Date: Tue, 09 Feb 1999 11:24:00 -0500
From: "Sean Gallagher" <sean-AT-iwkbaltlab.com>
Subject: Skool's Out


Once again, I'm exploring virgin
territory for an anarchist, and facing
the challenges that go with it.
My youngest son is preparing to enter
kindergarten this coming September. My
oldest, now 8 and in the second grade,
attends a city public school here in
Baltimore. The school sucks--and it's
one of the best public elementary
schools in this city that hopefully
calls itself "The City That Reads."
Considering the lack of books in schools
here, that's tragically ironic.
And while there are books at my 8-year
old's school has books, the curriculum
is focused on maximizing test scores to
get the funding the state owes it rather
than actually learning anything. The
school got a grant for a "100 Book
Challenge", and is forcing kids to read
as many books--no matter what they are
about--over the course of the year. Art?
History? Science? Forget it. We're
hooked on phonics. Even math is focused
on the lowest common denominator.
I should expect this from a
government-run school. But the
alternative of home schooling isn't
viable under the current capitalist
regime, and the alternative to public
school is . . .private school? Home
schooling? To move to another state with
good public schools?

I've been looking for an alternative,
especially since my wife was nearly
assaulted while chaperoning a school
field trip--not by a student, but by a
drunken father whom she asked to stop
smoking on the bus. Then there was the
fight that I broke up, much to the
dismay of the parent who was gleefully
watching his kid use a chain-link fence
as an abrasive on a smaller kid's face.
Unfortunately, this appears to be how
the majority of adults in my school
district think.

Well, I've gone and done it. I
registered both of my sons for Catholic
school for next year. It's the lesser of
three evils--it's more proletarian than
the other types of private schools here
in Baltimore (in fact, the Catholic
school system has become the surrogate
for the public school system here), and
it at least has some level of
accountability to the parents (and
through them, the students). Of course,
there's that uniform thing, and the
religious education, and the nuns (few
of whom actually teach anymore).  So I'm
just going to have to actively
re-educate my kids on ideological
issues. But that's better than having
them learn nothing at all and have the
crap kicked out of them.

Besides, there's nothing better at
building an anti-authoritarian than
sending them to Catholic school . . .:)