Blog reader Kathy Irwin sent the following comment, which shows how important publicschools are as the heart of their communities. This shows why we fight against privatization of public assets, of which public schools are the most important.
She wrote:
A “pioneer” in the Community School Movement was 1929 Elsie Ripley Clapp when she took John Dewey’s thinking on democracy into The Ballard Memorial School in Jefferson County Kentucky. Not all that far from Mayfield, Kentucky where today the public high school is still standing after last night’s devastating series of tornadoes.
Mayfield High School has been turned into a shelter. People are taking refuge there. They are being fed, treated for injuries, fed nourishing, cafeteria meals. Clothing is provided, WiFi, relocation services, even transportation to another safe destination.
It does not take much to imagine this as an example of a community school IN ACTION. No one chose this weather catastrophe but it serves to remind us of what resources community schools can coordinate when administering to The Moment.
Elsie Clapp later ran a community school in FDR’s industrially ravaged Arthurdale, West Virginia. Starving families were literally selling body & soul just to stay alive when this Great Depression era school sprang up from a buckwheat farm and began demonstrating how public schools can enter a crisis and become the HUB and the ❤️ HEART of people-directed restoration and recovery.
Charter schools are in no position to do any of this work. It is not in their “DNA”. But it is the genetic makeup of community schools and there is plenty of crisis at hand. The Pandemic is the monster opportunity but so is the climate crisis headed our way.
Elsie Ripley Clapp learned how to enter, enjoy and energize the very humane energy stream of people-powered problem-solving. Community schools walk right into the middle of the fray, facing it head-on because they are the practical embodiment of We The People.
Thank you, Kathy!
TERRIFIC. This community is sure doing GOOD and the students are LEARNING excellent LIFE LESSONS.
Charter schools on the other hand … are mostly ME, ME, ME.
Tragically hundreds died and first thought are about them and the injured.
Pause.
Ok now the critique.
The common good. What a concept.
I wonder – do anti-science, anti–vaxers, anti-government anti-tax people understand that SCIENCE, REGULATIONS, and TAXES prevented and SAVED thousands of lives.
Do they ignore the sirens and the pin point radar – do they vote down public safety services – do they deregulate engineering based standards and practices.
Did they legislatures and country boards pull back those nasty government regulations on construction because the they detest government using science to guide practice? Construction and safety are based on engineering which is based on… SCIENCE .. so they must be bad.
I wonder if the Missouri AG will sue the tv stations and counties whose sirens went off but the tornado was a few miles away so all those people really didn’t need to go to the basement? (the guy sues everyone from China for the flu to other states’ election laws to school districts that now imposed mask mandates)
(Actually – it gets worse, he actually tweeted parents should sue and turn in school districts that ignore his “cease and desist” action to districts from imposing masks)
I digress.
How many people have to get sick or die before people actually learn and believe (as if that should be an option) Science – and understand “We” in We the People – understand the concept of common good – and why we have “public” entities to serve AND PROTECT everyone?
Kathy’s comment is so good. But with respect to Mayfield, KY, I certainly believe the federal government should act aggressively to help these people. But one wonders what lessons they will get. So I just have some philosophical thoughts that we need to figure out how to address to add to the cogent remarks of Wait, What above. I am conflicted.
Mayfield is in Graves County. Looking at 2020 election results, 13,206 voted for the Idiot, 3,560 voted for Biden. In the Senate election, 12,334 voted for McConnell, 3,939 voted for McGrath. They are represented in the House by James Comer, who won his race 13,344 to 3,331. His homepage currently has this headline: “Comer: We Must Guard Against Potential Terrorist Entry into the United States”. Check out his other “issues”: https://comer.house.gov/issues So I think we can safely assume some things about this community. I bet a large majority rail against any federal spending that does not benefit, think CRT is an existential threat, and I would assume really don’t like “government handouts” in poor Black and Latino communities, for example, in Detroit, Mississippi, or south central Los Angeles.
“The help they need and deserve,” said Gov. Andy Beshear as he praised federal support that is and will be coming. Does “need and deserve” have conditions like timing? Is a catastrophic weather event that is caused by climate change, another issue I would guess few, if any, of the voters for the Idiot, McConnell or Comer admit exists. And, let’s say the federal response is strong (it should be with McConnell’s power). What lessons will these voters learn, if any? I’m not saying aid should be delayed in any way. But on the other hand, it is odd that a community that supports and enable these things expects a strong federal response. For them. And one wonders how these people would have responded if that tornado it western Louisville?
Greg, on target.
Sorry for all the typos and missing words. WordPress!
Striking comment turned post. When the pandemic first hit, every big company put out commercials and ads saying, “We’re here for you.” No they were NOT here for us. They were here for profit. Charter schools are businesses. They are not here for us any more than Amazon or Starbucks are.
When this nation was founded on democracy, for a while, people stopped calling each other “sir” or “madam”. They called each other “citizen” because they were so fed up with aristocratic rule. Those days are long gone and completely forgotten in the 21st century American zeitgeist. Privatization is a primary example of how far we have fallen from our belief in the social contract.
My heart goes out to those in shelters. Private businesses, however, do not have hearts to go out. They are not “here for you”.