In roughly four weeks the Sweetwater Union High School District will unleash a new wave of adults into the community.
The young men and women presumably have spent the past 12 years preparing for the next phase of their lives—the one that jettisons them either into college, the workforce or a life of unfettered wandering.
Have the adults among us—not just the teachers and administrators who spent more time with some of these students during the week than their own parents and relatives—prepared them for the realities of living among other grown ups?
In teaching them how to add and subtract, multiply and divide and read for comprehension, have we also taught them how to make sense of and navigate the world into which they are emerging?
Do they understand why state legislators have decided that a California adult is someone who can vote, hold down a nine-to-five job, and enjoy most of the trappings of being an adult except purchase a pack of cigarettes—even though they have spent the last decade or so being told they are being given the critical thinking skills that allow them to make well-informed decisions?
Do they understand how we got to a point in our country’s history where a bloviating businessman turned reality show star can become a major political party’s nominee for president based on a platform built on bigotry, distrust and intolerance? Given that so many school curriculums and philosophies espouse a culture of tolerance and inclusion, what we say seems to be at odds with what we do.(If they do can they explain it to me?)
Do the kids—sorry, young adults—who will be walking across the stage during their high school graduation ceremonies understand that their lives, whether they realize it or not, are affected by politics and politics are run by people and those people affect us the way microscopic mites and bacteria affect our immune systems and well- being?
Or are all of these lessons something that can only be learned outside the classroom, and even then incrementally as one ages?
Is understanding that good-hearted, well-meaning people might be petty in their pursuit of elected office because of their desire to serve a community regardless of the cost or compromise they have to make, something that comes only with firsthand experience?
Do the graduates of tomorrow comprehend that the concept of a “greater good” is not just an ideal when it comes to deciding what is best for a community, rather it is a driving principle that demands on occasion uncomfortable compromise or a change in position?
Have we done all we can to help them successfully navigate the rest of their adult lives or have we wasted their time?
And ours?
