Public school students throughout Tennessee last week celebrated School Board Appreciation Week, where students were encouraged to praise their local school board members.
Staff, students, and parents at public schools were asked to adopt a board member. They sent cards and artwork to board members. They were also asked to create school board appreciation posters or ask students to draw posters of them.
Finally, students were encouraged to “invite school board members to a school concert and dedicate a song in the board’s honor.”
JC Bowman, who directs the Nashville-based Professional Educators of Tennessee (PET), said Monday that serving on the school board is a job that few people want. But he also questioned whether this is a wise use of the students’ time.
“We spend all of our time doing celebrations of things or remembering things and we lose track of what we are really there for — reading, writing, learning, and doing arithmetic. I don’t have a problem with honoring people who serve on our school board,” Bowman told The Tennessee Star.
“I just don’t know how much detail it needs to be. Certainly, I would not take time out of a classroom for activities to draw things. Your school board member could visit and walk through the school. If I was on the school board then I certainly would be touring my schools on a regular basis to see what was going on. I just don’t know if you should take away instructional time for celebrations of anything. The instructional timing we have is very valuable.”
Staff at the Nashville-based Tennessee School Boards Association (TSBA) promoted School Board Appreciation week on their website — extensively.
The Star asked the TSBA on Monday if school officials should mandate that students praised school board members? We also asked whether school boards should instead serve students and parents?
No one from the TSBA returned our request for comment.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star and The Georgia Star News. Follow Chris on Facebook, Twitter, Parler, and GETTR. Email tips to [email protected].
no wonder metro public schools are awful.
nearly all things done in public schools are ultimately wastes of time.
@Dr. Ken Amen!
An unflattering light, at best, has been cast onto school boards in general , because of their attempts to silence the voices of parents. How about let any willing adults – ones who would be sincere about appreciating their school boards – be the ones to show it, instead of putting that burden on the kids?
Encouraging, no be honest, requiring students to recognize and appreciate school board members is clumsy at best. What a waste of time, talent and resources. I have personally seen where school supplies are inadequate, so teachers are purchasing them out of their own salary. So, teachers, by default are being coerced into “appreciating” the school board members. Not to be lost school board members are the ones foisting their own agenda such as CRT on the teachers. How about, let’s recognize and appreciate the teachers? They are the ones doing the work.