Let’s get real here, and I mean Dr. Phil real. Everybody’s right on this thing. You don’t want to put your kid on a bus at 6 to get to school at 8? Entirely reasonable. You want to live in a community that doesn’t facilitate having some schools of affluent kids and others of abjectly poor kids? You have approached this issue with remarkable clearness of mind and reached a sensible conclusion.
Okay, both sides are right, so what’s next? May I suggest a duel: Margiotta v. Burns, High Noon, Fayetteville Street? No, that’s barbaric and illegal. We don’t solve disagreements that way, especially not in sophisticated, wired, bestest place to live, Wake County. How about everyone just take sides and start name calling and ascribing base motivations to the opposition? No again, as that would be a childish waste of energy and never lead to a resolu….
I’ll be damned, that’s right where we are, aren’t we? You disagree with me and, well, you suck, that’s what. It’s a good thing this isn’t Detroit or Newark or any place that has real problems, because we’d probably all just lay down and die. We were all dripping wet with Hope and Change a little while back. Maybe we were just hoping those idiots would change their minds and agree with us (RIMSHOT!). Doesn’t work that way. By the time you start caring about issues, you’ve had your worldview shaped by strong forces and aren’t going to be swayed by much. And you don’t go looking to be swayed, either. Do you want to have your mind changed if your news intake consists of Olbermann, Daily Show and Huffington Post? Same for the other side. A daily diet of Limbaugh, OReilly and Drudge isn’t opening you up to hear all sides of an issue.
It’s time for some healing. Let’s find some common ground and admit that everybody’s right, and also that everybody’s being a dick. (And since I don’t have a dog in this fight, as you’ll see, let me go ahead and announce that the biggest dicks are all those who want Obama to ram healthcare down the Republicans’ throats and then scream about the Wake County School Board majority pursuing their agenda) Now everybody repent for their dickish ways and let’s approach this again, but from a different angle.
What are we fighting about anyway? Wake County is one of the best school districts in the country, we’re told. But isn’t that kind of like being the the tallest building in Kansas? Does it really mean anything? Looks like to me we are calling each others racists and animals over an approach to “education” that will be outdated in the next 10 years or so. Every other part of your life is technology driven, individualized, and customizable. We’re ripping each other about where we send our kids to get information when information is available everywhere, and free(!) for the most part.
Here’s a brainstorm for ya, maybe our concept of school is outdated and we should be looking ahead instead of rehashing the 1960s. Seems like a area with a high concentration of Phds and a throbbing Creative Class would be looking forward to the next evolution in education, begging for it, using their time, talent and treasure to bring it about. Because if we really want to compete in a global economy, and we really want to be progressive, a 1940s, industrial-style education system isn’t the way to do it.
You don’t want to hear that though and let me tell you why. If you’re a suburban, no-more-busing advocate, a rethinking of education could mean an end to what public school really means for you: free babysitter. When education fully realizes its commodity status and new distribution systems develop around, it won’t make sense to send kids away from home all day to get it. That means you have to find other childcare arrangements or, gasp, you have to stay with the kids yourself! That means quitting your job, which will mess with your finances, which means you may have to give up weekends at the lake on the Sea-Doo. Apocalypse!
And you there, in the Prius, bad news for you, too. You remember the poors you wanted to mingle with the rich kids? They’re still going to be around. And you won’t be able to say you’re an “advocate for diversity” as a cover for your non-action. You won’t be able to pass the buck of people in your city living in oppressive poverty to a group of racist suburbanites who only love Target and other white people. It’ll be on you to help change things. You’ll be expected to get down to Walnut Terrace in South Park to help the kids with their work. Maybe watch them while their parents work late, stuff like that. This will cut back on the time you spend at Morning Times and Busy Bee. Apocalypse!
It’s easy to disagree, it’s easy to spew venom. It’s hard to create, hard to vision something better than accepted norms. But if we’re such a smart, creative place, we should be doing just that. Let me quote the great philosopher Donald Draper, who may only be fictional and exist on a small cable network, but understands life better than most: “Move forward”. If education and kids are important, let’s quit bitching and get to work on what’s next, not what was.
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