Through the Prism

These days, if you look at the news, there’s a strong case to be made for feeling a bit like Alice falling into Wonderland.  The disorientation is strong.   Couple that sensation with the constant shifting sands of existing government policy, spin, and the take over of the Washington Post by Jeff Bezos, and discerning what is, from what is not, becomes much less managable.

As a graduate student, I was taught by a very wise professor to look at every policy through a prism –to consider the pragmantic, ethical, political, social, and legal consequences of policy as we traced development of various programs modern educators take for granted.  Special Education, school funding, smaller class sizes, curriculum, all of these things were pushed through all of those prisms before they became rendered realities.  The truth of them indicated the priorities, values and long term goals of our society.   Implementation was often patchwork and messy, but also reflected the struggle of teaching.

For example, in the ninties, inclusion was the buzz word.  Inclusion must be understood to be implemented.  It isn’t all kids of all abilities will be in all classes.   However, it is the deliberate seeking to ensure no one is isolated and kept in the basement or out of sight.  Special Education requires community immersion, and community acceptance.  Neither are possible when students never encounter anyone of differing abilities.   No one is stretched, not the general population and not the kids who need to learn how to live in society, when everyone is kept safely apart.

Implementation included messy experiments that didn’t work and lost opportunties.  Everyone would have gained from allowing a sixteen year old who loved her school and could say, “Yay” –one of her six words, to be a cheerleader at the peprally.  No one would lose from having kids in wheelchairs who were non-verbal in the library to hear stories with their non-handicapped peers.    Trips to McDonald’s to order using a picture menu, or the app, are now common place.  Our society no longer looks askance at someone for being on an ipad or having headphones.    Truth about what inclusion is, means acceptance and the capacity to adapt.

So we must also apply the same to our understanding of current events.  We must look at each policy, each shift through the prisms of policy, intent, application, consequences, politics, values, and consequence.   It’s work to think about each thing this way.  It takes time. It was and remains the purpose of journalism.    Not to cheer or boo, but to examine and consider, explain and investigate, discern and discover what the truth of any event/policy is, and how it affects the world, both now, and going forward.

For a long time, I’ve joked that we need to create “The Purple Papers.”  –where we put the events/policies of the day and politics under the prism of not merely left/liberal/right/conservative, but also present to past, present to future, purpose, intent, political fall out to all sides, and moral and legal implications.      It seems now is that time, if it wasn’t already.

So today, I’m just going to begin by saying, I’m going to start trying –just in my areas of experitise, to flesh out what I’m seeing and what it means, through the various lenses I can apply –identifying them as I go.   I will also welcome the imput of other wiser, more experienced and clearer thinkers than me, to give their 2 cents worth –now that the penny is going the way of the CD-Rom and the VCR.     I hope to bring more voices, so that together, we get a fuller understanding of whatever policy I’m attempting to understand and break down.

As always, it will stem from my faith first, because I am Catholic, and all things I do, think, write and say, are pushed through that whole world view, of which all the other lenses I mentioned, and many more I have not, are only components.  I cannot see otherwise, because my faith is to me, a universal way to examine the world, not merely one perpective.

Holy Spirit, help me to cling to the good, the true and the beautiful, while seeking to understand the why behind whatever I examine.