Thursday, January 30, 2020

ON SCHOOL

No, don't worry it not's what you think. I was reading something tonight that made me reflect and what I reflected is usually an extraordinarily handsome man but tonight we got under the hood and I thought about the fact that l literally live across the street from the elementary, middle and high schools. All day and every day I'm awash in children going to or leaving school but what made me ponder tonight was that in spite of living here for many years I have been in the high school once with an alumnus and in the nearest elementary school once in order to return a letter addressed to them but which was somehow misdirected to our house.

The education of children is one of the most profound things a working society does and I have absolutely no idea how they're doing it. Or not. When I got here the vast internet real estate on line listed our high school as an 8 out of 10. I think it's now down to a 3 or 4. No, I don't want to look and see. It was painful watching it slip from being one of the nation's premier high schools into the same bracket as the worst schools in Camden or New York City. One can still get a world class education there but the bulk of the student body is settling for D-.

I never attended a PTA meeting. Never got asked to be honest but I also never attended any aspect within the schools to encourage them to do their job. I sense that I am not alone in this. In my opinion we have left the education of our young to the lowest common denominator. The reason I left them alone was because there is another lower common denominator and when dealing with school it is the only one that counts. Yes, you know what it is.

"I'm sorry, what's your child's name?" You are not allowed to play or criticize if you don't have one of those in the school. C'est domage.

2 comments:

Brig said...

"reflected is usually an extraordinarily handsome man" you are so sublime... lol

Anne Bonney said...

The place to make noise is in the Board of Education meetings rather than the PTA. Board members are elected officials. That said, the board used to be a pretty closed shop under the thumb of the superintendent - not sure how it is these days, o extraordinarily handsome man of mine.