If you enjoy good news, then congratulations to our friends Angie and John. They gave birth their second son, David Asher, last Sunday.
If you enjoy satire, I recommend the movie, Thank you for Smoking. Funny and smart.
We played Scrabble last night and I won. I mention this because I rarely win. Sharon was a gracious in her defeat.
Continuing the discussion on school vouchers.
In the historical context, the discussion of the demise of public education is as old as Salisbury steak on Tuesdays.
Here are two links to get things started. How public schools are funded, a story from publicopinon.com. This speaks about the challenges of funding imbalances between schools as you move from district to district, and from Wikipedia on the school voucher system. Finding simple explanations of either, particularly on how the voucher system actually works and how the money is allocated is difficult. I'll keep studying and I'll keep an open mind.
My suggestion to pool the nation's education monies and having them evenly distributed among the nation's students was, naturally, a simple, if not idealistic foray into a complex issue. I didn't begin to offer how this could be done nor insist that it will be quick and easy. But I don't recall Yoda telling Luke that facing Vader would be convenient.
Increasing school budgets makes the resource strain lighter, but heaping more money into school bank accounts will not solve school troubles alone. I did not bring up points such as, accountability, parent involvement, high expectations, readiness to learn, quality conditions, or qualified staff. These elements, along with funding, are vital components needed to create excellent schools that provide excellent education opportunities. These are matters of society values and integrity.
And I don't care whether funding for public education is federal or local. That's irrelevant to me.
Another point I didn't mention is, though the opportunity for education lay before a student, it is ultimately the student's responsibility to succeed or not. No institution should indefinitely support a body who won't attempt to support itself. I do not endorse freedom without responsibility.
Concerning choice.
Choosing to send your child to another school is not wrong. Providing your child with the best advantages in life is good. But this choice only satisfies concerns that effect us individually. Our community isn't any better from this decision. Since we choose to live in a community, we must be accountable to the success of that community. Rather than looking only inward to what benefits me and mine, I'd prefer to grow a culture that continually reinvents and rebuilds itself and it's public institutions to meet the needs of it's people and at the same time, inspires it's people to pursue higher ideals and standards. The truth is, I will always choose my family's well being over others. But I would also encourage the belief within my family that we have not been given our lives and our good fortune to benefit only ourselves, but to serve and lift up the folks next door. Choice can enhance our lives for the better, but it sometimes gives us the opportunity to sidestep a problem instead of addressing it.
To paraphrase the Good-Book, concerning education: Give a child a sandwich and you've fed her for one meal. Teach her to combine savory lean corn beef, cool sour kraut, fresh Russian Rye, and a nice schmear of 1000 island, and you've taught her to sustain herself daily with a Ruben sandwich.
I live a luxurious life. I have at least 6 pairs of shoes to choose from each day. After nearly ten years of ownership, one pair, an excellent duo of black leather dress shoes, began to wear out it's sole. I kept the shoes for months, even after the soles actually began to separate from the upper. After considering for over a year whether to send my shoes to the farm, I decided to take another route. On Wednesday, I gathered my beaten shoes together and took them to be repaired.
Downtown, between 16th and 15th, on Larimer Street, is a shoe cobbler. I looked for elves as I entered the shop and then remembered it was too early for their shift. I pulled my shoes out of my backpack and introduced them to the man behind the counter. It would cost $50 to have the soles replaced and the shoes would be ready for pickup the next day around lunchtime. I thanked him and left, leaving my shoes to be rebuilt.
The next day, I returned to the cobbler to pick up my shoes. Good as new and even better. Buying a new pair of shoes would have cost me time at the store and $100. Instead, I chose to take the time and care to have my worn shoes repaired, restoring them to their former beauty and usefulness. I'm glad I didn't give up on something that had served me faithfully.
I'm not willing to discard public schools either, and I am willing to share my good fortune and time to help reinvent our schools into places of inspiration and power. Public schools did not fail me or my family. Most of our grandparents didn't have any choice as to where they were educated. Did their generation fail in life? Public schools are worth the trouble of rebuilding and reinventing, even at the cost of lots of shoe leather.
Ode to my black shoes.
Dust gives you the look
of forgotten baked bread on a rack
covered in flour.
Your toes protected mine
at the expense of your own.
Balance has slipped away,
smooth gate is thrown
out of your reach.
Cracked sophistication,
the go-to shoe has gone off the deep end.
Best dressed for the garbage,
the elegance makes fond memories.
Carried from the cupboard, dark
down the hill without fanfare
into rough hands, left behind.
Bent, lifeless and stabbed
again, again, again, and again.
What's comes of this invasion, this violence?
Spinning wheel, vapor, resin
painful
and invigorating.
Amnesia moves aside, recollection
opens the door.
Balance reintroduces itself.
Is that light? Restored? Whole?
Strong form! Tango guitars chorus!
Grand seams, welcome back!
Hammer for heels, pound again!
Traction injects itself, solid shape and duty
bloom and call back your sense of purpose!
Smooth leather, like licorice shines!
Dignity calls again like a long lost friend
and sweeps you up to show your triumph
over apathy!
Faithful couple of midnight travelers,
never tiring despite your passengers complaints.
Your sole has been restored
and the journey continues.
Have a good weekend, and Godspeed, John Glenn,
Dave
