Bibb County can be proud of some of its youth today. Thursday morning about 200 students peacefully assembled in Tattnall Square Park with the Bibb County Board of Education offices being their destination. They are upset about the school reform plan that will be presented today at the Macon Coliseum. A vote on the plan has been postponed.

The teenagers and parents feel they have not had the level of input on the plan that they desired. The teens marched peacefully to the board office, and the demonstration’s organizers, Central High School seniors Tanner Pruitt and Brett Felty, were well-dressed and, when denied entrance to the building, were courteous in listening to school official Dave Gowan. Gowan,displayed an equal amount of courtesy.

There was no shouting or yelling as they presented to Gowan a petition containing about 200 signatures. The students were troubled by Goal No. 2 of the plan dubbed “Macon Miracle,” that seeks to “Create, provide and model a culture of equity, efficacy and respect for all students. It was the language in Action Step 2 to achieve that goal that they questioned: “Establish site equity teams to review and improve building/department practices to ensure equitable participation and results for all student groups (e.g., enrollment in Advanced Placement, honors and gifted courses and extra curricular activity participation.”

Somehow, the students read that to mean that policies would be changed to allow unqualified students to participate in AP courses, gifted programs and honors programs. They say participation in those activities should depend on the individual abilities and circumstances of each student and not depend on filling quotas. Nowhere in the language of the goal or the action steps is the word “quota” alluded to. And that attitude may be one of the problems the plan seeks to eliminate.

Let’s face it, there are people, even educators, who believe some children can learn and some cannot. This plan’s foundation is that all children can learn and we should expect them to perform at high levels. There is too much data, too many examples of the poorest children from some of the worst circumstances achieving great things in great numbers to believe otherwise. If we approach this school plan with any other idea, then we need to check ourselves because we will be doing a great disservice to our community’s children.

-- Charles E. Richardson, for the Editorial Board