John Bos may have made some good points in his response to my column on the problem with charter schools — especially when he describes the anguish that some students and parents experience due to the shortage of alternatives to underfunded public school classrooms.
I’m not sure, however, that he addresses what I had hoped was my central point … that charter schools are yet another engine of inequality … a new and efficient way of segmenting student communities, and of hiding the wages of a chronic educational underfunding from ourselves. (And, yes, it was my letter, despite whatever adaptations may or may not have been undertaken by other signatories.)
Even more problematic in my very personal view, though, is Bos’ snarky reference to my son, Nick, having attended Deerfield Academy. This, I thought, was mean, irrelevant and ill-informed, suggesting as it does a certain hypocrisy that for us — a family with a lifelong and passionate commitment for public education — has been anything but unexamined.
Nick, however, found it “hilarious” when I mentioned it to him on the phone. He pointed out that such rebuttals and comments routinely and very quickly deteriorate into personal meanness and stupidity. Don’t take it personally, he said. Don’t defend and don’t explain, he said. You shouldn’t need to.
He’s such a smart boy.
Oh, and please do not vote to lift the cap on charter school. Please.
Wesley Blixt
Greenfield