To The Beachcomber Nov 3, 2008

New classrooms at this juncture are questionable in the extreme due to the financial meltdown underway and to the fact that such construction would belie Vashon’s growing spiritual need, a need due to imminent national mass hysteria over a corrupted government.

School facilities should provide a” framework” that begs to be built upon. Yet school boards tend to put students “on Astroturf”, if you permit, so as to reduce cost. With “Astroturf” include electronics and other technological features that are seen as improving the effectiveness of teaching. Do the new classrooms improve education in proportion? The answer depends on the extent to which students are the “builders”. I believe it axiomatic that one learns by doing. Okay, then, here’s this broken down old school, and here’s this unruly crowd of muscle and charm, let one and one make three: hold a referendum on what they think will improve their education, and then next spring let it happen.

Example? Astroturf aint green. Let the athletes keep the fields in shape.

There’s more. It has come to the attention of many, but to the agenda of few, that this country is reaching a social crisis; hysteria is not too strong a word. But on Vashon this takes the forms of passionate involvement in irrelevant politics and worrying about ferry service. Is it just possible that our high school students are aware of the paradox? Why don’t we ask them?

Next year the Community Council will face immediate material problems and struggle to find a communal voice for the spiritual agony of silence during the death and suffering of millions of foreign peoples due to actions in our name. In accord, the high school should not be rebuilt. If classroom space is needed, plop down some tin shacks and get on with it.