Philosophical Musings

Image from davidbain.org

Our current School Superintendent has a philosophy of, "When we know better, we do better." I've had this stuck in my head for days and it strikes me how completely applicable this is not only to matters of education (someone should send that memo to our legislators), but also life in general. As a veteran teacher and I spoke today, we discussed at length the state of teachers around the country and their constant, seemingly on-going battle with politicians. Why the process of educating our youth has been allowed to become a political pawn is beyond my comprehension. At the end of the day, the most important thing ANY society can do is properly educate its youth. Anything less is detrimental to  the well-being of all people as a whole. And standardized testing does not demonstrate how effective a teacher has been, nor how much a student has learned (...there is tons of research backing that up from extremely credible sources. *See the video below for an example of this, or dig up your own if you're so inclined.).

Beyond the classroom, the philosophy of "When we know better, we do better" permeates just about every facet of daily life. From the toddler who learns touch the hot stove and you get burned so, don't touch the hot stove, to the teen who quickly learns how easily the heart breaks and is more tentative going into relationships, once "we" learn better ways of doing almost anything, we implement them (...well, most of the time). Imagine, if you will, a world where we follow through on this at a much grander scale, i.e. knowing better sources of clean energy and switching to them (instead of being held hostage by industries that would prefer this never happened because it would mean their demise), or how to help every person on the globe feed him or herself, so that no one goes hungry. Ever. (Some people would call this a socialism idea, however to my mind it is a no-brainer humanitarian one!)

I am happy to have someone who believes in a better way at the helm of education in our county. I only wish that so many others would stay OUT of the way of true progress, real change, and doing what is best for our nation's youth (including ensuring students have well-trained, well paid educators who are supported in doing their jobs and treated with respect). As for the politicians, education is not your campaign slogan, your bargaining chip, nor is it your pawn to play at will in order to improve or sway public opinion. Education is the backbone of every citizen within your "realm". The decisions you make about or for it directly affect our future.