Jeff for America

I hear the word reform a lot in education. It’s used constantly, and I’m getting kind of tired of it. I just looked it up in the dictionary (not a real dictionary – who does anymore?) and apparently reform is just “making change in something in order to improve it.” So now I understand why I’ve been so annoyed – it’s not that I hate the word reform, it’s that I hate how people use it. Reform is subjective – and yet it’s used objectively by those who tout reform as if their reform (their changes) will result in an improvement. I realize this is actually quite simple, but its a bit of an a-ha moment for me. What is an improvement to one party is a digression to another. Or sometimes worse – things don’t actually change at all.

With my new understanding of reform, I’m ready to propose some reforms of my own. And they have nothing to do with NCLB or charter school management or school finance. Call them “micro-reforms,” these are the changes that I want to make at my school by year’s end:

1. Implement a sexual education workshop series for middle school students to learn about puberty, reproductive health, decision making and teen pregnancy

2. Provide a professional development seminar for teachers and staff dedicated to issues about confronting issues of sexual orientation in the classroom, and how to support LGBT students and their families

3. Create a voluntary school-wide incentive and consequence program that teachers use in their classrooms, so students have consistent enforcement of rules and consequences throughout the school day (to start next year)

4. Allow female students to wear a variety of school uniform bottoms, including pants, slacks or skirts (currently, girls can only wear skirts to school)

And I’ll admit it – these are the ways I think I can improve my school. They won’t necessarily improve it, and not everyone will think they are needed or even good. I’m not fooling myself by thinking that my ideas of reform are the best. But I will say that sometimes change (for the better or worse) can be better than staying the course because when you change things, you at least know things might get better. I think that’s what it means to have hope. And with that in mind, reform takes on a whole new meaning.

- Jeff