GLITTER AND CUTS…

If I see one more piece of glitter, any color, any shape, any size, I will not be responsible for my actions. Of course, even saying something as stupid as this sets me up to be a raging asshole for the forseeable future, because I WILL see glitter, I WILL see it on my eyebrow, cheek, toe, computer, coffee mug, toothbrush, bedsheet, shower, cat, wife, thigh, lip, phone, toilet roll, because my daughter and her friend decided it would be absolutely fantastic to tip out three tubes of the stuff onto two pieces of paper via the kitchen table, and see how much would stick to the glue. This was proceeded by another, even more inspirational flash of genius which saw them decide that the ink pad from a stamp box might be better appropriated by being smeared over their faces. Looking like a cross between a raccoon, Apocalypse Now and a member of the Raider Nation, my daughter thought it would be a wonderful surprise for me to see her new look.
“Look at MEEEEEEEE!” she howled with gleee, only this wasn’t some sappy commercial for cereal or laundry detergent, this was Sunday-fucking-afternoon with me tired and grumpy, so it is fair to say that the response had perhaps not quite been expected.
“GERRROOFFFYERFCCKINGWHATTHFCKISGOINGJESUSFUCKINGCHRISTALMIGHTYMARYJOSPEPHARSE!”
I might be paraphrasing.
“But she was doing it too!” cried my daughter.
“But you DID IT!” I responded, “and that means you must TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR ACTIONS!”
After some scrubbing and cleaning up, the concept of taking responsibility for ones actions was discussed one more time, and I heard the penny drop. In this regard she is clearly now ahead of 95% of the human race, as the ability for most people to take responsibility for THEIR actions sits somewhere between 0% and 0.00%.

Later that evening, with her good self flying round my good friend Rich’s house with his kids after a particularly enjoyable dinner of brisket and mash, Rich, Dawn, my wife and I sat discussing an impending school crisis.

Three schools in a district. Diminished funds. Two schools in our ‘valley’, one on the other side of the mountains and part of a whole other place, yet curiously zoned for ours by the quacks that do this sort of zoning. The edict that one will have to be closed. I won’t bring you deeply into the issue, suffice to say that there is talk of closing the primary school my daughter attends, the one which sits squarely, emotionally and geographically at the heart of our community. Our town is essentially in a valley, and sits self-contained. It has the primary school and a middle school. Two years ago there was a fierce lobby to get a high school in the neighborhood because of the people it would serve/bussing it would save. And now, two years on, we’re trying to save one of them from potentially being closed down, thus forcing local kids onto busses and out of the community to other schools outside the valley. Let me put it this way; our primary school already fills two kindergarten classes and has demands for more. The school over the mountain will have 9 eligible kindergarteners next year, and has a student population already made up largely of ‘inner district transfer students’. Not that I am a stat whore, as you will see in a paragraph’s time, but whichever context you view this in, I think the point is that there should be no decision.

Fiscally-speaking, I am ignorant of the situation. So, it appears, is the person making the recommendation that one of the schools might be closed, because when I have tried to sniff around for some hard facts and figures, it appears there are none. I have been on school boards before when the teenager was this age, and it was not the greatest experience, important issues getting bogged down in a sea of skewed intentions when some simple, clear leadership and directions sans agenda would’ve done the trick on many on occasion. So you could say I am apprehensive as to the true goodness of any potential resolution.

There will be ‘facts’ and there will be ‘figures’ but rarely in my experience do these things tell the full story, indeed, both are only worth the context they’re presented in. Often, it makes sense to view the human side of things, the non-statistical…my town has a heartbeat with it’s primary school, and that primary school buzzes and hums and vibrates with happiness and life, real life, genuinely happy children who ENJOY GOING TO THIS SCHOOL. Parents chat, grab a quick coffee together afterwards, and kids are generally within their pedestrian GPS range to get from A to B to C. Our town’s middle school allows those kids to bike, skate or stroll to school, no bussing necessary.

This is all about communities and keeping them together where they can be kept together. the third school is part of a neighborhood but not a community. Do I feel sorry for the 9 kindergarteners? Absolutely, In the ideal world, would all three stay open? Of course. But in a world where bombs trump education and defence against perpetually-created enemies is of paramount importance over schools and learning, it doesn’t look like that will be an option. We would welcome those 9 children. Yet I hear that the person charged with making the recommendations was a student at the ‘third’ school…to my cynical mind, it’s a bit like taking a vote on who to offer a defence contract to when you’ve had family members on the board of a specific contractor and yours is the major vote.

There is no easy answer, and I’m certainly not going to find one here (well, there IS an easy answer to me, and I think it’s clear what I think should happen) but it underscores the deep, deep problems children today suffer.

My daughter and her glitter-twin, however infuriating said-glitter showers can be, are sparky, imaginative little beings imbued with pizz and zazz and energy. They love their school and it’s energy, yet they might well be shoved off to some other neighborhood and some other building. It will be hard to explain to them why they can no longer go the school within walking distance, instead having to drive 15 minutes to one in a neighborhood they don’t know. Indeed, it would be pathetic to have to try.
“I worry about her education sometimes,” said my wife, and yes, she should, but equally we have to know that all the reading, all the discussion and all the arts and crafts we do with her at home are supplemental education, that we will likely spot a burning desire or two and really focus her energies there with the hope that she can write her own ticket. That’s the game. That’s how it goes. Because we cannot afford $25K a year for private schools, and most can’t.

I will never, ever forget looking at all the high school options for the teenager. One of them, a fantastic place with a $25k annual price tag, was designed to have ‘breathing spaces’ of common grass, and had a large degree of glass in it’s design as the school knew that natural light affects and enhances mood. Meanwhile, all we can hope is that common-sense prevails in saving the heartbeat of a town which sheds it’s very own bright light onto our community, no glass required…because if the elementary school goes, these kids might not feel like showering my life with glitter. And despite all I’ve said, that would be one of the saddest things imaginable…