When I first walked into a School in Nashville I knew Toto we were not in Kansas anymore.  At first I defined it as culture shock and then after 3 weeks I thought, "this is a social experiment over 40 years in the making that is clearly failing." 

I only knew that in response to the desegregation efforts of the 60's, Nashville had absorbed its county schools with its city ones, creating a mega district of disparate schools in diverse communities that clearly were trying to be managed by a dysfunctional board and a series of Superintendents with varying notions of school success all while approving a burgeoning charter growth and private schools filling in large gaps of need for those who could afford to go elsewhere, either by religious beliefs or by sheer financial ability that enabled them to do so. 

If the education was so great at said schools then the graduation rates and college attendance rates would be higher but hey in the great South the dividing line is money.  Born rich you will go to school regardless to the family institution that provides higher learning and the rest will not as you will have work regardless thanks to family connections or ownership.   Or you leave and then become someone of import - Al Gore anyone?  (Actually his father was a Senator and Al grew up in DC) However,  I am not sure many do chose to leave as they have a provincial arrogance here that seems to contradict the idea that being well educated and travelled is a necessity to be determined as intelligent,  so if they have a degree it is one that means nothing and says nothing.  The sheer amount of Ph.d's in the public schools here says as such.  I am not sure if it is to laud something over another or for financial gains as the Teachers here are the lowest paid in the nation, the doctorate does not elevate wages that high and then as I have said they level off after a certain time in the profession, so this means it is for title purposes alone.    And I laugh that they call Nashville the Athens of the South due to the schools.  Access and availability are two very different things and those schools are some of the reasons for the inflated number of incoming residents each year.  But many do stay but this is no Athens as there are few to none scholars nor philosophers here. Plato is not turning in his grave.

There are few to no schools evaluated highly in ranking not by region but by country, as noted by the predominant rater in the U.S. that of the same News and Report; however we also fail to rank even globally as this new list that does and who was in the Top 10, the University of Washington. This is likely due to the influx of money thanks to the local millionaires and billionaires who have a vested interest in the local schools to succeed and do well and in turn produce highly qualified Graduates. And even more interesting was seeing Michigan on the list where it has been ground zero in K-12 wars yet still ranked well in many fields. The same with Pennsylvania. Both states have struggled with ed funding so why has Nashville or any school on Tennessee failed to do well? The lack of infamous and well off alumni perhaps? Again 33% of Tennesseans possess degrees.

The Center for World University Rankings (CWUR), publisher of the largest academic ranking of global universities, released today its inaugural subjects ranking. The ranking features the top global universities in 227 subjects covering all academic disciplines in the sciences and social sciences.

Harvard University leads the way globally, achieving Top-10 placements in 112 subjects, including 72 top places.

Institutions with the most Top-10 placements worldwide are:

1. Harvard University, USA (112 Top-10 subjects)
2. University of Toronto, Canada (66 Top-10 subjects)
3. University of Michigan, USA (57 Top-10 subjects)
4. University of Pennsylvania, USA (54 Top-10 subjects)
5. Johns Hopkins University, USA (51 Top-10 subjects)
6. University of California, Berkeley, USA (50 Top-10 subjects)
7. Stanford University, USA (48 Top-10 subjects)
8. University of Oxford, United Kingdom (47 Top-10 subjects)
9. University of Washington, USA (45 Top-10 subjects)
10. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA (41 Top-10 subjects)

So much for the Athens of the South when it comes to both national and international rank. And thi is why and how Tennessee measures it's overall economic success is by comparing the counties within.  The county system of defining all things political and urban seems to be the measurement tool.  Those counties deemed rich seem to be the ones whose finger points in the direction of the state house to maintain the status quo and those not seem to also do the same as they have Jesus behind the wheel apparently driving that last train to nowheresville.

As I read the book about the great experiment on desegregation here I was relieved and in turn it has enabled me to come to varying schools utterly disengaged as an attempt to avoid conflict with both  students and faculty.  I cannot tell you what the cruelty and demeanor of both  is like only to say it is in direct parallel to their poverty.  The poor here are like nothing I have ever encountered and I have been in places other than Seattle. 

When I read the article below I found it interesting as the county mentioned in the article, Scott, also has one of the highest unemployment records in the State and one Hospital serving the population that was recently sold and revitalized to help the community grow.  The funny thing is that Scott was perhaps the truly most liberal place in Tennessee back in the day: Scott County is known for having seceded from Tennessee in protest of the state's decision to join the Confederacy during the Civil War, and subsequently forming The Free and Independent State of Scott.

I thought that might explain why no cares about them statewide despite the fact they are trying to build a community out of their ashes.

Nashville reminds me of a game of whack a mole only with property and land deals. Each year the city declares an area an "it zone."  First it was gentrification of East Nashville which is only as far as Inglewood but that is enough to say "transition." Then we have the Gulch which is just restaurants and expensive condos with a few larger buildings for business.  The irony it was once a slave residency for those displaced after the Civil War.  Then we have Sylvan Park, the West End, Wedgewood Houston and now The Nations.  It is as if they are kids with toys, when they are done playing with them they move onto the next never quite assessing nor finishing what they started.  The land deals crashing and burning are being announced on a daily basis while announcing and declaring a new deal that will bring new hotels or apartments or restaurants. Grocery stores, small businesses and services, interesting arts and cultural institutions no.  This  along with sidewalks, crosswalks and mass transit, also no. 

The current Governor Bill Haslam declared himself the Education Governor.  Okay then.  Try to recall how low a bar that is so in other words those are just words which means nothing. The ability of the Southerner to speak out of both sides of their mouth without making sense of either is alive and well with Haslam.  If the State goes to the former Mayor of Nashville, Dean, expect more of the same - bullshit.





Why Are We Willing to Write Off So Many Children?



I graduated high school in a class of 47. I think seven of us went on to college. I know some folks at least started at community college, but I don’t know if most of them ever finished. I have a college degree. The rest of the siblings in my family don’t. I felt that my public school education did a poor job of preparing me for college, and I had teachers who actively discouraged us from thinking that we were smart enough to go to college.

The seven of us who went to college were not smarter than the 40 of us who didn’t. I think we just got the message somewhere along the line that college was a good option for us. And that made all the difference.

I think about that a lot as an adult, because it’s obvious that America has always thrived by having a group of smart people with no better options. It takes brains to build a house, for instance, but it’s hard work — always has been. You need someone who can read and follow blueprints and who has good math skills. And who will put those skills to use while hoisting lumber in the summer heat.

Or think of how many restaurants flourish because of good management and staff — jobs that again require good math skills and an ability to read people. It’s not truly unskilled labor.

For a long time, we’ve depended on our racist society to make groups of smart, talented people who can’t do better than the crappy jobs we need them to do — black people, immigrants, etc. But as we’re moving to a more equitable society, smart people of all races are gaining more opportunities.

So, where do you get more smart, desperate people?

Maybe you let a third of your high school students opt out of a requirement that would make college an option for them? Blake Farmer over at WPLN has the disturbing story:

In Tennessee's most rural school districts, nearly a third of students are graduating without the required two years of a foreign language. And a district with some of the highest use of foreign language waivers defends the practice as helpful to students.

"What is the benefit of having them take a foreign language class versus two additional welding courses that helps them earn hours toward their certificate to enter the job market sooner?" asks Melissa Rector, principal at Scott County's high school.

Well, for one, welding, like most blue collar jobs, is growing increasingly automated, so you’re training kids for jobs you don’t know will continue to exist their whole lives.

But second, do you think anyone in the Williamson County Schools thinks a third of their kids aren’t ever going to go to college? There’s something about the principal of Scott County’s high school just happily waving off college for a third of her students that just makes me sick and sad.

I mean, yes, it’s true. Not everyone is going to go to college. And maybe I’m wrong about the coming crisis we’re going to have to deal with where most jobs are automated, and that’s the end of needing bright people with no options. Maybe a kid can become a welder at 18 and live a full, happy life and retire from welding at 65 these days.

But if college isn’t that important, why aren’t rich school districts granting waivers to rich kids so they don’t have to take foreign language classes at the same rates as our rural poor districts? Do you really think that Williamson County kids are uniformly brighter than Scott County kids?

I don’t.

I think kids are getting stuck in Scott County. I think they’re being cheated out of an education they deserve, but being sold that cheating as a favor, the same way a pickpocket helps reduce strain on your back by taking your wallet.

It’s fine for people to choose not to go to college. But what these schools are doing is making it nearly impossible for these kids to change their minds. If you don’t have the requirements you need to go, you don’t have the requirements and can’t go.

This feels tragic, not practical.