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A Week Packed With Revealing Stories

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By DEREK MAUL | The Brandon News

Published: February 26, 2007

This past week has seen an interesting array of news stories. Several items have been simply begging for comment, working on my mind or digging at my heart.

First there's the unseemly media circus that continues to surround the body, the baby and the potential inheritance of tabloid icon Anna Nicole Smith.

Next, the chronic narrative of Florida's public schools continues to amaze, via funding issues and our compulsion to measure the intangible.

A disturbingly toxic education culture seems bent on sucking creativity and initiative out of the classroom. School leaders are forced to struggle between several rocks and any number of hard places while talking heads in Tallahassee play politics with the careers of good teachers who simply want to do their best for the students.

Finally, I have been captivated by the story of Miami's baby Amillia, born Oct. 24 and billed as the world's most premature living baby.

Doctors say she is now thriving and almost strong enough to be cared for at home.

Amillia was born just shy of 22 weeks and weighed in at a little less than 10 ounces. Her triumphant story brings to mind a conversation I had with a doctor who specialized in pediatric neonatology (the medical care of newborn and premature infants). We were discussing abortion.

"I often save the lives of babies younger and smaller than those routinely killed in the clinics," he said. "It's hard to argue with evidence that cries and responds to treatment."

Meanwhile, Miami also played host to the sad chronicle of Anna Nicole Smith, a classic example of pop culture gone awry.

By the time she died, Smith had become one of those celebrities merely famous for being famous. She attracted attention the way a bad car wreck slows down traffic because, like the O.J. Simpson car chase or a TV preacher gone bad, people are both appalled and fascinated by public tragedy.

While Smith's misfortune is now over, the school mess has a fresh head of steam.

Here in Florida it's more than just the children we're leaving behind. Teachers, caught in the middle of bad politics and ill-conceived budgeting, are beginning to voice their discontent.

The Tampa Tribune's own editorial board demonstrated a classic example of missing the big picture.

Instead of offering encouragement and moral support, the paper publicly slapped teachers' wrists.
Believe me when I say classroom instructors are both patient and long-suffering. It takes a lot to bring a teacher to the breaking point, but when they do it's pretty much "Katie bar the door."

Bad decisions that force teachers to adopt a militant stance are not in the best interests of our children.
Many states have waiting lists of well-qualified educators anxious to fill openings. Meanwhile, here in Florida we're growing our shortage while simultaneously adopting policies that drive good teachers into other professions.

Now is not the time to rub salt into their wounds.

The bottom line is that pedagogy remains as much art as science.

A good teacher with a chalkboard is more effective than a mediocre instructor with a $1 million in technology.

Likewise, a contented teacher for 270 minutes is infinitely better than an unhappy instructor for 300.
Hillsborough's school board couldn't be more wrong in their plans to eliminate block scheduling and increase teacher-student contact.

As if mere minutes add up to more teachable moments. As if a burned out educator has any more chance of lifting lackluster students.

Many generous teachers volunteer extra hours after school to tutor the motivated. I fear they will be less inclined to give of their time if they have been already forced to draw scarce resources from such a finite and undervalued well.

We are a society that fawns over exhibitionists like Anna Nicole Smith, fails to appropriately value education and routinely disposes of the unborn when his or her life becomes our inconvenience.
The invaluable gifts of life and opportunity require investments that necessarily cost a sacrifice if they are to be worth anything at all.

The point implicit in Amillia's story is that children are our most amazing resource. The lesson of education is that we need to adequately fund Amillia's future in our schools. The message of Anna Nicole is that a life with little substance leads to a legacy without meaning and sets up an eternity with even less hope.

Derek Maul is a writer who lives in Valrico. You can reach him at derekmaul@gmail.com.

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