Saturday, June 4, 2011

Upon us

Well, honestly, I can't believe that it's June, again. And when it's June that signals the end of the school year for we who are teachers. This year, the end of the year, it kind of sucks, because we've ended up with a budget shortfall/crisis/cluster in our great Silver State of Nevada. Our governor has decided that one of the areas to cut is education. For example, UNR is cutting their budget 49.8%. Aw, no big deal, right? That's only like, what, 72,000,000 dollars? Suck it up UNR. I'm sure you'll still be able to complete with the 1000 other colleges that students consider. Oh... wait.. How many degrees of study and departments have you had to cut?....

It the pre-secondary arena, I have been lucky enough, because really, luck and seniority are all that save us right now, to remain, so far, the Art and Design Educator at my school. They tell us there could be more cuts in July, so who knows how long my little harbor will last. It's not really something I feel that I can worry about though, because I have no real control over it. And I think, that at this point, if my position got cut, I think I'd go do something else other than teach. Not because I don't enjoy teaching, or think that it's important.

I think that I can understand how cuts happen, and the fact that everyone needs to work together to make it work. Somehow, it just feels like a playground brawl. No, it's your fault, nuh-uh it's YOUR fault! And nothing really gets done about the problem, because we're all looking for someone to blame. hmm.. Sound familiar? How about we type in... witch hunt or blame game into google search. So, my point is that this is nothing new to humanity. It is quite possibly/probably human nature.

Some people blame one party, or the other, or one representative, faction, union, or conglomerate or another. In the end though, it's our future that will suffer, and we are all to blame. But there is another even more important part of human nature, working together to solve a problem. And it is one of our greatest strengths as a species, and without it, our goals all just fall apart. How about we use THAT trait instead, eh?