These are fluid times economically, and the media business is a fluid one, anyway, where our stock in trade is a pencil and notepad. (Okay, we’re thoroughly computerized and digitized, though we resist being homogenized.)
We say farewell this week to our friend Daedalus Howell, who has been an entertaining contributor to our endeavors here at the Sun for several years. As readers know, Daedalus and his wife are expecting their first child this spring, and we wish him and his family all the best.
We say hello, as of a few weeks ago, to Sierra Jenkins, who has returned to Sonoma following two years in Mexico City. We’re excited to have her investigative skills and local insight at work to bring fresh news and intrepid reporting to our readers here at Sonoma’s best-read newspaper.
Comings and goings, II
These are fluid times demographically, too, and that fact shows up in enrollment figures for our government schools. Over half the students entering the system now at kindergarten and first grade have Spanish as their first language. In a few years’ time, those students will reach the high school, where students from that background are now just one third of the student body.
Presumably, that trend will continue, gaining a few percentage points every year. What does that mean for us, as a community? We don’t know, entirely.
The school district is starting to talk about those challenges, admitting at the board of trustees meeting on Tuesday evening that they’ve not been doing a very good job meeting their goals for academic success among students learning English.
No question that we have to do a much better job of preparing all our youth to succeed in the workplace. That means English language fluency. Reading, of course, is a gateway to learning. And while critical thinking is important, it is of little benefit for those who can’t express what they think.
The only constant, it’s said, is that nothing is constant. Technology, language, culture, mores, cuisine, faith – everything. And that’s to be embraced. We may not like some of the changes, but fighting them does little good. We need to welcome change and help make it positive for those in our local community and for those in the larger communities beyond our valley.
One change we’re embracing, not unrelated to the local population shifts, is to dispense with hyphenated designations. Thanks in large part to the historic vote for President Obama, we’re all “American” now. Certainly, some of us arrived more recently than others, and it’s exciting and enriching if one’s family is from the Middle East or Mexico, but our chief identity has to be as Americans.
We thrive as a society by being inclusive, not exclusive. It’s unwise to encourage separatism based on characteristics that are secondary to our standing as Americans, inheritors of two centuries of freedoms protected by law. In our view, that’s our unifying bond.
