Remarks given by Rev. Joseph C. Brown, Sr. at the March 5, 2007 regional meeting held by NC DPI at E.E. Smith High School regarding the new high school course of study implementation. 

When your car breaks down, who do you call?  A University of North Carolina graduate or the local mechanic with a high school diploma who has certification in that area?  When you want to add a room onto your home, who do you call?  The Fayetteville State University graduate, or the local contractor with a high school diploma and the skills to get the job done?

 Soon, it will be mandatory for all North Carolina students to complete high school coursework that will prepare them for college.  While that sounds good in theory, realistically, not all students are academically capable to go to college and moreover, not all students even want to go to college. 

Is it fair that we require these students to take courses like Algebra II, Advanced Functions and Modeling, AP Calculus, Statistics and others?  If all I’ve ever wanted to be in life is a long-distance truck driver, why should I have to take these classes?

While I believe that the intentions of NCDPI and the State Board of Education are good, I also believe that they are misguided.  We should not be led by industry and its dictates.  An article in Sunday’s Fayetteville Observer stated that poor students make poor employees.  What I got out of this article is that students who attend college are the ones who want to.  The others do not do well when we try to force them into that mold.

I realize that the new course of study allows for students to receive an endorsement in one of several areas, such as auto mechanics, early childhood education and culinary arts, while meeting their graduation requirements.  However, we have changed our focus to preparing kids for college rather than preparing them for a full, purposeful, productive life.

  What are the unintended consequences of this new policy?  First, I personally believe that the dropout rate will skyrocket.  Students are presently leaving high schools in droves to attend adult high school programs at local community colleges because of the reduced graduation requirements.  They simply want to get high school behind them and get on with their lives.  Second, the new course of study calls for more teachers in areas that are already of critical need: math and foreign language.  Where are we going to find the teachers, particularly for high schools in rural areas that don’t hold the attraction of Fayetteville, Raleigh, or Charlotte?  Lastly, what will happen to the morale and motivation of our students?  If they are being forced to take classes that they honestly believe that they will have no use for, will they perform?  Will they stay and graduate?

What is our motivation here? What are we doing to our children?  We need to think about these things before we go any further.

Reverend Joseph C. Brown, Sr.

Pastor, Evans Metropolitan A.M.E. Zion Church, Fayetteville and Chairman, Public Education Committee of the North Carolina Council of Churches