Opinion: On Lincoln and Tecumseh paying $25,000 to be named a Best School District in Michigan

Yes, of course, it happens in other businesses. It happens in politics. We live in a culture where money allows people to purchase all kinds of acclaim. But, please, not in schools. Not where, every day, we’re trying to teach students that hard work matters, that taking shortcuts - say, by cheating or plagiarizing or paying somebody else to write your essay - is the wrong choice.

The thing is, to become one of the best school districts in Michigan - $25,000 is a woefully cheap price. To become one of the best school districts in Michigan takes millions of tax dollars, hundreds if not thousands of dedicated employees, thousands of children bending earnestly to their studies, and their parents encouraging and supporting them as they try to do so. Maybe I’m naïve. Maybe I’m an idealist. But I want to believe that even in the face of famous-just-because-they’re-famous celebrities, steroid-pumped athletes, corporations who peddle worthless securities and politicians and political commentators who gain fame by yelling regardless if what spews from their mouths is truth, most people in this country still value true excellence. Still value character, integrity and someone who works hard to do a job both faithfully and well.

I’m sure there are many, many terrific teachers in Lincoln and Tecumseh who educate with artistry, passion and skill. I’ve got to believe they’re horrified by what their district has done. Teaching is difficult enough already. I can only imagine what it must be like to stand in a classroom and try to make students believe that effort matters - that completing homework, that not giving up on a test, that not taking a pass on a dense reading passage - matters, when the superintendent and school board demonstrate that if you really want to be proclaimed Best, all you need to do is write a check.

Advertising is one thing. A purchased claim of excellence is something else. Let’s not cheapen what we do in schools. Yes, we teach subject matter. But let’s also teach a subject that matters. Let’s teach that hard work pays off in positive results, instead of teaching that paying for positive press trumps hard work.

Jeff Kass teaches Creative Writing at Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor and at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, and directs the Literary Arts Programs at the Neutral Zone, including the VOLUME Youth Poetry Project, which meets every Thursday night at 7pm. He will post new blog entries every Tuesday and Thursday morning throughout the school year.