It’s tax day – a day to pay our bills for the services that we as a society value the most and wish to receive.
I mean, we elect the public servants that we think will best represent our interests in balancing private rights and public needs. We ask our elected leaders to use our resources wisely to provide protection for our country, our workers, and our families. We ask our representatives, which means we ask ourselves, to ensure a safety net for those most needy – recognizing that we’re all in this together, yet we all need to carry our own weight as best we can.
Sure, we continuously debate where to draw that line – and we should – about how to balance personal rights and freedoms with personal responsibilities to one another. But lets’ not forget, in a democracy, we make the rules, and then we need to live by them. And we reap what we sow. If we think there’s a problem, we need to be a part of the solution. Or not.
But wouldn’t it be better for all of us if that’s what we did. See a problem, focus on the solution. Not just keep complaining and blaming.
No one political party or person has all the right answers. And just like in families, we can only hope to get better if we realize that. We can only move forward to the degree that we seek an honest understanding of the problem from all points of view, agree to collaborate and compromise to find viable solutions that serve the greater good, and then act with integrity in ways that are aligned with our values and goals.
Right now we’re going through a very difficult time in our country. We’re having to pay, literally, for years of short-sightedness, selfishness, greed, and honest mistakes. We can say it’s not fair, even parrot our teens and say it sucks. But what we can’t keep doing is expect public services and not expect to have to pay for them. That’s insane!
Now more than ever, nationally and locally, we are in a fierce debate about cutting back support of public education. Our local school board meetings are filled with angst and anxiety over where to cut programs and personnel and/or how to appropriately raise funds (yes, that means the dirtiest word in the English language- taxes) to pay for them.
Our friends and neighbors and colleagues are stepping up to the school board meeting microphones with their heartfelt stories of what they want to happen or not happen, and why. Many good points are made on the many sides of the issue. Yet, if we don’t meet in the middle somewhere, find the common ground and common sense solutions, then we’ll continue to be torn apart, socially and psychologically, as well as financially.
And who will suffer the most? The ones with the least say in this process. Our children.
And believe me, when our children suffer, when they are disenfranchised and disillusioned, when they no longer believe in the value of getting a good education, let alone no longer enjoy the process of learning (don’t get me started!), we are all going to suffer. Greatly.
I don’t pretend to have the definitive answers. But I do know and believe with all my heart that we must protect and encourage and enrich the lives of our children with a committed effort to quality education. Life is all about learning and growth. Continually. Let’s not stay trapped in old ways of thinking, or old institutions that support that old way of thinking.
At the macro level, the winds of massive social and economic climate change are upon us. At the micro level, the exploding field of developmental neuroscience is clear. Kids brains and minds, their attention and motivation, their reasoning and emotions and relationships are all significantly different than they were a generation ago. They need guided opportunities for stimulation and movement and engagement and autonomy and creativity and collaboration and reflection and critical discernment.
Those are the skills they’ll need to survive, let alone thrive, in their lifetimes. It’s not about passively absorbing and regurgitating knowledge; it’s about how to actively problem-solve – using internal and external resources to access information, critically evaluate it, integrate it, and apply it to create pragmatic solutions that work for themselves and those around them.
What hasn’t changed is the need for kids to grow up guided by loving, nurturing and limit-setting caregivers – at home and school. But the ways that kids are encouraged and challenged and disciplined – the ways they are EDUCATED about life – has got to change with the times. Or not.
I only pray that we do change and grow, along with our children, not against them.
(For a fascinating introduction to some of the revolutionary educational challenges and changes that are upon us, let me share with you this powerful presentation by Sir Ken Robinson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U .)
We do have choices. We can act out of fear and anxiety, or faith and enlightenment, coupled with reason and resolve. We can get through this best if we really listen and learn, think and reflect, then open our mouths with constructive solutions, not just bitter complaints.
And we’ll have to pay for those solutions, one way or another. Cliché or not, children are our investment in the future. Let’s invest wisely.
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