What I Hope to Accomplish on the FNSBSD Board of Education

What I would like to accomplish on the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District Board of Education:

Put Teachers First:
Teachers need to be free to inspire students to want to study and learn. To the extent teachers are hindered by policy and administration, they cannot inspire students to love learning. Current blanket policies and regulation force teachers, children and the district to conform to a distant, disinterested third party.

Give Parents Control of the School:
We need to decentralize power in the school district and give the schools back to the local communities. Lift borders and restrictions and allow parents and students to choose their school and their classrooms. The district currently spends almost $16,000 per student. Give that funding to each student and let it go to the schools and classrooms that attract those students.

Freedom Education:
The current school system produces obedient, compliant, security minded students who graduate looking for jobs and, increasingly, the jobs are not there. Without jobs, after twelve years of being told WHAT to think, they naturally turn to experts for handouts. On the other hand, individualized Leadership education produces leaders, thinkers, entrepreneurs, inventors, artists and statesmen who know HOW to think and will produce their own jobs.

Classics:
The problems we face today are different than anyone has encountered before, but the process of problem-solving is not. Students need individualized, mentored education, rooted in a deep understanding of history and the classics. Classics produce free individuals who can apply true principles in every situation.

Individualized Education:
Look into the eyes of a child and see if you don't believe that he or she was born to make a difference in the world. Students have a purpose, an individual mission in life for which they need to prepare. They need to be free to study, learn and excel according to their individual genius, with guidance from a mentor. The teachers, free to be mentors, inspire students to establish and execute individual educational goals.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Fairbanks Daily News-miner Questionnaire


  1. Do you support the planned elementary school boundary changes starting next school year?

  • School boundaries should be lifted and children and parents should be free to choose the school and the teachers that best fit their needs and goals.

  1. Do you think a new school is needed in North Pole?

  • Our school district spends approximately $16,000 per student. Give that money to each child for education. Turn schools over to local communities with minimal district control. Let parents and students choose their schools and the classrooms. The money that follows each student will show where schools ought to be built, which may or may not be in North Pole.

  1. Do you think all students ought to be issued laptop computers?

  • Internet access is valuable, however, laptop computers are not essential to the kind of education students need. What students need is a great education that is rooted in a deep understanding of history and the classics, where teachers act as mentors helping students establish and execute individual goals.

  1. The school district recently hired numerous people using federal economic stimulus money. What do you think should happen when that money runs out?

  • The District should never have accepted the money. The current administration was shortsighted when they accepted and hired permanent employees with temporary money. Many corporate employees are making it through these tough times by voluntarily reducing their incomes instead of letting their coworkers go. This is an appropriate and compassionate thing to do.

  1. What infrastructure improvements do you think are needed?

  • These decisions are better handled at the local level and not by a centralized, distant district administration.

  1. What steps do you think should be taken to improve graduation rates in local schools?

  • Students should learn they have an individual purpose in life for which they need to prepare. Students should be free to excel according to this purpose and their individual genius and to study what interests them. Teachers acting as mentors inspire students to love learning. Then students will endure and graduate.

  1. State money for maintaining schools has diminished. How should ongoing maintenance be funded?

  • There is excess money in the school district. It does not take $16,000 per student per year to get a world class education. Reduce the bloated administration and apply that money towards maintenance. The district needs a maintenance program where projects are anticipated and budgeted for years in advance, rather than being sprung on taxpayers as urgent.

  1. What is the most pressing issue facing the school district?

  • The biggest issue facing the district is an emphasis on conformity. Students and teachers currently must conform to the administration's will and demands of inferior curriculum, producing obedient, compliant, security minded students. Teachers, free to mentor students in history and the classics, will produce the leaders, thinkers, artists, inventors, entrepreneurs and statesmen needed to lead the world through the 21st century.

1 comment:

  1. Dear Anonymous, I will be happy to reply to your comment if you identify yourself either here, or by email michaelamesak@gmail.com, or by phone 388-1588. I will say that Teachers are not the problem, they are the solution and we need to get out of their way.

    ReplyDelete