Are we in for still more social engineering —
but with a human face?
We don’t think Joe Gothard will be another Jennifer Cheatham only because Madison can’t be that unlucky. No one could be as cruel, as ruthless as the former Madison public schools commissar who defenestrated many dedicated educators, black and white, in the name of educational diversity, equity, and inclusion. With no improvement in test scores, no reduction in the racial discipline gap.
Your genial bloggeur and failed school board candidate has spoken to many educators since 2019 — all of whom despise the woman, who is now busy stamping out more Jennifer Cheathams at Harvard’s school of education. The same school where Jewish students don’t feel safe.
Joe Gothard, the new superintendent of Madison WI public schools may surprise us yet. For one thing, he’s Madison born and educated. Taught in our schools, ran Toki Middle School here in Orchard Ridge. Good on Madison for landing the nation’s school superintendent of the year — awarded by the national organization representing this rarified breed. Which gives us pause. We need educators who aren’t cookie cutter. Because what they’re doing ain’t workin’.
Public school bureaucrats talk in a code all their own. According to Abbey Machtig’s excellent account in the Wisconsin State Journal, Gothard promises courses in “critical ethnic studies.” Sounds like emulating higher education’s various grievance studies, which is what got us into this mess in the first place. Teaching victimhood excuses and perpetuates failure.
Gothard is quoted to say instruction must be “culturally relevant … and adaptive in an equitable way … through their lived experiences … to unpack trauma that student have experienced.” Buzz buzz.
A previous State Journal education reporter assured her readers that Madison public schools do not teach critical race theory. Ms. Machtig, perhaps breaking with the received progressive canon, chooses to quote a parent whom, The Werkes believes, is representative:
“I don’t care about sexual preference or race … if a person is open to new ideas and will listen.”
Blaska’s Bottom Line: Unfortunately, the Madison school board does care about sexual preference and race. They are, in fact, its priorities.
Blaska Policy Werkes 
7 responses to “Is Madison’s new public schools boss more of the same?”
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Well-written article on a pretty awful topic.
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I’ll wait and see what happens. It shouldn’t take too long as like the City of Madison, MMSD has a huge budget hole to fill after running out of Covid money. Let the referendums begin. I wonder if the reading and math scores will get any better? Ha.
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I wonder if the new superintendent has read C. S. Lewis’s “The Abolition of Man,” an erudite and heartfelt defense of teaching universal values, not “culturally relevant” pablum. Or a wonderful essay by the great American writer Flannery O’Connor entitled “Total Effect and the Eighth Grade,” which contains the following: “In other ages the attention of children was held by Homer and Vergil, among others, but by the reverse evolutionary process, that is no longer possible; our children are too stupid to enter the past imaginatively. No one asks the student if algebra pleases him, or if he finds it satisfactory that some French verbs are irregular, but if he prefers Steinbeck to Hawthorne, his tastes must prevail.” She wrote this in the 1950s, before the poison of woke ideology had infected this country’s schools. Nowadays, a student is consulted about his tastes in every subject, and if anything is found to be “problematic” (i.e., containing dangerous ideas that contradict the prevailing progressive dogma), it’s either condemned or eliminated. As for “lived experience,” since when is the circumscribed experience of a third-grader sufficient to determine a curriculum? Apparently, I’m benighted enough to believe that the purpose of education is to expand a student’s lived experience, not pander to it.
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In 100 years, We Have Gone From Teaching Latin And Greek In High School To Teaching Remedial English In College.” J. Sobran
The Gotch
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More of the same? Coming years will tell, but it’s not like the bar is set very high. Jennifer Cheatham was always Harvard material, and I can’t begin to describe how richly they deserve each other. Carlton Jenkins was a flat-out mistake, clearly out of his depth from day one, 100-year public health event aside. Board members should have lost elections over each of these unique fiascos, but we do live where we live, don’t we? One downside of democracy is that participation in school board elections is not limited to (taxpaying) parents or legal guardians of enrolled students.
The process used and the consulting firm employed do give me pause, as the other two finalists were clearly unqualified based on the established search criteria and, in one case, on publicly known unprofessional behavior patterns. Still, with Mr. Gothard, I doubt we can sink so low as we have (twice) so recently. Count me as an experienced skeptic who sincerely hopes this new hire will prove that even the MMSD Board of Education can make at least one right call every 12 years.
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While wishing him the best, The Gotch wondered why MMSD voted unanimously for a candidate who checks the fewest boxes; he wonders no more.
It’s disappointing that Lefty, with Ichabod Evers, both OWN the shockingly dismal state of Public Education in America’s Dairyland, flips off innovation and best practices in favor of (to borrow a phrase) more of the same.
The Gotch
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