NKCarr's Blog

Politicians like to say that education is a priority and that children are valued in this country. As steep budget cuts spawn teacher layoffs nationwide, such claims ring increasingly hollow. In our district, more than 53 percent of the children live in poverty, as measured by the federal free or reduced-price lunch program. Currently, we’re seeking more faith and business partners to help fill backpacks with food so fewer kids go hungry whens schools are closed. For many, their only nutritious meals are served at school. These are the same children who don’t have access to doctors, dentists, medicine, warm clothing and stable housing, at least not on a regular basis. There’s no doubt these students can learn and achieve at high levels. There’s also no doubt that they’re going to need more support along the way than their more affluent peers whose childhoods aren’t marked by the daily struggle to survive. These supports take resources, like longer school days, longer school years, smaller class sizes, more technology and classroom tools, and more adults who believe in them. Yet here we are, contemplating how to do more with less.

Finding joy in simple things is an unappreciated gift, one my daughter, Erin, possesses.A warm smile, lunch out, a pleasant bus ride, a few friends and family members to call — it doesn’t take much to make a great day for Erin. Today she happily reported that she had an email address at “work” and was learning to use it. Erin teaches me daily that embracing life is a choice, one we must make anew again and again. Her capacity for love is so uninhibited and exuberant, yet the world would judge her as mentally deficient. Even the more politically correct developmentally disabled misses the point — do we look at what’s missing or do we focus on what’s there?

Why is everyone so angry? For those of us in public education, outbursts like Senator Wilson’s shout “You Lie” at the President are nothing new. We hear angry accusations everyday, along with the underlying assumption of ill intent, the sneer of disrespect. It was disheartening to see our President treated this way, and not particularly comforting to learn from an NPR historian that decorum at this hallowed event has been steadily eroding since the Clinton administration. I spend a fair amount of time each week helping folks understand that we really don’t spend all our time in central office plotting how to make folks miserable, or that teachers and principals aren’t purposefully trying to keep children from learning to read, write or “do” math. The assumption of incompetence can be a bit galling at times, but I find that easier to deal with than the doubts about integrity, the assumption of some stain of guilt or lack, of truthfulness, of good intent, or shared values or goals. An early mentor of mine once said “that credibility is like virginity, you only lose it one time.” Of course, this advice was given when facts still seemed essential to matters of truth or opinion. It’s hard to have a civil debate when facts are viewed as inconsequential, when positions matter more than sound public policy, when style masquerades as substance, and when talk radio is considered credible.

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