I have spent my entire adult life involved in education in some form or another. Therefore, I would like to express my thoughts about education in general.

I firmly believe that it is the fundamental right of every child to receive an excellent education, whether he or she resides in a wealthy community or in a community that is more blue collar.

I do not approve of large class sizes. When I began my teaching career, it was not uncommon to have 30 students in a classroom. Our most pressing behavior problems were gum chewing and running in the hallways.

Children, for the most part, came from a home environment where Mom was a homemaker and Dad worked. Times have changed. It is our duty to change with those times.

Today’s students arrive at school with needs that must be addressed in a more individualized format.

Smaller class sizes are needed for every child’s needs to be addressed.

Additionally, I believe that full-day kindergarten is paramount in today’s society.

Most children are ready for the challenge of attending a full day of schooling, and based on our rising standards to compete globally, we need to offer a comprehensive education beginning in kindergarten.

Many children have attended preschool or day care for a number of years already. Statistics show that the most important years for learning are the early years of schooling, between kindergarten and 3rd grade.

It is absolutely essential to provide a full day of kindergarten.

As far as the CMT and CAPT tests — we must improve as a district. We must continue to support teachers and hold educators accountable for recognizing our students’ needs and move to address them. We must use the data from these standardized tests to improve individualized instruction for all learners.

When test scores improve, the community benefits as home values increase, attracting new families and businesses. This is another reason why we need to invest in our childrens’ education.

I believe that more after-school clubs should be provided to include interested students. When a student is involved in an activity, that student is less likely to be problematic.

I believe that we need to encourage parental involvement in the PTA/PTO at their child’s school, as well as encouraging attendance at Board of Education meetings to vocalize concerns.

Lastly, we must have community support for our children. Education is fundamental, but when we as a community let our children down by not supporting education, where do they turn when they cannot succeed? They inevitably go down the wrong path.

As a small community, the task is more difficult.

Regardless, it must be done.

Our children are our future. We have to invest in them now and offer them the best education they can get. And we as educators, officials, politicians, lawyers, doctors and blue-collar workers must recognize that if we don’t succeed in educating our youth, we won’t have failed just our children, we as a community will have failed.

The writer is a Democrat running for Derby mayor.

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6 replies on “Foley: Where I Stand On Education In Derby”

  1. Mr. Foley,

    I commend you on your thoughts on education, and I too believe that there need to be other avenues explored as times change, there’s just one problem. The country, state and the city HAVE NO MONEY and unless you’re prepared to raise taxes to fund your projects they’re nothing more than lip service before an election. All day Kindergarten and after-school clubs are great ideas but where do you surmise we fund these types of initiatives from? Do you believe teachers are going to stay after school out of the goodness of their own heart to run these clubs after a long and most often frustrating day of not only trying to educate but police students? On the subject of CMT and CAPT tests, you just got through telling us that times have changed and the dynamic of home and school are different, guess what hasn’t changed since I went to school.. these tests. Standardized testing has been the commonplace, and the barometer of student educational excellence for years, to me they mean nothing. They factor in no sense of creative thought, or alternative thinking, different ways of solving problems or thinking outside of the box. So sir, don’t tell me that the late Steve Jobs was worried about how far a train would travel from here to Boston or find the variable in some ridiculous algebra equation when he was in a garage building a revolutionary machine! Furthermore, in these days to put the blame strictly on teachers and educators for these test scores is irresponsible. Teachers teach, they cannot be held accountable for the kid who doesn’t care, or, as so many do these days, come from a home where the discipline and structure is void.

    You talk about PTO meetings, and people getting involved. Mr. Foley, everyone is strapped, they have much bigger concerns in their lives, like paying the mortgage, working late to ensure the status of their job, and putting food on the table. By saying that people have to be more involved in a PTO you’re slapping them in the face, as if they are lazy and don’t want to be bothered. Instead of wasting time at a PTO meeting how about suggesting that they spend some time with their children reading a book, or having discussions on civics, which we don’t teach anymore, or just turning off the TV, computer, and video game for twenty minutes to ask each other how their day was.

    Leaders lead Mr. Foley, and that does not involve writing a column spouting off ideas that aren’t feasible or that sound good to a constituency that may not look at what’s involved behind the proposals. This is not a partisan issue, both sides in this city are guilty of this appeasement in regards to their platform and then we have the same questions and platforms two years later when another election comes along.

    Good luck next month, for the sake of Derby I hope whoever is elected governs on the platform of leadership and brings Derby to a better place in two years than it is now.

  2. I agree 100% with this, and feel that we need to properly fund it if we’re going to be able to either keep or grow our tax base among residents (ie: bring people in), and with them comes everything else.

  3. James:

    Are you a parent of a child in the derby school system currently? I am! I work two jobs to pay my mortgage. My child is involved in local sports as well as chess and cub scouts and anything else his heart desires. I am at every PTO meeting we have. It is not a slap in the face that MR. Dan Foley suggests getting more parents involved. More parents need to step up and be involved.

    The test scores do need to improve and I’m sorry but I’m not ready to throw up my hands and say it can’t be improved.. There needs to be fresh ideas and something needs to change. Irving school implemented a new reading program 2 years ago and thanks to that program my son is reading at grade level that’s thanks to an inventive idea..

    Schools needed to be funded. Parents like myself will move out of derby because of the education issues. I’m ready to move I’ve I’veed the point! And that’s sad.

    Also our child’s safety in the school needs to be a priority.

  4. James, I’ll say it myself: I feel we either need to raise taxes or shift our money around and maybe privatize other services to keep the school system properly funded. We’ve already cut too many positions, and too many functions. Mr. Staffieri’s saying we haven’t cut services in Derby is misleading because of that.

    I realize that this is political suicide should I ever get hit in the head and decide that I want to run for a political office in the future, but so be it.

  5. Mr. Foley,

    Thank you for an honest an informative column this week with no bashing.

    I agree with you that all children deserve and equal excellent education. I wish it were that easy. My husband and I chose to send our children to parochial school, while still paying taxes to the city for other children’s education. I didn’t really appreciate having to do that but that’s just the way it is. I ended up from being a stay-at-home mom to having to get a job to help pay for their tuition once our second child started school.

    My kids had half day kindergarten. I wouldn’t have had it any other way. School was NOT a place to dump my kids so I could have a life. I practically lived at the school. I volunteered everywhere I could. We went to the home-school meetings and you know what? The same small handful of parents were the ones who went to every meeting and volunteered. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t get any other parents involved. That was over 20 years ago and it continues today.

    If you have ways to get parents involved, I applaud you. But that’s unrealistic as wonderful as it would be. Once my kids were in Derby High, I was a full worker and could no longer volunteer. My kids wouldn’t have wanted me at the school like before anyway.

    And I believe Mr. Stafferi has the same concerns with education as we all do.

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