May 2004

Guest Post by Eric Muller

In last Wednesday's Chapel Hill News, school superintendent Neil Pedersen wrote the following:

We take th[e] goal for equality a step farther by advocating for 'equity,' which means that students deserve to receive whatever resources are necessary to meet common educational goals. In some cases, equity will lead to some students receiving more resources than others in order to meet the same, high educational goals.

In last Friday's Chapel Hill News, editor Ted Vaden wrote the
following about the perception that recent and proposed changes in gifted education have led to a "dumbing down" of the curriculum:

This is an unfortunate perception, because it proceeds on an assumption that advancement for one group of students - low-performing African-Americans and Latinos - can come only at the expense of others, particularly more advanced students.

Right now I'm listening to Jim Heavner's WCHL-sponsored "forum" on Carolina North featuring Jim Moeser, Roger Perry, Kevin Foy, Bill Strom and Michael Collins. What a bitch fest! What began as a relatively civil conversation has devolved, yet again, into a cacaphony of whines. Moeser is bragging is about how someone somewhere gave the folks from the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center a standing ovation (deservedly, I have no doubt; FPG is something the university can be proud of); how I pray that Chancellor Moeser could channel more of the dignity and fairness and progressive attitude of Frank Porter Graham, at least on this issue. Chancellor Moeser has taken a conversation that began with the intent of talking about development at Carolina North in a direct and forward-thinking way outside conference and hearing rooms, and has spent the better part of an hour pointing the finger at the town about its process.

Guest Post by Graig Meyer

In the recent WCHL forum on education, an unidentified caller ($50 says it was Gloria Faley) chimed in at the last minute to challenge the notion that we live in a "diverse" community.

Initially I thought "right on" when she pointed out that our town's population is overwhelmingly white and affluent. But then I thought, "Hey, one of the reasons we moved here was for the diversity."

Are we diverse or not?

If you go by population numbers, we're not as diverse as Durham but we're more diverse than many other NC towns. What really bothers me is that people from different cultural groups don't really seem to know one another. Do many members of our white, affluent population maintain friendships with many Latino immigrants or African-Americans who live in Northside.

If we were truly diverse, wouldn't we know each other better and talk a little more?

Graig Meyer coordinates the Blue Ribbon Mentor Advocate Program in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School System.

Many of us have lamented the inability to force commenters to register here. I have been looking forward to the new version of MovableType (the software that powers this site) because it includes a comment registration system called TypeKey. Since OrangePolitics.org is a community service written and managed entirely by volunteers, it's obviously important that the software has been free for us to use.

Well that new software was finally released this month, but the free version is now limited to only one author. We currently have about half a dozen authors, and hope to add more someday. So this pricing change present a serious barrier to upgrading. Especially since we hope to syndicate the model of this site for other communities. (ChathamPolitics.org anyone?) With the current version of the software we're using, I can expand this way without limit.