Public schools deserve more positive press
It was heart warming to see some positive news about our public schools — on the front page no less of the West Hawaii Today. Sadly, too often our educators, and the daily miracles they perform with our widely diverse public school students, don’t get the positive press they deserve.
Mr. Woody Plaut is doing amazing things, offering debate courses to his students at Konawaena Middle school — skills that they will use for a lifetime. (Interestingly, I don’t believe debate and argumentation are not among the “testable” subjects, so fortunately they wont have to worry about their “Strive HI” test scores in that area!)
Actually, a good number of important life skills are not scored on any state mandated tests: cooperation, teamwork, creative thinking and problem solving with real-life subjects; these are among the many skills our wonderfully creative teachers in West Hawaii strive to include in their curriculum on a daily basis. Projects like Mr. Plaut’s Debate Program are where true learning takes place, but sadly the media today (including social media) would rather post depressing news about “failing” test scores.
The children in Mr. Plaut’s debate class will put to good use many of the life skills they are learning now. There are wonderful miracles happening every day in our public schools — we just need help shining the light on these treasures.
Toni Reynolds
Kailua-Kona