An Open Letter to St. Paul School Board

In St. Paul we are faced once again and too soon with the task of identifying a leader who can artfully guide us out of a budget and educational crisis. I would like to challenge us to consider that if we seek high powered command leadership we are once again missing the point. The challenges we face today in education are challenges of relationship. They will be met through a paradigm shift driven by open, humble and collaborative leadership.

No Child Left Behind clearly is not working and I seriously wonder if any of the perennial reform efforts ultimately will succeed. Our intense focus on strategic planning, test preparation and measuring outcomes seems to miss the key point: that our true dilemma in American education is a long history of a crisis of relationship.

I am a fifth-generation white Minnesotan raising my biological daughter who is also a Dakota child; an inspiring and daunting privilege. I see our challenges in education both through the eyes of a native child and through the eyes of white America.

When we look at the data, it’s clear children of color carry the weight of our disappointment. 78 percent of white students in St. Paul Public Schools (SPPS) are proficient in reading skills compared with 51 percent of American Indian students, 46 percent of Hispanic students, 42 percent of Asian students, and 38 percent of African American students, according to current data on the SPPS web site. Clearly children come to school with varying levels of preparation, but what appears to be failing is not our ability to educate but rather our ability to engage segments of our community in a faith and excitement about their potential worth to us.

It's not Mr. Barrett's fault. He was my daughter's fifth-grade teacher at the American Indian Magnet in St. Paul. He's a Native American man with a gift that calls him to educate our children. He holds a masters degree in gifted and talented education. There is a calm, solid core to him; one that speaks of great things within him, of things that should matter to groups of people trying to live together as one nation. When do we start asking the Mr. Barretts what should happen in our classrooms, instead of giving him a host of lackluster, confining standards?

We need to hold crucial conversions on education across our communities; conversations brimming with voices of color. Education reform cannot be accomplished when large segments of our community don't trust our vision for their future and when we fail to provide an educational context in which they thrive. We seem to be throwing a flurry of tasks at a crisis of relationship. In my experience this seldom produces the outcomes we seek.

The cultural wisdom of Native America, African America, Hispanic America, Asian America, and European American, along with other cultures, can help us find the real genius that is this country. Let's commit ourselves to channel the collective cultural wisdom of this great nation into good, candid, non-defensive conversations about what is missing in our current approach to education. It is through listening that we’ll find wisdom. It is through listening that we’ll mend damaged relationships.

Let's begin in groups, small and large, to talk about classroom content that is relevant and inspiring. And let's fearlessly correct the patterns of disengagement and disrespect that grow within so many of our children. Let’s be certain all children know they bring a history and a creative genius to the table. The children will then be engaged, stay in school and graduate.

These conversations are absolutely imperative for change. We might not know at this moment how the new paradigm ultimately will look. To some, it might appear more like a cultural revolution than simply a new educational pathway. But revolution is not new to this nation, and has proven to be a great gift.

If we don't figure this out, the children will be unmoved by our well-intentioned hard work that values downloading skills into their heads over the sweet, essential brilliance of cultural history and relevance.