Drinking From the Well

We've come a long way in our effort to save Adult Education in California, in particular K12 Adult Schools.

And as often happens, as quickly as we accomplish something, we see there is more to do.

The work now:

* ensuring that K12 Adult Schools have the funding they need to move forward

* coming to resolution about the mission of Adult Education - narrow or full

* including students, teachers, and communities in the Regional Consortia planning process

* understanding the bigger picture of Public Education - where we fit in it, the shifts happening on local, state, national and global levels, the push to privatization, the emphasis on College & Career Readiness, the changes wrought by tech in terms of both how we deliver and receive information and the influence of tech money on what information is shared.

* understanding the bigger picture of Democracy - how we decide what we want, as a people, how to create it, how to pay for it, how to assess it, and how to change things when we determine the next steps to best move ourselves forward.

* understanding education as a way to care for ourselves as a people, a way to pass on values and skills, which necessarily means that it will be a delicate and sometimes divisive issue for whosoever is driving education is, in essence, driving the bus we all ride to our future.

Indeed, a lot of work, eh?

That's why rest and re-creation, to my mind and heart, are as important as career and college readiness.  Without joy in our heart, without a sense of connection to friends, families, communities, without the spaciousness of mind which, while it creates form, is born of formlessness, we lose our way. 

We easily become angry, bitter, and divisive, sad, discouraged, and despairing, worn-out, sick, or gravely ill.

Those of us who dig the well must have the wisdom to drink from it.

And drinking from it, we must have the wisdom to remember that while we may have dug the well, we did not make the water.  Nor were we the first to dig it.  Nor will we be the last.

To that end, I am going to make my annual trek to the Mountain to replenish myself and family.

I am happy to see that there is more recognition of the value of family and community in the latest changes to SB 173.  You can read about those changes here.

And you can find out the latest in the world of Adult Education at Save Your Adult School and Alliance for California Adult Schools.

As always, I wish you well.

Cynthia

At the headwaters