By Dr. John Trotter

It all begins with discipline, but you won't hear this word even pop up in any conversation by policy wonks, legislators, State Board members, or superintendents (especially not from the university professors of education who have their heads so far into the clouds that you cannot see their crania -- the plural for cranium, eh?). Therefore, the public schooling process will NOT improve -- not until student discipline improves. Establishing student discipline is the "dirty work" for administrators, and hardly any of the new genre of administrators want to do it or even understand its importance. Our so-called "school leaders" of today are trying to explore the high seas of school improvement using flat earth topography. It is really pitiful watching them wring their hands and wondering why the schools do not improve...heck, they think, "We've passed good education-legislation, commandeered standardized tests for the children to take and even published the scores in the media, and we have commanded the scores to go up." And? No improvement emerges. In fact, the reality is this: The Georgia schools today are in worse shape than ever, and it is NOT the fault of the teachers. The Nitwit Educrats and legislators who are making decisions about education in Georgia do not have a clue. It would be like me teaching how computer work or teaching the advance (or lower) stages of Calculus. I wouldn't have a clue. It is this simple: They do not have a clue, and they certainly haven't even thought that starting with the establishment of school discipline is the essential prerequisite before anything else can even have a chance of working. I wonder if people like Christopher Columbus had folks to look haplessly at them when they kept saying that the Earth was round. Hey folks: A Round Earth, A Disciplined School. You have to start here. (c) MACE, July 24, 2009.