Wednesday, February 14, 2007

School Days, Part 1

School HouseWell, I was partially right.

Today we were scheduled to have our fourth class in the Leadership Ann Arbor course. This month our focus was on Education. According to our agenda, we were to visit a number of local schools this morning and then spend some time at Washtenaw Community College (WCC) this afternoon.

We did make it to the afternoon festivities (more on those later). This morning, though, as I expected, we got to experience a different school tradition -- Snow Day! As I mentioned yesterday, we got hit with a minor snow storm last night and, sure enough, when I awoke this morning I found that the Ann Arbor schools had been canceled. So I did what any self-respecting computer programmer would do at 6:30am. I crawled back into bed!

After getting in my beauty sleep and getting in a little work this morning, I was off to an afternoon of learning about education. Our first stop was lunch at Garrett's, the restaurant at WCC where the culinary arts students get to refine their skills. Unfortunately, due to the heavy snows, the students weren't able to get into the kitchens at 6am as they usually do and so could not create their masterpieces as they had planned. So, as far as I was concerned anyway, they did the next best thing.

They made pizza. And a delicious pizza it was, too.

After the delightful lunch, which included poetry readings and singing by our maitre di, we filed off to one of the auditoriums on campus to learn more about the state of education in Washtenaw County and in Michigan. Some good, some bad, and some that was downright depressing. I'll come up with more of a list tomorrow, but suffice it to say that, if Michigan wants to pull itself out of the economic doldrums, we've got a long row to hoe.

After we broke for the day, a few of us stuck around and chatted about what we had learned. Then it was a long, bitterly cold walk to the car before we could head for home.

Next month: Local Government!

So, what are some of your fondest memories of school?

2 comments:

Larc said...

Sadly, a lot of the money issues have to do with No Child Left Behind. The other big issue was Engler allowing tons of charter schools (i.e. schools that are run by businesses to make money).

Unknown said...

Unfortunately, we didn't get to hear anything about NCLB. They were supposed to be addressing that during the morning hours when we were to visit several K-12 schools. The afternoon was about higher ed and, as a result, the focus was primarily on those issues. Supposedly we will be going back to make up those missed morning visits. Will let you know when that happens.