Extra Sleep!!!
Lou, our “rehab-foster” dog gave us a present this morning. He slept until eight. And the rest of our “pack” slept in as well, so we actually all got in up in daylight for the first time in a couple on months. Lou is recovering from two broken legs and a displaced hip, so a big part of his rehab is our morning walk. We started at a few hundred feet, and worked up to over a mile in the mornings. And since Lou (and the rest of our crew) are generally early birds, most of our walks have been pre-dawn strolls through the dark byways of Pataskala.
But this morning we got to actually see the neighborhood on our stroll. It’s a “pre-snow” morning, with a few inches predicted before the end of the day. The snow is already falling, and there is a gray sky, with the gray and dark houses blending into the landscape. It’s like the town s getting ready. For some that’s actually true: there are several neighbors who make a living plowing driveways and parking lots out. They are quietly getting their trucks and supplies ready – today will be a workday for them.
This is a “working class” town. Morning rush hour here is between 5:30 and 7:00 – folks working the early shift. Sure there’s nine to fivers living here as well, and a lot of them are working from home here in COVID world. But the majority in this town are “punching a clock” somewhere.
And there’s a lot of respect for work, for what Sherrod Brown, our Senator from Ohio, calls “the dignity of work”. And to further quote Sherrod, Pataskala is a town where folks take a “shower after work,” not before.
Teaching in Pataskala
I was a teacher at the local school here for thirty-six years. When I first got a job at Watkins Memorial High School, I decided to live in the town where I worked. That, by the way, is a big decision for a teacher. If you live where you work, you are immersed in the “job”. Going to the grocery store, getting a haircut, buying parts at the auto store (there are four within two miles) you always see parents and students. It was normal to have a parent/teacher conference between the Chinese vegetables and the Taco section at Krogers.
Other teachers make a choice to maintain a more private life. They live outside the district, so they can have a little more anonymity in their lives. Either choice is correct, but for me, to quote an old teaching friend – “You’re either on the bus, or off the bus”. I was on the bus.
Generally folks in Pataskala respect the work that teachers do with their kids. And they also respect the work it took to become a teacher. Most understand what a college education costs, the effort it requires, and the choices “not made” to finish a degree. A lot of the time it wasn’t just “Mr. Dahlman” from the kids, it was “Mr. Dahlman” from the parents as well. Even though the nameplate on my desk clearly said “Marty Dahlman”, it’s how people considered education and teachers, with respect.
Dis-Respect
There is a controversial editorial in the Wall Street Journal this week about Dr. Jill Biden. Of course that’s President-Elect Biden’s wife, and she’s an educator, a schoolteacher who went on to earn a doctorate in education. She now teaches in college, instructing the next generation of teachers how to educate our kids.
Joseph Epstein is an instructor and lecturer at Northwestern University. He wrote the opinion piece demanding that Dr. Biden “drop” the “doctor”. She’s not a “medical doctor” and she hasn’t “delivered a baby” he said. And Epstein makes his demand in as condescending a manner possible, even addressing Dr. Biden as “kiddo,” as if somehow she’s kidding everyone about her credentials. “She is married to the President, she should be happy being ‘Mrs.’ Biden”.
It would be easy to push Epstein off as a “disgruntled” educator. He is one of the few who made a career teaching at the University level without even earning a Master’s degree. Most public school teachers these days have one of those, even me. So it’s likely that there’s a big “chip on his shoulder” about the work he didn’t bother to do, earning the doctorate that is standard for college level professorships.
After Truth
But I think he’s taking a side on a larger point, one that fits in with our current political divide. Education, particularly higher education, is based in research and discovering facts. Whether it’s getting an advanced degree in Medicine or Chemistry or Education or English Literature: it’s about researching observable facts and drawing conclusions.
But we live in a “post-fact, post-truth” world. Our President has spent the entire last year telling us the “fact” that the election is fraudulent – even though it’s not. Even the simple fact of wearing a mask in public to reduce the spread of COVID is debated. We have a third of our nation that denies “established facts”, from the established media to the established Universities. So if they deny those facts, they definitely need to deny the “honor and effort” required for success in that establishment. What’s a doctorate in anything if “we don’t believe in it”?
So Epstein’s opinion is more than just about the “Dr.” before Jill Biden’s name. He’s highlighted our nation’s disrespect for “truth” and those who offer it. And that fits right in with where we are today.
The snow is falling fast, more than an inch as a write this essay. Some doctor in meteorology figured all of that out, and let the northeastern part of the US know that it’s big storm, with lots of snow coming. We can deny that truth, but it still piles up at the door.
