Joplin Schools Assistant Superintendent Dr. Angie Besendorfer will be one of the featured speakers at the annual trade show and conference held by the Missouri Association for Pupil Transportation July 9-12 in Columbia.
From the program:
Whither the Weather: What to Do Before and After Disaster Strikes
Presenter: Dr. Angie Besendorfer-Asst. Supt.-Joplin Public Schools
An EF5 tornado struck Joplin MO on May 22, 2011 leaving 161 dead and disruption to the lives of many who lost their homes and businesses. Learn how the Joplin Rebuild Effort is reshaping the way we respond to natural disasters
What the audience doesn't know is that they are being used as a research project for a cure for insomnia. There will be three groups.
ReplyDeleteThe first group will not have to listen at all to her speech. The prediction is that they will be so relieved that they will be shooting fireworks.
The second group will listen to the standard "Dream" speech, and the prediction is that they will be sound asleep by the time they've heard "dream big" over forty times, if for no other reason than to escape the misery.
The third group will listen to a speech full of Dr. Besendorfer one-liners, such as "There are silver linings in funnel clouds," "There are oppportunities in tornadoes,"" We've dreamed of a school like this for years" (spoken just weeks after the tornado), or the ever popular, "We get to do our 21st Century schools now," spoken not even a week after the tornado. The prediction for that group is that they will be so incensed at the gross display of opportunism, self-promotion, insensitivity, and blind ambition that they won't be able to sleep for weeks.
I attended three of the Dream sessions before I decided that I need no longer bother. I heard Dr. Besendorfer say, with a very reverent tone of voice, "We've dreamed of a school like this for years." This was truly just weeks after the tornado. I'm happy she is getting her dream school, but it seemed to me at the time that is was a very callous, self-serving remark, considering how many of her staff members and community members were still grieving and struggling with lost homes and incomes. That the tornado has been used to promote careers and to gain fame had become increasingly clear. It saddens me tremendously, because it is the children who have paid the price with so many disruptions to their learning as the district makes so many changes. If I had it to do over again, I would have moved mine, but I let sentimentality affect my judgment. I hope for the sake of upcoming children that parents will become more proactive.
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