Invest in GA’s public education beyond the basics, and watch learning spark | Opinion

Is it true, as many say, that education is the most important aspect of our culture? If so, why do headlines trumpet things like “Children lose ground in education?” Do the governor and the General Assembly have a vision for our state’s future? Are all of us included?

With the agricultural, industrial and digital ages fading in the rearview mirror, we are now facing the age of artificial intelligence. What will it hold? The digital age reminded us that almost anything can be uploaded to the internet, thus giving us access to virtually an infinite amount of “information.” The question then becomes, why trouble ourselves to internalize texts and poems considered “great” or “epic” in this deluge? Faced with infinity, how do we employ our limited memories? And who makes these decisions?

I recently came across some high school textbooks that had been the property years ago of a family member on the rural Eastern Shore, an area so remote that much of it at that time was best reached by ferry. Like the similar Norton Anthologies for college students, this four-volume set of books, purports – even at the 9th grade level – to instill in students the essential “spiritual” nature of our culture.

What do you recall from your education? I once had a colleague, a math professor, who could quote the entirety of William Ernest Henley’s “Invictus,” beginning with “Out of the night that covers me” and ending with “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.” I wonder: Had he received an education?

What about theater? Students used to mount two stage productions each year. Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” was a perennial favorite, one that was recently revived on Broadway under the direction of Kenny Leon, an African-American who directed Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre and True Colors Theatre. This latter group recently entered into an agreement with South Fulton’s Department of Cultural Affairs to provide educational events that will be free to the public.

What an idea! For far too long, Georgia’s politicians have talked about funding for public education in terms of “the basics.” Such thinking is wrong-headed. Certainly, there are academic skills that must be mastered – literacy, science and mathematics among them – but most significantly there is a spark that must be struck, a fire that must be lit. When school becomes a source of misery, serious problems loom, not just in the classroom but for life itself.

When students who have not experienced this spark become epidemic, they create an educational environment that is deadly to both themselves and their teachers.

It is essential that education maintains its appeal for students. Schools should support their investment not just in sports (especially the life-long variety) and such arts as music (instrumental and choral), theater, and video. As affluent parents seek these things, politicians react by taking monies from the public school budget to subsidize private and parochial education.

Instead of robbing the already inadequate public school purse, let’s embrace a vision that will enhance the quality of public education, reduce crime and other social problems and, even improve the health of our fellow citizens. Georgia leaders take note: Industry and technology will soon follow.

Larry Fennelly can be contacted at larney_f@hotmail.com.