When the president-elect nominated Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education last week, the most obvious metaphor seemed to be the fox put in charge of the hen-house. I rolled that around in my head for awhile but couldn’t make it work. I don’t think DeVos is that carnivorous or the education establishment that docile. (Plus drawing anthropomorphic characters is not really my strong suit. So, as is often the case, laziness wins.)
This cartoon worked much better because it reveals my main issue with the DeVos nomination: She’s a crank. A crank (for lack of a better term, let me know if there is one) is a person caught up in her own thoughts, plans, and ideology — dogmatically indifferent to the consequences. It’s been my experience that nearly every organization has one — work group, school board, sports team, professional society, whatever.
And for the most part, it’s good to have a crank. They provide a vital service: They keep everybody else honest. Nobody wants to set the crank off, so we tend to plan more carefully. For example, say you’re the chair of a church committee to raise funds for a mission trip. There is consensus for a pancake breakfast, but there is a crank on the finance team who believes with all her heart that using food for fundraising is a grave sin. If indeed you want to move forward, you will make sure to organize a solid and defensible plan. (Or you may decide to go with a bikini car wash instead, which oddly she has no problem with.)
But the last thing you want is for the crank to be in charge. Cranks by their nature are “my way or the highway” types and likely with a chip on the shoulder from having been handled and circumvented so much in the past. (Think Dwight Schrute from the TV series “The Office.”)
Of course, I’m prejudging here. Ms. DeVos may turn out to be the second coming of Eleanor Roosevelt — a determined woman from the privileged class who used her position to serve the poor and disenfranchised. But if I had to bet, I’d put my money on Dwight Schrute.
John Auchter draws cartoons. Lots and lots of them. You can find them at his incredibly popular website auchtoon.com. You can also find his stuff on Michigan Public Radio’s website under Opinion.
Lots of cranks coming. It’s just the beginning. Hope the uninformed Trump voters are ready for what they are ready to get.
John, why do you have to be so mean-spirited? (That’s what you say about the Republicans.)
DeVos is not the only one who believes in Charter and school vouchers.
Do you really believe that the school system has been doing well by our children for the last 40 years? You use the lunch program for your cartoon . . . do you really think that children will be starving? It’s outrageous that you cannot see that we need some drastic changes in the way things are now. If you are not ready to try a new way, then you have your head deep in the sand!
Let’s at least have an intelligent discussion about it besides the same old big government, top-down way.
Thank you for your thoughts, Ann. I agree with you, there should be intelligent discussion on the topic, although I think it is fairly well established that comment boards may not be the best place for this.
But let me see if I can cut to where we may not see eye-to-eye: I do in fact believe the public school system as a whole has been doing well by our children for the past 40 years. For every Detroit Public Schools I can name you dozens of well-run districts staffed by dedicated teaching professionals successfully providing education for ALL students, meaning from the star students to the learning disabled. Not by big government. Quite the contrary. Public schools are community government. Is it a perfect system? Oh heck no. But their results are really quite extraordinary when you consider the task at hand.
And, yes, absolutely, I believe there is need for change, although I would use the word “improvement” instead. What causes me concern is the “drastic” change you feel is needed because I think this is how Ms. DeVos sees it as well. It’s not that I’m fundamentally opposed to private schools or even charters, it’s that I’m against the dogmatic belief that vouchers and unregulated charters would actually create a better system. The consequences (intended and otherwise) would be too, well, drastic. And as intelligent people we can anticipate consequences, so I don’t believe “we should just try a new way and see what happens” is a good argument for letting Ms. DeVos do what she wants.
As with my cartoons, Ann, I’m not looking to persuade thought but to provoke it. We may not come to the same conclusions, but I appreciate you sharing your reaction.
You mention Detroit schools, and you can add to that many other cities in other states that are just as bad. I am 79 years old and I can tell you that everything we have done to “improve” things for the last 40 plus years for those students has failed: bus the kids, dumb-down programs and curriculum, etc. That’s why I am for more drastic change, and yes you are right that it needs more, but I think it can be better handled from a local focus, than from big government down. All they do is make more mandates and frustrate teachers and districts that might have better ideas.
Synonyms for Crank?
Kook, Nut, Amateur, Simpleton, Dilettante, Know-It-All…?
My dad used to say, “Don’t confuse me with the facts!” I cannot think of a way to turn that into a noun.
OK! As I have said before, what if we all see what happens in 2 years or so? What if it all worked out? And, as I have said before, Merry Christmas to all!
Thank you John. As a teacher for 30 years , I appreciate your wise thoughts~ and cartoon! Most educators are very concerned about BD. Another example of someone who is not a trained teacher (and did not go to/ use public schools) making decisions that affect us and our children. Add vouchers & a push for charters and it becomes extra scary.
There was a series done by the Detroit Free Press a couple of years ago which investigated charter schools. It was very revealing, especially about the for-profit charter management companies and how these companies are not required to be transparent about how taxpayer money is spent (ie, how much actually pays for education rather than is paid to management). I think any future investigations are in peril now that Betsy has the ear of Donald and his distaste for reporters in general.
Where to start. The description of cranks sounds more like the democrats than republicans.
Democrats and their ilk are the ones that rioted in the streets after the election. In the process destroyed private and public property.
It is quite obvious that John is under the age of 40.
The difference between school teaching today and when I went to school is quite different.
When I went school (started kindergarten in 1958) by the end of the 1sst grade we could do the times tables up to 12 X 12 in our heads. We did not have computers to think for us.
John and the democrats are the cranks. You are so tied up in your thoughts and ideas that you cannot stand the idea that someone else has a better way.
You need to understand one thing, here in America you can comment all you want about the government with out consequences. If you were in Cuba under castro you would either be in prison or in front of a firing squad. Of course that also applies to a lot of the left leaning social=ist countries in the world.