Desperate Adoration
I walk the halls of schools, their eyes and faces, smiling, shining eyes, in their faces, a desperate adoration. I see them in resplendent buildings, signs of wealth about them. I see them in old buildings, their most reliable technology, a pencil.
Walking through a school in an affluent neighborhood, I was struck by the ubiquitous technology. Imagine classrooms with a digital projector hanging from each ceiling, desktop computers sprinkled liberally throughout...teachers eager to use technology because that's the way they have to teach. Walk through a school district on the other side of town, only 20,000 less students, and you see old machines, jumbles of wires hanging behind them, perhaps intermittent connectivity.
Is this how we define equity in America? Independent school districts competing for children, for funding, teaching a powerful lesson--go to school in the rich district, you have everything. Go to school in the poor district, be grateful you get a "free, reduced meal." Is this what our schools have become, cafeterias to the poor, advanced learning centers for the rich?
As we stumble about in a daze, muttering about the Web 2.0 mirage in the distance, our children clutch pencils in their hands, longing for something that no technology can provide, but that lack of access to technology ensures they will never receive--a real life breathing audience that acknowledges that their work is valuable, that their lives are worthwhile.
In the poor district, only ONE person sends that message--the teacher who is greeted with desperate adoration.
Republics, one after another . . . have perished from a want of intelligence and virtue in the masses of the people. . . . --Horace Mann