The schoolmarm delivered some shots (scroll down about 4 paragraphs). But in the end, the school board had the bigger gun. They decided to close Shady Dell at the end of next year.
I'm having a hard time posting this today, because I am in a temporary state of rage about the cowardly display of ignorance I witnessed in our elected officials. They had delayed the decision until this week so they could solicit feedback from the public. They got feedback (and then some), which they proceeded to completely disregard. Everyone I spoke to - that was present - talked about the heightened emotions they could sense in the room. One friend said he could almost feel prayers being offered up around him. One precious mother spoke of her six kids getting a real chance in this life because of the love and attention they got in that little school.
It wasn't all blush and tears, there were some solid arguments made. Most of them came from my lovely wife. She nailed it; and her reasoning went unanswered. How the hell are you supposed to respond to that? You are asked to come and share your views. You share them with clarity and verve. Then you watch pompous morons just decide to do what they had wanted to do all along. Is that the best we've got? Is that the way democracy works? Don't you have an obligation to provide a justification for your decisions? When we reach adulthood I think more should be expected of us than, "I'm right because I think so."
The Shady Dell community is an economically disadvantaged group. There are no highly educated folks in the group. Yet they organized and put together an impressive campaign to save their school. And this is what they (and their kids) learn about democracy. Most of them probably don't participate in public affairs much, because they feel disenfranchised. This experience sure isn't going to inspire confidence in the process.
For readers in New York and China (believe or not, there are some...okay, one in NY and one in China) who don't care about schoolyard politics in our little hamlet, this is not unlike the feeling of helplessness I had when our president sent us to war with little more justification than "This is what I think we should do." It was maddening to me then, and, even though the consequences there were far greater than the closing of a neighborhood school, it is equally maddening to me now.
I know I'm being juvenile about it - I'm only now coming down from my wild haymaker-throwing fist fit - but it's that passion that makes me so adorable. I would never be good at public policymaking. It seems that to do that job well, one must abandon compassion and good sense.
Thanks for the solidarity, reachers.
22 comments:
Thanks for the update, Brett.
I'll be there tonight with beers on. I can bring a pillow to hold and you to punch (like my brother and I used to do when he would "teach" me to fight.)
I just finished delivering a lecture on conflict management. I left out the wild punching approach. I told my students about this situation, and in the telling I discovered the real tragedy: These people (the Shady Dell community) learned that organizing and putting up well-reasoned opposition does not work.
Many of these folks have been gettin' it from the Man all their lives. This was an opportunity for them to learn something about democratic discourse.
They learned something all right. They learned that complacency is a lot less emotionally draining.
The News-leader article sounded rather optimistic today -- seeing the year as time to change the decision.
Regardless, it seems to be another case of elected officials forgetting that they are indeed elected.
I did enjoy the editorials yesterday (both yours and the "Our View") and the article about the meeting today.
Don't ever quit fighting. -- Jennifer
Damn, sorry, man. Hopefully it's not undoable. Sounds like you and your wife poured your souls into it. Sorry it didn't pan out.
Here's today's good news: A few phone calls and email messages have been coming in from people in small school neighborhoods who want to start organizing against this kind of thing.
I'm not prepared to become Che for the city, but it's nice to see people getting involved.
er,...would that be President Clinton invading Serbia because he said it was the thing to do..or do you perhaps refer to more recent events? Do all your problems in life fall from the political miscalculations of your opposition and none from your ideological buddies?
Huh. That would be Clinton as a part of NATO, right? They committed to airstrikes and then an international force of peacekeepers. That's "invading"?
Whatever blunders were made regarding the Clinton administration's policies toward Serbia-Kosovo (and they were multitude), a decision to invade another country with almost exclusively U.S. ground forces was not one of them (thank God). Also, although the decision to involve ouselves in that conflict had some measure of controversy, the level of controversy was serveral ORDERS of magnitude less than what we experienced with the current conflict, both domestically and abroad.
I know certain talk shows and columnists may condition you to think in simple parallels about something as complex as, oh I don't know, real LIFE, but, unfortunately for some, thinking may involve actual work.
Sorry, Brett.
I have a totaled truck.
You know, I like cake. I love me some cake. Had some German chocolate last night, and it was pretty good.
You're right, Anon, that authoritarian decision-making is not exclusive to a single party; but this administration has taken it to a high art form.
Nate absolutely gets it right when he comments on the WAY Clinton entered Kosovo. In the context of this school board argument, my issue was not whether the war was just, it was whether any regard had been given to the arguments of others. When Clinton entered that conflict, he consulted with others and gained some degree of consensus. Bush defied arguments that countered his predetermined conclusions. I don't care what your ideology is; if you refuse to listen to arguments you will likely make bad decisions.
A few comments:
1) I may live in NYC, but public education, wherever it is, affects us all. Is it too obvious to observe that the kid with the H.S. diploma is the kid who will NOT mug me when I ride the 1,9 train home at midnight? (Because who can afford taxis, rent, utilities, AND taxes in this effing city?)
2) As the sister of a saint who teaches 14 ESL EMH kids in a public school in FL, I say: I defer to the teachers. They bust their asses every effing day. I just type on a computer, and I make twice as much. Sacrilege.
3) Re: Kosovo, the real problem began in 1989. Read some of Slobodan Milosevic's speeches from that year (and 1990), and you will see that if G. Bush Sr. and France had had the diplomatic balls to send an envoy to chat, the massacre at Srebenica may have been avoided, but that's just one dilletante grrrrl's opinion.
In the end, I think we can all agree that the "international community" is too slow, and too wimpy, to decry, diplomatically and militarily, genocide when we see it. Machetes, anyone?
So is any nation free to be sovereign over its own defense, or do we all grovel at the alter of the U.N. with its steller interest in human rights (do a little research on its Human Rights Commission members...and last week's refusal to condemn Sudan's massacure.) Two point:
A. The U.N. has not proven itself viable as a "peace keeping" force. My God, they gloss over raping of young girls by these forces. It's corruptness is many- fold, this is just one facet.
B.The U.S. was not alone, this tired mantra is easily refutable by the facts. Disagree w/the Administration if you wish. It's America, we're free to do so. But don't prop up weak arguments w/falsehoods.
Falsehoods such as Iraq as a direct threat to US safety, what with its gigantic cache of WMDs, I suppose.
And seeking consensus and support with other nations does not equal "grovelling at the altar of the UN," nor does it constitute ceding our right to defend our country. That's called a straw man argument. Thanks for a stellar example. Two points:
A. The U.S. has not proven itself viable as a "democracy spreading" force. My God, they gloss over raping and torture of prisoners, including children, by these forces. It's corruptness is many- fold, this is just one facet.
B.The U.S. was not surrounded by dozens of willing allies as the administration would have you believe, this tired mantra is easily refutable by the facts. We had to throw a considerable amount of weight around to get much of the support we did wind up with, and it didn't come close to what we got in the first Gulf War. Disagree w/the dissenters if you wish. It's America, we're free to do so, despite the administration's words and actions to the contrary. But don't prop up weak arguments w/falsehoods.
It's interesting how a local school board fracas has launched us into a discussion of global domination. Ain't conversation cool?
I have to say thanks to Anon for expanding my poetry vocabulary ("massacure"...what a GREAT word).
Tool nails the "we weren't alone" argument. I've seen 13 year-old boys more excited about being at the mall with their moms than "the coalition of the willing" was about following us into Iraq.
My big-time journalism friend, Amanda (who lives and works a hoot and a holler from the UN) shared some thoughts with me. If the UN is weak, it's because powerful members (like the US) fail to take it seriously and support it appropriately (John Bolton will probably help out a lot.). We always hear about the UN's failures, but we don't hear about the successes. She specifically mentions Namibia in the early 90s, and the current UN activities in Syria, Israel, Kosovo, and Guatemala. When we support the UN, it gets the job done. She acknowledges the HRC is a joke, but that's because no Security Council has the stones to call down HRC members like Sudan and Cuba.
Don't be thinking I'll always have to get a girl to do my fightin' for me. Only when I want to win.
Mr. Tool,
I suppose asking the U.N. to have the muster to back up its resolutions (let's say a dozen or so violations) is a straw man argument. And, if you wish to correlate the roughing up of POW's(I will grant you a tragic death of an Iraqi detainee;for which punishment should be and was rendered) for information which might save U.S. troops lives w/the raping of young girls...then I'm glad it's you that lives in that world.
One of the problems with the R-12 school board is that they are too afraid that their constituents will become angry if they redistrict. New schools such as Wilson's Creek wouldn't have to be built and schools like Shady Dell wouldn't have to close if they would just fill up exisiting schools and classrooms by shifting all the students in the district a few blocks north.
Sorry to contribute to the derail here. I'll just say one last thing, Anonymous, and then bow out. Please feel free to respond. After all, we're supposed to be talking about education problems here.
I suppose a big difference here is one of perspective. We were shown photos of naked prisoners being humiliated and tortured, heard reports that even kids were present for some of these "interrogation" sessions. Some were completely comfortable using characterizations like "fraternity prank" and "roughing up."
I don't see it that way. I see it as inhumane treatment. I see it as torture, rape and forcible sodomy, and yes, even murder. The fact that they may have been fighting our soldiers doesn't excuse that treatment, not to me. It's not enough to say that we're the good guys. We need to act like it too.
But my point, finally, isn't really to criticize your views on the war. It's to criticize your casual dismissal of those who disagree with you as somehow either not grounded in reality or morally bankrupt (that's what I'm guessing that parting shot meant, anyway). This kind of thinking, on both sides of the political divide, is precisely what I loathe about US political discourse these days. I'm sure you're a good, loving person who simply disagrees with me on a lot of points. I'd appreciate the same regard in return.
Mr. Tool,
I agree with you in regards to the public arena. There needs to be a viable discourse and not the absolute dismissal of the opposition as wretched heathens. I too am sure that you are a fine individual, we just could not disagree more on the issues. Now, in terms of the political arena, that needs to be more of a power brokerage than than what it is now. What we have on both sides of the isle is men and women whose only concern is prolonging their lives as politicians. They need to represent their constituents to the gills, and if it results in their dismissal @ the next election, then so beit. The Republicans are in a majority and they need to act as such and push through legislation that their conservative base that elected them wants. Stop retreating from the "smear and fear" of the opposition. I'll grant you this, the Dems do a helluva' lot better @ that. But then, we probably disagree on how politics should be executed as well.
Now, back to Shady Dell....
reachers,
it seems we're fumbling around with bandaids on a cancer.
shady dell, as well as the many other schools in threat of their doors being closed, is certainly a tremendously vital institution in its community. but we need to recognize that this is not an isolated circumstance limited to springfield, or even that area of springfield. this is a statewide financial problem. face it. the state of mo appears to be in quite a financial crisis at the moment. i work for the family support division (formerly DFS) of the DSS, and our funding (already shortcoming) is being drastically cut. and education is suffering equally if not moreso statewide. as someone commented in the previous post, it has a whole lot to do with money. granted, it would sure help if they got off their pious, ignorant high-horses and dialogue ethically and democratically. but let's face it. it's all about money. the cancer.
now i won't for a split second pretend that i have a clue where all our tax dollars are going, other than hefty salaries for legislators and pubic officials...maybe a few hammer handles here and there...but i think it's a discussion we need to engage. otherwise we're just talking bandaids.
and if the answer is that the republicans are too chickensh*t to raise taxes, we need to take a look at the economy. does anyone else see a recession coming in the near future? i know i can't afford a tax raise. $25k doesn't go far for a family of 3 in springfield. complexities, complexities. ahh, the days of heaven appointed monarchy look pretty good this free ole' bastard right about now.
sweet Jesus bring some peace or take us home.
out.
Beloved,
Some tax dollars are going to the over 1/5 of Missourians on Medicaid (ah, the elusive 34-46 million uninsured), also, we have a shortfall when your state is 14th in the Union in tax revenue generated via state taxes and matching federal funds for Medicaid, yet we're 2nd in the Union in Medicaid expenditures. You're raising a family on a modest salary; I'm sure you've balanced a budget, the numbers don't add up. I would like to talk to some past state auditors about those crazy figures,...hmmmm! But hell, let's don't worry about that, raise taxes. I'm only paying 45% of my income to governments from the feds to the locals now, what's a few more. Those damn chickenshit Republicans.
Thanks, How-Dawg. I taught a summer program at Prince-town last summer. Stayed in Scully Hall. Cool campus. Didn't see you there.
Stay progressive. Very progressive.
in case anyone was offended (or extremely satisfied) by my "derogatory" remark about republicans, i guess i must clarify my sarcastic tone when making the comment. hopefully we can catch on to those cues, but then again, it's in print, not in person. i find tremendous value in all party platforms, and serious flaws in each as well... for different reasons, so i don't do the political party battle bs.
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