Is the Class Half Full or Half-baked?

[Chris_Wendt]

It's BOTH: half-baked and only half full!

First my comment posted on Newsday:

This was a half-baked idea from the point where BOCES became involved. It was originally conceived as a full-day regional magnet school similar to the Downingtown (PA) STEM High School. But the local educational bureaucracy did not want to set that kind of precedent here on LI, so they duped the unwitting sponsors into making this just another half-day BOCES program, with students spending half the day in their home high schools, half the day riding a bus back-and-forth to BOCES, and the third half of the school day in the STEM program.

But this way, the local school districts still get to collect state aid for those kids, and plus get BOCES Aid to offset part of the costs of the STEM program.

WORSE YET, there are obviously still kids who want to attend this half-baked program but whose school boards will not send them! So the kids draw straws to see who gets to go to a half-empty, half-baked STEM program!!!! WHY is attendance at this program subject to the whims of 54 school boards to decide?
-chriswendt

Here's John Hildebrand's article in Newsday:LI's first magnet STEM school opens in Syosset (link).

Leading me to an appropriate quote for this situation:

"Fear stifles our thinking and actions. It creates indecisiveness that results in stagnation....
Lost opportunities cause erosion of confidence, and the downward spiral begins."
-Charles Stanley

This is a shame as much as is may be a sham. LI deserves better.

See also: Another Half-Baked Science Program (link)) in the Academics section, about a different BOCES program for just one school district and one company.

Did I say that LI deserves better?

Chris Wendt

PS - You should read this: Downingtown Area STEM Academy (link). Perahps I was wrong about my earlier assessment of IB programs.