Character education in the APS

Two questions;

1. what is character education, 
2. should there be any in the APS?

What is it?  Wikipedia, link, offers an acceptable definition;  

Character education is an umbrella term loosely used to describe the teaching of children in a manner that will help them develop variously as moral, civic, good, mannered, behaved, non-bullying, healthy, critical, successful, traditional, compliant and/ or socially acceptable beings.

Should there be any in the APS?

Forget for the moment, it is specifically and explicitly required in APS School Board Policy, link,

I offer as a premise; aside from disagreement over the best model to follow, there is widespread support in the community, and as widespread a belief that character education is actually part of education in public schools.  Therefore, there should be some in the APS.

In fact, there is.  A few schools here and there, make a concerted effort to teach children in a manner that will help them develop variously as moral, civic, good, mannered, behaved, non-bullying, healthy, critical, successful, traditional, compliant and/ or socially acceptable beings.

But, there is no district wide effort. None. Zero. Nada, Zip.

In blatant disregard for School Board Policy.

Why, you're wondering, no character education?

It is because there is no model for teaching character education that does not rest on accountability.  It is the bedrock character.  Character is all about holding yourself honestly accountable to meaningful standards of conduct and competence.  Accountable under a system over which you have no undue influence and powerful enough to hold you accountable, even against your will.

The leadership of the APS cannot advocate for character because they are unwilling to be role models of accountability.

If there were accountability, the could point to it.  They would point to it.  The truth is; they provide no venue where a complaint can be filed against them, and where that complaint will see due process.  They are absolutely unaccountable to anyone except each other.

Why, you're wondering, does no one know about any of this?

Journal Editor Kent Walz would love to run  a story about how APS is a model of transparent accountability to stakeholders.  He would love to run a story about their courage as role models for staff and students.

He hasn't run a story like that because he can't.  He can't because he's part of a conspiracy to cover up the lack of administrative and executive standards and accountability.  He's part of the cover up of an ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

His best effort so far, to join APS School Board enforcer Marty Esquivel in bamboozling the Directors of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government into giving APS Supt Winston Brooks a hero of transparency award for hiding public records of felony criminal misconduct in the leadership of their Praetorian Guard.

Walz has been asked, over and over again, to investigate and report upon the abandonment of character education in the APS, and he won't.  90,000 of this community's sons and daughters are being denied any meaningful character education because of corruption in the leadership of the APS, and he chooses rather than exposing it, to join instead, the conspiracy to keep it all secret from their parents.

Walz singing Winston Brooks virtues in front of the FOG

Journalistic malpractice, corruption, cowardice?




framegrab Mark Bralley