Pop quiz time.
I know, I know. I didn’t give you any advance warning. But this is a pop quiz! They can happen at any time. You just have to be ready.
A pop quiz is, of course, a favored tactic that’s been employed by teachers ever since teachers were first invented, which means it’s the perfect thing for my column this week, since the subject is education.
Wait. Actually, the subject is school.
I think.
OK, before I get too confused and end up confusing you, too, let me start the quiz. It’s just one question, so it shouldn’t take you too long. Of course, there’s not much of a margin of error, so your entire grade is hanging on what you write.
Ready? Got a No. 2 pencil? Good. Remember: No peeking at you neighbor’s paper.
ESSAY QUESTION: What should be a potential school board candidate’s main focus? (Use the following space to write your answer. Use the back of this sheet if you need more room.)
Time’s up!
We’ll grade this on the honor system. If you wrote “education,” give yourself an A. Even if you wrote it really big in crayon and spelled it wrong.
I know that a school board is there to make sure the behind-the-scenes stuff runs smoothly for the teachers and students, that the infrastructure and budget and all of that is propping up what needs to be supported. Still, I would have thought that at the recent candidates forum for both Santa Maria school district boards, something juicy about, oh, I don’t know, say, Common Core would’ve come up amid the mentions of “classified staff” and “stakeholders.”
My little birdie ears didn’t hear too much about curriculum or improving student achievement. I did hear a thing or two about arming faculty, though, so know that guns came up in the great debate, but the implementation of the most controversial math- and language-teaching system this side of book-under-your-pillow knowledge osmosis didn’t hold much traction against bullet talk.
Good luck on your next pop quiz, set for Nov. 4.
The Canary believes that children are our something. Send comments or tips to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 2-9, 2014.