On Education

This month in my recurring monthly letter to the editor I took a shot at defending the public education system. School budget and board of education voting has just passed, and after hearing enough negativity about the schools, like on the Brielle Forum, I decided to enter the foray. I'm not sure what we think the point of public education, or even private, is anymore, but it seems it's become something kids do daily to take tests, get a diploma, get into a college, and get a job. In other words, it's become something to promote the system. I didn't get that blunt or societally negative in my letter.
But there is something to be said about our priorities and how our increasing perception of ourselves as rulers of our little individual kingdoms has only forced more divides between the people of our society. Also, I don't understand the negativity toward educators. In a society where we value people according to the amount of money they're paid, it's alarming that educators are near the bottom.
Anyway, take a read and let me know what you think.

(...)

A few years ago a commercial aired depicting a staring match between two ethnically-diverse boys. Gradually, fellow students amass behind them, as if to watch and assist their blinkless classmate. A roar erupts from the Asian group, a groan from the Caucasians, as the White boy’s concentration falters. The shot pans away as students clamber to their seats in two distinct classrooms and you realize that the playfully-competing students are actually worlds apart.
The ad’s purpose, of course, is to sell a fancy television with video conferencing capabilities used in the business and political world. The pie-in-the-sky implication is that this scene could actually be played out in our classrooms. Could you imagine if our students had a personal relationship with Middle-Eastern schoolchildren, for instance? What would that do for their global perceptions? Would a Middle-Eastern student second-guess his/her decision to join Al Qaeda if he/she had a personal relationship with the infidels?
I’m dreaming of course (?), but that’s my point: fancy televisions are more prevalent in our homes then our schools. We’ll allow ourselves to dream big in our individual lives, but place limits on what services and materials our educators want to utilize. Come February, Uncle Sam is all but requiring that you buy that television to watch MTV Cribs, and I wonder how that will affect school budgets.
A surprising majority of budgets passed last week, and that was awesome and maybe a hopeful sign. Next year, like every year, will the fight over public education will be as predictable as the daffodils’ bloom?
Have we forgotten the purpose of public education: to reflect and teach the knowledge and values of our society? Do educators enter the field for any other purpose than to show children how to communicate, how their bodies work, how our society works, or how to evoke their inner being? Unlike most other “needs”, public education is not a business that reaps a profit nor does it exist purely for the benefit of the individual. Public education is vital to our society’s advancement and existence.
If we want to discuss societal problems like substance abuse, energy dependence, global warming, or anything else that a new President will change next year, then we have to do so as a society. We cannot do that if we pit the one thing whose function is to enrich and improve society in a staring match against individual materialism. On average, we were asked to sacrifice one spa treatment, one designer outfit, gas to drive one mile per day, two professional lawn services, or one Aquafina bottle per week. One material thing is more important than keeping our societal education up to par?
The next time public educators ask for the same luxuries as private homes, before we call them greedy, lazy and petty for reminding us that education is about children (otherwise, what’s its purpose?), let’s start by acknowledging the real problem: we’re addicted to ourselves.
Hi; my name is Andrew, and I’m a recovering selfaholic.