I’m enjoying going door to door and meeting Kettering voters. Yesterday, I was happy to hear a lot of good reports about Kettering Schools.

One woman told me that she had checked it out before purchasing her home and that she chose Kettering Schools over Oakwood Schools and that she is very happy with her choice. She said she feels that Kettering teachers really care about her children.

Another older man spoke glowingly about his five grown children — all successful professionals — and said he was very happy with the great education that his kids received in Kettering Schools.

Another man told me that he liked Kettering Schools discipline policies and asked me what I thought about discipline in schools. I told him that yes, schools must be a places of good order and schools must enforce rules consistently and fairly. He was working in his lawn and seemed to want to talk so I continued the conversation by saying that the word “discipline” is related to the word, “disciple,” and that the central issue for schools is student motivation.

Students sometime are very motivated — self motivated — to disciple themselves to the discipline of basketball, for example, and may spend hours on end practicing their jump shots. This motivation is inner directed. I told this parent that this is the type of discipline that is most lacking in schools and that I believed it is possible to design schools and educational programs where this type of discipline towards personal growth could be nurtured.

I didn’t quote Deming, but I was thinking about his comment — that the very purpose of schools should be to “nurture the yearning for learning every child is born with.” Schools that took Deming’s goal seriously would be structured very differently from how schools now are structured. Schools that took this goal seriously would spend money very differently.

See these posts:

• Dr. W. Edwards Deming Urges Transformation — Warns Against “Remodeling The Prison”
• What Quality Guru W. Edward Deming Had To Say About Reforming and Improving Public Education

Last night the five candidates seeking election to the Kettering Board of Education participated in a “Meet the Candidates” program sponsored by the League of Women Voters. I was disappointed that so few people attended — only 30 or so — only a couple of teachers, only a couple of students. The Interim Superintendent, Jim Shoenlein, attended, but he was the only administrator I recognized.

The poor attendance for the event, to me, says a lot. I quoted David Matthews, again, that in order to have a strong system of public education, we need a strong democracy. Matthews has an insight that needs to be hammered and hammered. In order to make improvements in our country we need to make improvement in our democracy. When we are looking for an explanation as to why so many things in our whole country are so dysfunctional — so far inferior to what they should be — the answer is found in the system itself. We are experiencing system failure. Our democracy is failing.

I’m wondering if the poor attendance on the part of the school community was an unofficial boycott. Had the powers that be encouraged more of their teachers and administrators to attend, I’m sure many more would have attended. Kettering Schools, after all, has over 1500 employees.

I find it strange that the government teacher at the high school did not include in his or her education plan a goal of understanding the issues concerning the board of education election. The event was held six blocks from the high school. Why such a lack of interest?

The lack of interest by the government teachers is an indictment of Kettering Schools. The lack of interest by Kettering citizens in general — most who are graduates of the Kettering School system — is an indictment of the Kettering Schools. When we look for reasons why are we turning out citizens who have such disinterest in wanting to participate in their own community, I think it is fair to blame the community’s system of public education.

In my concluding comments, I again bring up the fact that the incumbent board members approved an advertisement campaign for the last tax levy election that promised “ZERO Increase In Taxes,” and “Not a Penny More.” The whole point of my campaign literature is to show that these statements were misleading and were meant to be misleading. During the evening’s discussion, the incumbents defended the advertisements, saying they felt in the levy ads they had done the right thing. I found their attitude surprising. Their defense of these advertisements shows a point of view that is strikingly different from my point of view. I said that the point of view of the incumbents is to see their role as board members as being cheerleaders for the schools. In contrast, I said my point of view I believe the role board member should seek to fulfill is one that centers on the community, centers on making “local control” meaningful, centers on representing the public, centers on vitalizing democracy within the community.

I’m going to put together a longer video showing more of the evening — but this conclusion sums up a lot of what I wanted to say.

Grrr. Originally, two “Meet the Candidates” community meetings were scheduled for Kettering Board of Education Candidates. But now it looks like the second meeting will be canceled.

Yesterday, Bill Pees, from the Kettering Kiwanis Club, informed me that all three incumbent candidates have sent him word that they will not participate in the Kiwanis sponsored “Meet the Candidates Night.” Bill said that the incumbents — George Bayless, Julie Gilmore and Frank Maus — individually called him to say they would not participate. The meeting was scheduled for next Thursday, October 29, at the Christ Methodist Church. Bill said that the Kiwanis Club will cancel the meeting rather than host a meeting where only the challengers — Jim Brown and me — appear.

I asked Bill if Kiwanis would go forward with the meeting if at least one of the incumbents agreed to participate and he did not make a firm commitment to do so, but indicated that Kiwanis most likely would go forward with the scheduled meeting — if at least one incumbent agreed to participate.

So it looks like tonight’s meeting — 7:00 PM at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church at Ackerman and Stroop — will probably be the only opportunity for Kettering voters to participate in a community meeting focused on the Kettering School Board election. According to the League of Women voters — as of this morning — all five candidates seeking election to the Kettering Board of Education will participate in this evening’s community meeting.

Mike Bock