A Call for Submissions

“And so this is Christmas
And what have we done
Another year over
A new one just begun” - John Lennon

Let’s begin today with a song. A song for year’s end. It’s time for year-in-review retrospectives, top tens and listicles. Not just on television and on social media. You can find them right here in Howard County. One major difference is that you are being invited to participate. From the Elevate Maryland podcast comes this request:

Happy Holidays everyone! Next week, for our 20th show, we’re doing a special “year in review” episode. If you have some ideas about what Tom and Candace should discuss, please post them below.

You can find the request on their Facebook page.

In yesterday’s post I put forward the claim that change in the Howard County Schools was one of the top local stories of 2017. I can think of a few others, but I’m more interested in what you think. Columbia-centric stories? HoCo stories? Politics? Business? Education? Arts? Neighborhoods?

Of course, Elevate Maryland is interested in state-wide stories, so if you’re up-to-date with important Maryland events, throw one of those out there for consideration as well.

I believe they’ll be taping on Friday, so don’t delay. Give them a piece of your mind now. Yes, right now. And feel free to add your opinions here as well:

https://www.facebook.com/VillageGreenTownSquared/?ref=bookmarks

Then, with a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment, you can go forth and have a great day doing what you love.

Comments

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents. When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday. Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018. 2018 . But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest. In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...

Separate and Unequal

Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not. It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...

Village Green/Town²

Search This Blog