Greetings blog denizens. My apologies for not blogging of late - I’ve been in the midst of one of the most engrossing processes of my 17 years.
On Sunday, May 28th, I graduate from Valley High School in West Des Moines having spent twelve years in the American public education system. My last act as a high school student (rather appropriately, I think) will be a presentation on Jonathan Kozol’s The Shame of the Nation, an insightful and truly frightening book which is an important read. Kozol’s premise, that education spending and quality remains divided in this country on largely racial and economic lines, has left me wondering how best such a fragile system can be prepared.
I have been privilaged during my time as a high schooler to visit Chicago (five times), Dallas (twice), Salt Lake City, Philidelphia, Nashville and Atlanta as a participant in high school activities. I have written a play, sung for a full auditorium, written a fifty-page ethnographic study, spoken on American ideals and purpose and led a chapter of Amnesty International. My fellow students have won countless state championships in athletics and academic competion, including a national Mock Trial championship. Two of my classmates leave this fall for the Ivy League. When I consider those experiences which I have held most dear, which I believe have most prepared me for the independant world, which have most educated me, I cannot help but realize that they have all come from internal rather than external ambition.
I have been blessed with parents, teachers and peers who have encouraged and nurtured the best of my abilities and talents. I have taken that energy and personally set higher goals, which I feed off of on a daily basis. That ambition did not stem from a group of politicans, and it certainly did not stem from a test benchmark. Where good parents do not exist, where poorly qualified teachers are the norm and where curriculum does not allow for strong ambition, public education fails. Where those qualities exist, public education opens those important doors.
Some schools will always fall below the mark on standardized tests, and government cannot do anything about that. But some schools still fall behind on community involvement, and government can do something about that. Some schools still cater only to tests and service occupations because they assume their poor studets cannot aspire for anything else, and government can do something about that. Some schools still do not fulfill their obligation as a mirror of their students’ talents, dreams and goals, and government can do something about that.
