During a recent session in which I participated, a group of athletic directors introduced themselves, each providing his or her name and school.  I am embarrassed to say I didn’t recognize the names of several schools; and this incident demonstrates how things have been changing, but hopefully not disintegrating, in education.

Until a few years ago, I not only knew the name but the location of every MHSAA member high school.  But with so many new schools and the changing names of many other schools, there are now some schools where I not only lack knowledge of the location, I can’t recall the name!

I worry there are too many instances where, in essence, nothing is changing but the name of the school.  I have no way of knowing for sure.  What I do know is that education seems to lack a unified vision of what students need and how learning is best delivered to meet those needs.

It is not surprising that people differ about what should be done to improve education.  The current administration of our federal government has an agenda that our state education department may not agree with; and some of our state’s agenda is not supported by some of our local school policymakers and practitioners.  And at that level, the needs of students and the mission of schools may vary greatly from traditional public schools to public school academies to private schools to parochial schools, and from urban to suburban to rural and remote location.

Therefore, some “fragmentation” of our state’s education scheme is not only unavoidable but appropriate.  The question that nags me is if what we have is too much fragmentation, even disintegration.

For more on how this issue might be affecting school sports, see the winter issue of benchmarks.