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Faribault loves minority kids, but I doubt minority kids love them Paul Ryan I always hated school when I was a kid, but not because of boring classes or homework. I hated school because a bunch of administrators who had never met me, and never had any intention of getting to know me, always seemed to act as though they owned me. Whenever I wrote an opinion article in the high school newspaper that showed any sort of dissent, I'd get called into an administrator's office and told that my thoughts were inappropriate. When my school had a student film festival, I submitted a 30-minute comedy that involved a few short scenes of fake fighting, and once again I was called into an administrator's office and told that my creative ideas were inappropriate. "As administrators, we have puppet strings firmly attached to the students. So why are they dancing when we're not jiggling the strings? How unacceptable!" I know the job of administrators is to keep schools running smoothly, but I still can't help thinking that If it wasn't for administrators, school board members, and other so-called "decision makers", school probably would be a much more enriching experience. It's administrators who censor high school newspapers to preserve the school's image, even though schools are healthier with dissent. It's administrators who decide to ban students from going to dances with someone of the same sex, just to keep conservative parents from complaining. It's administrators who tell teachers not to encourage political discussion in classrooms, to "protect" students from the heated arguments of the real world. it's administrators who run schools as if they were playing "The Sims" on their computer: do what's best for the school's survival, not what will help the students become better prepared for the real world. Last week, a friend of mine who works with Faribault High School (in southern Minnesota) gave me a copy of a school memo that showed a perfect example of my point. This memo, which was sent to middle school teachers, informed them that instead of students volunteering to run for the student council this year, the candidates would now be appointed by teachers. At first, I just laughed at the stupidity of this idea. But as I read further into the memo, and saw more of the details, I realized how much bigger the problem is. Read the memo for yourself. The emphasis, shown in red text, was added by me.
FOR TEACHERS ONLY: Please do not share with your students at this time.
As we have discussed earlier, we would like Student Council this year to be a true representation of the FMS student body. Therefore, the elections will need to resemble more of a nomination process. Our hope is that through a diverse governing body, we will be able to better address/understand cultural differences and increase tolerance within our building along with other student council activities.
We ask that each team nominate three students that they feel would be good representatives on this student governing body. One girl, one boy, and one minority student/special ed student/student of poverty/etc. Please keep in mind that your boy or girl selection may also be a minority student if you wish. The nomination forms are attached and should not require a lot of additional time. As part of the nomination form, we ask that the team visit with your selected students to see if they wish to participate.
Student council officers will be selected after the representatives are nominated. These individuals will be selected from within the nominated group of students.
We will explain the process on Monday's announcements to the student body. Students will be made aware that it is our hope that the student council be a true representation of the student body but not the specifics of the guidelines for team selections.
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me.
The idea of encouraging more diversity on the student council is good, however, at some point the boneheaded administrators thought it was okay to force diversity. While it would be nice if our country voted more minorities into office, you can't force it. You can "nominate" all the minorities you want onto your student council, but it's not going to fool anyone. In a place like Faribault, there just aren't that many minorities. It's not a reflection of racism or a reflection of poor work by administrators, it's a reflection of percentages. If only 5% of your school is minority students, your student council isn't going to have a lot of diversity. If administrators want to improve conditions for minorities, they should (gasp!) talk to minority students and ask for their input. Just think! An administrator actually talking to a student! What a concept! Or if the administrators are too chicken to do it themselves, send out a memo asking teachers to encourage more minority students to run for council. There would be absolutely nothing wrong with that request. It's the secrecy that's wrong, not the idea of having more diversity. If administrators at Faribault High School want to use this plan of theirs, they need to make it public. The need for secrecy that is brought up multiple times in the memo only proves that they know they're doing something wrong. I've sent a copy of this memo to the Faribault Daily News, along with my opinion. Hopefully, with the help of the media, administrators can be taught the difference between the right and wrong ways to encourage diversity.
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