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| Sen. Torrey Westrom |
Is our superintendent "very disgusted?" (Reminds me of the "very silly" political party in a Monty Python spoof of England's government system, many years ago of course.)
Our State Senator Torrey Westrom claims he's getting feedback - no "a lot of feedback" - from superintendents and families of Class of 2020 graduates. The upshot is that school people are "very disgusted with the governor coming out and kaboshing most graduation plans. Many schools locally were trying to decide how they could safely advance them. The governor basically squashed it."
Such kinetic terms: "kabosh" and "squash." (Actually wouldn't the term be "kibosh" with an "i"?) Gee, a politician wouldn't be inclined toward language of hyperbole, would he? Now that this language is established here, let's continue, as our pol claimed the governor "stepped in it on this one."
Westrom touts "local control." Republicans like him like to tout local control except on issues where they swear they are simply morally right. Let the states legalize marijuana? Let California reach an agreement with car makers to reduce harmful emissions? The Trump administration took action on that one, saying "only the Federal government" has authority in this. Local control? States rights? Oh my.
Would anyone be on board with me in saying that high school graduations are pure fluff? It's pomp and ceremony. To accomplish what? We get the rhetoric about how our kids have accomplished so much, to be recognized on this one arbitrarily selected day. It's a selling job by our public schools: "Hey, look what we've done for your kids - how could you have done this without us?"
Well, the current circumstances with the shutdown have families progressing with learning with the obvious attributes afforded by our digital world. There is nothing you cannot master by simply harnessing the attributes of the Internet, a thing that didn't even exist when I was young. Families can engage in learning systems that are comfortable for them. The pace is suited to your preference. You can review anything you want at any time.
We've always heard the proclamation of kids wanting to learn. It may be true but our legacy system (pre-digital) was set up as onerous, as if textbook writers wanted to 1) bore us, and 2) deliberately make knowledge elusive. Regarding No. 2, remember that in our legacy system, teachers had to "ration" grades. Perhaps this was less so as the years went on - some enlightenment crept in - but my generation was dragged through school when 'A' grades were scarce and we all knew the very small sliver of "smart" kids who'd corner them. Heavens, that was most certainly true with my high school class.
A college teacher would survey his/her class on the first day and realize "a certain percentage of these kids are going to have to get a 'C' grade." The teacher was literally required to follow through on this - failure would have professional consequences. It's ridiculous, of course: how could this teacher know for a fact that a given, rather large percentage of kids were going to have that much trouble learning?
A theory I have floated before: since schools exist largely to replicate the workplace, I would opine that schools in the industrial age prepped kids for jobs that were going to be unpleasant and boring - the proverbial "Mr. Dithers" type of boss lording over you. This isn't to say the jobs of our new digital age are literally easy, but they are different. They call on practitioners to have a passion for their work, not to "drag themselves" through a work day. There is pressure to perform because of the sheer power of our new info systems.
Tom Friedman talked about how if the programmer of a plane's route gets just one digit wrong, well, all hell breaks loose. The power is in a simple series of numbers being able to accomplish so much, bypassing the "busy" nature of analog systems.
An article the other day claimed that as many as 40 percent of all parents are going to want to continue home learning, "home schooling," when the current crisis is over. Of course, we have no guarantee yet that the crisis will be "over" according to an organized timetable. We aren't all going to start taking this hydroxy-whatever, for sure.
The article I cite here should have an asterisk because it's from Breitbart, an outlet which shall we say has recognizable spots. But it might be true - would not surprise me.
The term "home schooling" remains a little tainted because it was once associated with religious zealots. Today the whole Republican Party of America is associated with religious zealots, a class of people that seems to celebrate sheer ignorance much of the time. Right, Sen. Westrom? Seems rather paradoxical they go into fawning over education and the puffy, superfluous and overdone "graduations."
No you kids, you have not gotten past some sort of significant hurdle by "graduating" and getting your "diploma." It just means our public education is done with you and you need to move on so the next crop can come up. You are the same person on the morning after graduation as you were the day before. Don't be fooled. And don't be in a rush to decide what you're going to do next. The fact of your "graduation" will end up meaning nothing.
How can one argue that high school diplomas are so essential, when we are beaten over the head continually by this mantra about post-high school education being so necessary? And once we get to where everyone has a college degree, we'll start to hear "well, you'd better get a graduate degree." Sound like a racket to you?
Sen. Westrom, you "protest too much" on this matter of graduations getting this "kabosh" or "kibosh." Temper your language a little, too. I realize that's hard in this age of Trump who I'm sure is your hero or guru.
Does our local school superintendent Troy Ferguson really agree with the senator?"
(Let's note that the "kabosh" spelling was probably chosen by the radio station website article writer. What's his name, Marshall Tucker?)
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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