The overarching theme I want to address is the paradigm between capitalism and socialism in the perspective of public education. The “Ism” animation embodied so much of what I feel about this political dilemma we have created for ourselves. Yes, it was propaganda; however, isn’t that how most of us can wrap up our emotional ties without having to observe deeper introspection?

Wanting to be different and have no ties connecting us with the old world would be a good starting place for our fable. And I do mean fable, because there is always a lesson to be learned, right? So pride, simply boiled down to the root of all man’s follies, is where the issue lies. Patriotism (another ism) preludes us to reinventing the wheel as best we can. In the meantime we are throwing out the baby with the bath water. A nation is only as strong as its amount of dedicated and educated members. So then we jump forward in time and place the most expendable, the ones who can’t become educated due to their lot in life (it’s not a lot, but it is their life) being from poorer families or not the right race, in the front lines with the most dangerous of occupations in civilian and military positions. Protect the brain! Wasn’t that the reason behind motorcycle and bicycle helmets? Protect the ones who are supposed to know better and best run our country. Then we spew off a few more decades and it is time to build the brain, because the protecting of the brain just wasn’t sufficient enough. But was it really the brain that ran the race? I thought legs were pretty important in that process. You know, the laborers, inventors, hands on, down in the trenches with all American know how ingenuity. Where did they learn it?

It seems odd for a capitalistic ideal to dictate what a socialist entity is designed to do. Educate our masses to protect us from tyranny. Educate only to the needs of the students based upon the aptitudes for success in particular fields. If someone within a certain “class” tests outside of their parameters, it’s an anomaly, so disregard and keep them in their place. Educate our children so that we are competitive in the space race, world market, and technology. Educate so no child is left behind.

And so the pattern is set, a pendulum that swings between pushing our students to achieve at high levels of expectation and hold them accountable for a larger portion of their learning to making sure each child is addressed individually by offering the same information at levels they can learn at and holding the teacher responsible for all of the students success or failure. I am excited to see how CCS will pan out in this murky pit we are all panning for gold in. I believe it will allow us to reach each child, with whatever it takes, to get them to where they need to be at the designated time.

Which brings me to the moral of our story. Education is not about power, but pride. Pride has its various forms; patriotism, capitalism, socialism, communism, and other forms of isms we can create. The element that pushed us to social segregation was pride, racial integration was pride as well (aren’t we just as deserving), and the hubris that our special needs children should be treated the same as everyone else. Wanting to look good in the eyes of the world has cost us our best educators – the family, the church, and our dignity as a nation.