Darryl Campbell’s post on The Bygone Bureau starts with his memory of his preschool teacher wheeling in a TV to watch the reunification of Germany. This is something I’ve been thinking about since we’ve been so lucky to watch extraordinary archival footage this week — why is this footage new to me? I was nine years old, old enough and curious enough to understand the fall of the Berlin Wall’s significance. I can’t remember so much as a passing mention in any of my classes. But not a single teacher in six years of elementary school made any impression that lasted some many years later. If I were cleverer at this moment, I’d find a way to tie this in with Arne Duncan’s appearance on Meet the Press this morning, particularly his comment, “Teachers in the middle don’t get support that they need. And teachers on the bottom, who frankly need to find another profession, that doesn’t happen, either.” It’s really a shame that anyone becomes a teacher for reasons other than fostering the creativity and intellectual capacity of young people. There are people right now, employed as teachers in this country, who couldn’t care less if the Berlin Wall fell or not and they don’t care if your children know about it either way. Maybe they are “nice”, maybe they are “bubbly and outspoken” but they are some of the most dangerous people in the world.
Artists on Tuesday began repainting the largest remaining section of Berlin Wall with the murals they created after the fall of the hated symbol of the Cold War almost 20 years ago. The artists plan to complete the project in time for the 20-year anniversary in November.
“I wasn’t going the post-apocalyptic route, which, as a regular civilian walking around the world, was pretty much what I expected to happen myself” – William Gibson, (via)
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