Anyone with positive memories of the Civil Rights Movement or more recent community activism had to be cheered by the courage and engagement shown by the St. Louis Public Schools students who – with the support of various adults – staged the sit-in of City Hall that began last Wednesday.
Whatever else we teach our students – and no one denies that they have much to learn that they are not being taught effectively – it is important for them to know that the political players who influence, in many ways, much of their lives are not merely distant authority figures. They also are flesh-and-blood human beings who report to work every day and respond to pressure from the community they represent.
And anyone who agrees, as we do in some areas, with Mayor Francis G. Slay that the city’s public schools need a dramatic overhaul beyond the will and ability of the present school board must also admit that the mayor’s response to the students was belated and weak.
But the heartbreak in this incident is that it was nothing but political theater and an extracurricular learning opportunity.
Last-minute deadlines, such as the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s plans to discuss and possibly decide the district’s accreditation status tomorrow, make for dramatic showdowns. But influencing policy and executive decisions is a long and slow grind. The various adult stakeholders who claim to have played no major role in the student’s sit-in would be more credible had they more consistently involved students in their concerted efforts to block or redirect the overhaul of the district that has been pursued by Slay and others who are desperate to better the futures of city students.
Also, it is unfortunate that the students’ primary point of argument against the state – that a loss of accreditation would badly damage their prospects for college matriculation and scholarship – is not based in established fact, according to many education officials, including DESE itself.
School board member Donna Jones told the American that she gave the students “some homework,” which resulted in their arguments regarding the district’s accreditation – arguments that subsequently were echoed verbatim by the district superintendent and president of the teacher’s union.
It is a shame that this homework was not graded more carefully before showtime – a shame for so much hope and effort to be based on a flawed premise.
However, it is consistent with the recent efforts of some community activists and entrenched district stakeholders, who claim that the leadership best able to turn around St. Louis Public Schools – its current elected school board – is the same body that has left the district in academic disrepair. The entrenched problems of SLPS are institutional. Unfortunately, there is no simple, quick, effective, painless remedy for these difficulties. Those who proclaim otherwise are either naive, misguided or dishonest.
We urge these activists to revisit their strategy, in the event of a decision by the state to intervene in the administration of the district. Our students have had a valuable lesson in community activism and political theater. Now they need a deep study in judicious leadership and carefully considered strategy. Let us join together to provide them with that in the months and years ahead.