Al Campbell was on vacation last week

There are some readers, if any, who remember watching an old black-and-white television show, ‘The Life of Riley.” We used to enjoy watching it as a family, and used to get a laugh out of the predicaments of Riley, an average working Joe who carried his noon meal in a lunchbox, carried a newspaper under his arm, and got into more hot water than a pound of hot dogs.
He and his neighbor, Gillis, worked in an aircraft plant, and between the pair, the show went on for years.
Reading headlines these last few weeks brought some of those old shows to mind. Riley, who had a heart of gold, but seldom applied heaps of common sense, would realize his antics had gotten him up to his ears in trouble. Once that dawned on that poor soul, he would utter the timeless phrase, “What a revoltin’ development this is.”
Maybe big shots in Trenton have been watching some reruns of those old shows about Riley and Gillis, and are learning that simple phrase, perhaps sending it amongst departmental e-mail inboxes.
After spending countless zillions to make this state the nation’s educational leader, teachers mandated to “teach to the test” although every school administrator will deny it, and pouring vast assets into poor districts because it was deemed the right thing to do, the educational cheerleaders are uttering, “What a revoltin’ development this is.”
Having painted themselves into a virtual corner over test scores and grades and all the stuff that’s supposed to be important about education, reality smacked them in the face last week.
At that dawning, it became apparent some 90 percent of high school seniors, who had taken the test to prove they were smart enough to grab a New Jersey high school diploma, failed the second test.
Is that an indictment of the students or the state educational system? Teachers took the wrath of voters last week as ticked-off taxpayers nailed them to the cross of high taxes, but they are only foot soldiers in the battle against ignorance, which, I fear, is a losing contest.
I’ve long believed that, while it is important for students to study hard, do their homework and learn their lessons, passing “the test” is more a reflection on the system than on them. Witness the gross failure of students who are getting measured for graduation caps and gowns.
Having covered Middle Township and Technical School District Board of Education for a number of years, I have listened to more alphabetical jargon tossed around by administrators than I want to admit. In essence, districts are on the firing line from the state to produce. Local districts twist and turn to adhere to the rules, but sometimes pupils have more common sense than those who make the rules.
Late last week, I read that the state education leaders sort of buckled, faced with massive egg on the face over non-graduations. Someone had the sense to realize that if those pupils had, in fact, done what they had been told, and believed they could make up their scores at summer school, they could “walk” with their class in June. They will get a blank document, but no one will “lose face.”
Keep in the back of your mind, one Trenton high school, it a senior class of something over 300 had 222 seniors who did not pass that all-important second test. Who would be more red faced on Graduation Day with 80 kids, who studied harder and sweated to succeed, sitting there smiling, and 222 out on the street ready to tear down the stadium?
Can you hear Riley now? “What a revoltin’ development this is!”
Voting taxpayers, mad as hell and not willing to take it any longer, massed at polling places (figuratively speaking, of course.)
School budget elections usually roust maybe 10 percent of voters; this year, here in Cape May County 18.92 percent took the time to cast a vote. Does that mean more people care about education? Heck no, they were just caught up in the media frenzy when Gov. Christie urged defeat of budgets in districts whose teachers did not take a wage freeze.
I think school districts in general do a generally dismal job of letting their shareholders know what they are doing with tax money. Sure, they all held public hearings, and that fulfills their obligation, but did administrators reach out to the community to let working men and women, who cannot or may not want to, attend board meetings, know what goes on in schools?
Web sites at most schools are pretty pitiful when it comes to informing the public. They could be free shining lights to the community about activities in the schools. They could have communications from school leaders about issues and taxes, and invitations to ask questions about the district. Do they? Ha!
Believe it or not, good things DO happen daily in classrooms. Children are learning, maybe not what state officials believe they should, but they are learning. People who really do care about children are teaching them. Ask any teacher who has been in the profession for a number of years, and they will tell you, teaching today is not what it was even 10 years ago. Discipline is different. Many children have little or no adult mentoring in their lives save for the teachers.
Many children, hard as it may be to believe, must get themselves up and fed, if there is food in the house, and off to school. This is a different society than the one I grew up in, but it’s reality.
To those recently elected or returned to their board of education, best wishes. I would not trade places with any of you. Teachers, keep up the fight. Some day, the “generals and admirals” of education will see the light, but in the meantime, the battle is yours to fight.
Yes, it is a “revoltin’ development,” if and when the public begins to understand the limitations of pupils and teachers, maybe they would not be so quick to punch the “no” button in a school election. In the interim, someone better look at changing the game rules so success is more attainable than failure.
(CORRECTION: A factual error was noted in my column of April 7. The Postal Service sought an advisory opinion from the Postal Regulatory Commission in proposing going to five day delivery. The Commission did not suggest this change.)