By now, the Terrence Carter narrative is old news. It remains, however, a cautionary tale on what not to do in a search for a superintendent. Writing on this page last week - "Support for Carter was not unanimous" - Adam Sprecace, one of the members of the original search committee, shed some light on how it went awry. In distancing himself from the result, he puts a spotlight on the process. That spotlight reveals that each and every member of the search committee was advised to be a cadre of lemmings, simply going along with the "professionals."

Writer and former teacher David Ruenzel asserts that the Common Core State Standards' emphasis on a "thinking curriculum" will require teachers as well as students to engage in "critical thinking." The critical thinking skills required by the Common Core include the following: the ability to analyze complex texts, to weigh evidence, to make clear and effective arguments, and to work with others with very different views (Education Week, March 25, 2014). One would hope that any Board of Education would model such skills for the students it serves and the teachers it leads. As we all now know, those hopes were put to the test here in New London this summer in the search for a superintendent.

The result, Grade F.

Analysis requires questioning the superficial. It requires a bit more than accepting information as gospel. It requires making an independent searching inquiry into that which is presented. Finally, it requires taking disparate facts and asking questions about those facts and insisting on getting answers until the picture created by those facts, good or bad, becomes clear. Expecting our students, and our citizens, to be able to develop this skill set is a fool's errand unless our school leaders and the press can effectively model it.

This newspaper joined with the Boad of Educatin in showering accolades on the candidate chosen. There were enough false notes about the candidate to give pause. Both the board and the press were late to the conclusion that further assessment was warranted. Both only did so after significant pressure was brought to bear by the citizens most affected by the process.

Those same citizens have been waiting, in vain, for the board and the press to turn its assessment from the candidate to the process and the roles that they each played in it. Rather than backing away from the process and pointing fingers, the board should be taking very public steps to demonstrate how this time things will be different. Instead, they named themselves the search committee and immediately retreated into executive session.

The Day should revisit its decision to no longer assign a permanent, full-time reporter to the education beat. However difficult the economic environment is for newspapers, this decision should be reconsidered. Were a reporter assigned to cover the school board full time, instead of an afterthought, it is likely that the process, then and now, would be very different.

The critical thinking skills lacking in the first instance continue to be missing. Mr. Sprecace sheds some light on the original process. Why is nobody questioning the fact that committee members felt they had to check their brains at the door? Why is nobody questioning the fact that the utter lack of transparency of the first search is ever present in this new search? Why is The Day silent on all of this? According to Mr. Sprecace, the first search committee lied to the community by pretending that Mr. Carter was a unanimous choice. Other than by degree, is this any different than Mr. Carter's falsehood? In what other ways were we misled? In what other ways are we now being misled?

Character counts. It counts in our board members, in our press, and in our choice of superintendent. Acts of omission are as egregious as acts of commission. Allowing misperceptions to stand without correction is tantamount to giving false information in the first instance.

In analyzing the actions of the board and the press, then and now, I only wish there were a letter grade below an "F".

Susan Asselin-Connolly served on the New London Board of Education from 2005-11 as vice chair.