Editorial/Op
Recipe for Great Schools
By |
With the Woodlawn area of South Baton Rouge in the process of trying to duplicate the success of the Central School System, I naturally thought of Blackberry Cobbler. That sounds odd, so let me explain. Every summer my brothers and I would anxiously await the day that Grandmaw would announce that the blackberries were ready to pick. Grandpaw would hitch a hay wagon to the tractor and we would all ride the wagon to the back fields near the Comite and we would pick for hours. The motivation, of course, is that Grandmaw would bake blackberry cobbler that evening. To a nine year old, hot Blackberry cobbler topped with vanilla ice cream is possibly the best dessert in the world.
Oh yes, school systems. Well you see we still pick blackberries most years in those same fields here in Central, but to get the BEST Blackberry cobbler we use Grandmaw’s recipe. So I thought, wouldn’t it be great if there were a Recipe for Great Schools! It might read something like this:
First you make a roux… oh wait, that would be a Cajun school system. First you go out and gather about a half bushel of dedicated and visionary parents and community members. You have to be patient and leave them alone in the pantry for about five years till they get good and fired up and ready to go. You will know when they are ready to cook when they march out of the pantry, jump up on the counter and demand that we get to work making these Great Schools.
Then you reach in the fridge and pull out all kinds of community members; parents, students, teachers, business leaders, grandparents, and generally anyone who values a good education. Then sprinkle in a few politicians, (don’t use too many of these, that can ruin the whole batch), just a few that don’t mind jumping into the frying pan. Put all these in a pot and stir like crazy and before you know it you will have some legal papers that say you can go ahead and make your Great Schools.
Hang on, we’re not done yet. Now go find about a thousand big-hearted, hard-working, generous people in the Central Community. If you tell them what you need and let them simmer a while they will clean and paint your schools, hold community-wide fundraisers and write the checks to start your Great School Recipe off right.
Now look around right here in the Central kitchen and you will find hundreds of dedicated teachers and workers who have been teaching and taking care of Central’s kids for years, and hundreds more who will line up for the privilege. Now mind you, these are not just ordinary garden-variety ingredients. They are men and women who love our kids and love to see them learn. The Great Schools Central is cooking up are nothing without Great teachers and staff.
Now the final topping before we serve up our Great Schools…. Great Students. Moms and Dads, I know that your kids may seem lazy, uncooperative, unmotivated and even disrespectful at home, but I see them at our schools, football games, fund-raisers, shops and pizza joints. They are polite, friendly, helpful and respectful. They also, thanks to great parents and Great Schools, are better educated every year.
That is Central’s Recipe for Great Schools… and that is Good News for a Great City.
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