“[L]ife is a constant struggle between being an individual and being a member of the community.”
Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
The struggle between maintaining individuality and getting along with the surrounding community permeates through the Highland Park ISD literature debate. On one hand, each person has his or her own beliefs, priorities, and goals. On the other hand, each must find a way to work and live within a community of many who have diverse values. An individual shouldn’t ask too much of his community and a community shouldn’t ask too much of an individual. It’s a delicate balance.
In Highland Park, that balance went askew last fall when a handful of people launched an email campaign directed at school officials. They complained about seven instances, over an unknown number of years, when high school English teachers mishandled parents’ requests for alternate literature selections. Highland Park High School teaches more than 2,000 students. I’m not a statistician, but seven mistakes over several years seems statistically insignificant to me.
It would’ve made sense for these individuals to ask the district to ensure that those errors would not continue. But they didn’t stop there. They also demanded revision of district-wide policy that governs selection of all instructional materials: not just literature, and not just at the high school. In response, administrators spent countless hours researching policy alternatives, meeting with concerned parents, discussing proposals at school board and committee meetings, and writing new policies and procedures. This overly broad demand by only a few was too much to ask of the community, but it was just the beginning.
During the April school board meeting, one parent demanded to know who was responsible for mistakes made by the English department in prior years. He even threatened to complain at every school board meeting until he receives a satisfactory response. Continued criticism of English department teachers serves no constructive purpose. The district already corrected the problem.
Teachers also balance individuality with their participation in the community. Although they do work within state-mandated curricular objectives and professional standards, they also bring their personal perspectives to the classroom. English teachers strike this balance by selecting literature they deem in their professional opinions to be the most educationally effective for the student body they serve. And, to be clear, they have been extremely successful: HPISD’s record speaks for itself.
The trouble is, to appease those who complained, the district drastically increased English teachers’ administrative burden. New procedures require them to complete multiple redundant questionnaires for every book they propose. These mountains of paperwork made it more difficult for teachers to propose new literature, thus limiting their ability to bring their personal perspectives to work. This is surely what led five of nineteen English teachers to announce their resignations in recent weeks. I can’t blame them. The unfair demands of a few people shouldn’t have landed on teachers’ backs. Individuals asked too much of the district and its teachers, and the community suffered the consequences by losing several gifted teachers.
The continuing demands of those whose own statements reveal they are inconsolable need to stop. The district addressed their concerns, and it did this even though the overwhelming majority of the community was already more than satisfied. In reality, these individuals are insisting that the entire community acquiesce to their own personal literature preferences. They are asking too much.
It’s time for some to accept that HPISD is a public school district. Maybe they should make a choice like the one made by the teachers who resigned: another school. Maybe they could find a comfortable balance between their individuality and their new school community. And maybe the HPISD community could finally regain the balance it had struck before a few disrupted the equilibrium.