Public education is what we're doing here. What the internet and libraries allow.

School is so much less than that it is pathetic.

I am a chatty hsing Mom with an interest in all sorts of education-related news. So I am on/read at/post at a lot of education-related email lists and blogs.

As you focus on politics local and national. . .

Almost every morning I read some story like the one I mentioned yesterday where some child is being tormented by his state's testing.

Almost every morning I read some story like the one I saw this morning -- a Mom agonizing over the best way to homeschool. So far, she has them enrolled in her state's public-school-linked (they follow the same curric and testing as ps) at-home online virtual homeschooling (pick your label) choice.

It is a disaster and her children are miserable. Not because her children aren't wonderful. But because the content of what they are being asked to do every day is pure dreck.

But she does not know any better.

Yet! She has reached out and some unschoolers are talking to her and maybe she'll break free and let her creative, artistic, very bright child learn in his own way as opposed to memorizing the nouns and verbs in his first grade curriculum.

But how about the story today of the outraged parents who have just had their school's scheduling changed -- the line that caught my attention was that "school choice is a joke" once the administrators start managing everything.

That's school. Dealing with all the garbage, the detailed crap that passes for what we should be spending our time on. Verbs when you are 6, or you are a dummy. Write a 5-paragraph essay just so when you are 16, or you are a failure. Rearrange your family's schedule to accommodate the school's, or your family is not part of the team.

And what does all of that show our children? If this is how Mom and Dad have to deal with things. If this is what they have to put up with. If they never have time to talk about the interconnectedness of things, to ponder politics or anything beyond shuttling to and fro, what does this tell our children about what to expect from life?

The lucky few of us get to chat here and there and some others get to read along. Most people are too busy with the nonsense to ever get a foot down, to put on the brakes long enough to take a breath and get a word in edgewise.

Maybe they'd like to say:

"Yes, we'd rather you didn't ruin our climate. We'd like you to pool all the resources available and help us come up with something better than this endless crap."

Struggling to support institutions and structures that do not serve, does not make any sense. But who has time to think about it?

Who has ever heard a leader say anything close to what you quoted above? Who has ever heard a politician say anything but "vote for me?"

I want one who has thought about the difference between an engaged public that is educated about the issues of the day (public education) and a public that is just busy surviving the latest system change (public school).

I want one who is brave. Who knows the difference between school and learning. Who doesn't just mouth the stupid "education is good" mantra to please unions. Who knows that in the real world a college degree isn't a sure bet anymore. That it often involves huge debt without a guaranteed payoff. And that many 18-year-olds don't know -- and shouldn't be expected to know -- what they want to be when they grow up.

I like Edward's thing asking people to form little community service groups. Contrast that with the insanity of having required volunteer hours for ps students.

I like the idea of school being more like the public library -- making resources available to people rather than thinking someone on high knows just what each of us should know.

I'd like to hear more specific ideas that connect things like environment and energy and how this might create jobs. Jobs that required varying levels of knowledge but all pay a living wage.

Rambling on but maybe you get the idea. Public education versus public school -- that's my 2 cents but now I have to run to the store -- DH can only eat soft things and he was a picky eater to start with -- pudding maybe??

Nance