SES Forums

sparks wrote:

A DIRECT CHALLENGE TO DONALD LAMBIE

there will be a genuine meeting

Instead of just meeting a few current non-ses parents who will no doubt find themselves outnumbered, CALL AN OPEN MEETING - invite all current parents and pupils, former parents and pupils, governors and all other "members of the school community" who want to ask you questions .... or would that perhaps make it too difficult for you or your Field Marshals to wriggle out of answering uncomfortable questions.

Go on! If you really do think reform is necessary step out from the shadows!

Hear hear!!!

I agree Sparks, it's time for an open meeting. If they really are geniune then surely an open meeting would be the perfect way for them to demonstrate this.

Ben Wheaton wrote:Errrrr...

The overall aim of such a meeting must be to bring people closer together

And for those of us who can genuinely say 'been there, done that, got the t-shirt...
...and got the muddy footprints stamped all over my back as they delighted in their usual hyper-moral behaviour"

(sorry bout that, I just can't think of the correct words to express the level of moral superiority they feel they alone have)

do we really have to get 'closer'?

personally I believe an apology is enough!

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perhaps it will take a couple of meetings to answer all of the above!!!

What I wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall during that meeting!

Another point perhaps, and if this form of non-answer has already passed, apologies, another group I follow drills its PR people on it and calls it "double curve" or "attacking the attacker".

It goes like this: you ask a hard question and get a question back questioning your motives, which obviously are less than honorable otherwise who in his right mind would attack a school where many children do well and perform in the top 20. Next you'll be told a great many of them feel their education is suffering under the duress of the Internet attack by anonymous voices in the shadows and wouldn't you like to see them happy as any decent human being would?

What this does is 1/ you don't get an answer and 2/ you are made to look like a devil who does not wish to see children happy 3/ it forces you to explain a position (why you don't like to see them happy) which was never yours to begin with and 4/ you forgot the question if you allow them that spiel.

So right away when they start discussion you I'd say "Hold on, we can discuss my motives later during tea if you are interested but this meeting is about the SES and the schools. So answer my question please. Why is ..."

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Free wrote:--the collapse of the St James affiliated New York Abraham Lincoln School in 2003 over apparent abuse, funding and staff competence issues,

this is not quite right. I haven't heard any allegations of abuse at Abe Lincoln.

Abe Lincoln school used to be for 1st - 8th graders, but "contracted" and merged with Ark Nursery school, to form the "Philosophy Day School," accepting preschoolers through third grade (8 yearolds). The reason seems to be that the school was not getting enough students in the upper grades to form classes. I have heard rumors about financial impropriety on this website but nothing at all substantiated.

The tuition used to be $23,000/year, before the contraction. It's down to $11,000/year now.

The school did get a new "Head" (funny term, over here we usually call them "Principals") in Mr. Fox the younger, who came from London to take over the school. I understand that he is not drawing a salary -- doesn't need one, as he is apparently heir to enormous sums.

I have not heard any allegations of abuse either, and I know many people connected with the school as well as in the NYC SoPP.

Mr. Fox actually comes from Australia to teach in the Philosophy Day school. He is originally American but moved there and married an Australian woman. They had several children and while I assume they are still together, I'm not sure. (I remember women in the school at the time talking about how he neglected her and the children by making his work with the SES a priority. Note that I am not accusing him of such or saying that this is true. But it just shows another example of how the SES can become priority over families - real or perceived.)

I haven't hear anything about staff competence either, although I'm interested to hear where you heard this. As far as I know, many people who were teaching there under the "old regime" were either certified teachers or people who had been teaching for many years. I do remember the Ark teachers having to go and get Master's degrees to continue teaching even though most had been teaching pre-K and K for many years.

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Young Mr. Fox married a woman named Anne - a very sweet, soft-spoken lady with long blond hair. I was about 13-14 at the time their first one or two children were very young. The elder Foxes used to live in the top floor of the SoPP building I grew up in. Young Fox and his wife came from AU to visit.

I'm pretty sure that Fox Jr. was living in London & teaching at St. James immediately before coming here...that's what a tutor told me & also someone on this board made grumbly noises about his rugby coaching competence at StJ.

btw, the school announced to parents they were dropping the upper grades very late -- in April, I think, for the coming school year. That left a lot of furious parents scrambling to find places for their older kids to go to school in the fall. definitely damaged the school's reputation.