as I have watched events and responses to them over the past few days.
I have mixed feelings about bin Laden being killed rather than captured - if he did not have a weapon I have a hard time believing that he could not have been overwhelmed by Navy Seals. On the other hand, I agree with not releasing the pictures. At some point our desire for revenge and gloating needs to stop.
I understand the outburst from the American people that the issue of Osama bin Laden was over. The spontaneity of the responses makes it clear that many of the American people needed some sense of closure.
I think the President and the administration did a reasonably good job in this, but did not handle the aftermath as well - there was too much "fog of war" and contradictory statements. In this there really needed to be clarity.
But there are other things on my mind.
Yesterday the NAEP results on Civic Education were released. I was invited to the event where the National Governing Board for NAEP was presenting, because the member of the board who presided over the session is the parent of three students to whom I have taught AP US Government and Politics. Because we are so close to the AP examination and the state examination, I really could not take the time off. Tonya Miles stopped by the school to talk with me afterwards, to thank me for teaching her children, and told me that she told the conference about how I teach and the difference it made in her children's interest in civic matters. Given that Sandra Day O'Connor was also there, it might have been nice to hear! But there is a bigger issue involved.
We have not emphasized civic education. We have been too narrowly focused on reading and math, and on STEM - science, technology, engineering and math. Yes, all of our students need basic skills in reading and mathematics. Not all our student will necessarily go immediately to college. Not all will need higher math. But all will potentially be participants in our civic processes. Too often our approach to civic education is deadly dull, and has the effect of turning off students. Perhaps that is part of the reason our level of participating in things like voting is so piss-poor in many cases.
Somehow I think the mistakes we have made in civic education are symptomatic of what is wrong with our thinking of education as a whole. As adults we do not remember what it was like to be a child, an adolescent. Rather than inviting and enticing, we impose - we decide what we think is important without regard for the lives they are living now and how to connect what we might rightly think is important in a way that really makes sense to them.
One way that would make a difference is to take their thinking seriously, no matter how flawed we might think it is. But that takes time, and it is not something easily assessed by machine scored multiple choice tests.
It probably surprises few who read me regularly that aspects of education are always a part of my thinking. And that thinking always requires me to try to place myself in the mindset of my students.
How did they react to the news about Bin Laden? Why? What does that tell us about them that we need to know to be better teachers for them? How perhaps might this relate to the issue of civic education?
But my mind wanders to other issues. We have homeless students in our school. Some of the funds raised when we showed "Race to Nowhere" have now been donated to a fund for them, so that several who otherwise could not afford it are now able to go to the Senior Prom. I do not know who most of those students are, which is probably good. But I do know the number has been increasing, which is worrisome.
Also worrisome are the health issues I am seeing. Not all of the benefits of the health care law have yet kicked in. Recently I had a student who is an athlete, but now because of an irregular heartbeat has to wear a heart monitor round the clock for a while as they try to establish her baseline. Not being able to run has shattered her, and we have had to work to provide support. Other students are having dental problems, or are getting insufficient nutrition because of the family situation. Some of these things are ongoing problems, but even as Wall Street has recovered (although not today) employment for their families has not, and they are cutting corners on their health.
There I go again. Looking at issues through the eyes and lives of my students.
I worry about human rights - for all the praise I am prepared to give the Obama administration on its handling of the bin Laden situation, and especially on their ability to keep secrets over a long period of time, I remain troubled by too much of what I am seeing - with Guantanamo, albeit recognizing that their hands are somewhat tied by Congress, on Bradley Manning, on the willingness to continue some of the worst of the Bush administration approaches.
I worry about the continuing degradation of the environment.
I see perversions of justice in too many of the decision of SCOTUS, I wonder if Ginsberg will step down at the end of this term, or no later than the end of next term, so Obama and a Democratic Senate can insure that the Court does not tilt further to the right? I look at the Justices on the other side and a part of me wishes ill health on Scalia so that the tilt to the right could be corrected. A part of me. Except that ultimately I cannot wish ill health on anyone.
I have been offline for much of the past two days. I have read some, written little. There were things about which I could have written. But I was not sure my adding my words in any way improved the conversation. So I remained silent.
This evening I reflect a bit, offer a few semicoherent observations as I think aloud.
Then I realize this - I cannot not care. I cannot turn away from wrongs I believe need to be addressed. I cannot pretend that suffering of any kind affects me, here or in other nations.
Words are insufficient, but sometimes they are necessary. If my words persuade me or someone else to take a single action to alleviate suffering or to pick up and support someone in distress, then how can I not offer them?
Random thoughts. Only semi-coherent. Probably even less than semi-connected.
My words. From my mind. From my life.
Did I waste the electrons?
Peace.