Sunday, June 12, 2016

Superintendent selection and setting an example

We are now the ones setting an example.

What kind of an example does it set to condemn a person, ruin their career and destroy their livelihood over a one sentence mistake, most likely made with no intent to deceive?

In the course of their careers our students will be called upon to display compassion and good judgment.  The best decision may not be the easiest one, or the path of least resistance.  Now is our opportunity.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...


The decision lies in the hands or thumbs of those elected board trustees who 'searched' and selected Dr. Anthony Hamlet .

We do not have a vote here.

The students will learn to distinguish fact from opinion and come to their own considered judgement based on thinking skills honed by a PPS education(?).

Anonymous said...

What kind of example does it set for students in the district that plagiarism and fudging numbers is an acceptable practice, especially for people in positions of power?

Questioner said...

While we do not have a vote, our representatives do consider the views of those who elected them and will evaluate them in future elections.

Questioner said...

A one sentence, generic job description type statement does not exactly rise to the level of plagiarism. As for presenting information in a favorable light- we could go on and on about the extensive and misleading way data has been presented over the past 10 years. Many examples are described on this blog alone. A couple of mis-recollected facts do not hold a candle to the intentional misleading presentation that has become standard practice in this district. In fact just in the past month or so, statements about the current administration's accomplishments needed to be removed from the district website because they WERE NOT TRUE.

Questioner said...

Consider also the background of this individual.

Imagine growing up with a parent in jail, at a time when no one spoke about prison pipelines or the industrial prison complex.

What message does it send to students attempting to overcome challenging circumstances, that so many will be willing to trash their achievements over minor oversights?

Anonymous said...

How true that our own people in power at Bellefield (NOT the board because they were powerless and just rubber-stamped) manipulated facts and figures and suffered no consequences. The pot is calling the kettle black.

Our new board seems to be finally bucking past practices and thinking on their own. Some people obviously aren't happy about this. I hope we keep Hamlet and he and the board move forward together thinking independently of special interest groups and get PPS back on track.

Anonymous said...

Back in the day when a committee scored senior portfolio's if a student was found plagiarizing
even one sentence it was an automatic fail and the student had to go to summer school (and even had to pay a fee.) How would keeping him be fair?

Questioner said...

How far back was the day? Before the time of cut and paste, cases where the same wording was used were more likely to be intentional. Would failure and summer school apply even if the committee believed the one sentence was an honest mistake? Today, in many areas, attitudes have evolved and those types of harsh rules (automatic suspension for bringing aspirin to school, etc) no longer apply.

Questioner said...

We should be going by the standards and methods that are accepted now, and those standards should be applied to everyone.

How would it not be hypocritical to say nothing about the current superintendent's claims about recent test results, but blast this candidate for thinking a D was an F or whatever.