Polly Smrcka (yes, that’s spelled correctly), is a lovely nonagenarian who has written several charming books about growing up in pre-electrified, early 20th century rural Northwestern Pennsylvania. My favorite is “Hatch Hollow Tomboy”, in which the extraordinarily unfeminine yet adorable young Polly regales us with tales of catching bullfrogs in the summer and milking obstinate dairy cows by kerosene lantern in the deep winter darkness.
She also describes the one room school house with “Old Baldy” the teacher managing all grades K-12. Mr. Summerton had been hired directly by a committee of parents and did their bidding in the education of their children.
Contrast that to the Swampscott MA school district that, famously and notoriously, recently ordered all parents to a mandatory meeting during which they were forbidden to speak. It seems that our government funded and staffed schools have forgotten for whom they toil. It is the citizens and parents who pay the bills and fund the schools. There is no “government money” that does not originate from the taxpayer. Somehow the reporting relationship has become twisted and fouled. It is time for the belabored Swampscott citizens to reclaim control. A broader lesson for us all.
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