Ban the Bubble is pleased to endorse Dr. Suzie Abajian for the South Pasadena Board of Education.  Below is a letter Ban the Bubble organizer Gary Rowe sent to the South Pasadena Review:

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                                                    Abajian for Board of Education

             Dr. Suzie Abajian is an outstanding choice for Board of Education.  Her candidacy brings two distinct advantages to the race:  first, her unique educational qualifications;  and second, her state-of-the-art curricular views.

            Qualifications:  Dr. Abajian, alone among the candidates, holds a Ph.D. in education.  She is thus well-versed in the vast academic educational literature.  She understands at a professional level what has been proven to work, what shows promise, and what, conversely, sounds seductive but has failed.  Her understanding of public education is not purely theoretical either:  She taught math at the high school and college levels and has also supervised teachers over the course of her 14 year career in education.  Because of her experience, she knows what works at the ground level.  As the District looks for a new superintendent, shouldn’t we do more than muddle through?  Shouldn’t we have the benefit of a member with this kind of practical and academic educational background?
         
            Curriculum:  If you believe that education is simply about generating high standardized test scores, then Dr. Abajian is probably not your candidate.  She is a critic of the test-score craze that has narrowed curricula and crowded-out creativity in the country and in the District over the last decade.  She believes instead in a truly rich curriculum that focuses on the whole child.  She values what bubble-in testing can’t capture –- creativity and conceptual understanding; probing analysis rather than rote learning; foreign languages and immersion programs, the arts, drama, and physical education as integral parts of the curriculum, not just occasional frills.

            It is no accident that Dr. Abajian has the endorsement of the nation’s leading progressive educators, such as Professors Diane Ravitch and Stephen Krashen, as well as the Network for Public Education, which supports candidates committed to evidence-based educational initiatives rather than high-stakes testing.