School days

I have been picking up my seven year old grandson from school these days. He's the youngest of three little gems that I have.

I don't live far from the school, a public school here in Northern California. I normally walk or bike round there and I enter the school premises from the back end, through a gate to the field where they play sports and such. There's a nice kids park at the end of the playing field (with real grass in it) and I normally hang out a bit while young 'un gets rid of some of that amazing energy of his.

The other day I was watching all the other kids and there was a group of them playing basketball. it was great to watch these kids play. They were very serious about it. back and forth they went from one end to the other as each group tried to advance over the other. Then I took notice of what a diverse group of children there were playing. There were Latinos, blacks, whites and Asians. Not only that, there were three or four girls, one of them a tiny little thing but she shot up and down the court with no problem.

It was refreshing to watch them and there was this one taller and most likely older kid who seemed to have a strong influence. There was a dispute over a play and he intervened and they all discussed it. They were completely and collectively in control.

I looked around for an adult or the phys ed teacher but there was just one guy standing there talking on a cell phone. I asked him if he was the ref but he was just a parent picking up his daughter. I watched the children play this competitive sports for a half hour or so; it was heartwarming.

As I was leaving and walking back up the field, the new extra classrooms caught my attention. There are four of them, pre-fabs. I thought of all the money wasted and squandered in society. The endless wars, the 25 hedge fund managers who earned $15 billion in 2006. The $11 trillion that is supposedly stashed in offshore accounts by the world's wealthy.

Why should our chidren (and their teachers) have to take second best with all the wealth around? Even though these huts are adequate enough, they are not permanent structures and worse, they were built on the playing field taking further recreation area from the children.

It makes you mad, and so it should. But, as the old Wobblie saying goes, "Don't mourn, organize."