"Superintendent Amu-who?!?"

A-mu-TAH, sucker!

If I were superintendent for a day, I would implement a number of district-wide changes. Let's just act like I have no one to answer to (i.e. no State Department of Ed.) and I can be as far out as I want to as I ponder the possibilities...:

1) Firstly, I would set in motion the abolition of my office. There would be a three-year transition period after which a new governing body would take over control of the public school system. The governing body would be a board made up of people in this order from most to least members: parents (5), students [4...one from each school in Humphreys County], faculty (3), community stakeholders (2), administrators (1). Democratization of my district would be immediate.

2) Students would be given the opportunity to unionize upon entering the district.

3) I would hire a slew of social workers and aim for a one to five ratio of social workers to families.

4) I would use district money to buy each student in my district a laptop computer. Even just something like this which is what my younger brother's high school issued him upon enrollment. To prepare my district's students for the future, computer literacy is an absolute must. For teachers who do not have the training to use computers, I would give them that training through computer representatives in the region. Those who do not have computers would be issued the same ones as students. Parents would also.

5) I would install wireless Internet at various hotspots throughout Humphreys County. Or, I would attempt what places like Cambridge, Massachusetts and San Francisco, California have by just blanketing my district with free, wireless Internet access throughout. Familiarity with the Internet is crucial today, tomorrow, and in various ways forevermore (note: sites such as Bebo, MySpace, and the like would only be accessible for three hours per day).

6) I would continuously lie on the scores that I send to the state so they assume that we're following their curriculum but, instead, we would take our curriculum from various alternative sources. For instance...students struggling with Algebra? Let's look at what the legendary and inspirational Bob Moses has done in the past with the subject. Not really feeling the old Glencoe textbook? A People's History in audiobook form would be made available to students from the district website for download. For remorseful parents now looking for continuing education I'd take a page from the Black Panther Party's political education program and one from SNCC's voter registration drive.

7) Teachers would form partnerships with parents. Something almost akin to team "teaching" would occur with each parent taking ownership of what their students' education looked like and teachers would really act more as advisory guiders for specific students depending on a particular students' scholastic wants and developmental needs.

8) I'd hire MANY more teachers and give them incentives (financial, perhaps) for living together in cooperatives. These work/play/living environments would increase the unity of my faculty and help them be more effective instructors. Either that or it would make them procreate and produce a plethora of teacher babies. Either way, it's a win-win (re: teacher shortage?).

9) I would facilitate experiential learning by offering our students bountiful activities to experience real-life applications of the topics that they're learning about through the school system. Group work would be encouraged and grades would be abolished. Formal assessments would be abolished. Only informal assessments, preferably through regularly-scheduled student/teacher conversation, would occur.

10) I would form an educational consulting company for my services and charge exorbitant fees to affluent districts.