Time to Turn Page to a Better Year for Memphis
Time to Turn Page to a Better Year
2011 was another year where what had once glittered wasn’t always what was of value.
Recessions have a way of ripping away veneers that look more substantial and less tentative than we hope they are.
What is clear for the year ahead is that it is up to us collectively to make our destiny.
Perhaps what we do deliberately will be tempered considerably by the weight of other factors beyond our control. But not all of the elements that determine success or failure and the ground between them are out of our reach.
2012 will be the year a specific plan to consolidate Shelby County’s two public school systems takes shape. Our civic disposition to look at what others have done has been satisfied.
With that, we hope the consolidation planning commission will fashion a school system that has as its goal a single public school system that strives to be better for the parents of all children in what are now two school systems. By better we mean in measurable terms of student achievement that is clear in how students function in their everyday lives not just in test results.
Any plan should also realize that public education is no longer a monopoly but a partner with the transformation of private schools as well as other schools that are a mixture of public and private school tenets.
Showing others outside our community how well adults can work get along and what grand general statements they can make is completely secondary to the task of meeting the expectations any parent has for his or her child. That will be the real test of the plan to come in this year.
The New Year promises to be a critical one for Overton Square’s revitalization. Like similar endeavors across the city and the region, this is a plan that has been waiting for some sort of signal that a stubborn recession is coming to an end.
We also hope it is the year our city can perfect the art of doing several things at once like the long awaited and too long delayed revitalization of Elvis Presley Boulevard between Brooks Road and Shelby Drive.
This revitalization is not about Graceland and the tourists who come there as much as it is about Whitehaven and the communities a block behind what could once again be a thriving business district fronting the boulevard on both sides.
2012 could be the year that we learn how to turn revitalization plans into reality beyond the Downtown core.
The seeds for that revitalization might involve seed money. But let’s not forget that the seed that will grow the deepest roots in any terrain is an education system repurposed to grow thicker than kudzu across an achievement gap. The gap was here before the recession and it will be here after the recession without leadership and bold, meaningful action.
The Memphis News
2011 was another year where what had once glittered wasn’t always what was of value.
Recessions have a way of ripping away veneers that look more substantial and less tentative than we hope they are.
What is clear for the year ahead is that it is up to us collectively to make our destiny.
Perhaps what we do deliberately will be tempered considerably by the weight of other factors beyond our control. But not all of the elements that determine success or failure and the ground between them are out of our reach.
2012 will be the year a specific plan to consolidate Shelby County’s two public school systems takes shape. Our civic disposition to look at what others have done has been satisfied.
With that, we hope the consolidation planning commission will fashion a school system that has as its goal a single public school system that strives to be better for the parents of all children in what are now two school systems. By better we mean in measurable terms of student achievement that is clear in how students function in their everyday lives not just in test results.
Any plan should also realize that public education is no longer a monopoly but a partner with the transformation of private schools as well as other schools that are a mixture of public and private school tenets.
Showing others outside our community how well adults can work get along and what grand general statements they can make is completely secondary to the task of meeting the expectations any parent has for his or her child. That will be the real test of the plan to come in this year.
The New Year promises to be a critical one for Overton Square’s revitalization. Like similar endeavors across the city and the region, this is a plan that has been waiting for some sort of signal that a stubborn recession is coming to an end.
We also hope it is the year our city can perfect the art of doing several things at once like the long awaited and too long delayed revitalization of Elvis Presley Boulevard between Brooks Road and Shelby Drive.
This revitalization is not about Graceland and the tourists who come there as much as it is about Whitehaven and the communities a block behind what could once again be a thriving business district fronting the boulevard on both sides.
2012 could be the year that we learn how to turn revitalization plans into reality beyond the Downtown core.
The seeds for that revitalization might involve seed money. But let’s not forget that the seed that will grow the deepest roots in any terrain is an education system repurposed to grow thicker than kudzu across an achievement gap. The gap was here before the recession and it will be here after the recession without leadership and bold, meaningful action.
The Memphis News
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