Advancement Day

Warning: Political statements abound throughout, indicated by the presence of asterisks.

It is the very merry month of June, and we just celebrated advancements in the form of High School Graduation (times two). The twins, now 18 and having already voted in their first election, have completed High School, and their futures lie yawning ahead on the vast lawns and landscapes of time, as still do ours.

While I won’t, on this occasion, prognosticate on what lies ahead, I can reflect on what has happened to bring us to this springboard moment, perhaps offer a prophetic statement on where we are today.

Our babies, in addition to entering the political landscape of the world in the year before 9/11, were born at the digital crux, right before cell phones evolved into smart phones, just before the departure of analog ubiquity. Technology has been ever-present and ever demanding of their time, and ours, since the day our children were born.

Society cares less about children now than at any time in recorded history*. Let that sink in, for a moment.

I have always believed in public education. During the 1960s and 1970s, due to an explosion in population due to the post-war economic boom, there was such a demand for educated people, as well as a growing social ethos that dictated “bring everyone up,” that it was difficult to fill all the available teaching positions. Educating a generation of educators became extremely important. But the struggle to pay educators has not changed all that much from the one-room schoolhouse days, has it? Despite the fact that the public and industries of all types demand an educated populace, government (no matter what party is in power) shies away from providing for education, paying teachers a living wage, and maintaining school campuses. It is easier and more lucrative to sell guns and put people in jail.* Poorly educated people can be cajoled by charismatic demagogues into voting for anyone.*

But, still I believe in public education. I was educated in public schools. I turned out okay.

Private schools are well and good, but do they train our young people to question?

This is a genuine question, one that must also be asked of public education.* I am not actually bringing this up to suggest that public is better than private school. Do the students that come out of any school realize that there is a political or religious worldview and agenda predominating the information that has been taught?* Are students really given the opportunity and freedom to think for themselves, even if it goes against the grain of the institution?* 

Administrators at the public high school from which I graduated in the late 1970s turned off the microphone on this year’s valedictorian speech. They did that because the young woman dared to mention that one of the challenges students had to overcome was sexual assault on campus. As a graduate of that school, I am personally enraged that this occurred, and proud of the young woman’s courage to say what needed to be said, and that the incident made the news throughout the state, and was even reported in the Washington Post.**

Our institutions, public and private, do not own our knowledge, nor do they own our experience.* What they must own is their culpability in all the things that can and do go wrong, and how these wrongs are redressed.* We, and the young people we raise, are only as strong as our institutions. Right now, all our institutions are weak and hamstrung, too often self-serving, and as a result they fail too many families.* Institutions, public and private, that cannot redress wrongs or see where improvement is necessary, will bring us all down. Let that sink in, for a moment.

We are proud of what our children were able to accomplish from within a flawed and partisan system.* It was not easy for them or for their peers; they managed to do well despite a system that is rigged to highlight frequently questionable outcomes.* Ever-newer curricula provides a money machine that enriches someone who is not a student, rather than providing better tools for teaching, I have observed.* Technology, donated or purchased or otherwise forced into the schools, looms in every classroom, but often without proper IT backup, and as a challenge to families who cannot afford computers, creating a division.* Bullying is but one factor in the lives of our young students. Favoritism is but one other factor. Incompetent and/or biased teaching, yet another factor.* Entitled, bullying, helicopter-hovercraft parenting is another factor, oft paired with the demanding and argumentative, entitled student-child who “does not work well with others” to complete group projects.*

Health and wellbeing issues are said to be catered to at most schools, but if you look closely, all sorts of students fall between the cracks. How can I say this with assurance? It was reported to me by my own children. Some of their peers were sent to school without having had breakfast, with no lunch or lunch money. Some students had other issues at home. When we parents were made aware of a few situations with regard to our children’s friends and acquaintances, we went to the school on their behalf. Although we were told that the administration would solve the individual problem, we discovered later that they did not do so, and that nothing had changed for the student. Meanwhile, nothing could be done by the administration for the dozens of students who slept through their classes exhausted from all night videogame bingeing or from sheer boredom. 

Possibly, it is the same in every generation that many students just don’t give a damn about school or the importance of education. Student engagement must be inspired; this has always been true.* Not every teacher is inspiring, engaging or nice; that’s also always been the case. Perhaps also not every parent is inspiring, engaging or loving. We are all challenged, as we are all challenging*; we parents need be strong enough to advise our rising youth in how to ford the streams of characters, charlatans and crackpots, rather than interject with a lifeboat or leave them to their own devices, uninformed. But we, as a society, must demand more from our institutions, and give more toward their upkeep and evolution.* We must be better equipped and enabled to offer help beyond our own family units*, if we are able to do so. We need to bridge gaps so that no one is lost in the cracks.

I can honestly say that my children sat and stood with the bullied, fed the hungry. I can say this with pride, but the flipside of pride is shame, and I feel both in equal measure. I have found that society lavishes on, even worships techno-materialism, while not lavishing our children with proper care and proper education, and in no way “brings everyone up” in terms of housing-, healthcare- and food-security.* A great deal of practical knowledge has been removed from education*; this puts many young people at a disadvantage right away. Intimate engagement with issues of environmental degradation is lacking, but I applaud those parents and students who do engage and who advocate and demand that their elders do better, and who mentor and are role models.* (The future depends upon you!) When the institution looks away from the problems, this teaches everyone to look away, to avert eyes, to avoid asking questions or engage civically. This is a way to describe corruption.*

We had a party for a few friends and neighbors, over this weekend. We told them, “It takes a village to raise a child; you’ve been our village.” This is by no means cliché.

There are so many people who have touched our lives and the lives of our children in positive, if not in memorable, ways. We wish we could thank you all! The twins baked cakes for their favorite high school teachers during finals week. Some of the wonderful teachers they’ve had over the years have retired from their elementary and middle schools, but we remember you. Technology will never replace humanness; it cannot teach what it is to be human and humane or empathetic.* Education is not at all about machines and is less about books (although books can be excellent tools) than it is about humans caring enough to pass on human knowledge and humanity by example and by speech and by writing.

Our children have been gone from being Pisces Fish to Otis Owls to Lincoln Lions to Alameda Hornets, and now they Advance to the Next Thing (which is hopefully not Twitter Twits*).

Our institutions are flawed, weak and hamstrung, but we and others have persevered, and we hope all others will persevere, better yet thrive. We need to uphold and improve our institutions for the coming generations; there is so much work to be done, in this regard. The world of appearances, where it is more important to preserve the outward face of the institution than it is to own the realities, redress wrongs and make corrections, needs to be shed.* Schools are political tools; they should not be.* We cannot afford to be swayed by lip service, jerry-rigged statistics and cherry-picked “facts.”* Our children are not gadgets, and we cannot treat them like statistics or like things.* We need to care about and ensure that all people are recognized as unique and valued individuals, and accordingly need to be treated individually in the ways that best address, best resonate, best communicate to their individual needs.* 

“It takes a village to raise a child.” If we cannot care about other people’s children as much as our own, how can it truly be said that we care for our own?* If we truly believe the world is a better place because our children exist, we must be willing to model, teach and uphold goodness, fairness, peace and wellbeing for them and for others, and indeed the whole world, and we must improve and empower all of our institutions to support this at the highest level.*

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** https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2018/06/09/this-valedictorian-began-to-talk-about-sexual-misconduct-at-her-graduation-then-her-mic-was-cut/?utm_term=.523f34200f8d