Societal Bankruptcy

Today was "Semester Turn-Around Day", the one day that high school teachers get to wrap up the last minute flurry of Semester 1 and print out the course outlines for a new batch of students.

One of my classes has thirty-five Gr. 10 students eager (???) to learn about the Foundations of Mathematics. I dragged in five more desks to extend my rows. My room will be jammed packed and my marking will probably go out-of-control. And in the face of impending cuts to school divisions because of sparse provincial coffers, I wonder how our teaching and learning will change. Will we be asked to do more with less, again?

I was speaking to a good friend of mine and her husband. We spoke of how the winds of prosperity are dying down in our province. Money is tight in the public sector. Hospitals are understaffed. Classrooms are overcrowded. And employees are burning out. Yet many people are still spending cash like they possess an unlimited bank account. Our society reacts to frugality and austerity as if they were violent curse words. Heaven forbid that a family can't take their children on a hot holiday like everyone else in the neighborhood!

I am not sure where I am going with this post... maybe I am just tired and demotivated to inspire my students that the quadratic function is truly beautiful. Maybe I think we have over-complicated things with our societal demands for more high tech gizmos, more school electives, more church denominations, more individualization, more customization, more epic selfies on Snapchat, more me, me, me, and less of us, together, in this moment of time, face-to-face.

What if we stripped society down to the bare essentials??? What would that look like? Because eventually it will happen. Why? Simple. Society is headed towards bankruptcy. In more ways than one.


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