I recently had a discussion with Dr. Michael Hynes, the district superintendent in Port Washington, New York.
Our ZOOM discussion was sponsored by the Network for Public Education.
Mike Hynes is unusual because he believes in whole-child education. He is a revolutionary. He doesn’t think that test scores are important. He thinks schools should be places of joy. He believes in collaboration with staff. He shadows children to learn how their days are spent.
He is a different kind of superintendent.
Is he the wave of the future?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I look forward to listening to this this weekend. The things you have posted about Michael have always been enlightening.
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Providing education that serves the whole student is a throwback to the pre-NCLB era. After facing budget cuts in the 1970s, many districts worked to expand options and improve delivery of services in public schools in the ’80s and 90s. Unfortunately, not enough attention and resources were deployed to most large urban districts, and the gap between mostly middle class districts and poor districts widened.
Good leadership must aspire to serve the needs of all students, not just a few. Since NCLB there has been a disinvestment in public education that continues to drain money from public schools while transferring public funds into private pockets. Our current public policy has been directed towards undermining the common good.
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This is what great teachers and educational leaders have always done and still do. Really only a new idea to some of the under 50 cohorts.
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Mike Hynes vision is not really revolutionary, all great teachers believe in educating the whole child. In the past we were able to do that in our classrooms as WE saw fit for our students. We used to be able to request resources that we saw fit for our individual students.
Now teachers are mired down with data driven garbage, posted standards and aims, marginally experienced administrators, watered down curriculum, politically driven scapegoating, inadequate funding, and dilapidated buildings.
Mike Hynes comes from a community that believes in strong public education and is willing to kind of step into the productive past while moving forward.
This retired teacher wishes he was my superintendent during the last 5 years of my career, rather that what I had to deal with. Perhaps I would have stayed a little while longer.
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Ditto! I just finished listening to this great exchange of though5 and ideas. I was sad when he didn’t become chancellor in NYC. But what a wonderful hope that he could become secretary of education.
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“Mike Hynes comes from a community that believes in strong public education and is willing to kind of step into the productive past while moving forward.”
In this day and age, I’d call that revolutionary. He’s just one of many. Being revolutionary does not mean one exists in isolation. After all, the idea of principled, pragmatic self-governance will never stop being revolutionary.
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