Academic rigor riles up "patriots"

While perusing Dr. Stat's wonderful site I came across this item I had read about but forgotten.

An immigrant couple wanted to set up a rigorous charter school but met with stiff opposition. It seems that academic rigor is considered unpatriotic by some.

Critics have distributed fliers accusing outsiders of denigrating their schools by saying an American education is inferior to that of Russia, China, and Germany. At a forum last week, assistant superintendent John Petrin demanded to know, "Where's this proposal coming from? Where is the need? It's coming from the outside."

Audience members said Sigalovsky's school would be based on a model that is as discredited and obsolete as Communism. "She talked about Germany, how they teach in . . . China and Japan. I don't want my kids educated like Germans," said Tom Leveillee, 77, a retiree and World War II veteran.

Educationists mount a massive protest against the proposed quality school.

By last week, as Marlborough's city fathers convened yet another meeting on the proposal, Sigalovsky had just learnt that school administrators were emptying classrooms and transporting students to a mass protest.