2003 Year in Review

See Spot Run

In a recent letter to the editor of the Whiteside News Sentinel, I voiced my concerns about the critical situation the Morrison school district faces during the next few years unless immediate remedies are undertaken to see that no child receives an education less than the best; one that meets the standards during past years in which finances were less a problem. The ‘Plan on a Page’ initiative is a commendable start at restructuring the way the school district is financed, but it fails to focus on the question of what can be done to avoid cutting education programs and reducing staff for the coming school year(s) until a better system is operative.

School authorities should consider the following before deciding what programs to cut and what staff to release:

Any year a child receives an inferior education is a year lost to that child. It cannot be regained [or compensated for], yet its consequences can be measured the rest of the child’s life. To deny a child the best – no, not the best money will allow – [but] the best education, is to deny that child a degree of future success and happiness. (Letter to the Editor, Whiteside News Sentinel, January 8, 2003)

We no longer live in a society where a competent knowledge of the ‘three R’s’ is sufficient to guarantee a ‘good’ life. We live in a society that demands of us a specialization in our life’s work, yet demands at the same time a broader understanding of the peoples, places and cultures of the world. Even in our specific endeavors, we must think and act with a wider view to what is around us.

When we cut education programs, we deprive our children of the opportunities to investigate the broader world they will confront as an adult. Every year our children are deprived of these opportunities is a year in which their growth to understanding is thwarted. These lost years cannot be regained nor compensated for by study at a later date. It is no accident we educate our population at these early ages. While their brains are not 'tabula rasa' in the classical sense, they are open to the 'newness' of life around them. These are the years of mental growth as well as physical growth, of the acceptance of ideas (because nearly all ideas are new to them), and of their sense of being a part of a society. It is at these ages children begin to gather the knowledge that can determine many of their life’s choices in careers and in recreation.

What programs will be cut? What staff will be released? How will these cuts impact the educational growth of our children? For example, are music and art appreciation classes important to our children? What boggles the imagination is why – in this richest of all societies – we even have to make these decisions; why – in a society that spends far, far more money on entertainment than on education – we are faced with this dilemma.

As citizens of Morrison, Illinois, recognized for its excellent education commitment state wide, we should support any efforts to make our education programs constant and sufficiently funded from year to year to meet the needs of our children. It is only through a strong education they will have the chance at a better life than we have enjoyed. They are our children; we owe it to them. Our children, then, should not be short-changed in the coming year(s) while the committees work on ways to improve the system and the state legislature decides whether it will fund the districts fairly, or not. It makes no societal or economic sense to send into the community groups of under-educated citizens.

To the powers-that-be: Do what is necessary to maintain the strong commitment to education in Morrison – do what good leaders do.

by William Driver, Guest Columnist
January 9, 2003