Oh Aunt Betsy...

Well, you've gone and wrecked one of my favorite names. I usually name my cars Betsy, and, of course, the Betsy Tacy books. And now we have Betsy De Vos. Where do I begin?

So I guess I will begin with the Bloomer list. It is a list of book that is put out by an ALA committee every year that features books with feminist content. I am applying to be on the committee this year. One of the questions on the application is - “Has feminism played a role in your community involvement and/or activism? If so, please describe.”

First of all, how sweet that you assume I am an activist! Most of my activism consists of whining on Facebook. That is an activity, right? But I am involved in the community. And since my community is often times mostly made up of teenagers, I thought I would look there to see how feminism has played a role.

And how does this circle back to the new Secretary of Education, you ask? Well, it became clear to me how closely related feminism and education are. I am a feminist, I have been since I became aware that it existed. And I have had the gift of being well educated in both public and private schools. And believe me when I tell you that a public school education is a gift.

So I talked a girl yesterday at school. She is an ELL student who I have seen around, but haven't really interacted with before. She speaks 6 languages. She is 17 and moved to the US from Malaysia three years ago. She is worried about passing the state standardized tests for 10^th graders. Even though she is 2 years older than most 10^th graders, this is where she has ended up because she missed so much school. She only attended school for 1 year in her home country.

She is Muslim, but apparently pretty liberal: no headgear, cute fashionable outfit, made up as if angels from Sephora did her face this morning. But with a clearly Muslim last name.

Oh, why did she only have one year of school in her home country, you ask?

Well, when she was 11 she got her first period so she was no longer allowed to attend school. I don't know specifically why, but it sure seems like someone in her her home country doesn't want women to be educated.

Her little sister just turned 11 and she told me with a smile that since they are here in American her sister “will not have to miss any school.”

This student lost the four years that we take for granted. The years where kids wonder if they should be taking AP, wonder if they should try out for the musical, if they should run track, if they prefer math to social studies. She might be brilliant (and she seems pretty damn smart) but she lost 4 of her brain-spongiest years not being allowed to be educated.

(And her Muslim parents upended their entire lives to come here for a better life for their girls. For a more secular life. And yet our government vilifies them because of the their background. That isn't radical Islam, that is radical parenting. But we won't even get into the immigration debate.)

For her, being a woman directly impacted her education in a way that makes me want to scream! Feminism depends on education.

I had an interaction with one of my favorite students yesterday as well. This girl is a senior and she has some pretty significant medical issues and some learning delays. And she is the most engaging kid, she never stops reading and if I didn't adore her already – she is a compulsive book buyer who purges her YA collection regularly and donates her books to the school library!

So this girl came in yesterday wearing a shirt that said, “Books make me happy. You, not so much.” I howled with laughter. And I got to thinking, because of public education, she has been able to overcome so many challenges to become the woman she is today.

And Aunt Betsy isn't even sure if we need to fund special education. I don't even have the words to express my dread.

As I mentioned earlier, I attended private schools. They were very warm, kind places where I was surrounded by a lot of privileged kids who looked just like me, who had parents who thought just like mine and who, if they exhibited any challenging behaviors, were invited to go back to public school. Aunt Betsy would have LOVED my educational experience. And I am grateful that my parents wanted their daughters to have a good education. And I don't regret the time I spent in those institutions.

But the truth is, private schools separate us from people who are different. And it is important to surround yourself with people who have different experiences. So many of the problems of this world (not the least of which is the current administration) stem from not understanding that your experience is not necessarily universal.

My younger son attends a public university where his 10 suite-mates are essentially a United Nations. This pleases me to no end. I was in third grade before I met a non-white child. (Not because my family was racist, I just lived in a super-white suburb. My parents hosted a Fresh-Air kid every summer and caught a rash of shit from some parts of the community for that.) He has had gay friends since elementary school. I met my first gay friend in college. (If you don't count every closeted boy I had a crush on in high school...) It was Michael Tolliver from Armistead Maupin's TALES OF THE CITY. But then I met non-fictional gay friends too.

Part of my slow exposure to people who were not “just like me” was because of geography, part of it was because of the era in which I lived, but part of it was the way that private education can insulate you. The idea that it is somehow superior to public education is laughable.

Take it from me, I experienced it and I love to laugh. And I have devoted what will probably amount to the second half of my life to public education. I tell my students that there is no more extravagant gift that they will ever receive than a free public education. And I firmly believe that.

So, Aunt Betsy, before you destroy everything that I hold dear by your greed, incompetence and misguided sense of superiority, be aware that I am a feminist educator and I am watching you.