Took a break from blogging. Congress is in recess, guess I am too. Other excuses include spending too much time working at the zoo. On a particularly slow and hot day at the dinosaur store (called much to everyone's delight the Dinostoraus) I tried to reconcile the front page news with what I observe during my daily shifts. The zoo is basically a giant day care. Lots of families, lots of strollers, lots of babies, lots of families with babies in strollers who are much too young to remember anything.
Many things annoy me at the zoo, this is no secret, but many things reassure me. Parents are taking care of their kids, trying to show them a good time. Breaking news aside, kids still like toys, parents still buy them for them. Which leads me to my next point; if ever you feel nervous about the consumer economy come on by, I can assure you it is alive and well.
Though life appears to continue as normal along the winding paths between the penguins and polar bears, scratch the surface and you see all is not well. I was saddened to read an article in the Times this weekend describing the progress of schools experimenting with four day weeks in order to cut costs. The article concluded that cutting hours is not ideal but hopefully it wouldn't be too detrimental to students' education. Wow, is that the best we can do? Hopefully our new reforms won't hurt one of the most vital natural resources we have. The schools are doing the best they can, but government is failing them, society is failing them.
Most people I talk to these days believe that the public school system is broken beyond repair, and that privatization is the key to the way forward. Fine. I am open to that. I am open to a lot of private solutions to public problems. But as usual I ask, where are the proposals? Where is the call to action? Where is the outrage at the crumbling pillars of society? Must we wait for collapse before we begin to rebuild?
Politicians left and right claim to love America. Everyone claims patriotism. But for all that touted love, society is working against itself. Hate of the other is rampant. Hate of those on welfare. Hate of those on private jets. Hate of public institutions. Hate of private corporations. Seems everyone is playing a zero sum game. But please, can't you see that allocating resources -private or otherwise- to the basics of society is not subtracting from any column but multiplying our potential ten fold?
Spend billions on defense, ignore the middle class, go on vacation, but let our schools crumble and one day you'll find society in ruins.
Hate to play the West Wing card but Sam Seaborn says it pretty well: "...education is the silver bullet. Education is everything. We don't need little changes, we need gigantic, monumental changes. Schools should be palaces. The competition for the best teachers should be fierce. They should be making six-figure salaries. Schools should be incredibly expensive for government and absolutely free of charge to its citizens, just like national defense. That's my position. I just haven't figured out how to do it yet."
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