The Supreme Pragmatist

Still too hot and rainy to do anything much in the garden, but a lot of it is mulched with grass left over from mowing and there is most of a round bale of hay out there to mulch the paths. It is all still potential.

So I went to Lacoochee school today to attend one of the monthly community organization meetings. I know these meetings have a long string to play out (and I am not good at hanging out!). There is an agenda but everything is very free form, not the 'get it done, everyone out the door in an hour stuff I do at other board meetings. But I find it amazing to attend. Lacoochee is quite like a third world country - and in our midst!

There were about fifteen people there; retirees who are devoted to the community, the usual representatives from the sherrif's department and the parks, neighborhood crime watch, and the Girls and Boys Club, United Way, community health, concerned citizens (I am one of those), the wonderfully energetic media specialist at the school, some volunteers. We are all ages and colors and sizes. Notably lacking is representation from the Hispanic community which is what this title one school is all about.

We all grab cups of watery coffee and pastries encased in cellophane and chat a few minutes about livestock and other country matters. Then the school principal comes in, and as usual, I cannot help noticing the similarities to Dolly Parton - the speech cadence and the face. She is totally mesmerizing as she stands there in the horseshoe configuration of the tables where we sit. She says she is not a speaker, but a a talker. And what a talker! She includes every single person by name and eye contact as she talks. She leaves spaces for comments. This is better than going to church! She has stories, right on point.

For three hours we are all riveted. "If it's the best for kids, that's what we'll do". And she does. She gets grants, ekes out funds for a child to go to Shands Hospital in Gainesville every month for treatment for a cleft sinus. She is always looking, looking for ways to help these kids who live in this small piss poor comunity in rural Florida. She BELIEVES! She believes in children and in the education that will take them where they need to be. She will give them wings to fly.

Her politics are strictly pragmatic. I can sense that she is uncomfortable with the heavy load of testing our state mandates. But she'll work with the system, tweaking what she can. This woman never gives up, even through the dense red fog of bureaucracy.

When I first began volunteering at this community school, I was too judgmental, fresh as I was from being director of a private school where we had the freedom to invent without the tenacious fingers of the state and nation dictating our outcomes. (Also, the kids were those priveledged ones)

This community organizing meeting today was so affirming to me about the way we Americans can effect change. We are a generous and energetic people and we try hard. The bottom line, as this principal says, is the kids.