Internet Review of Books - "Quiverfull"

This is the review that is going to be going into the June issue of the Internet Review of Books. I just finished it, so it's largely unedited, but I wanted to get it up on here. This book scared me, actually. The full title is Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement. (6/1/09 - replaced the previous version with the one that is actually going to appear. I decided to remove the old one and edit in the new one so it wasn't repetitive and didn't take up too much space on the front.

It's a strange thing how sometimes what may appear to be laudable in one context becomes tainted, reconfigured and repackaged in such a way that you're no longer comfortable with it. For example, I believe there there is some fundamental calls for a higher order of respect that is due to a lady from a man. It might be old-fashioned, but those ideas were instilled in me very early. Hold doors, let the lady go first, and all of the other qualities were reinforced frequently. I just do those things under the spirit of politeness, not out of some fundamental inequality. I'm perfectly assured that she could open the door, or not go first and there would (by and large) be no problem with that. 

But I did think of exactly those things when I read Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement by Kathryn Joyce. What happens when you are involved in a world where, under the guise of politeness and biblical stringency, one begins to control the entire life of a woman, calling it the duty of women to submit? This book answers that question, and the answers alternate between the horrifying and the depressing.

First of all, I need to express some bias. In the spirit of full disclosure, I'm a lapsed Catholic who has thought about, read about, or listened to nearly every religion or spirituality there is. I am prepared to show any belief respect, and any practitioner respect until they show me that they're not prepared to reciprocate. I also have a long libertarian streak in me, and it has a tendency to raise the hackles when I hear about someone being oppressed by any kind of dictatorship, whether it's in a country or whether it's in a home. The challenge in this particular review is going to be to maintain my objectivity on the subject, and limit the comments to the text.

Conveniently, this brings me around to the initial point that caused me some concern. I have a bit of leeway, as I'm just reviewing, but it seemed to me that there was not even a semblance of objectivity in Joyce's book. It was very clear from the beginning that there was going to be none, as well. In discussing the quote by one of the patriarchy movement's authors ("Ideas have consequences") she speaks of the movements response to the problems occurring in society today.

"...But they also mean a more general point: an all purpose "I told you so" to a society that has embraced, even to a limited extent, modern notions of women's autonomy, broad definitions of family and love, and a high valuation of individual rights and fulfillment that, as they see it, can threaten the good of a community at large. When the lumbering conventional wisdom of centrist politics gets around to registering the effects of these ideas - sexual revolution ideas, in short - Weaver's [the author being referred to] fans smile ruefully: they could have told you that feminism would lead to nothing good."

I have to confess that my criticism of a lack of objectivity is not a strong one, and it was simply intended to point out that if you are expecting such, you are not going to find it within these pages. Instead, you're going to hear stories that are deeply disturbing, especially when we see how close this country came to a world in which the "right wing" (a place where many of these ideas have a home) continued to dominate culture at large. 

It would do to mention, at least in basic terms, what the beliefs of the patriarchy movement are. First, and foremost, the belief is one in the utter supremacy and instructions of the bible, which is to be followed absolutely. As a result, and citing the stories of Genesis, a woman's place is in submission to her husband. The prevailing notion is that she is not equal, but rather created as helper and follower. Trying to do jobs outside the home (except as last resort) is to be strictly forbidden, attempting to espouse any interpretation of events is denied, and it seems like the by-words consist of "seen and not heard" in the public arena. To define terms more thoroughly, the title of the book is derived from the name of a term used to describe one particular "packet" of thought within the Christian patriarchy movement. The Quiverfull set of ideas specifically relate to children, but they are a part of the larger patriarchy movement and are tied (I would argue inextricably) to it. Quiverfull families cite Psalm 127:3-5 as the basis for their beliefs on the practice of procreation. 

Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD:
and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man;
so are children of the youth.
Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them:
they shall not be ashamed,
but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. KJV

As a result of their interpretation of this, there are to be no preventative measures to children being born, up to and including non-"treatment based" abortive measures. Any notion of "family planning" that does not begin with and end with the idea of "the more the merrier" is absolutely forbidden. This aspect of the Christian Patriarchy leads to some ideas that make up the core of the movement. First, that every woman in the movement is considered a "fountainhead" for the soldiers of a vanguard of Christ (I'm tightly paraphrasing), and one day through their efforts the "faithful" will just outnumber those who are not. Also, it implies a very basic differentiation and stratifying of women in the Christian Patriarchal community. The tacit statement is if you can have children, you'd better be; if you are having them, you're wonderful; and if you can't have them, you are not a worthy part of the community. With the inescapable interweaving of those two concepts (Quiverfull, and Christian Patriarchy), there are some very real, and very frightening thoughts that exist in the world at large. The fact remains that I believe Joyce subscripted one part of her title in reverse - the Christian Patriarchy is her discussion point, Quiverfull philosophy is a part of that.

If those seem painful to any of you reading, I don't blame you. Frankly I've never considered myself much of a feminist reader or writer, but I had a hundred moments when reading this that I considered renouncing the connection I have to a gender, simply because of these forced situations. I, and I suspect others, cannot agree with any "divine law" that turns one person into an indentured servant, while the other gets absolute power. That is utter folly.

The power divide does not work either. I will forego a direct quotation here as it amounts to an entire chapter in Joyce's text, but I'll attempt to give the shortened version. A husband and wife are having marital problems. The husband is behaving madly, accusing the wife of fictional affairs, committing acts of verbal abuse, and other acts of cruelty. Eventually (it's terrifying that I had to write eventually there) the wife goes to her pastor, a person who, ostensibly, is trained to handle problems of a spiritual or emotional nature. She is told that it is her "lack of submission" that is causing her husband to falter, and that she should "try harder." She is made to take on certain written agreements that are notarized by other "leading families" of the church. These agreements read like a contract of war and state that the wife shall not talk about the husband disparagingly to anyone, for any reason. She shall follow his words in all instances. She is told that her options are to leave in shame and embarrassment from her community, or sign. She signs, in tribute to the power of a human spirit to be captured by the hypnotic sway of a voice that promises answers. The violence, abuse, and danger occurs more, and more, and finally in a state of absolute desperation, the wife returns to the pastor. The pastor yells at her, denounces her, and tells her she is sinning; that she is a "Jezebel." This accusation points to a biblical passage on that figure, but also means something more in the context of the Patriarchal movement. Though Eve was burdened with the "original sin," it is Jezebel for her rebellion and attempts at dominance THROUGH a man that ranks her as such anathema in the community that follows this belief. 

It does not end there. Breaking any expectation of privacy that is to be expected between a spiritual leader and his congregation, their preacher told the entire congregation about the wife's failure. The community turned against them. They were persecuted for the mere fact that the wife wanted to get away from an abusive situation. Angry letters began to flood in. Phone calls were made. Persecution in return for belief, hatred when compassion was looked for.

This book was a difficult one to get through. It will be even more difficult when we consider the sense of scale of the population involved. The numbers, according to Joyce, while small are growing. She suggests that the increasing number of home-schooled children, while not always members of a Patriarchal movement, provides some benchmark as to the number of children being born into communities that will function exactly this way. To give a sense of scope as well as scale, one of the doctrinal messages of a patriarchal church was signed by Mike Huckabee. One of the most frightening ideas, especially to anyone who lives in absolute terror of anything that calls itself "Fundamentalism," is that the idea of the Quiverfull means two things. The first, numbers are going to swell until the more liberal thinking of us find ourselves outnumbered by sheer mass. The second - a quiver tends to have a very specific use, and that is almost universally martial. The ideology is a declaration of war. 

The stories within are frightening, but as philosophers from Nietzche to Green Day (I'll reserve judgement on their philosopher status...) have said, one needs to know what you're up against when you're trying to make a change in the world. Frankly if it ever came to a point where the dominant ideology was the Patriarchy, even as a male (who in the cosmic coin toss came out on top, it seems) I would seek a new place to live. Either that or be considered a heretic. On that spirit of submission, I would like to offer to the Patriarchy movement one parting shot that I am sure they will appreciate, if only to cement the role in this psychodrama that I'd be only too happy to play.

"Better to reign in hell, than serve in Heaven"

Holocaust Discussions, Insomnia, and British Comedians

Today in school...

We had a presentation by a woman who had been involved in the holocaust. She was not directly involved, but her parents were in the concentration camps. I suppose it was inaccurate to say then that she wasn't directly involved, but she herself was not in the camp. Anyway...

We heard the entire presentation, and by and large there were no problems so this isn't going to devolve into some longwinded rant on that particular topic. Instead, I wanted to actually talk about the aftermath. Going to take me a bit to get there, though.

I listen to CDs at night as I'm going to sleep, because I struggle with insomnia and it helps. I tend to listen to one of two things - either drumming CDs (I'm not picky about authenticity) or comedy albums. As most people know I'm an anglophile and I really like British culture. It's something I've had and I affect little bits and pieces (you've probably noticed the "u"s in words, etc.) so I tend to download British comics.

Well, a few weeks ago, I downloaded Mark Thomas. The album was called "The Night War Broke Out." I listened to it, off iTunes, and I'll confess the reason I downloaded it first I will say in my purest form of Anglophilia; "British accent; brilliant!" Then obviously I listened to the thing. 

It did nothing for my insomnia.

Instead I stayed up for the full duration listening. This was hysterical, and insightful, and politically acute. Admittedly it was United Kingdom politics, but it was as applicable here. So then I downloaded Dambusters. If you have not heard that (and I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess you haven't) you need to go to this link and read:

http://www.markthomasinfo.com

If you don't get moved by that CD alone, you're not a human being. And it's a bloody *COMEDY* album! That happened to be the one I was listening to last night before I woke up, and it's topics include the Illsu Dam and the Kurdish discrimination and genocide. It was a very appropriate way to get into the day.

And that brings me up to my classroom, 9:40 (and again at other regular intervals - I have to do the same thing five times over the course of the day - it's part of the job).

"First of all, class, are there any questions? I know we didn't get every question you had for our speaker answered, and I'll do my best."

They asked some questions. "Why didn't she just leave?" "Did she have the tattoo?" "Could she ever go back to Poland?" and many other questions even more astute. Then I decided that I had to ask them a question in return.

"Could this [the holocaust] ever happen again?"

Their answers ran a huge gamut. Of course it couldn't happen again, no one would allow it. People today are more intelligent; they wouldn't hate someone just because of their religion. One of them, which I'm going to paraphrase here, said something to the effect of: "It could happen, but it'd end very quickly because people would step in and stop it."

I listened to it all, and they looked back secure in their answers. I paused, and finally told them to go home and search for words. I told them to search for Burma, Darfur, Colombia, East Timor, the Kurds, Ghana, Bosnia, Herzegovina. Some of them were places where THE SAME THING had happened in recent history. In some places, it was happening as we spoke. 

One of the kids, after she had managed to pick her jaw up off the table said, with absolutely heartbreaking earnestness, "Why? Why don't we stop them?"

Frankly I wasn't sure whether I wanted to come out and tell her that in most of those cases it was probably just too profitable for our country to NOT help. I know where they were coming from, thinking that this country should be the "knight in shining armour." It's something that you kind of get drilled into your head pretty early. 

I didn't leave it gloomy though. I told them something that I was actually pretty proud of. I'm going to type it from memory in here, as best I can. I'm going to retype it as a quote, but...that's not 100% accurate since I might take a little license here and there.

"What can you do? Well, you need to read. You need to read the news that comes from everywhere. From this country, from other countries. Google is wonderful; it will translate things for you. I'm an English teacher, and I have to believe that words are powerful. Sometimes you'll hear that words are unimportant; it's only actions that matters. And that's true. But actions grow in the mind, and the mind makes decisions and decisions is what makes us act."

I then passed around the chart by Gregory Stanton that I found on wikipedia (I'll put in the link) and told them to pay attention to the first three items. These were items that could be found in our own anti-bullying discussions.

I think, I hope, there were some connections that were made.

( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide )

Of Lawnmowers and Copylefting

This article is going to be printed at the Internet Review of Books. 

Spring has finally come, and with it all of the aggravations and annoyances that are part and parcel of that horrid season. As one typing from the perspective of an allergy sufferer, I can tell you that Eliot had it wrong by about thirty days - May is the cruelest month, breeding green pollen from angry buds. 

Nevertheless, I'd like to take the opportunity to tell a story. As my students are reading "The Once and Future King" right now, I'll even go one step further and suggest that this has elements of parable, and satire (and if one of my students is actually ever reading this, you'd better know what those two words mean). It begins as you look out and see the grass rising like a tide up your outside walls.

You decide that you want to go out and purchase for yourself a brand new lawnmower. Not for you is the dull drudgery of the push-along lawnmower, nor do you particularly fancy another rider in the ubiquitous green, red or orange. You are at a point in your life where you require the very best lawncare appliance that money can buy. Arriving at the gardening center, you inform the overjoyed assistants of your new resolutions. They show you an immaculate creation, the lawn mower that the archangels themselves might ride as they mow the lawns of the heavens. A chrome and polished exterior that would look more at home in the pages of the "lifestyles of the appallingly rich" section of...well, the whole magazine would probably bear that title, frankly. This is no mere lawnmower. This is the grass exterminator, the template from which all other mowers are seen, as through a glass darkly. Enthralled, hypnotized even, you hand over "your money" (I will comment on my punctuation later) and cart your lawn starship home.

Using it, you are aware of the jealous, envious, and covetous eyes upon you and your new purchase. You ride slightly higher in the plush seat, setting your iced coffee into the cupholder (one of ten, conveniently placed!) and think, "I have indeed made it to the promised land."

Later on that week, your neighbour and best of friends, Cory (I use this name as homage) asks if he might borrow your conveyance. He wishes, if even for a moment, to experience the good life. As he is your nearest and dearest friend you agree. Smiling like a child being given not only candy, but the virtual golden ticket to the factory, Cory begins to ascend to the seat; a modern day Hilary scaling that mountain of luxury.

He is stopped, however. From seemingly nowhere, a van that is as green as the trees it passes tears down the road, and up the lawn towards you both, tearing up large swathes of grass in the process. Men climb out of the van, wearing green windbreakers, blazoned with the initials "LIAA" in large capital letters. One of them, marked as the leader by his speaking while the others remained silent, removes mirrored sunglasses and announces the party to be representatives of the "Lawnmower Industry of American Agriculture." 

"What madness, this?" he shouts, upon seeing Cory mere inches away from positioning himself upon that mountain of comfort and opulence. "Do you not know that one, and only one, may sit upon that seat, from now until the end of days? We, the beneficent lawnmower industry have licensed this vehicle unto you, and you alone."

Taken aback not only by the sudden appearance of the before unknown group, but the strangeness of their speech, you respond calmly assured of some mistake, and respond in kind for reasons known only to yourself. "Nay, for surely I paid for this with mine own money, that I earned toiling day after day. I am entitled to do as I see fit with it. I am sorry you were misinformed."

The LIAA clad gentleman smiles avuncularly, in a patronizing manner that is able to simultaneously tell you that you are the largest fool ever to grace this earth, and that he bears a secret intelligence far superior to your own. "No, sir, you see, that is where you are mistaken. You merely have a license to possess that machine. It is a common enough mistake. You do not own this machine, no no no. You just have our permission to use it."

"Ah! Now I see the problem. You think this was leased, or rented. No, I signed not an agreement of that nature, but rather a bill of sale. This is mine as surely as the seed that created the lawn below us, or the hose I water it with. If my friend wishes to ride it, that is my own concern."

His grandfatherly visage cracking under such terror as irrefutable logic, the man says annoyedly, "Well well! How are we to ever sell lawnmowers again if you are lending them? Soon you shall be fruitful, and loan your fine machine to any and all who ask of it!"

Suddenly wondering exactly when it was that your local pharmacy ran out of antipsychotic medication, you look askance at the gentleman. "Surely you cannot be serious. If Cory likes this tractor, he will buy one of his own. Then, through my lending, you will have made a sale. How could you argue with such trade?"

The green clothed man looked as though he would momentarily dissolve into apoplexy. "Do you not know that this," he points menacingly at Cory, as if his finger alone were capable of delivering the death blow he desired, "abomination is an ENGINEER? The lowest of the low. My God, man, he will look at your mower, hear the purr of its engine, feel the slickness of its movement and he will make his own. He will copy it, steal it, indeed, make it belong to him!"

Upset at hearing your comrade maligned so, and being done with the conversation as it stood, you said "Could not anyone with enough time do so? This grows ridiculous, and you are no longer welcome here to continue."

At this, the LIAA man hears a chirp from his mobile which hangs upon his belt like a weapon. He answers it, listening, a smile of such pure and utter malevolence it drips like infernal syrup spreading across his lips. "Thank you, gentlemen. That will be all. Now, feel free to share your mower as much and as far as you please with the blessing of the LIAA."

All concerned departed to their respective locations. You on foot, Cory upon the borrowed machine, and the LIAA men in their van. The next day, you are awakened by a resounding explosion. A bedraggled Cory limps from the remains of what was his garage. 

"Good Gods above!" he cries. "You'll never believe it. The damnedest thing just happened. Every lawncare appliance in my garage just exploded! Even the rake!"

"Your mower is fine, though."

Here, if this were a parable from "The Once and Future King", Merlyn would stop and act as explicator for the parable that was told. I'll don my wizard's hat for a moment (don't doubt that I have one!) and do some illuminating. The concept of licensing for a product that you yourself own is a a new reality, but not neccessarily a new concept. DRM, or Digital Rights Management, is the computer form of the idea of protection of the ever elusive "intellectual property." 

Today, there are stark dividing lines between warriors on either side of the divide, and I have to confess there are some members of the hard and fast intellectual property advocate crowd who are marking me down on blacklists as you read these words, ready to come at me brandishing copies of relevant litigation and the dreaded (damned, even!) "Digital Millenium Copyright Act." As writers in the age of technology we are not marketing our words. We're marketing ourselves as writers of these words. 

Frankly (relevant people, do not try to slay me for this, I'm making a point) I don't care if you copy this, click an ad, or call a friend over to read it. I don't care if you send this to every friend you've ever had, or would like to have (Don't spam though; cats are lovely but...God help me if I see another). The only thing I really care about is that you say that I wrote it, and that you continue to keep this version, and all others that are created from it, absolutely free to distribute. Sounds like a really cool idea, doesn't it? Here, go read this link, then come back; I'll wait.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft

People really can do it, and make money doing it! I'll talk about that if the powers that be let me come back another time.

You're pretty far in this article now, which means you've spent a few minutes just listening to me. And there's a chance by the time that this gets on the internet, that I've never met you before. That, to me, is awesome. I won't get "high and mighty" and suggest some sort of intrinsic integrity as an artist here. I just think it's neat that someone wants to hear from me, and it makes me feel good.

Now what in all creation does this have to do with lawnmowers, you ask yourself. Here it is. You own a book. You're reading this (I presume) on the Internet Review of Books site, so I'm guessing you own a few of them. You've probably copied lines or passages of a few of them into your little moleskine notebooks, as I have. You've probably lent them to friends. And you've probably done the same with vinyl albums, CDs, Movies, etc. How, pray tell, does that change when you put the exact same media on a computer? Why? I still own the book. I still own the CD (in conceptual form). Who in this country would tell me I can't do whatever I want with my own property?

I've stopped feeling like Merlyn, and my hat is starting to become more like a stereotypical cowboy hat. I've become an extra in a Western, demanding the rights to my own property in the frontier. I'd best let you make your own decisions while I mosey on off into the sunset.

A few footnotes that I believe you may find relevant.

- In case it wasn't clear from the parable above, lawnmowers are media files (music, movies, even books) and the LIAA is...well...I leave you to your own devices there.

- The money that you're spending isn't even your own. It is the property of the government, and it's only really worth something because "they promise" it is.

- The name Cory is in reference to author Cory Doctorow who would and has said what I just did, only much better. His website is http://craphound.com

- I do credit Apple with the removal of DRM, but the industry is vicious and will find another way around this freedom to do what we want with our property.

- I have heard of programs that do exactly what my fictional lawnmower did (destroy other songs/movies/media files on your computer).

- I know nothing practical of lawncare

Between Standardized Testing and a Hard Place

I wrote this several months ago regarding the state of education in this country. It's a topic that I'm particularly interested in, given my profession. It reads a bit like a manifesto, but I suppose that is the way of it.

This is an open letter to public educators, parents, staff, students, private educators, scholars, employees of any town, and all of humanity in general. The message I am going to speak is important enough that if you are capable of processing the words that I have written here, you are my audience. If you were taught, at some point in your life, to realize that the stark black marks upon the page have meaning beyond their appearance, you are my audience. 

I write to you because we are in great danger, every single one of us - Not from the current and tenuous position we as a country hold in the world, not from the economy, and not from the hundreds of other very real threats we face. The danger I am speaking of is far more fundamental, far more central to the core of our beliefs as a community of intelligent, thinking citizens. I speak to you today of the erosion of the public education system, and I will say many things. Not all of you will be happy, and many of you will react in the ways that have become second nature to you now when you hear my words. Skepticism, doubt, fear, anger, distrust; these are the things what I say will undoubtedly be met with. Know that I do not blame you. I am not apart from you. I hear the lies of the politicians, those in power, as well as you do. We have every right to be skeptical. Do not turn your skepticism into deafness, though. When you stop listening, you stop thinking.

I write to you because we are in great danger as a people, and I write because we as a people, are posing a danger. Education as we know it is under attack from many angles, and the time has past for someone to stand up and say something, anything, to get people to look at all of the issues that need to be discussed. The time for passive "chat" is over. The time for meetings is over. The time for focus groups is over. Look at what we have created, audience, and realize that we need to change now. That change must come from all points, or none. There is no middle ground anymore.

I am a teacher. Those words should be filled with pride, and in the occupation and its great history I have nothing but. All too often, however, I have seen the attacks coming. I am going to share the with you, and let you make up your own minds. In the end, the most powerful thing any of us have is our ability to think, reason, and ultimately, to effect change.

The culture of schooling has changed. Older teachers remember the days when it seemed that parents and the community came into schools with solutions, with open arms, and engaged in a partnership. On the whole, parents would work with teachers, and see them as allies. Not only allies in getting their children through the school, and enriching their lives with learning, but as functioning and skilled members of the community. Over the recent years, that has changed. No group is blameless, and no group deserves all of the blame. Parents, your jobs are hard, and no one denies that. No one denies that your children are special, and that each one of them has something to contribute to school and the society at large. Teachers, no one doubts that your jobs are hard, and no one denies that you have a great many children to work with at any given moment. Both sides must realize that they are not being persecuted, and that belief must be grounded in reality. Parents, I appeal to you in this, see the danger we are in. We are not after your children, and you can trust what is said. Is a wonderful, productive, and mutually beneficial year with your child's teacher not worth the risk of a poor grade on a homework? A quiz? A test? Educators strive on a daily basis to be as fair as they possibly can, and no one is seeking to harm your child. You do not need to battle for every grade, because you are fighting for something empty. I know it is difficult to fight the fiction, but you are not fighting for something real when you demand an A rather than a B. You are fighting for the self-same marks on paper I described early, you are not fighting what is behind them. If a student does not know something, then you are not fighting their ignorance by fighting for a different grade. You are not combatting their lack of knowledge, you are merely combatting the mark that is written on a piece of paper. That is a hollow victory, if it could be called a victory at all. As I'm positive you as intelligent people can see, the propagation of ignorance is not a victory, but a tragic low-note in the history of humanity.

To continue, upon the idea of the benefits outweighing the cost, I am forced to ask a painful question. I know that parents, students, everyone want the best for the children of our society, of our world. Does it not become incumbent upon us as responsible adults to prepare them for it? Too many structures exist in our schools and in our educational system that have become abused, and denigrated to the point of near uselessness. We are attempting to prepare students for the real world, the world where jobs will not ask for accommodations, where professors will not put homework up in twenty different locations to make sure students get it. We are attempting to prepare them for a world where strangers on the bus will be eating peanuts, and where the doctors we visit will be using latex gloves. We are attempting to prepare them for a real world where sometimes there is only one chance. Sometimes the stakes are high, and sometimes there is no such thing as a retake, regardless of need. We have to stop the tide of accommodations in the schools as knee-jerk reactions to a problem, and think about their global impact. The more we create, the more we follow, the more we take away from our collective ability to handle the real issues, the dramatic ones that must be handled. I veer towards ideas that some are not comfortable with, but I am not writing to comfort you. I am writing to make everyone see what is happening, and we must all think about it before it becomes too late for the system to be saved. Rethink IEPs. Rethink restrictions. Rethink accommodations. Risks are something we should educate about, not insulate against. If we insulate against every risk, we create a society of people who will one day make decisions regarding our lives who are incapable of handling the responsibility.

Responsibility. It is a word that I used moments ago as a concept that I assumed all of my readers had a fundamental understanding of. Look around though, especially if you are a parent and are reading this within eyeshot of your children. Am I right? Should I assume that responsibility still holds the sway and power that it once did? There will always be those who buck responsibility, but it is becoming moment by moment, day by day, something that is far more systemic. Multiple redundancies, technology, and the increased dependency upon "retakes," "extra credit," and "excused absences," are making responsibility at best difficult to acquire and at worst unneccessary. Our children are smart. Our children are talented. Our children are, however, above and beyond all else, human. If they see an opportunity to do a little work, and get the greatest possible gain, they will do that bare minimum. Our urgings, our statements of what they should want to do come across as nothing but meaninglessly pedantic gestures. To say that a student wants to be "independent" in one breath, then excuse their absences and missing homework with a note in the next is an empty gesture, and the two ideas are so opposite one another that they becoming meaningless.

On the subject of teachers, we must realize that we are not blameless in this issue either. We took a responsibility, and I might argue a sacred responsibility when we took this job. We agreed that for a portion of the young people in this country's life, we would watch over them and act as their stewards in their quest for education and knowledge. We must recognize that there cannot be an "us against them" mentality. Ever. We must listen to the students we are responsible for, we must hear them, and we must know everything about them. To paraphrase from an inspirational pamphlet I once read, it is our interpretation, and it is our values that give meaning to those marks on paper. We make an "A" an "A" and we can just as easily make a "C" feel like an "A" and a "B" feel like a "D." That is power that is not invested in the letter, the letter is meaningless. It is our decisions, and the values we place on them that make them meaningful. We must stop thinking of the letters and the numbers as the sum total of scholastic life. The numbers and the letters are but a small portion in the overall picture. 

The matter of numbers must force our attention to another topic, one that should be just as frightening as some of the other items I have mentioned. It goes by many names - "high stakes testing," "MCAS," "Standardized Testing," but every name suggests the same thing - an objective measure of student performance. I am not writing today with a political agenda to remove this type of testing. I think that like everything in education it requires a balance to look at its meaning. There are those, and we all know them, who frantically run to the grade reports when they are published and hunt through surrounding towns to see how "we" compared to "them." I say to you that that action is depraved, in ways that should terrify you to the core. You wish to gloat, or fear, the success or failure of another town, of other children? The only reason they are not your own children is because they are some miles apart. We need to look at those numbers as a part in a bigger picture. They are not, nor should they ever be, akin to the sports scores in a local paper. That is a travesty that should never be allowed by a thinking populace. 

There are other issues, to be certain, but my job is drawing to an end here. Yours is just beginning. Do not clip this out of a newspaper. Do not email it to others. Do not read it to your friends, colleagues, or neighbours unless you are prepared to act. Unless you are prepared to stop being a part of the undifferentiated, the uncaring, the mass of people who think this "isn't their problem," you have no business continuing this document. For those of you that are with me, those of you who believe that it is time for a change, and that it is a change we can accomplish, then start today. Start now, and commit to the process. We will see that change that we want.