Martin Luther King III

Last night, Prof. H. and I went to hear MLK III speak at PSU Erie, The Behrend College. I decided to underline "the" because while I waiting for MLK III to begin his speech, I kept staring at the college's name in huge letters behind the stage and wonder what the point of the "the" was. For some reason, it bugs me. If PSU Erie, The Behrend College decides they want my very valuable opinion, I will tell them to lose the "the". By the way, I enjoy writing "the 'the'". It brings joy to my unexciting life.

And no, that was not the only wisdom I took away from his talk. Generally, I thought he made a lot of great points about the Iraq War, racism, violence, and several other social critiques of our society. I was moderately disappointed with the parts where he quoted his father because he did not have quite the same passion as when he spoke off the cuff.

One small aspect of his speech that left me thinking was about public education. He did not delve too deep into this subject other than to say public schools need much more money, children need young adults to be role models and mentors, and being "ignant" ain't cool. That brings me to some unorganized and random thoughts about how some folks refuse to send their children to public schools.

Eventually, Prof. H. and I will begin to populate the earth with our very own socially twisted offspring. We have had numerous heated discussions about public school versus private and the merits of sending children to public schools. Both of us attended public schools. I went to a small, suburban, homogenous school where 81% of my graduating class when to college. Prof. H. went to a large diverse high school outside of an urban area with a smaller percentage attending college. We both attended college and obtained graduate degrees. Certainly, our lowly public school educations did not do us wrong.

I find that here, many folks are disenchanted with the city's public schools and would rather fork out the big bucks to send their children to parochial schools. Certainly there are some schools within the city limits that are lacking in resources and have overpopulated classrooms. I have reviewed some of the reports on the schools' quality and it does not appear that they are all categorically failing. In fact, some of the schools seem to be meeting or exceeding state standards. Others have put in unique programs such as an environmental curriculum to broaden the students horizons, so to speak.

Now I might be overreaching and I do not mean to categorize all parents who send their children to parochial schools. I do think that some people might be afraid to send their children to public schools with students who are economically disadvantaged. That is unfortunate. Just because someone does not have the same material advantages does not mean the person is any less motivated or intellegent or interesting. Look at Prof. H. and me. I grew up in a relatively homogenous affluent community with married parents and a stay-at-home mother, and I went to college and graduate school. Prof. H. grew up with divorced parents in an economically disadvantaged household and he went to college and graduate school. Perhaps I am simplifying things. Obviously, we are not the ideal model and perhaps we are unique in our circumstances. I do think if more parents who are better off financially sent their children to public schools, the schools would get the attention they need and there would be less of a stigma from attending a public school.

Of course, let's wait and see what happens when we have children and send them to school. I hope not but I might just eat my words.