It's time to act my age. The duties assigned to my position in a public school have grown so that if I stayed, I'd be instructing seven classes a day (to a total of around 850 students) plus helping maintain computers, software and student accounts. I've had to admit to myself that I don't have the energy to do a good job with that load.

My “Three years Before the Mast” experience has increased my appreciation of our public school teachers (and much more pleasurable than the life described in Richard Dana's novel). While they are working in a stressful environment in a system that is hampered by a tradition bound bureaucracy, the children I've worked with are generally getting a better education than my generation did. There is definitely a need to reform the educational system to make our schools more effective and more efficient.

I share the widespread concern that our nation is becoming more divided. The best path for increased unity is to have all of our children building friendship and mutual understanding across the wide ranging differences among us is to have them learning cooperatively together. That crucial role of public schools should not be ignored or short changed by excessive attention to standardized test scores. We should not be diverting public resources from the public schools to support alternatives (however good academically) that have the effect of segregating their students from the full gamut of their peers.