Libertarian

I am Oxymoronic

(Author's note: This was originally published on myspace with an intended audience of high school students. Please don't assume I'm talking "down" at my peers. Many of the reposts from my early days will have a target audience. I shifted the target as my audience became primarily adult).

There is something inherently insane about being both a Libertarian and a public school teacher. After all, if the Libertarians had their way, there would no longer exist a free, compulsory public education system. Education would be left up to parents. It would cost. Parents could choose what kind of education their child should receive, where they would receive it, and at what age they could finally throw in the towel and send the kid to work. In the meantime, I work for a public school...and it sure as hell is compulsory for almost every kid in attendance.

Lessons I learned as a product of the public school system:

1. If you are really smart, you become educated in spite of the public school system and not because of it. In general, there is much angst that goes along with this. Being smarter than your teachers sucks. I have been privileged to have a few students who were smarter than me. I enjoyed the challenge. What a treat!

2. If you are one of the eighty percent of the world who can be considered "normal" (you can look that one up, but it won't help - never have found a definition of that word that works for me), then you will sort of coast through, struggling a bit here and there with a subject or a particular teacher, maybe with a suspension or two for a little rebellion. A fight here, a cigarette there. No biggie. You muddle through, wind up in a JC or University, muddle through some more, and eventually have relatively successful lives.

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No One Has Monopoly on Virtue

Two prominent Democrats lament the degradation of civil
discourse in graduation addresses:

Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa of Los Angeles,
told University of Southern California graduates it was "poisoning our
politics."

Mark Warner, former Virginia governor speaking at Wake
Forest University, criticized the "personal and partisan attacks" and
"complex issues reduced to easy-to-digest sound bites."

"No one â€” no one â€” in politics has a monopoly on virtue,
on patriotism,
or most importantly, on the truth," Mr. Warner said.
"And that goes for
everyone, from conservative to liberal."

— NYT column by David Brooks June 11, 2006 - see Slate's attack on Brooks himself here.

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Education IS Democratic Engagement

Famously opposed educators come together:

"Our macro-level differences do not interfere with our mutual respect for each otherâ€™s work.
That itself is something we hope our schools can help teach young people.

Our differences helped us consider ways to rethink our ideas and find places where those holding different views might compromise, and perhaps learn to live under one umbrella.

What we hope to model is the idea of democratic engagement, the notion that citizens need to think about and debate their beliefs and values with others who do not necessarily share all of them.

We want the issues connected to schooling to be a matter for discussion among all people who care.

We donâ€™t have it in our power to solve the problems that confront American educationâ€”not those that take place within the schoolhouse, much less those that have a direct impact on childrenâ€™s ability to learn, such as their unequal access to health care, housing, and myriad other life necessities.

But we hope that we have it in our power to provoke the thinking that must precede, accompany, and follow any attempt to reformâ€”perhaps, even better, to transformâ€”our schools."

— Deborah Meier and Diane Ravitch May 24, 2006 commentary in EDUCATION WEEK