The Education Argument

As I read yet another news article about yet another town enduring insufferable budget cuts, with photos of educators protesting budget cuts in the "name of our children", I suddenly realize something of great note: I am no longer moved by them. I'm not moved by the "save our children's future" signs, nor the inflammatory arguments addressed through various teachers and community activists who want to "give our children what they need" or keep our kids from "missing out."

I am done. I have said for years that money does not educate my son. It helps perhaps, but it does not do the job. The economy, for whatever reason (and believe me, there are many), is tightening our glutenous belts, and to think for one single minute that the arena of education is exempt from the effects would be..... well, just damn boneheaded. The district here is going into talks with the teacher's union. Every year they "go into talks." This is code for negotiating contracts and, you guessed it, salaries. Teachers don't seem to get much pay different in salaries each year, but for some reason, these "talks" are intense and produce lots of scary front page news for all the parents.

Our American experience has developed its status quo with regard to our children on the belief that they are to be out of sight and out of our care for "education" between the hours of about 8 and 4, with extensions of time if they are lucky enough to find an extracurricular program that interests them and operates with a modicum of safety. Oddly, those hours of "education" between about 8-4 are not enough to educate them. No. They then need 2-3 hours (sometimes more) to do "homework" because the hours of 8-4 aren't enough. I know some teachers....the field workers charged with implementing this great "plan." Someone outta talk to those people for cryin' out loud.

And just where in that scheduled 8-4 day is there time to hug mom and dad, brush the dog, help with the laundry, go for a walk, have dinner, or fight with siblings?

Yet, we always need more and more money to perpetuate that system. Hum, me thinks not. I defy that old thought. The education of our children is not limited by dollars. It is limited by the box in which our thoughts flounder and feel trapped....the box we currently call educated thought.