“Education is one of the most important things the government should invest money in, don’t you think?”
While I agree wholeheartedly with this statement, it actually isn’t a personal quote. Instead, it came from a colleague at a private school in Germany during a series of recent email exchanges when I was trying to explain the ins and outs of all the goings-on in Madison earlier this year. Yes, believe it or not, the news of the protests in Madison had made it into several German newspapers, including Die Zeit, one of the most respected publications in the country.
Now, my German is strong and my colleague’s English is flawless, but there was still an enormous communication gap. I tried to explain to her why these events were unfolding (or at least to provide some semblance of an explanation, since I still don’t quite understand it either), but no matter how many approaches I took, she didn’t get it.
When I discuss issues like this, I do my best to lay out both sides of the story, but inevitably, my perspective is likely to be a bit skewed. In a profession that involves such a huge investment of one’s heart and soul, it’s hard not to take the events of the past five months personally. Thus, trying to give a well-reasoned answer presents something of a challenge, but in the interests of fairness, it’s a challenge I endeavor to conquer.
On the other hand, even disallowing my own admitted bias, it’s pretty hard to come up with a defensible, reasoned answer to a question she posed:
“Why in the world would your government take money away from education and give it to businesses instead?”
Once again, she didn’t quite get it.
But then again, neither do I.
