Portland Public Schools caught getting it right

Sunday’s Oregonian Opinion section carries several articles about how schools should deal with behavior that is either childish or deviant. I especially appreciate the one by associate editor Doug Bates, who compares responses to misbehavior by 13 year-olds in McMinnville with that at Beaumont Middle School in Northeast Portland. He took the time to visit and talk with students there. And he quotes Nan Stein, who he terms “one of the nation’s pre-eminent experts on peer-to-peer sexual harassment in schools”. He writes:

“She praises the Portland approach, as ‘zero indifference'” rather than ‘zero tolerance’. “By that she means the district makes a strong effort to educate youngsters and school staff members about sexual harassment, and then works hard to turn infractions into ‘teachable moments’.”

My children have received excellent teaching in Portland Public Schools on these kinds of issues – supplementing that which they receive at home, of course. Senator Barack Obama has been under fire recently for “suggesting sex education be taught in kindergarten”, but what he says he meant was the kinds of things my kids did indeed learn there: stay inside your own bubble, don’t touch without permission, don’t touch private places even with permission, tell someone if yours are touched. These are important lessons for all children to learn in these times, and neither teachers nor society can assume that every kid is hearing them at home.

Doug Bates also mentions Amy Ruona-Banister, who readers of this blog in May may remember from her helpful tips for parents of teenagers posted here. Portland Public Schools does indeed “invest” in a parent education coordinator, as Doug says.

It’s good to see one of Portland’s school districts getting some well-deserved attention for doing something right.