And so how do we then live with our mistakes? What happens when a near functionally illiterate 9th grader finally learns skills in several months that should have been rightly mastered over the preceding eight years of classroom instruction? How then are the past mistakes of the public education system corrected?
The SUSA FTF program is a beginning solution, and it is wholly a practical solution. The moral component necessary to correct past mistakes is something else entirely, but SUSA is courageous enough to address the moral issue, too. Doing ‘the right thing’ to fulfill its promise to meet and serve the needs of its students is no small thing, yet SUSA goes there anyway and calls upon Eugene School District 4J (E-4J) to share the commitment.
Doing ‘the right thing’ is this: SUSA will commit to allowing a student to be enrolled in its FTF program for fully two school years if E-4J commits to allowing both a fully one year or more FTF student and a fully two year FTF student the option to continue his/her free public high school education for one additional school year beyond the normal allotment, meaning graduation from SUSA would be accomplished after five school years for those students. It is not asking too much if this is done; indeed, it is meeting the moral imperative with a resounding, “Yes, we will do the right thing!” The justification is simple: any student who receives an option to continue SUSA enrollment for a fifth year is a student who should have been rightly failed and made to repeat at least one year of schooling prior to entering high school, but was not.
Though many students will remain in the FTF program for exactly one school year or exactly two school years, it is not the SUSA intent to be so neat and tidy as that. Whatever the case turns out to be, any student entering the regular SUSA curriculum will enter the 9th grade Required Courses (5-period day) schedule described above.
The question must be asked: Why are students who have not achieved grade-level skills passed when they should be rightly failed? This is a moral question, not a practical consideration. Why are we not behaving ‘rightly’ with the lives of children when it is our solemn duty to do so? The only possible answer is that we simply do not care enough to do the right thing, especially when the wrong thing is such an easy alternative. And so how do we then live with our mistakes? What happens when a near functionally illiterate 9th grader finally learns skills in several months that should have been rightly mastered over the preceding eight years of classroom instruction? How then are the past mistakes of the public education system corrected?
The SUSA FTF program is a beginning solution, and it is wholly a practical solution. The moral component necessary to correct past mistakes is something else entirely, but SUSA is courageous enough to address the moral issue, too. Doing ‘the right thing’ to fulfill its promise to meet and serve the needs of its students is no small thing, yet SUSA goes there anyway and calls upon Eugene School District 4J (E-4J) to share the commitment.
Doing ‘the right thing’ is this: SUSA will commit to allowing a student to be enrolled in its FTF program for fully two school years if E-4J commits to allowing both a fully one year or more FTF student and a fully two year FTF student the option to continue his/her free public high school education for one additional school year beyond the normal allotment, meaning graduation from SUSA would be accomplished after five school years for those students. It is not asking too much if this is done; indeed, it is meeting the moral imperative with a resounding, “Yes, we will do the right thing!” The justification is simple: any student who receives an option to continue SUSA enrollment for a fifth year is a student who should have been rightly failed and made to repeat at least one year of schooling prior to entering high school, but was not.
Though many students will remain in the FTF program for exactly one school year or exactly two school years, it is not the SUSA intent to be so neat and tidy as that. Whatever the case turns out to be, any student entering the regular SUSA curriculum will enter the 9th grade Required Courses (5-period day) schedule described above.
SUSA Chemistry and Economics
CHEMISTRY AND ECONOMICS: AN EXPLANATION: SUSA holds that chemistry is the foundational science on which all laboratory life sciences are built. Therefore, a student is better able to learn and understand biology if the student first learns and understands chemistry—and the same holds for physics to the extent that physics is a life science.
Additionally, SUSA recognizes that there is surpassing value in establishing baseline equity among all of its students by beginning the school’s science instruction with a discipline that is not taught in E-4J middle schools. No student will be advantaged in the least with a working knowledge of the subject matter gained through prior formal instruction. Learning chemistry is the equivalent of learning a foreign language. Furthermore, in terms of ‘Science’, it is basic in all respects. Therefore, SUSA holds not only that chemistry can be learned by all of its students, but also that a working knowledge of chemistry serves as the ABCs for further science instruction.
Economics. At its simplest, Life is about three things: God, Sex, and Money. It is shocking to observe that public education in the United States teaches nothing about God, nearly nothing about Sex, and nothing about Money to the average student at anytime—and by “nothing” I mean NOTHING, and by “anytime” I mean throughout a normal high school education. It is very possible to become highly educated in America today with a graduate degree in a professional discipline and still not have a clue how Money works. In a nation whose very identity is tied to a free enterprise economy, a working knowledge of Money should be an entitlement that is granted to everyone. That it is not is more than an utter failure of the public education system, it is downright criminal.
Nothing maintains the status quo between the rich and the poor in our society as much as the total ignorance of Money among the poor does. How to make and keep a fortune should not be solely a game played among the already wealthy with rules that are secretly passed on from generation to generation within families. President George W. Bush wants Americans to manage their own Social Security money. From the perspective of his growing up in his family and among his family’s friends, that is a reasonable alternative because all of the people in that social strata know how Money works. However, take one small step out of the upper class into the realm of the middle class and you will encounter profound ignorance regarding Money. It should not be this way.
SUSA focuses on economics because it must do so to make The American Dream truly possible for all of its students. The focus will not be limited to classic academic economics, but will also strive to include practical knowledge about individual investing and the basics of starting and managing a business. Certainly, the book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money—That The Poor And Middle Class Do Not!” by Robert T. Kiyosaki with Sharon L. Lecher C.P.A. and other books like it will be part of the curriculum. SUSA will succeed in its purposes if its graduates know the first steps to becoming entrepreneurs—and that is the measure of things.
Additionally, SUSA recognizes that there is surpassing value in establishing baseline equity among all of its students by beginning the school’s science instruction with a discipline that is not taught in E-4J middle schools. No student will be advantaged in the least with a working knowledge of the subject matter gained through prior formal instruction. Learning chemistry is the equivalent of learning a foreign language. Furthermore, in terms of ‘Science’, it is basic in all respects. Therefore, SUSA holds not only that chemistry can be learned by all of its students, but also that a working knowledge of chemistry serves as the ABCs for further science instruction.
Economics. At its simplest, Life is about three things: God, Sex, and Money. It is shocking to observe that public education in the United States teaches nothing about God, nearly nothing about Sex, and nothing about Money to the average student at anytime—and by “nothing” I mean NOTHING, and by “anytime” I mean throughout a normal high school education. It is very possible to become highly educated in America today with a graduate degree in a professional discipline and still not have a clue how Money works. In a nation whose very identity is tied to a free enterprise economy, a working knowledge of Money should be an entitlement that is granted to everyone. That it is not is more than an utter failure of the public education system, it is downright criminal.
Nothing maintains the status quo between the rich and the poor in our society as much as the total ignorance of Money among the poor does. How to make and keep a fortune should not be solely a game played among the already wealthy with rules that are secretly passed on from generation to generation within families. President George W. Bush wants Americans to manage their own Social Security money. From the perspective of his growing up in his family and among his family’s friends, that is a reasonable alternative because all of the people in that social strata know how Money works. However, take one small step out of the upper class into the realm of the middle class and you will encounter profound ignorance regarding Money. It should not be this way.
SUSA focuses on economics because it must do so to make The American Dream truly possible for all of its students. The focus will not be limited to classic academic economics, but will also strive to include practical knowledge about individual investing and the basics of starting and managing a business. Certainly, the book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money—That The Poor And Middle Class Do Not!” by Robert T. Kiyosaki with Sharon L. Lecher C.P.A. and other books like it will be part of the curriculum. SUSA will succeed in its purposes if its graduates know the first steps to becoming entrepreneurs—and that is the measure of things.
Final Thoughts Addendum
One of NEHS’s best students from recent years who now is enrolled in the Honors College at the University of Oregon suggested including the following additional Advanced Placement courses in the SUSA curriculum as options: Statistics, Calculus, Physics, Psychology, European History, and assorted foreign languages.
Of course, whatever is possible should be done, but the focus of the school should not be lost in an attempt to please all comers.
Of course, whatever is possible should be done, but the focus of the school should not be lost in an attempt to please all comers.
June 8, 2005, letter
June 8, 2005
To Whom It May Concern,
Why bother? The deed is already done. My proposal for a small school at North Eugene High School (NEHS) was dismissed because some wrongly imagined that I had ulterior motives. Unfortunately, my detractors won their foray, or so it seems. According to the newspaper, the game is over; the irrevocable has been decided upon. So ‘good riddance’ should be my happy ending, but it is not. Though NEHS will surely ignore my work, perhaps others one day will find it helpful.
Regarding the irrevocable, I call, “Foul!” The Big Picture School with enrollment capped at 100 is nothing more than a naked grab at Eugene’s home-schooling population. If it is truly something more than that, then it is irresponsible in the extreme.
If home schooling is done well under the supervision of very committed and intelligent parents, it can be an effective means of educating a child. However, if the parental supervision and commitment is not there and/or the parents lack the intelligence and knowledge base to competently teach a subject, home schooling can be a disaster. I have seen it firsthand both ways as a close outside observer. The successes were wonderful. The failures were nothing but sad.
My understanding of the ground rules for the design of NEHS’s small schools was that each school was required to have a true cross section of the student body present in its enrollment, including problem students and those designated as ‘special education’ students. I cannot believe that the Big Picture School will include the full range of students as required. How then has it passed muster? It is nothing more than a ‘special case’ school for ‘special case’ students: i.e. those who successfully home school.
I will state in its defense that the Big Picture School is a clever way to gain more tax dollars for NEHS in a way that will likely prove successful in upping the overall performance of NEHS by standard measures, especially if I am correct that the narrow intent of the school is to serve the existing home-schooling community without actively adding to their numbers. But I question whether cleverness alone is enough to make the Big Picture School something more than disingenuous as a Gates Foundation small school. Perhaps I am seeing darkness where there is nothing but light. I hope so.
Regarding the irrevocable, I am outraged by one simple word used deliberately (?) by Register-Guard reporter Anne Williams in her June 2, 2005, article “North Eugene small schools taking shape” in which she describes the School of the Arts at North Eugene (SANE) curriculum thusly: “Will focus on visual arts, writing, performing arts, humanities, math or science, and internships and projects.” Or!! Did I correctly read: math OR science? Of course, it SHOULD read AND, i.e. math and science. But I wonder if what should be the case is in truth not the case—that “or” is in fact the correct and intended word.
I am no fool born yesterday regarding the fine arts. All of the true career ambitions I have ever had in my life were related to the arts. First, I wanted to be an architect. Then, my interests changed to theater and film as an actor, director, and set designer. After that, I wanted to be a studio artist, meaning painter and sculptor. And finally, even now, I want to be a writer. I married a truly great visual artist who has had drawings and cartoons published in national magazines and who has been exhibited in one-person shows, group shows, and traveling shows by museums and galleries. Both of my children have the artist in them, one as a writer and one as a visual artist. I sing in one of the finest choirs in the Northwest. I was a child actor with lead roles in operettas, and I spent one summer of my life in a summer stock theater company that included university undergraduates and graduates, and assorted theater professionals in the casts and crews. After the summer stock experience, I was actively involved in independent theater productions for a while. And, for a brief while, I once had an art gallery. And, finally, I own a blues/rock/folk/jazz/classical record album collection that numbers in the thousands!
The Arts are the best! There is nothing grander than the Theater! To sing is to experience the Sublime! As Bob Dylan wrote, “Beauty walks a razor’s edge—someday I’ll make it mine.” God help the artists, for there is no greater blessing and no greater curse than to be an artist. It is more than a way of thinking and more than a way of feeling; being an artist is a way of life, a way of being. It is a totality that is inescapable, and it is at once both glorious and ruinous. Do not wish it on people, and do not make it easy. The true artists will find their way to it because it is who they are; they cannot be otherwise. Everyone else should learn appreciation for the Arts and perhaps become skilled in a craft or two, but do not lead people on to any pretensions. Even some of the greatest artists in world history could not pay their bills through sales of their artwork.
It is wrong to deny an average high school student a proper education so he/she can overly focus on visual arts, creative writing, and/or performing arts. I use the word “average” deliberately. The occasional (read: rare) genius simply must go and meet his/her destiny, but those people are not “average.” Mere mortals must live mundane lives working mundane jobs to get by—and a whole lot of artists must do the same, too. In the proposed SANE school, please be sane about this. Simply tell the truth, and start by informing all SANE students that a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of Oregon is a five-year program totaling 220 credits, including satisfaction of general university requirements for the Bachelor of Arts or the Bachelor of Science degree—and that means academic achievement is required, not just studio achievement.
The very scary thing about SANE for me is that I probably would have enrolled my daughter Liesel in that school, and to do so would have been a huge mistake. E-4J middle schools do not clearly uncover a student’s potentials and interests, and I am an attentive parent stating this. My wife and I knew that Liesel was extraordinarily gifted as a visual artist, but we were absolutely clueless about her keen interest and best-in-class abilities in the sciences. Liesel did not even know this interest and ability in the sciences about herself until she enrolled in Chemistry as a high school freshman. It was a love-at-first-sight experience, and it has not diminished. In fact, if anything, the experience has made Liesel seriously question who she is because her being is very much the artist and very much the scientist—and how those two will become one in her life is not at all clear to her at this time. Liesel excels in both the visual arts (she is one of three Register-Guard 20-Below staff artists) and the sciences (she finished the AP Chemistry school year with the highest grade in the class, and she is only a sophomore). So which of NEHS’s four small schools would we enroll Liesel in now? Certainly not SANE.
I created School U.S.A. (SUSA) for students like Liesel and my older daughter Eva, and their contemporaries Katie Walro, Javier Hernandez, and Monica Joseph. These five students (and others like them) are very smart, and none of the four small schools NEHS has chosen truly meet the needs and abilities these students possess. The Walros did not choose International High School for Katie even when doing so would have been immensely more convenient. Likewise, we did not choose International High School for our daughters. Instead, the Walros and we specifically chose NEHS because of its emphasis on Advanced Placement classes for its best students. I cannot speak for the Walros, but I know we have never regretted our decision to enroll our daughters at NEHS even though South Eugene High School is within easy walking distance of our home.
The following seven-page description of SUSA is entirely my own. Eva read it and suggested that more Advanced Placement classes should be offered as options, but otherwise the ideas and descriptions are mine. I have tried to create an inclusive school, and I think I have succeeded in that effort. Of course, extraordinarily smart students should never be dumbed down or even slowed down, so the challenge is to somehow open the ground floor doors to let others in. SUSA accomplishes this feat in what I consider to be a reasonable fashion. If a student—any student—wants in, that student is welcomed. What is more, that student is sincerely helped as needed to get up to speed so academic success in the SUSA program is not a wishful thought but an attainable goal.
SUSA clearly fulfills the requirements set forth by the Gates Foundation. If NEHS does not institute SUSA, some other high school somewhere else will. My prediction is that SUSA would draw heavily from all over the Eugene-Springfield community if any local high school gave it a home. Not everyone is enamored with International High School, and even some who have chosen it have chosen it because they do not see a better alternative available. I think many would clearly recognize SUSA as the superior choice for our community’s best students, and that parents would drive across the city if necessary to allow their children to attend the school.
Smart children are children at risk. SUSA cares for smart children. E-4J should, too.
Finally, SUSA is not project-based, not at all. SUSA is a school that will attempt to find and unlock the genius in its students. It will strive to birth intellectual creativity in its students’ minds, and to do so in a way that gives courage to individual self-expression. SUSA recognizes that high school is a preparation for higher education, and that the knowledge base to be mastered in high school to aid success at the next level is significant enough that straightforward classic general classes are more appropriate and beneficial than anything else could be.
SUSA is not for everyone. But for those who would choose SUSA, no other school would even come close as a second choice.
Sincerely,
Steven A. Sylwester
To Whom It May Concern,
Why bother? The deed is already done. My proposal for a small school at North Eugene High School (NEHS) was dismissed because some wrongly imagined that I had ulterior motives. Unfortunately, my detractors won their foray, or so it seems. According to the newspaper, the game is over; the irrevocable has been decided upon. So ‘good riddance’ should be my happy ending, but it is not. Though NEHS will surely ignore my work, perhaps others one day will find it helpful.
Regarding the irrevocable, I call, “Foul!” The Big Picture School with enrollment capped at 100 is nothing more than a naked grab at Eugene’s home-schooling population. If it is truly something more than that, then it is irresponsible in the extreme.
If home schooling is done well under the supervision of very committed and intelligent parents, it can be an effective means of educating a child. However, if the parental supervision and commitment is not there and/or the parents lack the intelligence and knowledge base to competently teach a subject, home schooling can be a disaster. I have seen it firsthand both ways as a close outside observer. The successes were wonderful. The failures were nothing but sad.
My understanding of the ground rules for the design of NEHS’s small schools was that each school was required to have a true cross section of the student body present in its enrollment, including problem students and those designated as ‘special education’ students. I cannot believe that the Big Picture School will include the full range of students as required. How then has it passed muster? It is nothing more than a ‘special case’ school for ‘special case’ students: i.e. those who successfully home school.
I will state in its defense that the Big Picture School is a clever way to gain more tax dollars for NEHS in a way that will likely prove successful in upping the overall performance of NEHS by standard measures, especially if I am correct that the narrow intent of the school is to serve the existing home-schooling community without actively adding to their numbers. But I question whether cleverness alone is enough to make the Big Picture School something more than disingenuous as a Gates Foundation small school. Perhaps I am seeing darkness where there is nothing but light. I hope so.
Regarding the irrevocable, I am outraged by one simple word used deliberately (?) by Register-Guard reporter Anne Williams in her June 2, 2005, article “North Eugene small schools taking shape” in which she describes the School of the Arts at North Eugene (SANE) curriculum thusly: “Will focus on visual arts, writing, performing arts, humanities, math or science, and internships and projects.” Or!! Did I correctly read: math OR science? Of course, it SHOULD read AND, i.e. math and science. But I wonder if what should be the case is in truth not the case—that “or” is in fact the correct and intended word.
I am no fool born yesterday regarding the fine arts. All of the true career ambitions I have ever had in my life were related to the arts. First, I wanted to be an architect. Then, my interests changed to theater and film as an actor, director, and set designer. After that, I wanted to be a studio artist, meaning painter and sculptor. And finally, even now, I want to be a writer. I married a truly great visual artist who has had drawings and cartoons published in national magazines and who has been exhibited in one-person shows, group shows, and traveling shows by museums and galleries. Both of my children have the artist in them, one as a writer and one as a visual artist. I sing in one of the finest choirs in the Northwest. I was a child actor with lead roles in operettas, and I spent one summer of my life in a summer stock theater company that included university undergraduates and graduates, and assorted theater professionals in the casts and crews. After the summer stock experience, I was actively involved in independent theater productions for a while. And, for a brief while, I once had an art gallery. And, finally, I own a blues/rock/folk/jazz/classical record album collection that numbers in the thousands!
The Arts are the best! There is nothing grander than the Theater! To sing is to experience the Sublime! As Bob Dylan wrote, “Beauty walks a razor’s edge—someday I’ll make it mine.” God help the artists, for there is no greater blessing and no greater curse than to be an artist. It is more than a way of thinking and more than a way of feeling; being an artist is a way of life, a way of being. It is a totality that is inescapable, and it is at once both glorious and ruinous. Do not wish it on people, and do not make it easy. The true artists will find their way to it because it is who they are; they cannot be otherwise. Everyone else should learn appreciation for the Arts and perhaps become skilled in a craft or two, but do not lead people on to any pretensions. Even some of the greatest artists in world history could not pay their bills through sales of their artwork.
It is wrong to deny an average high school student a proper education so he/she can overly focus on visual arts, creative writing, and/or performing arts. I use the word “average” deliberately. The occasional (read: rare) genius simply must go and meet his/her destiny, but those people are not “average.” Mere mortals must live mundane lives working mundane jobs to get by—and a whole lot of artists must do the same, too. In the proposed SANE school, please be sane about this. Simply tell the truth, and start by informing all SANE students that a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of Oregon is a five-year program totaling 220 credits, including satisfaction of general university requirements for the Bachelor of Arts or the Bachelor of Science degree—and that means academic achievement is required, not just studio achievement.
The very scary thing about SANE for me is that I probably would have enrolled my daughter Liesel in that school, and to do so would have been a huge mistake. E-4J middle schools do not clearly uncover a student’s potentials and interests, and I am an attentive parent stating this. My wife and I knew that Liesel was extraordinarily gifted as a visual artist, but we were absolutely clueless about her keen interest and best-in-class abilities in the sciences. Liesel did not even know this interest and ability in the sciences about herself until she enrolled in Chemistry as a high school freshman. It was a love-at-first-sight experience, and it has not diminished. In fact, if anything, the experience has made Liesel seriously question who she is because her being is very much the artist and very much the scientist—and how those two will become one in her life is not at all clear to her at this time. Liesel excels in both the visual arts (she is one of three Register-Guard 20-Below staff artists) and the sciences (she finished the AP Chemistry school year with the highest grade in the class, and she is only a sophomore). So which of NEHS’s four small schools would we enroll Liesel in now? Certainly not SANE.
I created School U.S.A. (SUSA) for students like Liesel and my older daughter Eva, and their contemporaries Katie Walro, Javier Hernandez, and Monica Joseph. These five students (and others like them) are very smart, and none of the four small schools NEHS has chosen truly meet the needs and abilities these students possess. The Walros did not choose International High School for Katie even when doing so would have been immensely more convenient. Likewise, we did not choose International High School for our daughters. Instead, the Walros and we specifically chose NEHS because of its emphasis on Advanced Placement classes for its best students. I cannot speak for the Walros, but I know we have never regretted our decision to enroll our daughters at NEHS even though South Eugene High School is within easy walking distance of our home.
The following seven-page description of SUSA is entirely my own. Eva read it and suggested that more Advanced Placement classes should be offered as options, but otherwise the ideas and descriptions are mine. I have tried to create an inclusive school, and I think I have succeeded in that effort. Of course, extraordinarily smart students should never be dumbed down or even slowed down, so the challenge is to somehow open the ground floor doors to let others in. SUSA accomplishes this feat in what I consider to be a reasonable fashion. If a student—any student—wants in, that student is welcomed. What is more, that student is sincerely helped as needed to get up to speed so academic success in the SUSA program is not a wishful thought but an attainable goal.
SUSA clearly fulfills the requirements set forth by the Gates Foundation. If NEHS does not institute SUSA, some other high school somewhere else will. My prediction is that SUSA would draw heavily from all over the Eugene-Springfield community if any local high school gave it a home. Not everyone is enamored with International High School, and even some who have chosen it have chosen it because they do not see a better alternative available. I think many would clearly recognize SUSA as the superior choice for our community’s best students, and that parents would drive across the city if necessary to allow their children to attend the school.
Smart children are children at risk. SUSA cares for smart children. E-4J should, too.
Finally, SUSA is not project-based, not at all. SUSA is a school that will attempt to find and unlock the genius in its students. It will strive to birth intellectual creativity in its students’ minds, and to do so in a way that gives courage to individual self-expression. SUSA recognizes that high school is a preparation for higher education, and that the knowledge base to be mastered in high school to aid success at the next level is significant enough that straightforward classic general classes are more appropriate and beneficial than anything else could be.
SUSA is not for everyone. But for those who would choose SUSA, no other school would even come close as a second choice.
Sincerely,
Steven A. Sylwester
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