Teachers for Cheatham
Re: “Cheatham’s report card” (5/16/2019): We are the teachers who support Cheatham. We were not absent from her news conference, we were teaching. For those who feel like there is retaliation for criticizing Cheatham, might that come from a fear of having brave and critical conversations about how white supremacy culture has traumatized our students of color? It’s easy to throw our superintendent under the bus when she is leaving, but our work as adaptive educators is still in front of us.
Shelly Duffield, Tova Sacks, Jordan Meiller and Ashley Weber, via email
Who is in charge?
Re: “A rotten year” (5/16/2019): Thank you for Dylan Brogan’s article that told how difficult it is to be a teacher in Madison under the Behavior Education Plan. “Behavior without consequences” was a common complaint from teachers. Another complaint cited in the story was the fact that students often roam the halls.
During a semester when I volunteered at East High School, I saw some of that. I also saw a student coming into the library during the last period of the day with a pass. The librarian, who knew him by name, asked if he had been in any of his classes that day. The young man responded with a grin.
Someone should be stopping disruptive behavior in the classroom. Someone should be sending roaming students back to their classes. Who is doing that? Not teachers, many of whom apparently believe that they could lose their jobs if a student complains. Not the much-maligned Educational Resource Officers, one of whom told me that she does not have the authority to send students in the hallways back to class. In fact, her workday sounded much like social work.
The situation described in the story is not the way to run a school. It is also not a way to prepare students for life. How can a child who has learned that he or she can misbehave with impunity know how to function on a job?
— Anita Weier, via email
Street views
Re: “Make Mifflin a historic district” (5/2/2019): I am 74 years old. I lived in the 500 block of West Mifflin in 1966-1967. It was definitely a historic period, and yes, deserves to be preserved as such. I agree totally with this op-ed. Thank you!
— Susan Grey, via isthmus.com
More government issuing rules seems to fly in the face of Hippie Culture. Creating a historic district just gives “the man” more power over individual rights. Not cool man.
— Gabe Albrecht, via isthmus.com
Correction: An item in last week’s MadWeek about Bart Starr’s death incorrectly noted that Dave Robinson is now the only surviving Hall of Famer from the Green Packers’ Super Bowl I roster. Fortunately, there are others still alive, including Jerry Kramer, Willie Wood, Willie Davis, Herb Adderley, and Paul Hornung.
