You ever think...

...that maybe you understand why someone may seem and maybe are/were acting petty...when they really also might be looking out for you?...

I just got that feeling, today...

And...underneath all the pettiness...of which there is/was much...I appreciate the part of these people looking after me:):)...

You had to be there:):):)...

Love,
Ben

The court battle over vouchers...

I'm sure that this is far from the last time that we have heard this case...

Florida Supreme Court strikes down voucher program...

The U.S. Supreme Court affirm the Milwaukee voucher program over similar objections...I would be surprised if voucher advocates don't take this case to that same court...

In the meantime...what are public schools so afraid of, I have to wonder?...

Not enough money, is the best answer I've heard...

The biggest problem with that argument being the failure of liberals and others who oppose opening up the public school system to come to terms with the fact that taxation will always be resisted to fund public schools...more autonomous funding -- as with other non-profit institutions...universities being a key similar institution -- would far better serve public schools than wasting resources fighting vouchers...

Voucher advocates, I must admit, are on much surer footing when they are advocating private vouchers fundraised in the private market rather than grabbing for public money...but I also don't see why public school students and parents ought not be able to take the money with them to whatever schools serve them best...

As Paul Peterson, William Howell, Christopher Jencks, Chester Finn, and other voucher advocates have argued powerfully...

Funding of public schools, ultimately, should serve children...not schools...and when schools are failing children...children should be able to use that money to find other schools to serve them better...

More money is the consistent case made by public school officials...a case I agree with, generally (though public schools have all kinds of places where their failures create some of those money problems...lawsuits like this one being just one example)...and there is a very fine line between taxation and voluntary fundraising...one involving coercion...and the other offered freely...though American citizens are so, generally, opposed to increased taxation that advocates of more funding have to do a lot of persuading to get taxpayers to spend more money on public schools...

And, in the meantime...as with other non-profit institutions...there is no reason that public schools can't be responsible for raising money more directly and more effectively autonomously rather than through coercive taxation...though it will be a slow process getting to that point, I'm sure...

In the meantime...I and most Americans, I think, are tired of public schools using the excuse of "never enough funding" to avoid facing their failures...and the failures of students and parents, along with teachers and administrators, especially in poor districts...

Pitying students does not teach them...and learning for the future is far more important than reinforcing that kind of pity...and self-pity...

Wealth equity issues must be addressed...obviously...but they're not going to get addressed overnight...and addressing them is complex and needs to happen, much more substatially, primarily, and ultimately, I think, in the private market...rather than through government redistribution...

And ignoring the obvious -- which is the failure of too many public schools and public school students, teachers, parents, and administrators to take the highest standards of education more seriously than the politics of wealth equity -- will not earn the confidence of the public that schools want funding from in quite the same way that actually earning that trust will...by taking those standards more seriously than less important matters, like wealth equity, schools can earn public support in a way that have far more potential to raise funding and substatially improve student and teacher performance than more taxes ever could...or a greater share of the public school dollars, as this case is an attempt by public schools in Florida to maintain...superintendent pay in public schools isn't high enough, I hear...three-digit incomes are just a little paltry for those poor souls...same goes for all the lawyers who make all kinds of money off of cases just like this one and a million others (with cases ranging from special education to desegregation orders)...

Meanwhile...the measley little salaries of a beginning public school teacher, like myself, in Florida, improves not a smidge by this ruling...though the lawyers involved made plenty of income off this court battle, I'm sure...

And what gets lost in all of this...

Is the most substantial opportunities for raising standards for all kids' educations...kids in public schools...and kids in private schools...it's almost as if voucher and charter opponents would rather see private and charter schools and their students fail...rather than share the wealth...

Ironic that so many of the people we're talking about are liberals, isn't it?...

Share the wealth...except for ours', that is...

No matter...

The most substantial efforts to improve education in America, public or private...

Occurs in classrooms, not courtrooms...

It would be nice if this is where are money got spent...

But instead it gets spent on court battles like this one...

This one isn't over, I'm sure...and neither is the issue dead, by a long shot...

Though those of us who are more concerned with improving public and private schools than with the politics of the matter may want to spend more time on those substantial efforts...rather than political and legal battles over funding...

There is plenty of money in America to fund all schools and then some...by a large margin...

The real efforts in education reform...

Are around earning the trust which such money follows...

Have a great day, everyone:):)...

Love,
Ben

Coming to terms with just how rare really strong thought is...

I can't sleep...even though I have to wake up and work in just 2 hours or so...tomorrow's going to be fun, I can tell...

But I am grateful for my resurgent idealism...

I'm beginning to come to terms with just how rare really strong thought is...how rarely people aspire for it...and how important it is that people be accountable to it...because it's the only and better alternative to all our dumbass brutishness...

I do believe that everyone is capable of brilliance...but I am coming to terms with how rarely people aspire to it...which is what makes it rare more the many various alternative explanations...a biological proclivity...madness as a spark for genius...and the other million different excuses that most people have for why they don't aspire for brilliance, even though it's important in every endeavor...no matter how mundane...

People like Joe Nye stand out because they're so goddamned good...and they're so goddamned good...because they aspired...and they didn't let the nay-saying hold them back...

It's so sad...we just had a discussion, today, in our teacher inservice about why academically successful black children are accused of "acting white" by their peers...and the sad truth is that so many kids...like so many adults...are just insecure...about their intelligence and their abilities as much as about themselves...and instead of seeking to improve their abilities to deal with that insecurity...they seek to bring others down who have talents that they lack...

It's so sad...

And it is how so many people in the world, nevertheless in schools, live their lives...

And the saddest part about it...is that intelligence matters to everything we do...from international policy...to education policy...to military security...to criminology...to fixing cars...to being a decent fisherman...to being a decent teacher and parent...

It matters to everything, really...

But we all live these separate lives...

Because some of us get convinced that there are smart people and dumb people, and they are on one side of the tracks or the other...

Rather than everyone taking thought and learning seriously...

My commitment is to reducing and ending that separation and the subsequent achievement gap in schools and in life that grows out of it...

But I have to say that there is so much to overcome on that one...attitudinally as much as around changing peoples' commitments...and changing relationships between teachers and students so that they both believe this, more...and so that they each have sufficient freedom to bring it into fruition...

Creating a society where brilliance is the soft but real expectation for everyone...will take a lot of time and patience and freedom...in schools as much as in the choices parents and students make about schools...

But it is the only real alternative to a world that is constantly rationalizing its baser, meaner, nastier, dumber instincts...no matter how many people get hurt in the process...and no matter how ineffective those instincts are to accomplishing the goals people desire...

It is the "illusionism" that Joe Nye speaks of in that National Interest article...the failure of people to see how their intentions are not leading to the consequences they desire...

And as I've wrestled with whether or not to trust my judgment...my instincts...my thoughts...my idealism...

Whether it's me that is deluded and the world that is just dandy...and as I am perpetually open to the idea that there are things that I'm just not seeing, yet...

When I think about how rare it is, in the broadest picture, to read someone like Joe...or Benjamin Barber...or Stephen Ambrose...or Amartya Sen...or Abraham Maslow...or Joseph Campbell...

People who have these brilliant insights into the world...

That so few people really have...

The more confident I become that I will be one of those folks, with time...as my ideas and thinking get recognized...

Friedrich Hayek had a really hard time getting hired in economics departments until the University of Chicago hired him...

But what distinguishes folks like Hayek...and more folks like Sen or Nye or Maslow...

Is just how deep and profound their insights are for humanity...

It is disappointing for me to discover just how few people aspire to engage and develop and have such insights...

But it also makes it easier to see just who has more valuable things to say, generally...

And what's interesting...is just how much the best people get recognized, eventually...no matter where they started off...

It is good to see people aspire more...people like the teachers I work with...and my family members...and the friends I engage on various internet forums...and the various groups I've belonged to...and even my lame ass friends (they know who I'm talking about) here in Lawrence, when they have aspired...

But it is really rare to read or meet people...who's insights are so truly profound...that they change the way that you look at the world...

But I do have to say that...

If we can't create a world...where all liberals can appreciate the brilliance of a thinker like Friedrich Hayek, more...

Or where all conservatives can't appreciate the brilliance of Amartya Sen, more...

And where they try to bully one another, instead...

Then the ideas aren't for naught...that's for sure...they're the only thing keeping us afloat in this god-forsaken dysfunctional world...

But the less thoughtful bullies of the world do blunt the impact of great ideas...and make their implementation more difficult...and cause a lot of damage and havok and chaos, in the meantime...

And all for naught...always claiming credit where they don't deserve it...and always overlooking their failures...to keep their defenses in tact...to avoid constructive criticism...and maintaining the cycle...of failure and whining and blame...

Until it can finally give way to more thought...

And that's all she wrote on that one...

Either we'll learn the lessons on this...

Or we'll keep living with the sorry-ass consequences...

All of us...

Though some of us at the expense of others...

But all of us being bankrupted by the cynicism...and the lack of thought...and the lack of openness to being wrong...

For all of the hassle that this life I've chosen has caused me...which is beyond plenty, for me...

I'm glad I've chosen a life of the strongest ideas and the highest ideals...

Because every other life just seems so bankrupt, in comparison...

I don't think it has to be that way...

I think we can all learn to appreciate, better, what each of us has to offer...including our engagement...and criticism...and disagreement...when they are fair-minded and constructive...

But as we build that world...

This life of big ideas is the only one that I think I could ever inhabit and be most deeply humbled and proud of my efforts...and the efforts of like-minded folks...

And the big advantage of casting a broad net for the best ideas...

Is that it makes is so much more clear just how rare and impressive are those folks who have something really profound to contribute...

I respect all of the various doers in the world...from the janitor and the convenience store clerk...to the entrepreneur and the political activist...to the teacher and the police officer and the military serviceperson...to the scholar and the professor and the researcher...

But the people with the really big ideas in the world...who are always doers and thinkers, which is the only thing that makes great ideas possible...great thinkers can't help but being doers because its the only thing that informs better thinking...everything else is too abstract to be useful...which is the fate of the thought of most scholars and non-scholars alike...

But great thinkers and doers...are the folks in this world I admire most...

The people who change the world against all odds...and who imagine better worlds...and think carefully about how to create them and make them better...

By inspiring and leading others to take on those ideas...and make them reality...

And that is where real leadership is and always has been in the world...and the only kind of leadership that sustains itself over the long haul...

I better sleep for a little bit before I have to go to work...

Have a great day, everyone:):)...

Love,
Ben