Observation

Sometimes, I just get overwhelmed.Usually, I don't, and usually, it's because I don't think deeply about many things. When I do -- when I give more than the most cursory thought to some issues, some concepts -- I get overwhelmed.

Right now, I'm reading a book titled The School. It's a memoir from a woman who was a teacher in a Pennsylvania high school -- though she doesn't say which, I get the impression that it's a suburban school near one of the big cities -- Philadelphia, possibly. I picked up the book at a book sale by the local college, thinking that it was stories about what it's like to be a teacher. Boy, is it ever. The book is rampant with notes about school board members more interested in the budget than education, principals more interested in keeping the gym clean than education, teachers more interested in getting to the end of the day than education. Every so often, there's a note about a victory, but you get the feeling that the victories are accidental -- the monkeys actually typed The Taming of the Shrew, after all.

And I wonder how much of this is true about my daughter's school? I bet, a lot.

It makes me think of the attitudes of the Republicans in Wisconsin and other places, who see teachers as a cheap and easy way to affect their budget. And it makes me think of my own glib comments about how the school really ought to do THIS, or THAT ... when I really have no clue about what's possible in our school system, or even if my great idea is worth spit. Because I've moved on to other things, and I'm not thinking about that any more. Only the teachers are, and they have to live with it. They can't make a glib speech and move on. I think about that, and I think do I have any idea at all whats happening here?

This happens when I think about other things, too. How Great Britain has mutated into such an intensively surveillanced society, and how people want to do that here. How Republicans seem to generally suck, these days, and whether Obama's right to include them in policies anyway (and I bet Republicans could be easily found who'd say they never get asked to be involved unless they give over all their core principles. Nyah nyah, back and forth. ) How the economy could well tank again. How terrorists still exist. How....

And I get overwhelmed.