A Trio of Powerful Experiences for the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education to Consider

Sixth Major Communication to the MPS School Board


I had a particularly powerful trio of academic sessions during Saturday- Monday, 28-30 March, the contents of which the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education should consider in an effort to gain greater appreciation for the paramount importance of a rich liberal arts curriculum (to be delivered via the conduit of Focused Instruction) and the role of the adroit teacher in tapping the abiding potential of students from challenged economic circumstances (for application to the cases of students at High Priority Schools).


First, I met with Monique Taylor-Myers (data privacy pseudonym, as with all other names to follow in this article) in our weekly three-hour odyssey into the world of knowledge. We covered a swath of history that included the rise of the Delhi sultanate in India; the impact of the West African empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhay; the turmoil that induced major changes in Europe with the attacks of the Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Franks and Gauls; the response of Charlemagne to the changed circumstances of medieval Europe; and the high tide of feudalism that succeeded Charlemagne's death.


We then reviewed (having already read entirely) the most important concepts from the first chapter in the book (Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education) that I am writing, initially largely for and dedicated to Monique and her mom--- Chapter One: Economics. Having covered a mass of material in our prior reading, I called Monique's attention once again to the importance of the Federal Reserve System, the structure of the federal budget (sources of revenue [94% in taxes {personal, business, payroll}], allocations to Entitlement Programs [47% of total spending], outlays to discretionary programs such as those in the sizable military category [16% in this latter], spending for payment of interest on debt [7%], size of the debt [currently $18.5 trillion], approximate deficit [$500 billion]); and the towering contributions of the three great economic thinkers Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and John Maynard Keynes.


Then we proceeded to read and discuss fully together the fifteen-page (single-spaced) Chapter Two: Political Science, covering the core ideas of Aristotle, Plato, Jean Jacques Rousseau, John Locke, and Montesquieu; major political formations (absolute monarchy, constitutional monarchy, liberal democratic republic, dictatorial republic, Marxist state [including comment on corruption in USSR and People's Republic of China of the original idea], fascist state [Mussolini's Italy, Franco's Spain, and especially the Nazi version], and theocracy [with Iran as example]); the frequent mislabeling and true meaning of totalitarianism (opposite ideological versions in Nazi Germany and Stalin's USSR); differences between parliamentary and congressional systems; and a detailed overview of United States government.


I kid you not. We did this.


Monique has trained with me for ten years, has imbibed my academic ethic as such students do, and at Grade 12 is functioning as a college junior.


Second, I had academic session number two with Monique's mother, Janette Taylor. Janette is the victim of both familial dysfunction and K-12 atrociousness but is herself hugely gifted of intellect. In just two academic sessions, Janette has gone from a Grade 4 math level to a level at Grade 8, and she is quickly developing a powerhouse vocabulary and enhanced reading skill. 


Janette at this point has a certificate in public health care, and she walked across the stage two decades ago to receive a piece of paper dubbed "high school diploma," at Washburn High School, but she does not even have an associates degree. But we are now talking about pursuit of the bachelor's degree and her becoming my first assistant, perhaps even taking over the program when I go six feet under.


Sheer amazement; absolutely jolting.


And then there is the younger child, Monique's little sister, Ginger Taylor-Myers. Last Saturday morning, this Grade 5 student drew within five pages of finishing a thorough and careful reading of Macbeth, mastered the concepts of square root and exponential powers, and applied these to the solving of equations involving the Pythagorean Theorem.


Can you imagine the delightful swirl in my head as I drove home after these encounters? Can you imagine how deeply this engrains in me the conviction that students from challenged backgrounds are never the problem--- that all such problems reside in the academic delivery system of K-12 public education?


The Minneapolis Public Schools must do better, and I will be working ceaselessly to induce officials at the district (and, by extension, other school districts) to deliver educational excellence in the institutions that hold the future of our children--- and thus our own destiny--- in their hands.


And among others, this means you, members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education. As District Member Tracine Asberry has conveyed to you, you are accountable to the citizens of Minneapolis and to the futures of our precious children.


You must do better. I know that you can, and you must.