Santa Claus?

The newspaper had a short blurb about Kerry Bentivolio, elected Congressman last year in the wake of the Thaddeus McCotter petition scandal.  How I chuckled at the obligatory reference to Bentivolio as a "reindeer farmer."  I'm surprised there wasn't also a reference to the fact that he "played Santa Claus."

I sent out a letter asking why there were constant references in the newspapers to Bentivolio as "reindeer farmer" and "Santa Claus."  It's as if raising reindeer or playing Santa Claus for kids is a bad thing or at least something at which to laugh.  I asked why the continual references concerning Bentivolio but never any references to other politicians in similar manners.  After all, do the newspapers ever refer to Sen X as "panderer to interest groups, always with a hand out" or Congressman/woman "habitual liar?"

I didn't expect any response to my letter and I didn't get any.  I guess the lesson is doing honest work, making kids happy, etc. is something to belittle.  But to be disingenuous, duplicitous, and even perhaps dishonest is something to overlook or ignore.  Perhaps we have fallen farther than I have realized.

I casually mentioned to a friend a few weeks ago, "When you were in college, did you ever not hand in an assignment?"  His response was immediate and emphatic.  "No."  He added, "Even though I knew Dr. Gary was going to hammer me on it."  In my experiences, me, too.  I never, ever failed to hand in a paper.  And, although people I tell don't really believe me, we often had 3 to 5 page papers due in most classes every Monday.  Hey, I'm not sure I believe it!  A 3 to 5 page paper in high school was a term paper!  Now, every Monday, every class except calculus (on which I actually spent more of my study time).  A week or so later, I asked another friend about finishing her college papers.  She was a bit aghast.  Of course she always turned in assignments.  She wanted to know why I asked.  We often exchange views on the current state of education.  I told her some, not all, of my classes have significant numbers of student who don't turn in papers/essays, some one-third or more.  She just shook her head in disbelief, not at my revelation, but that students would even think of not doing the work.  But, of course, as the former governor of Michigan loudly exclaimed, "Everybody goes to college!"  And, our current governor seems to have the same view, that everyone should go to college or at least be prepared to do so (which might be different, maybe).

Several e-mails from college mates have rekindled a peeve of mine.  And the target is my alma mater.  Years ago, my father asked me wife (if not in exactly these terms), "Can't you talk Ron into being a principal?"  The implication, clear enough, was that my father didn't value teaching and that I could and should "do better."  Karen, to her credit, defended my occupation.  She knows that, Heavens!, I could never have looked at myself in the mirror had I succumbed to such a thing--become an administrator.  I mentioned this to a college friend of mine, quite a few years later, and he was appalled.  "How can anyone who graduated from Amherst have such a view of teaching?"  Well, it wasn't my view, but led me to thinking.  In fact, my thinking also led to a letter to the Amherst Alumni Mag.  I asked, if Amherst was so committed to teaching and learning, why doesn't it single out educators for accolades.  I certainly wasn't fishing for compliments and wasn't at all pushing myself as a teacher.  I noted that the college gives out honorary degrees, almost exclusively to politicians (dread!), doctors, corporate leaders, etc.  Occasionally there is an educator, only very occasionally and almost always someone in higher education, a college.  Never was there a high school teacher, an elementary teacher--never.  I don't know if my letter had any influence, but for a while (I'm not certain if this still occurs) some Amherst students were asked to nominate teachers who affected their lives.  The teachers were then acknowledged, but not with honorary degrees.  The college also has a campaigan called "Lives of Consequence."  One of the class list serves has taken aim and umbrage at the inferences that involves.  The college, in part, disavowed that at the suggestion that "consequence" meant financially successful.  Of course, it was a campaign for financial contributions.  One of the e-mails informed me that one of my classmates will get an honorary degree for his work in medical research.  And Bob's work has been phenomenal and very important.  He deserves his honorary degree.  The other e-mail brought up the concept of "consequence," citing his AC-graduate daughter who read a recent college survey and took that view of "consequence" as a slight, to her--a school psychologist.  That, as my good friend cited above has repeated, is one of the causes of the problems with American education.  If even Amherst College can't bring itself to recognize as "consequence" good pre-college teaching, then where are we?