By Barbara Soderlin

When the economy crashes and people are laid off, they need to be retrained in specific job skills that the market demands. The last thing they think is, “Maybe I should go back to school to study (insert humanities field here).” Whether it’s literature, philosophy, religion or Latin, experts in the humanities or liberal arts are having a hard time justifying universities’ investments in their fields right now.

Maybe that’s why the proportion of college degrees in liberal arts has been dropping like the stock market, as this story points out.

I sometimes wish that a school counselor, my parents or anyone else had strongly suggested to me that an English degree alone was not the best way to ensure my economic future. I don’t know what else I would have picked, though; at 18 or 20 I had little exposure to the variety of careers out there and no interest in “limiting” myself with just one field. Now some limits are starting to seem like a good idea. Other than to a newspaper or coffee klatch, do I have any marketable skills?

We’re remodeling a room in our home and my very handy husband had his even handier brother-in-law over to help install the drywall. On the way to dinner after the work was done, I remarked to my sister-in-law that I’m lucky to have married into such a handy family. If we were all stranded together on a desert island, I said, we’d be OK because among the family we have skills in home construction, livestock management, delivering and educating children, gardening, dentistry and more. I apologized to her though, saying I really wouldn’t be able to contribute much. She said something like, “You’ve read a lot of books.” As much as I appreciated what may have been a compliment, it didn’t make me feel a lot better.

By Barbara Soderlin

Has No Child Left Behind become a punchline? Obama’s new education secretary, Arne Duncan, thinks it has, so he’s thinking of ways to “rebrand” the law. The important law, which directs federal money at educating children in poverty, didn’t originate with President Bush, though the changes he pushed — more standardized testing and penalties for schools that don’t raise scores enough — made it unpopular.

The law actually started in the civil rights era as simply the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which you really can’t argue with. This story talks about how you can participate in a contest to rename the law here. One suggestion I liked: Achieving American’s Reading, wRiting and aRithmatic Goals, or AARRG. Got any suggestions?

By Kayla Gahagan, Journal staff

It’s Sunday and I’m back in the office, reading about the Saturday Rapid City school board meting that Barb covered for me (and did a fine job of.) 

She pointed out something in an earlier blog that I thought was especially true as the district goes through its second round of cuts in two years: while you think you personally know exactly where to cut in the district’s budget - sitting in on a 2 or 3 or 4 hour conversation between parents, staff, board members and administrators - can make you realize it’s not that simple.

Maybe that’s the best thing to come out of Saturday’s meeting, and it’s something that former board member Eric Abrahamson said to the board last week and brings up every time I interview him - that providing the community with a clear definition of its priorities and what it considers an adequate education would give the Rapid City school district a starting point for all discussions, decisions, and when necessary, cuts.

Stay tuned for what happens this Thursday night, when the board is expected to vote on the current proposal of cuts. Better yet - come and join me down at the City/School Administration building at 5:30. I’ll save you a seat.

By Barbara Soderlin

Covering Saturday morning’s school board meeting reinforced what I learn over and over again as a reporter: covering a story almost always changes my pre-conceived notions about an issue. I thought I knew exactly where to cut the school budget, but as I listened to parents, teachers, board members and administrators debate the issue, I could appreciate all the different points of view, and they do clash.

What would clear it up? Several board members — some who agreed on little else — agreed Saturday that in the future, they need some sort of basic set of goals — call it a strategic plan, a mission, guiding document, whatever — on which to base their cuts. If the district had a clear plan that laid out its academic goals and expectations for students, its professional development expectations for staff, its relationship and responsibility to taxpayers and the community, it would be easier (not easy, but easier) to hold up programs against that plan and judge which are most important.

During Saturday’s meeting, when some board members said they wanted such a document, board president Sheryl Kirkeby said a strategic plan existed — but board member Daphne Richards-Cook said she’d never seen it. I couldn’t help but agree with those, including Leah Lutheran, who said that the minute this budget cycle is over, the board should begin planning for the following year, and with more to go on with what programs should be cut than just who has the last word.

By Barbara Soderlin

In light of the news this morning that the controversial play “Spring Awakening” has been postponed after parents complained that its subject matter shouldn’t be on stage at Central High School, I thought people would be interested in this story about how around the country, a modified version of “Rent” is making waves even though it’s been toned down from the Broadway original.

My favorite line: “The New York producers of “Rent,” who receive some royalties from the school edition, said they hoped it would become a new, revenue-generating staple of the high school musical landscape, as well as a teaching tool that augments sex education and draws teenagers to acting and theater with a more modern production than, say, “The Music Man.” ”

Ah, yes, “The Music Man,” I remember that one well. I played violin in my high school’s pit orchestra for the musicals, and that was the one from, I think, 1994. The only problem with that is since we were playing during all the songs, we never got to really hear all the great lyrics. Still, I’m pretty sure “Music Man” and the other one I was in, “Pirates of Penzance,” weren’t scandalous. The only line titillating to us high school kids was, “Balzac!” because, well, if you’ve ever heard the way it’s said in the musical, you know. (Also, later on during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, a video of her singing “Shipoopi” in her own high school’s “Music Man” production surfaced, and if you recall the lyrics, it’s unintentionally hilarious.)

I eventually saw “Rent” when it came to Chicago when I was in college. It really didn’t shock me, but I don’t remember it being that great, either. I just couldn’t relate. (I should probably see it again. I bet I’d like it now that I’m older and actually appreciate it. The play did win the Pulitzer AND the Tony, for Pete’s sake.)

My point? Hm….. I’m no prude. But I don’t know that I buy the argument that just because high school kids are having sex, doing drugs, etc. that it’s appropriate for them to act in musicals about these themes. Let’s let parents and health teachers handle sex and drugs. Being in the high school musical is about hanging out with your friends, learning about the fine arts of music, acting and dance, and having fun in a safe environment. The fact that I remember sneaking out of rehearsal once during a break to go try a cigarette with another violinist and our friend, an actress, tells me that I didn’t need any extra help doing dumb things, and being in the Music Man probably helped keep me out of more trouble, and if you went to a school that put on the Music Man instead of Rent, you know what that starts with, and what it rhymes with, and what that stands for.

By Barbara Soderlin

So Kayla is the one who, bless her, goes to every Rapid City Area Schools board of education meeting for the paper. Except tomorrow, it’s Saturday, and she’s off — just when they scheduled a four-hour special board meeting. Never to fear — I work on Saturdays.

Though I covered education for several years, it’s been about two years since I’ve been to a school board meeting, so my skills might be a little rusty. I hope our readers will forgive me as I, and the board members, wade through a lengthy discussion of the school district’s financial situation and how to make budget cuts that will satisfy taxpayers, parents, students and educators.

Wish me luck.

If you’d like to join us, the meeting is at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 21, in Room 309 of the Classroom Building on the School of Mines campus. Kayla said that school district finance guru Dave Janak told her the meeting could last four hours, so if you come, you may want to bring your knitting. And a sandwich.

By Barbara Soderlin

So it seems the current generation of college students thinks all there is to earning an A is showing up and doing the work. This story describes college professors’ frustration with students who lobby them for higher grades, displaying what professors view as a sense of entitlement born of “increased parental pressure, competition among peers and family members and a heightened sense of achievement anxiety,” the story said.

One English professor quoted in the story said: “I tell my classes that if they just do what they are supposed to do and meet the standard requirements, that they will earn a C,” he said. “That is the default grade. They see the default grade as an A.”

I remember in college that when I didn’t show up to class or didn’t study very hard, or tried but completely could not understand the material, I got a D. When I went to class, did the reading and writing, but wasn’t very into the subject, I got a C. When I really liked the subject, did all the reading, went to class all the time and tried hard to write good papers — but still just wasn’t the best in my class — I got a B. It was only when I really was passionate about a subject and had a natural knack for it AND tried my hardest at the work, that I got an A.

I know that only once in four years did I ever lobby a professor for a higher grade — and that was when I got the lone F of my college career (a class where I showed up to class every time, did all the reading, but apparently the entire subject of early 20th Century Russian literature was just completely beyond me. I was thrilled years later when the professor wrote a book and the reviewers panned it.)

I guess I just always assumed that my professors knew what the heck they were doing and that I deserved the grade I got. Has culture changed that much in the 10 years since I graduated with, due to that F, a bummer of a 2.99 grade point average? (So close! Maybe I should have lobbied somewhere else along the line.)

By Barbara Soderlin

I just tried to call Rep. Mark Kirkeby at his hotel room in Pierre to ask him about his idea to consolidate universities, which got zero support from the House Education Committee last week (I guess I like writing about dead-end issues no one else will touch). Instead, his wife, Sheryl, president of our local school board, picked up the phone. Mark was en route from Rapid City, she said, so I asked her what she was up to in Pierre.

This morning, she said, she testified before the state Senate Education Committee about SB 126, which you can read here in its current form. You’ve heard about how, soon, a new law will take effect where students must stay in school until they are 18. Educators in theory support the idea of keeping kids in school longer and helping them graduate, but in practice they worry about the effects of kids being forced to stay in high school against their will, when they may have behavior problems and when in many cases, there is no chance they will graduate by 18 anyway because they are so far behind in credits.

SB 126, which passed the Senate Education Committee today with no opposition, would allow another option: Kids picked up by the court system for skipping school could be court-ordered to enter a G.E.D. test preparation program. Sheryl said she supported the idea and that it is being pushed by some of our local judges, who see it as a more realistic option for some students than being forced back into the classroom. At least, Sheryl said, a G.E.D. could enable a student to enter some vocational or military programs, where dropouts are pretty much high and dry.

It makes me sad to think that some kids get so far behind in school that they feel hopeless about ever graduating on time, and that even our alternative programs aren’t able to help every student keep up with coursework and credits. I can’t imagine the frustration their teachers feel, fighting to give them every opportunity and watching a kid, and possibly his parents, throw that away. Still, is a G.E.D. the answer? Is it really better than no diploma at all? I’d be interested to hear from some people with a G.E.D. about what opportunities they have.

By Barbara Soderlin

OK, so I was just thinking about high school graduations and did a little math and realized that my soon-to-be-born child will (if everything goes according to plan) graduate high school in the year 2027(!) and in the summer of that year I’ll be 50 years old. I feel like that’s so far away, it’s not even a real year — like there will be flying saucers everywhere and we’ll all be living on Mars. That’s what I used to think about the year 2000 when I was a kid. I graduated high school WAY back in 1995, back before the internet and everything. In high school I thought I was cool because my car had a car phone. Not a cell phone, a car phone. It had a receiver as big as a regular phone and when you picked it up it was attached to the base with a long cord. You’d think that would be dangerous, having a teenager driving around on the car phone, but it wasn’t, because who would I have called? No one else had a cell phone or a car phone.

Have any other parents had the feeling that they are already out of touch before their child is even born?

By Barbara Soderlin

That’s the task President Obama has given his new education secretary, Arne Duncan, former head of the Chicago Public Schools. The stimulus package Congress approved last week has $100 billion in emergency aid to public schools and colleges, as this article explains, and Duncan and his staff have to decide which programs and states get the most help.

According to the New York Times, “The bill, which Mr. Obama is expected to sign on Tuesday, doubles federal spending on disadvantaged and disabled children, includes hefty increases in the main federal college scholarship program and for Head Start, and, for the first time, makes billions in federal dollars available for school renovation.”

It’s too soon to say how South Dakota could benefit, but we’ll be reporting on that in coming days.

In the meantime, what do you think are the most urgent needs? I’d say school facility repair and modernization, programs to boost the quality and preparation of teachers, programs to help students get ready for college and career training, and expanded early childhood and afterschool programs for low-income families.