What are we thinking?

Our director of schools has interpreted data collected about public preferences for a single high school as a clear indication that people desire a common experience. (See R. Neal's post below for link to full article)

I have another interpretation. People’s preferences for a single high school indicate a confused sense of nostalgia and a failure of leadership.

Nostalgia: People’s visions of a small-town high-school life are really less about having a single high-school that unifies than having a school small enough that they are truly known as people. Cheering on a town’s single football team against "foreign" rivals (from just down the road) is, quite frankly, a shallow way to build a shallow sense of community. Strong community spirit comes from pride in a community’s choices…in this case, we have a chance to be proud of how we plan for every young citizen to have a great education.

Arguably, the best feature of public schools is that students come into close contact with ideas, identities, abilities, and beliefs that are different from their own (this feature is much harder to come by in private schools). This close contact challenges students to either defend their ways of thinking and being in the world or to change their ways of thinking and being in the world. Course content gives them the tools and practice they need to think through these challenges. In a word, this is education.

Large secondary schools do not allow for this close contact. Rather, stereotypes and narrow thinking are encouraged as students must spend their time simply trying to carve out a space for themselves amid the masses.

Failure of leadership: There is nothing surprising in data showing that people are resistant to and fear change and that people will choose the option that proposes the least amount of change. It is easy for us to sacrifice (other) people’s homes to cobble on to a high school we're afraid of changing in any meaningful way. It is hard to think through new ways of educating our children.

Great leadership helps us imagine new ways of moving forward and helps us not be afraid of change.

Where is our great leadership?

According to the Maryville Daily Times Maryville Director of Schools Mike Dalton recommends that Maryville High School be expanded as opposed to building a new school.

Dalton sent the planners and architects back to the drawing board to come up with a way to minimize the impact on the neighborhood and traffic. He is also looking at the possibility of satellite facilities and separate "lower and upper" high schools.

Read the article for all the details.

It says that among the three options proposed (bigger school somewhere else, a second school, upgrading the existing school), an overwhelming majority of those polled chose the option of upgrading the existing school.

I guess this is all about protecting Maryville's championship football program?

Maryville High School - To Expand or Not To Expand

How many people in Maryville are aware that Maryville High School is considering expanding at its current location using Eminent Domain to consume as many as 30 homes/properties in its neighborhood?

How many people in Maryville are aware that smaller schools are actually better for our kids? MHS has a current population of roughly 1500 students. If they expand they will create a facility to accomodate upwards of 2000 students. This is far from an ideal environment for our children as drop out rates and violence increase and participation, emotional well-being and parental involvement DEcrease. Please check out this great article: Link... . Yes, there are benefits to larger schools such as more extra curricular programs and a more "state-of-the-art" facility, but is this worth the expense in quality of education and student well being? As the large high schools are failing all over the country, there is a national movement back to smaller, community based schools. Funding is available through government and private institutions such as the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.

Link...

Aside from this, MHS resides in a very old and established neighborhood. This neighborhood is sandwiched between two historic districts and could be considered historic itself. Lamar Alexander grew up in this neighborhood. Many families will be displaced and the integrity of the neighborhood will be destroyed. Traffic is already a heavy burden here making roads questionably safe for kids to travel to and from school. Expansion will only make this worse.

Please - LET'S PRESERVE THE INTEGRITY OF MARYVILLE. Let's stop a Mega-Highschool from being created in our community. Let's stop destruction of historic neighborhoods. Please contact your elected officials and school board members and tell them you want preservation, not destruction, in your Maryville.