Get out of your seat and do something

It’s amazing which subjects draw attention and which do not. The last three posts—two about the UNC System presidency, one about the USA presidency—drew huge readership. BobLeeSays takes credit for yesterday’s surge in circulation because he thinks he was being attacked. It’s interesting, though, that none of his boosters left a response. Maybe they enjoy his writing but not his thinking. Understanding that thought process is easy. It happens to all of us. Thanks to BobLee for his note.

A few posts back, the Wake County Board of Education was the subject, in particular an idea of year-round high schools; the members of the BOE gave hard push-back to the idea. Their responses were not encouraging, even though year-round high schools would reduce the need to build more high schools in Wake County and that fund is short several million dollars. The BOE members refer to laws that are hurdles to the concept. Laws are written to be changed; the BOE does not want that challenge. The BOE should seriously consider all ideas, not just refer to legal barriers.

Tom Benton, vice-chair, wrote: … the calendar laws … presently do not allow what … you are proposing although I don’t know the details of your proposal.  So … this is somewhat of a moot point unless the state changes it calendar laws to allow more local flexibility.  This very request is in our legislative agenda which was adopted on December 16, 2014.  As a retired multi-track year-round principal I am always intrigued by alternate calendars.  I honestly thought in the mid-nineties that all schools would eventually move to some form of year-round calendar.  However, there was much more resistance—socially and legally—than I anticipated.

So what if there is social and legal resistance, more than expected. That should not stop you. With high school in the late 1960s and college in the early 1970s, we saw resistance to social and legal change which pushed us harder for social and legal changes. Our nation is better today because of those in leadership heard the calls and worked to make a better nation. There’s still a long way to go, and those who see a blockade and go the other way do not help moving us further ahead. They want to get by and get along, looking ahead to another election. To those we say: Get out of your seat and do something!

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Dictionary.com word of the day

babelism (noun) [bey-buh-liz-uh m]: a confusion, as of ideas, speech, etc.