Dear Editor:
I am a candidate for a seat on the Hoboken school board running with the Real Results team, and I would like to tell you, the voters, about myself and my reasons for becoming more involved in the community. My husband and I have been Hoboken residents since 2004. I work as an interaction designer for a marketing and media agency in New York.
Growing up in Chester, I received an excellent education in New Jersey public schools. During college I studied for a year in Germany shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. After I graduated from the University of Scranton, I organized scholarship programs for German and American exchange students.
I share the serious concerns of my running mates—Liz Markevitch, Perry Lin and John Forsman—over the school budget. We’re spending an enormous amount each year – $60 million this year, or $25,000 a student—and don’t have a lot to show for it. For the next year, beginning July 1, cuts in wasteful spending were promised but instead the budget is rising by $400,000 and no tax cut is planned.
But my main reason for running is more personal. While celebrating Christmas with my family last December, I asked my 15-year-old niece what she was learning in her public high school history class. She said, “Thomas Jefferson was a good president but he was a fake.”
That made me sit up and take notice as to what exactly New Jersey schools are teaching. I started doing research on the state and local curricula and was very disappointed. On the Hoboken district website, I found the curriculum to be extremely vague, with only samples and generalities about what the students are learning. There were no details about what would be taught at each grade level.
Something else that concerned me was the description of Hoboken’s Social Studies curriculum: “For each grade level, students will activate prior knowledge and draw upon prior knowledge to demonstrate and articulate an understanding of what it means to be a global citizen.”
Aside from the incomprehensibility of phrases such as “students will activate prior knowledge,” the thrust of this is misguided. Students should learn what it means to be a citizen of the United States within the global community. While it is important that students realize that we as human beings are all part of a fast-paced and technologically connected world, they must also understand their identity and responsibility as Americans.
If elected to the board, I will be taking a hard look at our curriculum and will work to make sure that the details are available so that parents can know exactly what their children are learning.
I ask for your vote and invite you to join me and the rest of the Real Results team at our campaign kickoff this Sunday March 21 at Wild Ginger, 518 Washington St., from 1- 4 p.m.
Kathleen Tucker