Opening the book on career academy
Danbury administrators offer a first look at potential curriculum
DANBURY — In a few years, some 11th-graders in the city will be expected to create a prosthetic hand that can move and grasp objects.
It’s one example of a course students at the proposed $164 million career academy would take — that is, if they’re part of the medical technology and engineering pathway.
Danbury school administrators gave the education board’s Curriculum Committee an inside look into the career academy experience during a Monday evening meeting.
Students in ninth through 12th grade at the proposed new school and the existing high school campus will pick among several pathways within six so-called “academies” that will allow them to study what it’d be like to be a teacher, engineer, designer or work in numerous other career fields.
They’ll take a blend of courses designed to give them experience in their chosen pathway, in addition to the typical general education requirements.
“We’ve just upped the challenge and rigor quite a bit in here, but are also offering our regular courses in terms of college prep,” said Kara Casimiro, assistant superintendent for teaching and learning.
The pathways were picked based on research of career fields that are in high demand and could earn students high wages nationally and in the state,
“When putting these together in the academy model, you design these (courses) specially to meet not just student interest but also that there’s a potential for employment after that.” Kara Casimiro, assistant superintendent for teaching and learning
Balanda, who worked to provide the space and security for the civil action. Balanda said he had heard from some parents concerned with the idea the school was allowing, or facilitating the walkout — but called that idea a ‘misnomer.’
“They certainly do have the opportunity for free speech and can certainly make a choice to walkout of school in support of a particular issue if that is what they chose to do, and my role is to make sure they are safe and secure when they do that — not really condoning or approving,” said Balanda, who added each student who participated received an absence from the class they left.
The evolution of a walkout
Like so many peaceful protests do, the Wednesday walkout evolved from an initial, deeply personal sense of collective outrage and fear followed by a firmly held desire to act, even if it meant receiving the marked-absence.
The draft opinion, which the court’s chief justice has said doesn’t represent the court’s final opinion on the issue, has stirred emotions and protest locally and nationwide from those who oppose and support the 1973 decision that legalized abortion in the United States.
“I think there is a lot of nervousness and outrage from people, for sure, I know I was outraged when I first heard what was going on because it feels like a step back in our history,” said Colombo of the sentiment around her school over the past week.
“It was an emotional process but eventually I got to the point where I could do some research on this and learn more about what is going on,” she added.
Within a week of news breaking over the leaked draft opinion, Colombo, Jweinet, and McCarthy worked to get permission from the school to hold their walkout as they spread the word on social media and in conversations with classmates or during discussions like those held in Colombo’s human geography class, where current events are a regular topic.
“It hasn’t been an argument, it’s a pretty peaceful conversation,” she said of the classroom exchanges.
That the overarching sentiment is pro-choice in a classroom in Connecticut is perhaps not surprising
Lawmakers in Hartford first codified
abortion rights in state law in 1990 and went even further with legislation passed last week that will specifically block other states seeking to investigate patients who travel to the Nutmeg state in search of access to safe and legal abortion rights. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 9,202 abortions were performed in 2019 — the last year for which data is available, with 3.6 percent of patients traveling from other states.
A 2014 Pew poll of views on abortion in Connecticut found 52 percent of Republicans and 76 percent of Democrats supporting the right to abortion.
At the national level though, there is a more divided, convoluted opinion. A Pew poll taken in March showed 61 percent of Americans, “say abortion should be legal in all or most circumstances,” versus the 37 percent who believe it should be illegal “in all or most circumstances.”
The recent poll noted, however, “relatively few Americans on either side of the debate take an absolutist view on the legality of abortion — either supporting or opposing it at all times, regardless of circumstances;” and it found, “public attitudes about the legality of abortion are largely divided along partisan lines — and to a greater extent in past decades.”
Space for opposing views
On Wednesday at Brookfield High School, a lone “counter-protester” looked on holding a flag representing former President Donald Trump as the group of students gathered on the bleachers of the football field.
Balanda said he approached the student to determine his motivations for participating, he was able to share with the entire group that the student holding the flag had just as much of a right to express his opinion differently before offering space on the other side of the bleachers to do so.
“I offered him space on the other side of the bleachers if he wanted to go over there and display his flag, he certainly was able to do that, he declined and said he would just keep it in his bag,” said Balanda.
Colombo knows “there are a lot of people who support pro-life,” and said that while she has not found herself in direct dialogue with anyone who falls into that category she still holds a sense of respect for opposing views on any matter as an avenue to meaningful discussion.
“As long as they are respectful to me, I am going to be respectful back, that doesn’t mean if someone is disrespectful to me, I am going to scream at them; but I just believe that it’s a woman’s decision for what they do with their body,” she said.