"Alas, that they should wear our colors there…" — Sunday Morning, Wallace Stevens

I’m angry.

I’m angry that business assumes we serve them.

I don’t. My kids don’t.

My state is re-examining graduation standards. So who are they talking to?

Business. Not exclusively, but in large numbers.

Business is telling the state what they need for their workforce.

My job as a principal is not to prepare kids to be a workforce. My calling is higher than that.

I prepare students to become active, engaged citizens. I prepare kids to be scholars, activists, parents, people. And when I do that, we’ll get the workforce we need, too.

Citizenry is the higher calling. Workforce development is secondary.

And let me go ahead and make the really radical statement, since I’m angry. Focusing on workforce development as the goal in our public schools is downright feudal. The ruling class in this country isn’t talking about that. They aren’t even sending their kids to our schools. When someone tells Dalton or Andover or Exeter that their goal is workforce development, then they can tell us that it’s ours.

My kids… all our kids… should think that their job is to make the world a better place because they lived in it.

That’s the goal of an active and involved citizenry. That’s the goal for our schools. Focusing on workforce development as the highest goal is reductive.

Our democratic ideals should not serve our capitalist system. Our public schools are the ultimate expression of our democratic ideals. Let’s never, ever forget that, and let’s build a system that remembers and celebrates that.