Island Richards

The public education system in Sweetwater County School District #1 is broken. It may be that the public education system is actually broken all over the state, or even all over the country, but my kids only go to school in this district, so this district is all I can vouch for. As I’ve read the arguments tossed back and forth through the various media outlets, I’ve attempted to pinpoint what exactly is broken in the system, but the deeper I look, the more obvious it is that this isn’t a simple set, splint, go home, take two aspirin and call me in the morning kind of break. It’s more of a long surgical repair, four months in traction and stay heavily medicated for several more kind of compound fracture.

It would be easy to blame just the teachers, or just the school board, but that wouldn’t give justice to the extent of the injuries that our school system suffers from. No, these injuries radiate to every limb of the school system body, and no small little bit of blame is going to pay the medical bill. With that said, let’s get into details. And before you “educators” start screaming “hearsay”, let me throw in this disclaimer — all incidents hereby and herein referred to in the following series of writings were experienced in whole or in part by me personally, or were related to me directly by those involved. No rumors, story making, or make believe, just the cold hard fractures, er — facts.

This insight into the inner non-workings of the education system is going to be brought to you, in the interest of media friendliness, in installments. If you’re a member of one of the groups that I’m targeting in one of the following installments, please don’t feel like I’m singling you out. I’m not. In fact, I intend to target every fracture, er — faction of the education system. Also, if your group isn’t mentioned, don’t feel left out. You’re not. I probably just haven’t gotten to you yet.

In the first forthcoming installment, I will be exposing the problems in the transportation department. Yes, that means school buses and their drivers. After that, I will be addressing the food service program, the teachers, principals, administrators, and school boards, the State Legislature, the Governor, and the Wyoming State Supreme Court and yes, the parents. No one is safe, so you might as well duck for cover now.

Just as a reminder, I don’t think every person that works for the district is a bad seed. Actually, in my years both as a student and a parent in this school system, I have come across many wonderfully talented, highly qualified individuals who made those years almost tolerable. You know who you are, because I’ve told you how much you are or were appreciated. You’ll also know who you are, because when you’re done reading, you’ll be just as ticked off at the system as I am. This miniseries isn’t directed at you. This one is directed at those of you in the system who either can’t, or don’t care enough to, do the job you were hired to do, and do it right. You’ll know who you are, because when you’re done reading, you’re going to be ticked off at me.

Stay tuned for the next chapter.

Wisdom