Education is the Transmission of Civilization

I should tell you to start that I am the son of a school teacher. We, my brothers and sisters, grew up in a house with daily reinforcements on the importance of getting a good education and were mostly unaware that we were fortunate in that our parents could provide us with an environment in which we could excel.

I mention all of that because every year in Norwich we spar over the amount of money the Board of Education requests of the City Council (and by extension, you and I) for the education of our children.

My children are now adults but, of course, will always be my children. Unlike your children, perhaps, they had the good fortune to attend Norwich Public Schools when offerings included chorus, instrumental music, language, art, MoPeep and a dozen other programs that I can only dimly remember now because we slowly eliminated them in the last decade and a half to reduce overall budget increases and thus slow the rise in tax rates.

When you look at remedial programs offered by secondary schools to whom we are sending our children, designed as tutorials for subject matter the children never learned in Norwich Public Schools so that they can succeed in high school you have to wonder about that carney trick where the huckster takes a foot from the back of the blanket and sews it onto the front and cons the mug into buying a blanket that's now a foot longer.

We get what we pay for and we need to adjust how we view tax dollars that support public education and recognize them for the investment they become instead of the expense we perceive them as being. As has been often suggested, "if you think education is expensive, try ignorance." Trust me-none of us can afford to live in a city where we keep cutting corners on the skills and abilities for success in the 21st Century.

There's not a parent among us who doesn't remember how 'things were back in my day' and wonders why that's not still true. No one steps into the same river twice, because both the river and you have changed. Change is the only constant in the universe and it's how we grow. If standing still could rule the world, how much of what you and I take for granted, the machinery within the scenery, from electricity through automobiles to computers would exist? Would you want to live there and, in terms of education, how do you think we get to tomorrow?

If we intend to rebuild our city, state and nation as the Age of Applied Information begins to bloom, how will we cultivate the talents of our youngest generation and harness their energy and enthusiasm without the tools they and we need?

I've heard it said that every day is a child is born who will change the world. The challenge is we don't know which child it is. Where do we think the next Edward Land, Steve Jobs or Larry Page will come from if not from within our community?

What's the point of worrying about physical infrastructure, from pavement to police stations to gas and power lines, if we persist in the belief we can keep postponing investing in our children? Public education creates a shared cultural frame of reference and values that are a reflection of we are and why we are here.

What do our schools say about us? What should they?
-bill kenny