School Information System

How Very Special that Madison Country Day School has added the IB Programme. Now little Muffy and Trey can have the study programme that their counterparts at the International School of Geneva - La Grande Boissière (Geneva, Switzerland) and Barton Court Grammar School in Longport, Canterbury, Kent (UK) are following. Instead of having to take tests, the IB Programme requires students to "sit exams," just like they do in the Anglo-European School in Willow Green, Ingatestone, Essex (UK). One wouldn't want them to absorb any of those nasty local habits from public school ruffians while Daddy is forced by Corporate to spend a couple of years in Wisconsin.

Special offer: for only 18 Pounds, one can purchase a laptop backpack with the new IB logo from the IB online store. A pack of pens with the IB logo is only 10 Pounds - makes a nice Christmas gift for the Nanny or the other household staff.

Did that cheap shot make you feel better?

News flash: parents are opting out of public schools, going to home schooling and private schools because the district keeps insisting that students who function at advanced academic levels will be "just fine" without programs (or staff) who can help to meet their needs. While some kids are just fine, there are others whose needs go unmet on a regular basis.

As a parent, I finally gave up and moved my child to private school when he reached fourth grade (we returned at 8th grade when the district was able to accommodate his needs. His fourth grade year was the year that Eagle expanded, doubling in size. I didn't realize why so many parents looked familiar at first. Then I figured out that many of them had been in the same meetings to beg MMSD not to cut TAG teachers, programs, or resources.

The 07-08 MMSD proposal to cut 2 of the remaining TAG positions (12 years ago there was a TAG coordinator in each school) is just one more nail in the coffin for families who are tired of getting rhetoric rather than results.

The pain of leaving public education is lessened, I must say, by the cheap shots from people who choose to ignore the dilemmas faced by families whose children are struggling because we refuse to acknowledge that they exist. In all of the adult posturing, there is a very sad tendency to forget that we are talking about children who rely on the grown-ups to look out for them and make good choices.

Whoa, Lucy. No need to be so defensive.

I admit it was a cheap shot, but it was by no means aimed at private schools, or even Madison Country Day. I just read the IB Programme website a while, and found the Anglo-Swiss pretension level a bit high, and went for the gut.

Of course the brightest students have gotten shortchanged for years in the public system. I respect your family story and your work on these issues on behalf of all of us.

Just a little pinprick at a "Programme" that offers an "International Baccalaureate" to high school kids after they "sit exams." Didn't realize everything on School Information Systems was Serious.

Thank you, Lucy. As always, you have said it so very well. There are countless parents and children in the District who are deeply grateful to you. You "get it," to put it mildly, and you're not afraid to say so publicly.

Mr. Orton, you are trafficking in the worst sort of stereotypes. The very worst.

I think I need to stop there.

Thank you for the clarification, Barry. One note - when Milwaukee wanted to turn Rufus King High School around, it went to the IB program. With great success. E.g., it is possible for PUBLIC SCHOOLS to offer this curriculum if there is visionary leadership and willingness to change.

[BTW, Googled Rufus King High School just now - it has its own Wikipedia listing....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rufus_King_High_School ]

Lucy, I hope that you make "visionary leadership and willingness to change" your highest criteria in selecting a new superintendent.