April 14: NOTICE – The Cambridge School Committee has been CANCELLED
OK, perhaps not. However, right now I’m wondering whether or not it should be. I have occasionally attended School Committee meetings over the years and have been known to opine that their primary focus is more about creating and maintaining School Department jobs than educating young people. So, when it was announced that they were having a Roundtable meeting on trends in mathematics education, I was thrilled. Just once, perhaps, the Cambridge School Committee would have a meeting that focused on educational specifics.
Alas, no. With virtually no notice, the meeting was cancelled – not postponed, just cancelled. Just a little notice buried deep in the School Department website. Granted, this meeting was not going to draw the crowds of the previous week when the race of the School Superintendent candidates was used to get people all riled up. This was just about mathematics – not race or class or gender or compact fluorescent light bulbs or Salvadoran elections – just something that young people might actually need to know something about if they ever want to get a job in Cambridge some day (other than a job in politics or the School Department).
I showed up for the meeting and was informed by one of the more helpful members of the School Committee that the meeting had been cancelled “because we have to pass a budget.” It’s not that I’m completely uninformed about what goes on around town – I even try in my own way to let people know what’s going on. I don’t mind wasting some time, but I really don’t like it when others waste my time. Inserting a cancellation notice in an obscure location just doesn’t cut it.
So, to the Cambridge School Committee, you can now go back to talking about all of your nonacademic issues. Let me know when I should next walk to CRLS for something other than a letdown. Maybe, just maybe, you’ll grace us again with a meeting that focuses on educational specifics. I won’t hold my breath. – Robert Winters