A PERSONAL NOTE...

The community of St. Louis, Missouri is blessed with many fine musical ensembles, as is the entire Midwest. One of the newest groups to form is the Black Tulip Chorale, founded and directed by Robert Stumpf. The mission statement of BTC highlights the organization's unwavering commitment to "...advocate for social consciousness through excellence in the performance of choral music, while providing an affirming environment for all, regardless of expression, gender, identity, or orientation." I have had the privilege of reviewing their concerts many times, and have always found the performances, along with the shared testimonies of chorale members, very moving. This past year I reviewed their annual holiday concert in December, 2024.

I have always noticed that the Black Tulip Chorale is able to present its message of advocacy of the LGBTQ+ community, and of humanity in general, without expressing hatred of oppressors and without mounting personal attacks on those who disagree with them. When we believe strongly in a cause, it can be difficult to hold back resentment, hatred and fear of those who believe strongly in the opposite direction. Yet BTC has magnificently resisted any sort of temptation to denigrate others. There seems to be an inherent and ingrained desire to foster communication and understanding rather than driving a wedge even further. I learned that lesson on a trip to Germany several years ago. We met a former SS officer and his wife, who had devoted themselves to caring for my wife's aunt, who had immigrated to Germany from Poland with her husband, seeking a better life during the postwar years when life behind the "iron curtain" was acutely difficult. The officer and his wife made a snap decision to give my two young daughters--whose only living grandmother bore a tattoo from Auschwitz--special gifts that they had originally bought for their own grandchildren. 

Recently, Gabriella Flores, the Senior Student Success Advisor at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and who identifies as a queer woman, posted a classified ad to sublet her apartment. She specified "no Zionist" in the ad. We can give Ms. Flores the benefit of the doubt and assume that it is more than likely she does not hate Jews as a whole, but her wording without any sort of disclaimer is understandably off-putting to most Jews. Even though the BTC concert focused on Christmas and was held in a church, it was deeply gratifying to see at least two persons wearing kippahs (yarmulkes) present at the program, and who clearly felt comfortable in so doing. I have always noticed that the Black Tulip Chorale is able to present its message of advocacy of the LGBTQ+ community, and of humanity in general, without expressing hatred of oppressors and without mounting personal attacks on those who disagree with them. When we believe strongly in a cause, it can be difficult to hold back resentment, hatred and fear of those who believe strongly in the opposite direction. Yet BTC has magnificently resisted any sort of temptation to denigrate others. There seems to be an inherent and ingrained desire to foster communication and understanding rather than driving a wedge even further.

HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH?

How much money should a school superintendent earn? What if the district he/she manages is a failing district in which a majority of students are not reading at grade level?

Writing for the Lansing Journal, Paul Czapkowicz penned an excellent article that speaks for itself, outlining the decision by the Dolton School District Board to raise the salary of Superintendent Kevin J. Nohelty from $450,000.00 by an additional $30,000.00 per year for the next two years:

https://thelansingjournal.com/2025/03/21/already-at-450k-dolton-sd-board-approves-pay-raise-for-superintendent/

To be fair, Mr. Nohelty also fulfills the duties of the "chief school business official," whatever that might mean, but we have to ask ourselves if even such a double appointment is worth that much money. Average household income in the area served by the Dolton School District is $42,000.00 per year, and the district spends $28,000.00 per student per year, with a teacher/student ratio of 1/10.

Make your own decision:  Is this salary reasonable? Given the amount spent per student and the ratio of teachers to students, should the district be able to do better? Whether they agree or disagree with the Board, how should citizens respond?

HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH?

Recently St. Louis-based commentator and radio host Jamie Allman addressed the issues surrounding the withholding by the federal government of $400 million to the university because of its administration's refusal to rein in anti-Israel demonstrators who have gone beyond the bounds of peaceful protest. Most citizens are probably unaware of just how much money the US government doles out to public and private institutions every year. $400 million is a huge amount, but it becomes staggering when you realize this is only a yearly donation--and yet more staggering when you realize that Columbia is only one of many, many institutions that receive federal funds, and is far from the largest recipient.

Allman dropped yet another bombshell:  The current endowment of Columbia is nearly $15 billion dollars ($14.8 billion as of June, 2024 to be exact). Mr. Allman was astounded not only that our educational institutions received such vast amounts of money, but--perhaps even more troublesome--why there was no outrage from US taxpayers about such an outward flow of public dollars.

Ask yourself:  Should heavily endowed institutions continue to receive such large funding? Should they receive any public funding at all? And why have college tuition increases generally outpaced the rate of inflation--sometimes dramatically so?

 
KEEPING KNOWLEDGE CENTRAL TO EDUCATION

There seems to be a movement in education to replace simple, basic knowledge of facts with an awareness of principles and ideas. Thus, for example, sometimes rather than knowing the names of various countries and being able to find them on a map, it is considered sufficient to simply know that maps exist; if we ever need to know the name of a country, we can just scrounge our eyes across the map until we find it. 

It would be unfair to say that this state of affairs is found in all educational settings, but it can safely be said that it is found in far too many. When I taught in secondary education, I was shocked to realize that many of my students not only could not find countries on a world map, but did not fully understand political divisions such as cities, counties, provinces, states, nations and regions. To cite another example, I was thrilled when my daughter studied Latin in high school, but halfway through her first year when I asked her how she was handling the case endings, she simply gave me a bewildered look and asked, "What do you mean by a case?" She later explained that the class focused primarily on watching videos and discussing bits and pieces of Roman history (at least they got that much). I knew the teacher personally and knew that she understood Latin completely, but she, like the students, was a victim of our prevailing educational philosophy. Later on, the school received an award for the strength of its Latin program, but we had already removed our daughter from that school. I wonder if the school administrators had ever studied Latin, the mother of so many languages....

Knowing how to think is important, and we need to teach that. Concepts and principles are important. But without a library of knowledge in our brains, we can scarcely apply critical thinking and understanding.

How can you determine if a person, young or old, possesses a storehouse of knowledge in their heads? Easy. Just observe or ask questions to see what they know--a good start might be to find out if they know, say, whether Canada is divided into states, or has a monarch. And remember that none of us possesses complete and total knowledge, and sometimes it is not our fault if we don't. We need to hold our schools, and the administrators who run them, accountable. And always, we should recognize that outstanding teachers do exist and give them all the support and gratitude we can. Sometimes we meet them in schools, good or bad, and sometimes we find them in all sorts of unlikely places that we might not expect.