The School District of Philadelphia

I left school today, walked down the ever so slippery when wet marble steps out to my car and drove to our School District Headquarters at “440.”
I’ve been there a few times, but today was different. It felt like an art museum. Art was everywhere, in every window three stories high, in every corner, on every wall, in the atrium, in the conference room, in the wide expansive hallways. Magnificent art work and what a climate, what a sense of peace it created.
To bad my school doesn’t have art, neither does my wife’s. I can’t tell you how many schools don’t have art but I know it’s a lot. I can tell you, our administrators are out of tune with the schools they supervise.
Of course I knew that the first time I went to the bathroom in that building. It had soap and paper towels. Oh and the winner of the Home and School Council Award was a painting of an over-reacting angry man. The canvas portrayed only 2/3 of a distorted face silently screaming and it stopped me in my tracks….for so many reasons. I only hope my words can give the reader a sense of the palpable resentment so many teachers have for an administration which blindly implements strategic visions. But it was the parents who selected this painting.…and what did it do for them, but perhaps express similar thoughts.
A picture is worth a thousand words, a thousand thoughts, but I pray for a thousand meaningful actions.