Abe
In that Dear Abe speaks as George Zidbeck's alter ego, know that both share the same background. For those interested, H. (Honorable) Abe refers you to earlier issues wherein Mr. Zidbeck wrote monthly under the pen name of Country Squire from Feb. 2010 thru April 2013. |
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The Squire & Abe Face-off # 2
by George Zidbeck
Squire: Hello again, Abe! How's things?
Abe: Not bad. Not bad at all. I mean here we are, and the world remains round and spinning with the two of us still breathing. More to the point, I want you to know that I've given some thought on the subject to discuss for this meeting.
But, first, I do believe you and I should have an understanding. Even though we share the same parenthood, and technically speak as equal alter-egos, our readers should know from where and why we speak. I'll let you speak for yourself, but I like to see myself as the trigger for Mr. George Z's sense of adventure. Yessireebob, let me roam the countrysides and meet the peoples. Whenever Mr. Z. took a risk, I stood tall on his shoulders.
Squire: Oh sure, like when you encouraged him to run away from home when he was thirteen.
Abe: Hey, hey!
Squire: You're right. That comment was out of line. Actually, we were both counter balances in helping a young mind and body to turn itself – all too slowly – into a mature and decent individual. Like when he finished his adventure-filled military hitch with the U.S. Army in 1952, I stood prominently by his side to escort him into college and nurse him into his B.A.
Abe: Well, la-dee-da-da. Did I fall asleep at the wheel from 1952 through 1958? Naagh, naagh. No way. During the above years, I talked him into learning how to be a dance instructor, and fixed things between him and the woman he eventually married.
Squire: Okay, we've presented enough without detailing every year and every incident of Mr. Z's existence. It's clear that you're adventurous and given to risk-taking, whereas I'm tied to the soil and the social mechanisms that hold societies together. Even so, in so many ways over so many years, we have abided our differences and often merged to speak as one voice.
Abe: You say "abided," whereas I prefer barely tolerated. Anyway, why link up to speak to the Slo Coast Journal's readership with "one voice?" I know some people who prefer that we speak as the two independent voices who have pulled Mr. Z by the nose here and there, now and then. And, speaking frankly, there's been times when I fell asleep while you used big words to highlight your intelligence.
Squire: You make it seem like my vocabulary might be pretentious and forced. At no time do I speak to important issues with any measure of affectation. I mean what I say. And you should know that I do not demean you for your down-to-earth sentiments. In fact, neither plain-speak nor collegial verbosity proves or disproves a theorem or a hunch or simple opinions.
Abe: Okay, fine. I'll give you that point. As we have sometimes pushed and pulled at Mr. Z's sleeves over the years, all three of us were never fully separated. While his ears took in all the bits and pieces that attach to all levels of education, I had my eyes out the window kinda wishing Mr. Z walked out of the classrooms and wandered here and there. So, we're all of one body, but of three minds.
Squire: Sort of like Freud's super ego, ego, and id.
Abe: Whatever….
Squire: Okay, so what's your topic for this month?
Abe: The greed and possible anarchy that we last talked about presented too big a hurdle, I suspect, for anyone to jump over. So, you up to education?
Squire: Yessir. I can chew on that subject from now until the mortuary fires up the creamatorium. But, I'll start with the notion that although we both harbor humanist progressive, independent socialist sentiments – all four words starting with little letters – I feel strongly that systems of education should have full flexibility that allows for maximum maturation of the human mind. In effect, we all fit in different places on differing bell curves. No one design fits all. We all start with empty frontal lobes in our brain that already have countless primitive components spread throughout the other lobes.
Abe: Wowsers! Do you have to jump in with your weighty vocabulary? What do you mean by "primitive components?"
Squire: I mean basic impulses - instincts if you will – that early humans had as their basic survival tool-kit. They operate today just as freely as yester eons. Our hosts of involuntary muscles and neurons that let us breathe and smell for example. In short, we don't necessarily require a formal education for such elements. But, as human technology increased our mastery over countless natural forces, we began to develop specialties. And, with each passing generation, those specialties magnified and grew evermore complicated within our frontal lobes. Here a doctor, there an astrophysicist, there a serial killer.
Abe: There you go again with all that anthropological lingo. But, I think I get your gist. Even so, how you gonna take little old me and the children into the 21st century? What kind of programs do you leave in place and others you throw out that will better educate our children? Would you change the kindergarten through sixth grade pattern now used by most schools today in the U.S.? That question is loaded because I'm a product of the old school, and feel like it served me quite well.
Squire: Yes, it worked quite well for the American citizenry in general throughout most of the 20th Century. And I see its overall structure remaining unchanged for quite a spell. But, I think today, more than ever, it's on the verge of collapse.
Abe: You mean down the tubes. Gone forever? Whew, that's frightening. That notion boggles my mind. And right now I'm not ready to be a devil's advocate for what you might propose. I suggest we put off that topic, giving me and others a chance to think about that subject. Mostly because Mr. Z. has no influence on what's happening in today's schools.
Squire: I have to concede the righteousness of your sentiment. When you weigh all pertinent factors such as economics, politics, differing cultural backgrounds, I wonder how to put the pertinent Humpty-Dumpty fragments into a workable format to insure that all our children can receive all levels of education free from kindergarten thru four years of college. You have any trouble with sharing our respective analyses with the great unwashed public at large?
Abe: None at all, but not now. In fact we'd best stop talking about anything. I can already see some people thinking of turning the page into other subjects. Maybe next month?
Squire: We'll see . . .
Write to Dear Abe or the Country Squire
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