Relativity

No man who worships education has got the best out of education. Without a gentle contempt for education no man's education is complete.
G. K. Chesterton
(1874-1936) British author
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There are few things I am more keenly aware of the value of than my education.

Value, of course, is relative.

Monetary value? Well, you can talk to my parents about their tuition bills from Loyola College in Maryland. I'm sure they'll be happy to opine on the "highway robbery" aspect of higher education.

But, consider this. Until college, I went to public school. School for free.

But public school, of course, is relative.

Say those words in Baltimore City, and you've just thrown the future of every school-aged child down the drain. Public schools fail children here. They lose them in sub-par systems with sub-par teachers and sub-par facilities.

Ask my sister about P.S. 25 in the South Bronx. Ask her if that public school has failed those kids. Ask her about the value of education for those students.

The disparity in the education system in this country is shameful.

Shameful.

My boss interviewed a young woman for an internship position today. After the interview, she came back into the office waving this girl's resumé.

"Listen to this ..." she said, and started rattling off points.

• National Merit Commended Scholar
• National Honor Society
• AP Scholar
• 7th in her class
• 800 on the verbal section of the SATs
• Varsity lacrosse
• Varsity cross country
• Service Leadership

Everyone in my office sat, flabbergasted by what this woman had accomplished as a high school student.

Flabbergasted.

While I sat, and thought, well ... that sounds like about half of the people I went to high school with. And hell, I had a lot of those accolades on my college resumé too.

I have always extolled the quality of my education in the Darien Public Schools. I have come across few people in my journeys since high school who can boast a primary education as comprehensive and stellar as the one I received in Darien.

I remember having an inkling that, "hey, I guess not everybody got as good of an education as I did," very shortly after arriving at Loyola.

When, while proofreading papers of friends and roommates who had been valedictorians of at respective high schools, I discovered that they couldn't write to a level even close to where I, and my classmates from DHS could.

When, after receiving my syllabus for my Understanding Literature course freshman year, I realized that I had read all of the books on the list ... most of them in 9th and 10th grade.

When I tested out of all of my prerequisites in French, Math, and Writing and when my AP credits placed me out of History, Science, and English courses.

Yeah, I was a good student. Yeah, I'm a smart girl. And yeah, I worked my ass off in high school.

But more than any god-given intelligence or work ethic, it was the opportunities I was given in Darien that set me apart from the majority of people in this country.

How many people have the opportunities to take classes across the disciplines?

• Western Civilization, World Studies, U.S. History, Law & Government, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Algebra, Geometry, Calculus, American Literature, World Literature, Shakespeare, French, Spanish, Latin ...
  

How many get to take courses in subjects that interest them as part of a comprehensive curriculum?

• Journalism, Computer Science, Music Theory, Art History, Psychology, Philosophy ...
  

How many get to supplement their learning in the classroom with co-curricular activities?

• Varsity athletics, music ensembles, debate team, math team, yearbook, newspaper, literary magazine, community council, student government, gay/straight alliance, theater ...
  

It wasn't until I got to college that I realized my high school curriculum could have been a college course offerings book.

Very few people can say that. Very few.

Is it fair?

Fair, of course, is relative.

Do I deserve a great education any more than the children of Baltimore city? Or of P.S. 25? Or even than my fellow classmates at Loyola?

No, of course not.

My parents worked hard so they could afford to live in Fairfield County because they wanted to send their children to great schools. Education is important to them.

Equal and comprehensive education is not a question of who deserves it more. Everyone deserves a good education.

I think, sometimes, as I am editing textbooks in various subjects for various grades, about the students who will be using them.

Some will be upper-class white kids in Fairfield County, CT.

Some will be impoverished lower-class minorities in Baltimore City.

All will deserve an education.

Maybe someday we will truly be able to say that education, is of course, not relative, but equal.