Feeding the beast!

Sometimes I just have to bounce things off of Mr. Pete to make sure my mind is right working. I told him all about my encounter with the administrator at my son’s school yesterday and we are both frustrated.

It is amazing that in the 21st century, with all of the technology, all of the research on individual learning styles, the mind and body connection particularly in growing and developing children and adolescents, the bottom line is that the individual student does not matter as much or more than the institutionalized, socialism of the American Public School System aka The Beast!

The Beast is old, outdated, in some places even dangerous perhaps. But none of that really matters because that IS the one part of American Society where we have allowed socialism to get a toehold and it’s not going to loosen it’s grip readily. In many ways and in many areas The Beast takes the shape of a sacred cow – something that we have to keep around and respect even after it has lost its usefulness or if a new animal would serve us better.

Judging from the comments I got on this topic, perhaps I didn’t explain the situation well enough. Jeff opines: “When all the school district is concerned about is whether the venture makes money, the little guy gets lost in the paper shuffle.” See the Digital Academy, supported by my public school system will get the state funds for educating my son whether or not he plays sports. What they DON’T want to do is set a precedent where OTHER students decide to leave the brick and mortar schools to attend the Digital Academy AND play sports as well. Why? It’s not a matter of money. The Digital Academy is making money. The general system is in the red? If the public school system was truly capitalistic, they would, re-vamp the brick and mortar school to be more like the Digital Academy or even expand the Digital Academy and allow all of the students to participate in sports and extra curriculars, because when something works in capitalism, you GO WITH IT!

Instead this administrator (who I swear will never EVER speak to me that way again in public or private)risks alienating me, because I’m not REALLY a customer (although my state dollars follow me) AND because his focus is not REALLY on keeping his E School profitable but rather making sure the E-school remains profitable BUT NOT at the expense of killing or even weakening THE BEAST!

This is why socialism ultimately doesn’t work. When you kill growth, stifle creativity, and prevent creativity, enterprises eventually die out.

I pointed out to him how well my son was doing in this learning system and our concerns of putting him a regular high school but his only answer to me was basically tough. If he wants to play sports he can take his tax dollars an go to a regular school. It’s not about the kid. It’s not about the welfare of the kid. It’s about keeping the Beast alive, and to do that we have to follow the usual rules and regulations that we know it thrives on.

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