We Must not Break

I’ll post some links at the end of the post to get to the ‘we’ part, but first a bit of personal history, a kind of confessional so you the reader get a sense of me.

I grew up basked in white privilege. I started kindergarten at my neighborhood public school and continued there until grade 4. (Grade 4, I have a Canadian wife.) In third grade I had the good fortune to contract measles and chicken pox at the same time. (I was born before vaccines for those. Parents that deny those vaccines to their children are making a big mistake.). I was one sick little boy. My mother quarantined me in the living room with all the drapes drawn. Obviously, I survived. But upon my return to school I was met with a passel of missed assignments that were to be made up. My mother saw them for the elementary busy work they were. She told the teacher that my time would be better spent a the public library. That was true. So the busy work went into a circular file and the search commenced for a better elementary school. My parents bought a house in the district of one of the best elementary schools as well as being serviced by the best public high school in my city.

My first year at the new elementary school was transformative. The teacher told my parents that I was very smart. I won’t disagree. But, only children, like me spend too much time with adults. I learned how to really shine it on for adults.

In fifth grade my father bought me a Digi-Comp for a Christmas present. It was a 3-bit programmable mechanical computer. You could solve simple logical puzzles with it and of course, add from 0 to 7 in binary. I took it for class show and tell. To show the computer off I needed to explain working with base 2 numbers. In the back of the room I saw my teachers jaw dropping as I explained constructing the numbers in terms of powers of 2. The presentation was a hit and led me into the membership of a few lucky elite students given special privileges and opportunities.

Grade 7 came and I aced the US Constitution test. I was on my way to that excellent high school which motivated my parents to purchase that house. Racial politics interfered with well-intentioned plans. The district boundary for a decidedly not lily white school moved over to my home’s side of the street. No transfers were offered unless you had elder siblings at the ‘good’ school.

The search was on for a different school for my further education.

This post is running long. I want to continue with a personal history of my formative years, The Years of Conspicuous Privilege.

As promised for the We Must not break read these

Elon’s trillion and Big Money


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