More Coffee, Please

I’ve mentioned more than once that I love Doc Week. On the other hand, I liked it a great deal more last year, when there were three teachers to handle the kids. Trying to squeeze it all into four days, in addition to a trek to Hans Schepker’s studio, was not at all fun.

So there was a long period of time between updates, and it’s unfortunate, since a great deal has happened. I’ll try and get it all in, though some of this news is now old—which isn’t to say it’s not worth commenting on.

Most of our students—especially in a time of declining revenues—don’t often get the chance to really experience education. Most of the time, because it’s cheaper, easier, and not as eyebrow-raising, our students spend their time in seats, learning from a book.

Which isn’t nearly as effective as getting out there and actually doing real work. So the visit to Schepker’s studio was incredibly valuable, as there were a great many students who realized, perhaps for the first time, how math plays into more than just the worksheets they get for homework.

Of course, there’s going to be a lot more than just this to get geometry credit. Sure, the kids have a really good understanding of what a decahedron is, but there’s got to be more to it than that.

An education is more than just reading about it in a book, but actually applying it in the real world. The trek to the studio was the application, the project, but there’s still going to be a need to go back and make connections and learn and practice.

And then there will be the need to reflect and write up, but right now, it’s about interest and application—not bad things.

I bumped into a graduate of 2005 at Turkeybowl yesterday, and we spent some time chatting. There was the usual “how have you been?” but one comment rather struck me.

“It feels like the band is smaller than it used to be. And the football team.”

I’m sure it is. The last three years since this student graduated have been brutal, and it’s not like the students are blind. They see things, and they knew what was going on.

Nobody wants to play for a team in a crumbling school. Nobody wants to play in the band when the school, in the vernacular of my clients, “sucks.”

That’s changing, of course. It’s not going to be fun, or easy, however, when the school-board requests that the principals cut $1,000,000 from the total budget. It’s really hard to be moving forward out of the hole when it keeps getting deeper.

That’s not anyone in particular’s fault, of course. The problem is we spent the last three years, when things weren’t that bad, screaming and crying as if they were. Now, when things are worse, when we’re looking at an economy that’s making everyone struggle, we’re reaping the benefits of not supporting the schools when it was easy to do so.

Heck, I was sitting down with my father the other day for Thanksgiving, and he was pointing out that if the district had put in the high school back in 1986 when we first moved here, then we wouldn’t have any problems now. That school, “back in the day” for $15 million would have been long paid for and we wouldn’t be having our current issues.

I realize this is not the best time to be pointing into the past. But really, we need to look back and realize how we got into the situation we’re in. In that same conversation with my father, he referenced the tax jump in Swanzey.

Why? Surry, and a down-sloping economy. Lose the tax base of an entire town, and the ones who remain in the district end up paying more. Why did we lose Surry? We cut their elementary school as a cost-saving measure.

Penny-wise, pound-foolish.

Now things are worse, with the county asking for more money for the prison (which will be a much nicer facility than our high school) and higher gas prices, and a slumping economy dumping foreclosed properties onto the market.

All of which means that “those who screamed before” will be screaming louder. Of course, let’s bear in mind that part of the reason why things are so hard now is because when it was easier, we listened to the wrong advice. Now the trick will be finding a medium course, which will be helping the community while also rebuilding a high school and a district which has been ripped apart by infighting and selfishness.

The challenge will be paying enough attention to the school board that it served the interest of the district, and not some special-interest group.

Speaking of Turkeybowl…

MRHS lost, but that’s not at all the point. All the proceeds from the gate go to benefit local charities and scholarships—that is a very good thing.

For anyone not paying attention, Kristen Goodenough resigned from the school board this week. This marks the third school board member who has supported education to leave in the last three months.

I’m not surprised, given the tone of school board meetings of late. I wasn’t there¹ but from what I understand, Mr. White needed to recuse himself and Mr. Bauries was on a rampage.

I’m as rapid a House fan as anyone else, but really, there’s no better drama on a Tuesday night than watching the board.

1 That interminable poetry course. It’s over in a few more weeks, and the course I’m taking next semester I intentionally made sure was going to be on a Wednesday. Things are going to get interesting, and really, it needs to be recorded. Steve Streeter and Student Government at MRHS have found about a dozen students willing to help with the MC2PA, which really needs to get up and running again. ↺

Gregarious

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