Welcome to Kindergarten

Yesterday I brought my new workbench to a near completed state and assisted my new son-in-law in making a cherry box. He plans it as a gift to his dad.

On the workbench, I still need to do some additional sanding, a touch of routing, and the application of a Danish oil finish.

I've been avoiding writing in the blog for a few days. What does one write about when there are larger issues at hand. I have been sending short letters to my local and statewide newspapers about the mess we are in.

It seems that policing has a dual purpose. One is to protect and serve. But apparently protecting and serving often has to do with service to a social elite and protection of their properties, and not the people on the street.

It is often said that education has a dual purpose, one that's professed as a humanitarian ideal, that of educating the people, and with the other being control: of kids and classrooms and the social order necessary for protecting the interests of the societal elite.

So what about schooling during these days of crisis and potential change. Educators and parents ask about ceremonies and proof of learning as measured by seat time in classrooms, SAT and ACT scores and standardized testing of all kinds. The truth is that if learning is our concern, there's a whole lot happening during the coronavirus pandemic and disruption in the streets. What's learned may not be as easily measured in a standardized test, but may be more crucial to the health of our families, communities and nation.

Just as in the early days of Kindergarten children were to learn to listen to each other and to get along with each other and to respect each other and to value the differences between us, and we are all back at that point. Welcome to Kindergarten. I pray that we make the best of it.

Make, fix, create, and assist others in learning lifewise. Believe me, please, it's worth it.