{"id":1319,"date":"2018-11-20T09:40:26","date_gmt":"2018-11-20T14:40:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=1319"},"modified":"2018-11-20T10:42:34","modified_gmt":"2018-11-20T15:42:34","slug":"the-case-for-old","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2018\/11\/20\/the-case-for-old\/","title":{"rendered":"The Case for Old"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Case for Old<\/p>\n

I am sixty-two years old and retired.\u00a0 I spent thirty-five and a half years teaching and administrating in public school, and forty seasons as a track coach.\u00a0 When I was a younger teacher in the 1980\u2019s and early 90\u2019s, I worked in an amazing middle school.\u00a0 Kids absolutely came first and the staff was excited:\u00a0 we made a difference and changed lives.\u00a0 We were a mix of young and old, led by a veteran Principal who cared about us all. \u00a0We often experimented with new ideas, but we always valued what worked in the past.<\/p>\n

Once in a staff meeting, after getting our attention by playing the Steve Winwood\u2019s \u201cRoll with It<\/a>,\u201d our \u201colder\u201d principal (younger than I am now) told us to be glad we were teaching then.\u00a0 He knew education was changing, getting more complicated and would become very different profession in a few years.\u00a0 He wanted us to keep doing what we were good at, helping kids, and hoped we could \u201croll\u201d with the changes.\u00a0 He was right.\u00a0In the end teaching got hidebound with paper and regulations; the reports were more important than the impact on kids lives.\u00a0 Red tape and \u201cannual growth percentages\u201d counted:\u00a0 the light coming on in the eyes of a kid who just figured out a new concept did not.<\/p>\n

There is nothing wrong with new ideas, youthful energy, and differing philosophies.\u00a0 But as an \u201cold\u201d teacher, I discovered that with the new came a loss of values; ignorance of institutional history and traditions, and a disregard for the successes of the past.\u00a0 The \u201cnew\u201d way of doing things swept out the good with the bad, and disregarded and disrespected any who disagreed.\u00a0 When I left, it was a good time to retire.<\/p>\n

What would be best is to respect what was done, employ what was working, and alter what needed to be changed.\u00a0 A melding of the best of the old and the new and a recognition that while new ideas were good, old experience had value as well.\u00a0 The excitement and surety of the young combined with the history and values of the old, like my principal did in that amazing middle school, is that \u201cmagic mix\u201d that changed lives.<\/p>\n

Nancy Pelosi is seventy-eight years old and has been in Congress thirty-one years.\u00a0 She has had a storied career; \u00a0the first woman ever to be Speaker of the US House of Representatives.\u00a0She represents the \u201cold;\u201d the traditions of the Democratic Party in Congress.\u00a0 Pelosi has been vilified, made into the \u201cb\u00eate noire\u201d of the Republican right.\u00a0She represents everything they hate:\u00a0a woman and a liberal from San Francisco where you can pick you right-wing poison: gay rights, sanctuary city, environmental concern, even taxing businesses to help provide for the homeless; the Haight-Asbury home of flower power and the hippie generation.<\/p>\n

Pelosi has proven to be an effective leader in the House.\u00a0 As Speaker, she managed the Affordable Care Act passage, willing to risk her House majority to change American lives by providing insurance.\u00a0 It did cost the majority, but she has worked since to bring that majority back.\u00a0 She is the \u201cqueen\u201d of fundraising, she has given support to all of the successful new Democratic Congressmen.\u00a0 And she has allowed them the space to \u201crun away\u201d from her when they needed to, not forcing some artificial fealty to her leadership.\u00a0 She achieved her goal:\u00a0 winning back the House Majority at a time when America needed it most to serve as a check on a runaway President.<\/p>\n

We are in a time of national crisis.\u00a0 The next two years will continue the \u201cstress test\u201d on our Constitutional system.\u00a0 Whether impeachment is in the future or not, Democrats and Americans will still need an experienced hand on the gavel in the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n

Nancy Pelosi is that experience.\u00a0 She will be like my \u201cold\u201d principal, melding the energy and values of the young with the history and tradition of the old.\u00a0 She may ask her members to \u201cRoll with It,\u201d and if the Mueller investigation warrants it, she may ask them to risk their majority for the good of the nation.\u00a0And like my old principal, she will look to those younger Congressmen to take on roles in leadership, so that her ideals won\u2019t be lost in the future.<\/p>\n

I hope the Democrats in the House can see her value, and find the courage to combine tradition and youth.\u00a0 We need her strength, and her wisdom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Case for Old I am sixty-two years old and retired.\u00a0 I spent thirty-five and a half years teaching and administrating in public school, and forty seasons as a track coach.\u00a0 When I was a younger teacher in the 1980\u2019s and early 90\u2019s, I worked in an amazing middle school.\u00a0 Kids absolutely came first and … Continue reading “The Case for Old”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Case for Old : Our America - 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