By Pat Desmond
Times Staff
9/4/08

(previous)
Several asked for financial help for the school system. Karen Freidman Hanna, a parent, said the creative elements of the school curriculum from language to music and art are suffering because of the need to teach to the MCAS.
Pierce Principal James Jette said the way the state breaks out subgroup in MCAS testing is causing division – especially in a system where most of the students do well.
“I was deeply skeptical of MCAS,” the governor said. But while he said MCAS should not be the only measure of a child’s development, he said he believes all children need to learn necessary skills.
He agreed with Hanna and others who asked for more emphasis on music and other creative programs. His answer is an extended school day and perhaps an extended school year. He made sure people knew he was not suggesting the same teachers work in the extended program.
He said there is team now working on a new formula for state funding for the schools. He wants the system changed to educate the whole child.
“People think my life began at Milton Academy,” Patrick said. But he talked about his sixth grade
teacher on the south side of Chicago who taught a
class of 45 and made him feel “that I’d been touched by God.”
That teacher exposed him to opera and the German language and helped him realize he was a citizen of the world.
“We can do things now,” he said. “We are not frozen until the money starts to flow.”
(More next week.)