Monday Musing – Power or Money

Hello all! It’s been one crazy semester, to say the least. I missed you guys! I’d like to begin my triumphant return to the blogosphere with a Monday Musing…

I feel that with money you can live in the world but with power you can shape it. I love my education but it breaks my heart to think that there are students who grew up like me that will not be able to take advantage of the same opportunities I did because of lack of resources and location. Now, I have conflicting dichos floating around in my head such as “you get out what you put in,” and “God helps those who help themselves” and what not, but let’s be real, a student can’t learn without a textbook. They risk being less competitive without the years of cultivating technological soft skills by carrying a laptop around to all of their classes since middle school (not to mention all the resources easy access to laptops and internet provides).

I have a hard time reconciling the desire to elevate the perception of overall public education to be academically competitive with “private” schools (I learned this year that they prefer to be called “independent schools”), but also the desire to send my future children down the VERITAS path with which I was gifted.

Filter time: Those familiar with HISD, I’m not talking about Lamar, Memorial, Carnegie Vanguard, or Cinco Ranch HS; I’m talking about the schools that private school kids were “scared” of and in their ignorance of anything outside of their bubble would be terrified to attend. Yes those schools exist and even more so, yes, those people exist. I’ve met them.

I have worked teaching AP classes without textbooks and I was by no means the only one, and yet our students pass and do well. Can you IMAGINE how much better they would perform if they had daily access to texts, virtual practice tests, laptops, a library?! Private schools can take these things for granted and it bothers me when I feel like I can’t do more.

This is obviously a loaded topic, so sticking to the actual musing that began this thought train: I need any hypothetical future female offspring to be Veritas women, but if I had to choose between my own child and the children of my state, city, county, district… let’s just say I’m VERITAS enough for the both of us. Thanks Sister Jane, O.P.!

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. Go on… Muse with me.