That's all from me folks... it's now the dawn of a new era.

I started this blog because I used to post a lot at GoDekalb and it got to the point that every thread became an education issue.  This is because education is at the core of every issue. Without a proper education - or more importantly, a proper ability to debate and to see differing perspectives - then we are nothing more than an aimless, ignorant crowd.  We become lemmings following each other off the cliff of the next new trend, new thought, new iGizmo or new math. Anyway, bloggers at GoDekalb teased those of us who brought education issues to the fore and encouraged us to start our own blog on the topic.  One of them even taught me how to start a blog and so I did.  Since then, we have brought many issues to debate and many discoveries have been made and teams of caring parents have been formed.  For that, I'm proud and happy.

However, I didn't expect the level of racial issues to bubble to the surface as they have.  It seems that this county, in my opinion, is a racial battleground first and foremost, and that educating our children has become a years long shell game of bussing, M to M's, Magnets, AYP transfers, Administrative Transfers, Choice, and a general nomadic movement of students from building to building, with little thought or investigation as to whether or not this movement is making a difference in the education of these nearly 100,000 children in our care.

I have (boldly at times) pointed out the posturing and racial divide and history between our new Board members as well as brought out the facts regarding the imbalance of SPLOST spending according to who plays politics the best with our superintendent.  And oddly, now, as often happens, it has become time to "shoot the messenger".   I have been told that Board members are saying that they know who I am and that I am "bi-polar" (which, by the way, to use that term as a dismissive put-down is disrespectful to the many students and parents who actually battle that very real disease.)  I have also become the receiver of comments inferring that I am somehow a racist, for pointing out the racial imbalances I see. ("There is just something tacky and ugly and low class about playing the "race card" - from both angles.")

As many of you know, I am not a Southerner.  I'm from a very small place in the Midwest - where I was raised in a farming community. Which is to say, I don't really understand and don't carry wounds of the southern racial experience.  So I often don't have the necessary paradigm to understand some of our local issues.  I just see what I see in it's current form and call attention to it;  today - now - with our current available tax dollars.

All of that said, I have decided - it just ain't worth the fight.  I'm going to delete my posts on this blog and go back to my basically wonderful life!  I am happily without children in DeKalb County schools and have decided it's just not my battle to fight anymore.  I need to be grateful for what we do have as a family as well as the excellent future my children are prepared for - due to basically good parenting, a fine community and a lot of faith in my children for simply being the good people they are.

I don't want to fight about DeKalb schools until I fall into a trap of becoming nothing more than an argument - a symbol of rebellion and a radical proponent of equal spending.  That's really not who I am, nor is it the kind of karma I care to bring to my life anymore.  I wish you all the best - and I hope you continue fighting for your schools and your children. I wish the new Board well too - they have a very tough job ahead. I've just decided that it's time for me to move on and enjoy more of the pleasures of my life beyond DeKalb County Public Schools.  It's been a fun ride here at DCSW. I've enjoyed our conversations and I truly hope that somehow, some positive differences were made by our having shared this bit of cyber-space for one brief, shining moment in time.

-- "Cere"

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Please note - the blog will remain active - but will become a consortium of posts by a variety of authors. I believe this will make the blog stronger in the long run and create a forum for teamwork to be incubated.  We will have more strength and power in numbers and we will be able to generate better and more creative ideas for improving our schools.