More Letters to the Editor
February 5th, 2009It dawned on me earlier today that I missed the two-year birthday for More Coffee Please. Since January 2, 2007, there have been 255 posts and 309 comments—as well as 31,025 caught by the spam filter, and a few dozen more from individuals who like to hide in the shadows.
There have been 3,617 separate visitors in the last year, with 15,781 visits total, across 61 countries. Not too bad for something done in the rare bits of free time that trickle my way.
And, in the last two years, the most heated debate, and the one where the same thing is said over and over again, is the one about the NEASC assessment.
It appeared in the Keene Sentinel’s opinion pages earlier this month again, with Mr. William Felton once again reminding the district that the high school (and to a lesser extent, the rest of the schools in the district) are in need of repair, and the immediate response from the Monadnock Taxpayer’s Association, this time in the form of Mr. Dick Bauries, that the NEASC either
a) doesn’t matter
b) is a special interest
c) would cost too much
d) or is all of the above.
At this point, the arguments are rather tired, rather worn, rather thread-bare. Teachers, administrators, college admissions officers and those familiar with the process¹ repeat what they know to be truth, and the Monadnock Taxpayer’s Association repeats the same refrain about a school in Vermont and a school in Connecticut.
None of which is really going to change anyone’s mind. There’s too much of a “world view” in operation here. If one believes in an “education-industrial complex” that mirrors the “military industrial complex” than every time cost or money is discussed it’s going to raise one’s hackles—it’s always to line one’s pocket, and never for any other purpose. If one believes less in conspiracy theories and shadow governments, then it’s equally obvious all that is intended is an education that will allow future Americans to continue to enjoy the American dream previous generations have taken for granted.
So I’m not going to go there—I’m not going to talk about how weak the argument “we can’t afford this in troubled times” sounds when for more than a decade—even in good times—the claim was made “we can’t afford this.” If now is understandable, and there’s a rational mind present, then why were you opposed then, when times were not hard?
It doesn’t make sense. But that’s not my point.
The kids, the administration, and the faculty and staff have done well—as Mr. Pickering’s letter to the editor² makes clear—but there’s still the problem of the facilities. We can say, believe, and share our pride as Huskies, as Monadnock on the Rise as much as we want—but if the ceiling is leaking, the equipment outdated, the labs inadequate, the accreditation lacking—it casts doubt on the claim for every eye witness who walks in.
And the witnesses are our kids.
Just once, for one time, I would like to see “because it’s the right thing to do” be a reason behind the way everyone votes. I would love if every motion, if every proposal made at a school board meeting needed to be followed with the phrase, “because it will help the kids” just to make clear those actions that so obviously won’t from those that so obviously will.
Just once, for one time, I would like to see voting and speeches directed at something other than the collective wallet—I’d like to see it directed towards the common good. I’m content to argue many things about a school—I do an excellent job of demanding schools perform an amazing job—but not whether the roof needs to be fixed. There are some things so clear, so necessary as a moral duty, that we ought not shirk from our responsibility to deliver them.
I’m hoping that people remember that as they head to the Deliberative session this Saturday at the high school. I’m hoping that, for a moment, we remember to do the right thing, and not shrink from it, as we tend so often to do. It would be a nice precedent to set.
1 Most recently, Dr. Larry Welkowitz, one of my former professors, disputed the claim, and I would argue that he’s in a far better position to know. But reason and logic rarely really matter when there’s an agenda involved. ↺
2 As well as Ms. Gigliello’s and Ms. Weber’s letter earlier. ↺
