Connecting All That We Are.

The instinct in today's world to embrace the sound-bite analysis of news and societal challenges leads us to some cloudy conclusions. We find this instinctive behavior in government affairs, educational problem solving and business.

As we grapple with our problems, we need to recognize the importance of the interrelatedness of parts of society. When I was an English teacher years ago, I tried to help my students see the connection between the literature we were reading and discussing and the historical events of the period. It was important for them to see that Charles Dickens, for example, was not writing "fiction." His stories had a foundation in what he experienced around him. His works revealed connections between a developing industrial world and the horrible conditions in which children were made to work. Schools, though important institutions, were often harsh, brutal places.

Today we sometimes hear people denigrate government, schools or big business. Recently, many have cast stones at the Internal Revenue Service. Of course, the IRS receives our ire because we resist allowing our money to slip away. Yet a relationship exists between the unique American willingness to pay taxes and our success as a people.

Businesses benefit greatly from the taxes paid by individual citizens and the companies themselves. If we become like some other countries, where tax collection is much less successful, our business leaders would correctly be screaming. Can you imagine what would happen to the stock market if people stopped paying taxes!

Schools, too, would suffer great harm if taxes were not efficiently collected. Imagine the uncertainty that would reign if buses lacked a sure supply of fuel or workers worried whether their paychecks were coming.

As a society, we should see the interrelatedness of things we do. We must see the downside to institution bashing because it may have ramifications far beyond the moment.

Schools are another public institution that are taking a beating. This national flogging has many implications. I read recently about the 1.23 million kids being home schooled with almost no societal accountability for what is happening. Is anyone wondering what impact this will have on us as a people to not have all these children going to school? Things don't just happen in isolation.

As we plan for the education of our kids, let's be sure we help them see the connections between all the parts of their studies and what is going on in life. Literature is connected to history. Science and mathematics are related to art. Music may be one of the great mirrors of what is going on around us. If it reflects things we find distasteful, I am hopeful we will be wise enough to realize the image may be showing us who we are or what we are becoming.

Let me close with a story about how we as educators affect our students mightily without often realizing it. Some years ago, my youngest daughter, who was 17 at the time, joined me at a high school basketball game in Indianapolis, my hometown.

At halftime, two men, each carrying a small child, came up to us. They had been students in my English class many years before. As we chatted, they asked if the pretty young woman with me might be the child who was born while they were in my class. Yes, she was. They went on to tell me how they had told their spouses about the feelings I had expressed to the class the day after Sarah was born. Each had said to his wife that he wanted children if that is how much it will mean.

My oh my, the impact we educators have each day!