Well, as promised, I took the month of July off. I did write a couple of pretty cool brass pieces (he said modestly), but mostly I spent my "off" time resting my mind and playing a lot. I built a bunch of models for a new game I love to play. Painted even more models for said game and, mostly, spent my time with friends and family.
Then August happened.
August is school time. And as I headed back into the classroom here in the oligarchical theocracy that is the great state of Kansas, I was reminded of why it was so important to me to earn my PhD. Education in Kansas is under a constant siege. And, dare I say it, it seems that this open attack on all things intellectual permeates the entire country right now. Every day I see the effects this war against education has on my students and my colleagues.
Nearly four thousand Kansas teachers either left education or chose to teach in another state this past summer. The previous year that number was closer to twelve hundred. Let that sink in a bit. Teachers have become so vilified, so overworked and underpaid here in Kansas, that over three times as many teachers as usual have either quit teaching altogether or fled to another state to teach. It used to be even though we were the most underpaid professional degree holders in the nation, at least there was a modicum of respect for our role as guardians of our young people's education. Now even that is gone.
Teachers are seen as the enemy by some of our politicians, pawns to others, and for the rare one that fully comprehends what we do day in and day out, as unsung heroes. I have to be honest: it's been rough beginning another school year under these circumstances. I've been an educator in Kansas for twenty-two years. I used to jokingly say I was an Iowan just visiting Kansas, but I've come to accept that I've lived here longer than I have anywhere else and, quite honestly, it is home. And I love my state but I worry that the damage being done through the underfunding of our schools will soon reach a point that we cannot recover from it.
So what's a Kansan to do about this? Hopefully vote and raise hell come election time. In the meantime, my PhD brain has become enamored with the idea of educational philosophy and how important it is that everyone, and here I mean EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US, understands how important education truly is to each of us. Not only kids, not only teachers, but every person in this state (and the entire world for that matter) need to understand not only the ACT of how education is delivered and received but also how and, most importantly, WHY we need education. Now more than ever.
So my nights of late have been filled with research and the rambling scribblings and musings of a philosopher coming to grips with the world around him. My thoughts have yet to congeal into a solid philosophical treatise, but I promise you that my mind is fixed on it. I want to tell the world to wake up and to pay attention to what is happening to our young peoples' educational futures.
Now I just have to figure out how to do it.
Peace,
Jeffrey
