Friday, October 17, 2003
HOW THINGS CHANGE. I borrowed a copy of Stephen Brill's After: How America Confronted the September 12 Era. (interestingly enough, the sub-title of the paperback version is: "The Rebuilding and Defending of America in the September 12 Era"). It was one of those impulse borrowings of books that I may browse but never actually read. One interesting tidbit emerged from the first few pages. As most of us probably remember, George W. Bush was in Florida reading to a group of children in an effort to tout his child literacy program when he heard the news about 9/11. At the same time, John Ashcroft was on his way to Milwaukee where he was scheduled to read to another group of kids in an effort to tout the same program.
Say what you will about the efficacy of senior statesmen reading to schoolkids; say what you will about Bush's literacy program; say what you will about Bush and Ashcroft themselves. Whatever you might say, it is a telling and saddening fact that on the morning of September 11, both apparently felt that promoting child literacy was at or near the top of their agendas. How things have changed! How I wish we could go back to arguing over the merits of educational reform rather than reconstruction of Iraq.
Say what you will about the efficacy of senior statesmen reading to schoolkids; say what you will about Bush's literacy program; say what you will about Bush and Ashcroft themselves. Whatever you might say, it is a telling and saddening fact that on the morning of September 11, both apparently felt that promoting child literacy was at or near the top of their agendas. How things have changed! How I wish we could go back to arguing over the merits of educational reform rather than reconstruction of Iraq.
