HileThoughts

One of the exercises in our opening Leadership St Louis week end is to work in small groups and agree on the set of regional activities that we have accomplished and to suggest those things that we, as a region, need to address.

As the small groups reconvened we listed the groups’ results. For the accomplishments there was surprising agreement. And I suspect that anyone from the region would probably arrive at a similar list. For the most part they were heavy on big ticket infrastructure improvements. Think Highway 40.

What was more interesting, however, was the much broader range of issues that the groups thought were important to focus on in the future. Folks had identified things that I never thought of as being very important, and after some reflection, I could see their point. I was pleased that there seemed to be general agreement that education needed a prominent spot on the list of improvements that we needed to make but even there we had lots of ideas and suggestions for what those improvements should include.

From my perspective, it seems critical that we as a community need to focus on the seemingly never ending train wreck that is the St. Louis public school system. For practical reasons this is important because the youth who walk through that system need to be capable of stepping out to run our business, teach our youth, and serve our communities. For moral ethical reasons this is important because our society should be judged on the way we treat those most in need of our help and our young rank high in that need.

In St. Louis efforts at school improvement seem never ending. Each time they make a change I think - OK this looks pretty radical but something significant need to happen and perhaps this will do the trick. Bring in an outside turn-around firm with no experience in education - OK this looks pretty radical but something significant need to happen and perhaps this will do the trick. Have the State take it over with a specially appointed board - OK this looks pretty radical but something significant need to happen and perhaps this will do the trick.  Increase the use of charter schools even though they seem to have a rather checkered history in St. Louis - OK this looks pretty radical but something significant need to happen and perhaps this will do the trick. Hire a new superintendent - well given the number that we have in the recent past this this is not at all radical - but something needs to happen and perhaps this will do the trick. 

St. Louis has a proud history of excellence and forward thinking in its public schools. In 1873 Susan Blow brought the concept of Kindergarten to the United States opening the first one, "the Des Pres Kindergarten in Carondelet." She has been honored for her contributions with a St. Louis Walk of Fame star.

A few weeks ago another St. Louis educational luminary was similarly honored. William B. Ittner was inducted also induced into the Walk of Fame in The Loop. As described by their site

Unhappy with the prison-like schools of his youth, St. Louis-born architect William B. Ittner devoted his life to improving education through better school design. Appointed St. Louis School Board commissioner in 1897, he designed open buildings that featured natural lighting, inviting exteriors, and classrooms tailored to specific needs. His 50 St. Louis schools include Wyman Elementary (1901) and Sumner High (1908).

Ittner’s early twentieth century buildings, scattered throughout our neighborhoods, are still beautiful, at least from the outside, and inspiring additions to our community and reminders of our educational heritage.

Yet the obvious historical strength of the schools is no more. My understanding of the school situation comes from the local paper and from talking with people in the schools themselves.

The problems with the schools are many. Inconsistent administration, broken families, poverty, violence, poor moral, problematic infrastructure, the flight of good students from public education, the flight of strong families from the city, …

For example there was a brief article in the Post Dispatch, "Charter schools here post another enrollment gain" (A4, 8-Oct-08) said that St. Louis is one of the top Charter School cities in the nation (moving into the "top 10 - maybe even top five," evidently the data is pretty sketchy at this point). St. Louis also has a large number of religiously affiliated schools. While these may be positive for the students attending both of alternatives have a deleterious impact on public education. Like cherry picking in health insurance, these schools can pluck out the best students and the most active parents from the public schools leaving those with more difficulties, and perhaps less obvious talents, to their own devices and without positive role models from other successful students. I can not fault parents and students for making these choices - they need to maximize their opportunities. However, as a community we are diminished.

Because of the range of difficulties, to expect AN intervention in the schools, no matter how radical, to make THE needed change is naive. What we need is to help the whole community rise together. To address the intertwined problems that keep us from reclaiming our proud traditions and history of innovation.

It is this effort that I hope to learn more about as we proceed through our Leadership St. Louis year.

In an effort to make clearly obvious that these posts are my personal opinion, I have decided to drop my initial convention of tying them to specific Leadership St. Louis sessions. While they will still be tagged as "Leadership St. Louis" they will no longer carry that name as part of their title.

Yesterday I spent a few wonderful hours riding bikes with my friend Tom. We left St. Louis in the dark for the two hour drive to Cape Girardeau, Missouri. The drive south was lovely past wooded hills with a hint that they would soon break into the rich colors of fall. Fog clinging to the lowlands and. As we drove into Cape Girardeau we ran though dense fog which surprisingly cleared before we reached the river side starting point.

We were returning for our second ride of the Tour de Cape. Unlike last year’s heat, this year we had glorious weather. Perfect for a long ride in the country it was in the low 70s with a clear and sunny sky. It is a charity ride supporting "The Mississippi Valley Therapeutic Horsemanship, a non-profit program that provides children with disabilities therapy using horses."

We start with a short jaunt to get out of the city and into the lovely Missouri country side. Past farms and fields, up hills (one at least in the "killer" range for my abilities), through woods and past small streams. This ride has the feel of a community "hands on" event. Along with the usual fruit and drinks, the rest stops had home made cookies and the people helping out thanked us for supporting their work.

The high point on the first half (probably literally as well as figuratively) was a stop at the Cape Rock Park scenic overlook. Here Tom pulled out his fancy new 3G phone and we snapped each other’s photos. Note that being only 25 miles into the ride I still look, and felt, pretty fresh.

The second half of the ride started with a crossing of the lovely Bill Emerson bridge into Illinois. (I always get a thrill riding across a major river and being in St. Louis there are a number of opportunities to do so.) There the roads turned rough with fresh chip seal, one of bicycling’s banes, on alternating sides of the road. By this point  we are about 30 miles into the ride and my left knee is complaining pretty vigoriously.

After a long ride across the pleasantly flat flood plane with the end of season fields either tilled under or filled with dried plants, we climb into the hills and ride through some beautiful country side (as well as a few high speed limit highways to get us from one quiet road to another).

The final rest stop for us is at the Horseshoe Lake Fire Department at 44 miles into the ride. While the fresh grilled sausages smell great I learned my lesson last year and stuck with the easier to digest options. This was our furthest out point in Illinois and though Tom made some noises about doing a full hundred I was ready to get off of the bike.

Back across the flood plane, dodging the fresh chip seal once last time, and crossing back into Missouri Tom and I were happy to complete our metric century (62 miles) and finally get off of our bikes. This was my longest ride this year and I was pleased to be able to share the ride, the success, and the day with Tom.