I've never met a person of character ...

... who wanted to quibble about what the word "character" means.

I have been involved in a back and forth on the backside of Heath Haussamen's site, link. My antagonist is a (wo)man who posts anonymously under the "screen name" IcarusPhoenix.

One of our bones of contention is the efficacy and worth of Character Counts!, link, as a character education model, and I suppose of the efficacy and worth of character education in general.

I am comfortable with his/her disagreement; disagreement is healthy. It is in fact, vital to the process of intellectual growth.

I am not comfortable with (APS') refusal to discuss the issue.

As you know, I believe that Character Counts! if not the best model for character education, is at least one of the best. It has been APS character education model since 1994.

It is no longer; but not by any legitimate process. It was passed by a unanimous decision of the school board, and that decision has never been revisited. Much like the Stalinist revision of Russian history, it is simply being erased; the funding has been stopped, and the evidence discretely pulled down from the walls.

I would oppose the abandonment of the Character Counts! character education model. I would accept the abandonment in favor of a better model, or even a lesser model which enjoyed the support of some kind of majority of stakeholders. I will not accept that there will be no model at all.

I believe that most parents believe that there should be some form of character education in the public school curriculum (though a cursory search did not lead me to statistics I could cite).

In any case, it is a question worthy of being asked.

Yet the leadership of the APS has no intention of asking the question, or of talking about student standards of conduct and adult obligations as role models.

APS' senior most administrative role model, Supt Winston Brooks is not honestly accountable as a role model. Nor does he have any intention of honoring that obligation. Nor does he have any intention to participate in any open and honest discussion of student standards and adult role modeling.





APS' senior most executive role model, School Board President Marty Esquivel is not honestly accountable as a role model. Nor does he have any intention of honoring that obligation. Nor does he have any intention to participate in any open and honest discussion of student standards and adult role modeling.

Neither can summon the character nor the courage to step up as a role model of any standard of conduct higher than the law; the lowest standard of conduct among civilized people.

The discussion could be compelled if Journal Editor Kent Walz could summon the character and the courage to order an investigation and report upon the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

He won't.



And if there is any reason that he won't, except his own cowardice and corruption, someone could do him a huge favor by pointing to it; ________________________.




photos and frame grab (Walz) Mark Bralley