Supporters of Academic Integrity

We, the Supporters of Academic Integrity in Plymouth-Canton, would like to congratulate the Senior Class of 2012, the teachers and administrators at the Park for a peaceful and fun last week of school. There was a flash mob performance of “Thriller,” seniors were stuck in place in the hallways when they were “it” during freeze tag, students got together to eat a delicious waffle breakfast after turning in their books for the last time, while others from their class took part in a field day sponsored by the National Honor Society. The senior’s final week culminated for many at the Prom, which, by all accounts, was a wonderful and fun event. This weekend these seniors will walk during graduation and move on to bigger and better things in many varied and diverse walks of life. Good news often is not reported with the same amount of urgency as when bad things happen, and we want to do our part to make sure that this wonderful week is acknowledged and celebrated!

What we feel this proves is both that we have wonderful students, teachers and administrators at the Park, but also that the best way to prevent fun from turning into inappropriate activities is for students, teachers and administrators to work together. Students and administrators coordinated the flash mob, which we hope will become a tradition, having the music played over the PA system at the right time, and teachers knew that many seniors would be late to class because they were frozen in the hall. Administrators set firm guidelines for the Prom and clearly stated their expectations, and the vast majority of students complied, because they just wanted to have fun, not cause trouble.

Last year, there was much ink spent describing the end-of-year problems at the Park. While we do not want to minimize these problems, we want to make sure that the district does not overreact and overcompensate in terms of discipline or enabling untrained parents to monitor student behavior. We also want to fight back against the impression, left by a speaker from a different parent group, that somehow P-CEP has to “regain its lost glory.” We are proud of our schools and our students and we feel it is insulting that anyone in our district would claim that the Park is not an outstanding institution or threaten to move their students to charter schools. We are committed to PCCS and maintaining and improving its already sterling reputation. Part of that commitment is trust in the well-trained administrators and teachers who have made The Park their home and know it best.

The Park is a unique institution, and in many ways a grand and glorious experiment. Can you really have Three Schools – One Park? We stand firmly behind the proposition that we can and should, and students, administrators, and teachers working together provide the best means to achieve this goal. As our graduates leave the district, let’s wish them well knowing that being able to say: “I graduated from the Park” is a big step toward reaching their dreams!

Hello,

We, the Supporters of Academic Integrity, are proud of the outstanding teachers in the Plymouth-Canton school district.  We wanted to use Teacher Appreciation Week as an opportunity to recognize and thank you for your hard work and dedication to academic excellence and integrity in our public schools.

Your commitment to our community and our students is sincerely appreciated — especially given the increasing demands and current frustrations in public education.

SOAI is a new group, but we’re committed to supporting the high-quality curriculum and educators in the district. The group was founded as a unified oppositional force when an individual convinced the superintendent to remove literature from our high schools. More than 200 community members stood with us – writing letters, speaking at board meetings and contacting the media.  Thankfully, justice and common sense prevailed and both challenged books were reinstated to the curriculum.  

However, throughout our first campaign supporting academic freedom and integrity, we saw an alarming pattern: decisions were made with no respect for the professional educators in our district.

Our mission has expanded to address this frightening trend — we are actively working to support academic excellence by supporting our teachers.  To do so, we are working to make it clear to PCCS administrators that we must tap into the incredible knowledge and experience our teachers bring to the table.  We are concerned that teachers are not being consulted when important decisions are made.  We are frustrated by a lack of transparency and communication of these decisions.  Further, we understand that supporting teachers includes providing frequent, high-quality professional development. The district has the good fortune to claim a faculty infused with new people — energetic young teachers whose training includes state-of-the-art content and methodology of the teaching profession.  We must provide professional development programs to foster collaboration between PCCS’ experienced veterans and the new teachers chosen from scores of applicants because of their unique backgrounds.  The district must recognize that our PCCS teachers offer an incredible diversity of knowledge and experience — and then actually invite them to the table to share that expertise.

We know that excluding our crucial, most important resource — our highly-educated, trained, and professional teachers — is the wrong direction for this district.  

We are concerned about a number of issues in the district, including:
·       Elementary ELA curriculum
·       World Languages program
·       Library Media Specialist responsibilities
·       Transparency and communication from the Board and administration
·       Educational equity
·       Technology curriculum integration and equipment replacement planning
·       Top-down decision making

We invite you to visit our website: SupportAcademicIntegrity.com. Please take a look at our mission and beliefs.  But most importantly, please know that we are here to help you.  Please use our suggestion box – this is an anonymous (or, if you prefer, not anonymous) way to let us know of any issues in the district you would like us to investigate or address.  The Supporters would like you to feel welcome to contact any of our members whom you may know personally for more information as well.  We also welcome your responses to this email address, which is monitored by our leadership team.

We support you, our teachers, and want to identify our group as an ally and resource for PCCS teachers, administrators, parents, and other community stakeholders.
 
We rely on the input of current teacher members and look forward to more teachers joining us in our work.

In the future, we will hold discussion forums where we will explain our group, our goals, and our current activities.  But most importantly, we want to hear from teachers.  We want to hear your concerns and ideas regarding the district.  
 
SOAI is a strong group with a long-term focus.  We’ve been there in defense of our schools and we’ve literally gotten the t-shirt – but we’re far from done.

Thank you for your attention — and thank you for your dedication to our students.

Sincerely,
The Supporters of Academic Integrity in Plymouth Canton
SupportAcademicIntegrity.com

George Belvitch
Kate Borninski
Tom Carr
Sommer Foster
Tom Jankowski
Mike Pare
Klotylda Phillippi
Jeff Longe
Paulette Longe
Patti McCoin
John Nichols
Julie Rowe
Tim Roraback
John Stewart
Sharon Strean
Nancy Sullivan

Our Mission: To promote educational excellence and integrity in Plymouth and Canton, the Supporters of Academic integrity is a collaboration of teachers, parents, students, alumni, and community stakeholders who work to support and recognize outstanding educators and curriculum in the district.

As many in the audience know, Teacher Appreciation Day is celebrated May 8th this year. I ask the Board and the Administration to show their appreciation for our teachers, not only on May 8th but throughout the year. This is especially important this year, I feel, because not only have there been decisions impacting teachers being made at the state level but also at our district level. I have heard from many staff members of our district who feel demoralized and disenfranchised. This atmosphere cannot continue without resulting in effects on our students whether they are intended or not.

In his famous 1963 speech at the Berlin Wall, John F. Kennedy stated, “Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human mind is our fundamental resource.” Our teachers are our district’s fundamental resource. They have thousands of hours of training, from universities, from professional development, and from being in the classroom. We, as a district, chose them carefully from pools of hundreds of applicants for each job—I have served on hiring committees and the process is serious and also fascinating. We chose them because of their minds, their intellect, their body of knowledge and their ability to think—in fact, we chose our teachers because we know they are our most important, fundamental resource. We need to treat them and appreciate them as the professionals they are. They are the ones implementing ideas, plans and programs every day. They know what works with their own students, who vary between schools and even between classrooms in the same school. We have a diverse district and what works in one class may not be effective in another. Our teachers recognize this and have the skills to adapt their teaching to the needs of their classes. Top-down decision making that does not include input from teachers does not show appreciation, or trust for these fundamental resources of our district. Please involve our teachers in the decisions that affect them and our students. Please, members of the Board of Education, and members of the administrative team, I implore you to show your appreciation for our teachers by involving them in any decision that affects their futures and our students’ futures.

I will leave you with this quote from Carl Jung, “One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.”

Thank you.

Teacher appreciation quotes:

“It should be recognised that the proper status of teachers and due public regard for the profession of teaching are of major importance.”
UNESCO (Art. 5 of 1996 Recommendation)

“Modern cynics and skeptics see no harm in paying those to whom they entrust the minds of their children a smaller wage than is paid to those to whom they entrust the care of their plumbing.”
John F. Kennedy

“Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human mind is our fundamental resource.”
John F. Kennedy

“Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation.”
John F. Kennedy

“The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.”
Khalil Gibran

“A true disciple shows his appreciation by reaching further than his teacher.”
Aristotle

“Education is the best provision for the journey to old age.”
Aristotle

“Bitter are the roots of study, but how sweet their fruit.”
Cato

“Teach the children so that it willnot be necessary to teach the adults.”
Abraham Lincoln

“Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people may be engaged in. That everyone may receive at least a moderate education appears to be an objective of vital importance.”
Abraham Lincoln

“Genius without education is like silver in the mine.”
Benjamin Franklin

“The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life.”
Plato

“The very spring and root of honesty and virtue lie in good education.”
Plutarch

“I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well”
Alexander the Great

“A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.”
Henry Adams

“Teacher appreciation makes the world of education go around.”
Helen Peters

“What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches.”
Soren Kierkegaard

“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”
Andy McIntyre

“The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives.”
Robert M. Hutchins

“He who opens a school door, closes a prison.”
Victor Hugo

“The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself.”
Edward Bulwer-Lytton

“Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.”
H.G. Wells

“Without teacher appreciation there can’t be any student progress.”
Theresa Grimm

“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.”
William A. Ward

“Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.”
Malcolm Forbes

“Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths pure theatre.”
Gail Godwin

“One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.”
Carl Jung

“I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.”
Lilly Tomlin

“Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained.”
James A. Garfield

“The highest result of education is tolerance.”
Helen Keller

“Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition.”
Jacques Barzun

“In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day’s work. It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty years.”
Jacques Barzun

“Teachers appreciate being appreciated, for teacher appreciation is their highest award.”
William Prince

“I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education.”
Wilson Mizner

“A master can tell you what he expects of you. A teacher, though awakens your own expectations.”
Patricia Neal

“The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.”
Mark van Doren

“The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called truth.”
Dan Rather

“Teachers are expected to reach unattainable goals with inadequate tools. The miracle is that at times they accomplish this impossible task.”
Haim Ginott

“None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody (a parent, a teacher, an Ivy League crony or a few nuns) bent down and helped us pick up our boots.”
Thurgood Marshall

“The good teacher makes the poor student good and the good student superior.”
Marva Collins

“The task of the excellent teacher is to stimulate “apparently ordinary” people to unusual effort. The tough problem is not in identifying winners: it is in making winners out of ordinary people.”
Patricia Cross

“To teach is to learn twice.”
Joseph Joubert

“Who dares to teach must never cease to learn.”
John C. Dana

“The true teacher defends his pupils against his own personal influence. He inspires self-distrust. He guides their eyes from himself to the spirit that quickens him. He will have no disciple.”
Amos Alcott

“When you teach your son, you teach your son’s son.”
The Talmud

“Good teachers are costly, but bad teachers cost more.”
Bob Talbert

“A good teacher is a master of simplification and an enemy of simplism.”
Louis Berman

“If a doctor, lawyer, or dentist had 40 people in his office at one time, all of whom had different needs, and some of whom didn’t want to be there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer, or dentist, without assistance, had to treat them all with professional excellence for nine months, then he might have some conception of the classroom teacher’s job.”
Donald Quinn

“Public education rests precariously on the skill and virtue of the people at the bottom of the institutional pyramid.”
Tracy Kidder

“If students don’t feel teacher appreciation, their whole education has failed.”
Michael Balkers

“Education is what most receive, many pass on, and few possess.”
Karl Kraus

“A good teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary.”
Thomas Carruthers

“Teachers open the door. You enter by yourself.”
Chinese proverb

“There are three good reasons to be a teacher: June, July, and August.”
Anonymous

”Often, when I am reading a good book, I stop and thank my teacher.”
Anonymous

“The best teachers teach from the heart, not from the book.”
Anonymous

“Teaching is the profession that teaches all the other professions.”
Anonymous

“A good teacher is like a candle: it consumes itself to light the way for others.”
Anonymous

“A teacher’s purpose is not to create students in his own image, but to develop students who can create their own image.”
Anonymous

“Teaching should be full of ideas instead of stuffed with facts.”
Anonymous
“By viewing the old we learn the new”
Chinese Proverb

“Good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers.”
Josef Albers