Educating Our Children, Why Should We Bother, Why Should We Care
May 11th, 2006After reading yesterday’s Newburyport Daily News it appears that there is the possibility that the Newburyport School Committee would not feel it needed to ask for a ballot override. The question appears to be still very much up in the air.
But the fact that this issue of a ballot override for teachers (which is still a question mark,) even at the beginning of a possible process, is so emotionally charged, intrigues me. It begs the question, why should those of us who are older 20-95 and everything in between care about the education of the children in Newburyport Massachusetts?
The bottom line for many, and frankly for most of us, is “What’s in it for me?”
And I’ve thought about that question a lot.
What’s in it for all of us is that the children of today will be taking care of us in the not too distant future. They will be our doctors, lawyers, politicians, sanitation workers.
There comes an unnerving time in one’s life when one day you realize that your doctor is younger than you are.
It also begins to dawn on one that the politicians representing you are starting to be made up of a whole other younger generation.
All of a sudden one day the “blue collar worker” who used to be your uncle’s age, is now your nephew’s age.
And you start to feel very old. And you also hope they know what the heck they are doing.
And that’s why education is so important from Kindergarten to High School in all municipalities.
I want my doctor to know what she or he is doing. I want the person at the UN who may have started to learn languages early in Middle School to get their translation right. I want the reporter to have an understanding of both the English language and a host of other things so that she or he can report the news correctly. Obviously the list is endless.
Educating our children well is vital. So if you are a law maker on Capital Hill or a taxpayer who doesn’t want to dig into their pocket, remember, when you are sitting in a doctor’s office, you probably would want the children of today to have had a first rate education so that when it’s their turn, they can make the right diagnosis and possibly save your life.
Mary Eaton, Newburyport