Here’s the easy-reading version:
April 25, 2014
Dear Kindergarten Parents and Guardians,
We hope this letter serves to help you better understand how the demands of the 21st century are changing schools, and, more specifically, to clarify, misperceptions about the Kindergarten show. It is most important to keep in mind is [sic] that this issue is not unique to Elwood. Although the movement toward more rigorous learning standards has been in the national news for more than a decade, the changing face of education is beginning to feel unsettling for some people. What and how we teach is changing to meet the demands of a changing world.
The reason for eliminating the Kindergarten show is simple. We are responsible for preparing children for college and career with valuable lifelong skills and know that we can best do that by having them become strong readers, writers, coworkers and problem solvers. Please do not fault us for making professional decisions that we know will never be able to please everyone. But know that we are making these decisions with the interests of all children in mind.
No, this is not a joke, a hoax, a parody, or a gag, though I wish to high heaven it was. This is the quality of thought pervading American education on display. Rick Jones, the Curmudgeon (of Curmie to his friends), returns to the blogging wars with a scathing and eloquent analysis of this fiasco, and I recommend it to you heartily. (He also dismembers a dishonest and unconstitutional Oklahoma course on The Bible). I’ll only quote one of his points, but it is one that I, like Rick who teaches theater, know a little extra about:
“But, let us pretend that the function of kindergarten is to move five-year-olds a step closer to career-readiness, and that having fun is at best a distraction. Fine. So in order to cancel a “show” for that purpose is to suggest that there are no careers in the arts per se, that speaking in public is never going to be required, that learning to be part of a team is irrelevant as a life skill. It is to declare the long-term uselessness of confronting and meeting deadlines. It is to pronounce that problem-solving never manifests in the production of a show. It is to proclaim that the memorization, development of muscle memory, and inter-personal requirements of mounting a production, any production, aren’t central to developing the intellectual and social maturity of any child.”
Exactly.
___________________________
Pointer: Rick Jones
Sources: Washington Post, Rick Jones
Ethics Alarms 
And then there’s this.
NC girl kicked out of prom for wearing pants
http://myfox8.com/2014/04/22/nc-girl-kicked-out-of-prom-for-wearing-pants/
People get the leadership they vote for.
I have decided that the Education system gets to burn with the rest of it.
Keep me posted on Burn List updates…
“Yes” would pretty much cover the list at this point.
Five people signed this? Call me cynical, but their children or grandchildren are not the ones deprived of a chance to accomplish something to be proud of, be it painting the backdrop or getting applauded on stage. Last I checked, participating in extra curricular activities was also desired by colleges. This is only a spin excuse to avoid the bother.
And THAT’S why I think it has larger significance. One demented incompetent in a school district could happen to any locale by bad luck and accident. FIVE who can’t discern how idiotic this is? It’s a systemic indictment.
Is it possible the Dunning-Kruger effect has taken over the whole profession?
I disagree. I think that is exactly the amount of both them possess.
You caught the bone headed grammar error, but apparently Keri Colmone doesn’t have minimal attention to detail capacity.
It’s bad enough when these jerks display their pretentiousness like this, but they send an accentuating message when they make grammatical errors in the process. Kindergarten shows are a means by which children, teachers and parents come together. It also allows the children to interact as a team and overcome shyness in front of an audience. All of those things are valuable! Either these “educators” are arrogant fools or, perhaps, are infected with the idea that these are THEIR children; to be trained as they see fit, bereft of any contaminating influences from parents. Both conditions seem to be prevalent in modern public education!
That is exactly what the various ISD’s and School Boards think, and, unfortunately, many parents agree with them. Parenting has become a lost art, as, apparently, has running a school district.
It may be more a case of logical and professional education becoming a lost art. We certainly have our share of worthless parents these days, but when the school people are this and worse, the children REALLY have problems.