Don’t read this New York Times commentary written by Sandra Tsing Loh (hereafter STL), a writer and apparently a performer of some kind.
I was struck by a phrase that STL used in her, well, let’s be avant-garde and call it a “performance,” not a “commentary.”
Oddly, the first extraordinary boon for public education in America is the economic apocalypse. A 30-year-long habit of increasing privatization of our own little corners of democracy, of swiping the credit card to flee our public spaces, is dying hard. Even in Los Angeles, independent schools are feeling the hit as families who can no longer afford the $20,000-plus tuitions are transitioning to public school. Yes, they may be charter schools but, in a gradual move from competition to community thinking, it is a first step.
The phrase “community thinking” is a curious one. STL clearly means “collective thinking,” because communities – all of them – have internal disagreements and debates. And disagreements and debates, while healthy for a community, are a form of competition, and STL obviously dislikes competition.
