Letter: Creativity stifled in CCSD’s vapid assembly line

Thursday, March 25, 2004 | 9:25 a.m.

It used to be fun to teach in the Clark County School District. Excellence was encouraged and teachers were motivated to be creative and inventive in the development of lessons. Morale was high and most teachers were proud to be a professional in this district. Once upon a time this district was considered one of the very best in the nation, recognized for high student achievement and outstanding teaching programs throughout the curriculum. Many teachers were national leaders in their respective fields with reputations for excellence.

What has happened in the most recent years has the makings of a disaster for education in our district. Leadership at the education center on Flamingo Road has developed a philosophy of negativism toward the individual teacher. The micromanagement philosophy has become so ingrained in the district that teachers are no longer expected to be creative, but rather to be fully compliant in following a by-the-book policy of teaching a very rigid, lockstep K-12 curriculum.

Today, teachers are under directive to be on the same page. They must teach lessons in similar, if not totally identical, ways. They must cover topics in a rigid sequence and outlined methodology.

The current School Board and district leadership are unimaginative in their efforts to develop students who are knowledgeable, creative, competent and capable of independent thought. Schools have become mini-factories with accountability goals to fill students with a given array of facts as if they were cans on an assembly line being filled with peas or beans. Successful achievement in these educational factories is measured by the quality of end-of-year achievement test results. Our educational factories are turning out robots -- not educated students!

VIRGIL A. SESTINI Editor's note: Virgil A. Sestini is a retired biology teacher. He taught for 30 years in the Clark County School District, retiring in 1990. He taught until 1995 at the private Meadows School.