Time to talk

Time to talk

Both sides in the controversy at Wakefield School are saddened to see the political battle for control over the school have an impact on the institution’s respected educational process, and it’s in everyone’s best interest to see a quick conclusion to the dispute, which has finally come to a head in recent weeks.

Certainly the students have been exposed to one of the lessons they will remember most clearly when they look back on it years from now: No matter how good one’s intentions, the only way to succeed in life is to engage in honest and frank discussion of differences with an eye toward compromise.

Unfortunately, there has been all-too-little compromising and much posturing being done at the current time, and the “cloud of lawyers” is only making things worse.

Pamela Lynn’s major complaint seems to be that the school’s present administration, particularly Dr. Alan Saunders, is trying to destroy the curriculum developed by her late husband, Dr. William E. Lynn Jr. Unfortunately for her, so far the evidence is slim in that regard and the manner in which that viewpoint has been aired is not in keeping with the free and open expression of ideas. Open debate ought to be the cornerstone of a good school — at Wakefield this year it has become in some cases a process of name-calling and intimidation.

Anonymous letters, one signed “Concerned Teachers of Wakefield” (although most teachers had little knowledge of it), have been sent to parents warning that the removal of Mrs. Lynn as vice president for curriculum is an example of the Board of Directors interfering in the operation of the school to its detriment. In another anonymous note, the so-called “Death of Wakefield Memo,” a teacher claims that due to the faculty’s overwhelming vote to do-away with the last eightweeks’ exam, “I can make a list of at least 15 at-risk students who, because of the vote, will not pass my classes — 98 percent male.”

Without going deeply into the reasons for a one-year trial of operating without the exam, suffice it to say that threatening to punish students for a faculty decision is absurd at best — abusive at worst.

Needless to say, there is much more going on at the school that needs to be addressed in an open and frank manner. Intimidation, anonymous letters and hysterical behavior obviously aren’t working. The Board of Directors has the power to restore a civil tone to the debate on Wakefield’s future. It needs to use that power right now or risk the chance that the school that remains won’t be much worth sending their children to.

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