The Los Alamos Factor

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I have an organizational meeting for the XQ Super School Challenge in Los Alamos this coming Tuesday, and I have knots in my stomach.

Why am I even bothering with Los Alamos when my program is a statewide one and I don't have to have anything to do with that community if it makes me so uncomfortable?

I grew up there and many years after graduation returned to live there for 13 years but that isn't the reason. I think it's because I see so much potential for the town. I started having ideas about how students could be better served there when I was running the GED program at UNM-Los Alamos.

It is a mean-spirited community, though, very arrogant, very judge-y. If I didn't know that there are students and parents who suffer deeply because of the emphasis placed on succeeding in school, I think I could leave it behind. It is a town that makes everything a competition, even our kids' learning.

It is also a town that makes the parents feel that they are the ones who failed their kids, not that maybe, perhaps, the schools could do better. It's like the whole community is against the students who struggle, the message about education is so strong. That message is -- if you can't handle LAHS then it is you who are failing so just go get your GED. And by the way, you aren't college material.

That is why I have to return to Los Alamos. They need a cheerleader there. Yes! You can learn!  L&LNM wants you to succeed, no matter how you do on a standardized test. It's about YOU, not a community's reputation. 

 I still have knots in my stomach.

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