Good point

Today’s WS Herald editorial takes a sensible tack on one of the other hot issues Seattle Public Schools bosses are wrestling, school choice. (Although taking a detour early in the editorial accusing the Pathfinder K-8 community of having “huge egos” is a cheap shot; their only sin is that they care A LOT about what happens to their program, and if they didn’t fight ferociously for it, they would have been roadkill long ago. This page says they’re planning a show of force at tonight’s school board meeting, by the way.) Anyway, on school choice, the Herald suggests it stay just the way it is, with one big exception: Make parents who want their kids to go to non-neighborhood schools figure out how to get them there. Here in WS, we know a few families already traveling that path — driving their own kids from their home on the north end to their chosen school in the south end, or vice versa. They consider it their responsibility, and arrange their schedules to make it work.

joey October 4, 2006 (10:31 am)

Thank you to “Good Point” writer! Im all fired up this morning about my “huge ego”. IF keeping my children in a program in which they and many others are thriving- then so be it. My ego is swelling by the minute! I notice that the editor says ” forcing a student into a substandard close-by school means
increased enrollment in a building that has demonstrated its inability to cope with teaching children effectively.” So he cant wait until they do this, so that when these parents protest- he can say they have huge egos???!!! Or is it just concerned Pathfinder parents that he cares to slander?
A

j harvey October 4, 2006 (5:38 pm)

I left a comment earlier! Where is it?

Fed Up! October 5, 2006 (12:03 am)

Thank you rejecting the diviseness that has been displayed by the WS Herald over the school consolidation/closure process. I don’t nderstand why a community newspaer would stoop to name-calling and seemingly invite discontent and bad vibes within its own neighborhood. West Seattle is a “small town”. That is why many of us choose to live here, because we WANT to be neighbors and friends with a diverse group of people. What is with that editor? If he/she has had a bad experience with Pathfinder, Cooper, or any other school-related body, let’s hear that instead of this counter-productive rabble rousing. Geez!

Forest October 5, 2006 (8:17 am)

How many more West Seattle residents must be directly insulted before the WS Herald fires its current editor?

This week’s needless swipe at Pathfinder school parents is just the latest insult that Jack Mayne has dumped on the Herald’s reading audience. A few years ago, he ran a column that berated any readers who didn’t suit his fancy and submit their letters in email format. Never mind that not everyone in West Seattle has email at their fingertips.

Note to WS Herald owners: Fire Mayne and bring in someone who can manage the task of respecting West Seattle’s readers and residents.

Administrator October 5, 2006 (11:27 am)

For the person who wondered where his/her comment was (should be there now) — just fyi, if you have never posted here before, the comment is held for our review before we approve it. Once we see it (which could be minutes or hours), we pretty much approve everything within the bounds of non-profane reason (and of course sp*m gets the boot). So don’t worry, we’re not censors, just a little slow on the “approve” click sometimes.

Fed Up! October 5, 2006 (1:46 pm)

Amen, Forest!

LLL October 6, 2006 (10:34 pm)

Help me out here – is the same WS Herald I delivered as a kid and does a lousy job of reporting educational issues – is now:

a) slandering Pathfinder parents w/ huge egos because they work their butts off for the right reasons

b) I think slandering Cooper folks saying a “sub-standard” program – lousy writing is so hard to follow

c) Choice and transportation are only okay then for folks with the means to afford it –

d) Misplaced sarcasm and snideness – what did he get on his Cheerios for breakfast –

Grand Slam – wish the Mariners had done so well.

Perhaps he could talk instead about the daily cumulative incompetence of district staff and especially of the Banker Manhas and advocate for W Seattle in the face of all this –

It is not the paper I grew up delivering that was a REAL part of this community. Birdcage time.

Lynette Martin October 12, 2006 (9:08 am)

I appreciate all of these comments and hope that folks will take the direct approach by calling or emailing the paper directly.
In retracting his comments, Jack Mayne will begin the steps towards educating himself to the quagmire of Phase II closures and consolidations that many of us Pathfinder folks have been active participants in the last 7 months.
We can start being more “flexible” with the Distict when they provide us with a recommendation that will
A. match and uphold the criteria that is their stated mission for change and B. Stop making recommendations that try to fit a square peg in a round hole and C. Not cause a school community to undergo radical and unwanted change of its educational pedagogy in a ridiculous and disrespectful timeframe.

Lynette Martin

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