Decatur resident and South DeKalb teacher, Dr. William Blackwood, recently spoke out – in a very well-written AJC op-ed – about the widespread problems he has seen within the schools throughout South DeKalb where he teaches.  From the vast number of highly paid administrators – what he calls “the bloated assistant-principal caste” at Southwest DeKalb High – to the “jury-rigged, “research-based” pedagogical approaches” to teaching, Dr. Blackwood doesn’t pull any punches.

A taste…

The bloated assistant-principal caste characterizes a system that employs more non-teaching personnel than it does teachers. This dysfunctional jobs-creation program is complicit in the invidious perpetuation of the hugely disenfranchising notion that black students are to be taught in a special way.

…The nostrum that it is necessary to focus on “doing social studies” as opposed to explicating the subject reduces teaching to a form of crowd control that is hopelessly over tasked when confronted with the need to explain such concepts as the social contract, selective incorporation, equal protection, federalism, and limited government.

Many commenters to the AJC post are expressing gratitude for Blackwood’s words, but worry that his job may be in jeopardy for speaking out so publicly.  It should be interesting to see how both of these stories progress in the coming weeks and months.

Thanks to JB to pointing out this post!