Jakob and I strolled into our polling place at 7:15. There was a line ten people deep already.
I’d love to see a huge voter turnout nationally today. Win, lose or draw, more people voting is a good thing.
A View From the Schoolhouse
Jakob and I strolled into our polling place at 7:15. There was a line ten people deep already.
I’d love to see a huge voter turnout nationally today. Win, lose or draw, more people voting is a good thing.
A quick review of the headlines…
Bush claimes NCLB is working…, while big business lines up its lobbying dollars to push for NCLB’s renewal, even though NCLB — even if you agree with it’s No Test Left Behind mandate — has been grossly underfunded since it’s passage. And meanwhile, the School District of Philadelphia is in a $70-80 million dollar hole and NYC parents are protesting the tests that sort and rank their children.
There are days when I question this country’s committment to public education. Heck, there are lots of those days. I’ve believed since the moment I closely examined NCLB upon its passage that it was designed to be the poison pill legislation, passed with one purpose — to discredit and dismantle public education.
But I also believe that there are so many good people in public education at the grassroots district and classroom level, and I believe that a majority of Americans know that the public educational system is a bedrock part of our democracy that I cling to the belief that we can weather this storm and still build great things.
But it there are days when it’s hard.
There are days when I see districts making draconian cuts because they have no choice. I talk to friends in other districts and hear the same story. I talk to friends all over the country who have to teach to the test because the test scores are all that matter, and I worry and wonder how long those folks who would support and defend project-based learning can hold out.
Some days are harder than others to maintain the optimism. Those are the days you watch the kids… listen to the joy they take in learning. You talk to them and hear the pride they have in their school… and you talk to other folks in SDP who believe in what you do and want to see you succeed… and you realize that tomorrow’s another day, another fight… and that no one ever told you this would be easy.
And the kids need us to keep fighting for them. The stakes are still too high.
Please forgive the foray back into politics, but I was in NYC on 9/11, and I hope that I never have a day as strange and sad and overwhelming as that day ever again in my life. I remember parents coming to Beacon covered in ash, only wanting their children to be with them. I remember the smell of a city that smelled like death. I remember emailing everyone I knew to tell them I was o.k., I remember emailing everyone I knew who worked downtown, trying to find everyone. I remember Kat coming to Beacon with a pizza in hand, because she figured I would have fogotten to eat. I remember a city that rallied around itself and refused to lay down and die, even when faced with disaster. I remember feeling the love of the rest of the world as we mourned our dead. And I will always remember watching the Bush Administration use our tragedy as a justification for a war that most of the New Yorkers I knew didn’t want. I remember our outrage as he claimed he was going to war with Iraq in our name.
So it’s with all those memories and many more that I watched Keith Olbermann talk about the five years since 9/11. Scathing isn’t a strong enough word, but it’ll have to do. Needless to say, I agree with him.