Last Tuesday, a busload of education leaders from across Georgia stopped in our area, taking a morning to tour Maxwell Elementary School.
Later Tuesday, the same officials spent time in Augusta - a much-publicized afternoon at Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School.
But here's the proverbial elephant in the room - the thing most folks involved in the process know, but won't say publicly: Davidson, which annually ranks among the best high schools in Georgia, starts each year, each day, each class ahead of most schools.
As a magnet school, Davidson has an application process and admission standards in place. Their school is built with the cream of the crop: If you have discipline issues or an average below 80, you don't even qualify to be a student.
Do they deserve being in the spotlight? Absolutely.
But so do our educators and students.
And in our case, the success of schools like Maxwell Elementary and Thomson Elementary - which was on the same Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education bus tour in September 2004 - is built using all students.
Now, the folks on the tour understand this: Their visits encompass dozens of schools throughout the state.
But some folks in our area may be a little unclear.
So let us help: Success using just the cream of the crop is sweet. But success using the whole crop is a whole lot sweeter.
