For years now, the dispensers have remained empty. Is it because of the expense? Is it because some argue antibacterial lotions have potentially negative side effects? (A Wikipedia article dispels this notion, but it reads like an advertisement! Wikipedia even notes this.) Is it because they may not be the panacea that some hope? Or, is it just due to inattention? Probably the latter.
Occasionally, I see a student stagger in the direction of a dispenser. I try to forewarn him about the coming disappointment. Still, the empty dispenser sits on the wall, teasing those who would trust it, perhaps, waiting to be resurrected when the next potential plague arises.
Perhaps these vestiges of the past are metaphors for education today. It holds out a promise. In the case of the dispenser, the promise is health. In the case of the Core, the promise is readiness for colleges (which may no longer be affordable) and careers (which may not pay a living wage). VAM holds out the broken promise of accountability based upon students' standardized-test scores. In all cases, the promises seem hollow. Is education becoming an empty Purell dispenser?
We also have empty dispensers, but we didn't get the Purell. We could only afford the generic stuff.
ReplyDeleteI bet I was deceived. We probably had the generic stuff, too. It only goes to prove another point applicable to education, labels are often inaccurate!
DeleteWhen I was in a high school I worked in a spice factory. I filled generic MSG containers from large barrels marked Accent. So the generic buyers were actually getting the real stuff, and only we knew it. You would have to take maybe three showers to forget the powdered garlic that had embedded itself into your pores.
DeleteI'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt,then; perhaps, it was real Purell, packaged as generic, but since the two are probably more equivalent than different, and we have neither, it's probably a moot point.
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