Protracted War at ConVal

While the United States went to war with Iraq last week, an older, more protracted war at ConVal continued. At this time, the outcome is still in doubt.

Teachers continued their drive toward the end of the quarter, covering curricular territory at a rapid pace, bypassing pockets of resistance and engaging in an occasional firefight with students who, like the Iraqis, don't seem to understand that further resistance is futile.

It's puzzling. Why don't they surrender? We've dropped millions of leaflets on them, directing them to lay down their arms and wait for further instructions. Where the resistance has been particularly stiff, we've brought in the heavier weapons - the shock of detention, the awe of conferences with parents.

We pound away at them every day, disturbing their sleep in first block classes, disrupting their lines of communication with assigned seats, crushing their pitifully inadequate efforts to fight back with words. In this battle of wits, we have overwhelming technological superiority.

We hold the moral high ground as well. What we have to offer them - math, science, foreign languages, history, geography, psychology, economics, and literature - will make their lives happier, more productive, more prosperous. Are we teachers not perfect examples of that?

And yet, against all logic, they continue to fight back. They worship their alien gods - video games and rap songs that preach prejudice, violence, and hatred. They appear to be indifferent or actively hostile to all the benefits we wish to give them. They are starving for culture, but they disdain the brightly-colored plastic packages of freeze-dried intellectual nourishment we air-drop on them.

Strangest of all, those who should be our allies -- parents and other citizens -- have the nerve to criticize the way we do it. They question our strategy. They carp about the cost. Sometimes they veto our resolutions, denying us the tools we need to do the job - new school buildings, more computers, higher salaries. Do they not understand that we are fighting this war for their sakes? Do they not realize that if we don't make a stand now, while the enemy is weak and helpless, we will have to deal with the terrible consequences later?

There is no war without casualties. There is an especially high attrition rate among new teachers. And passing a law to forbid students from dropping out of school before graduation, as one state senator has proposed, would be like the U.S. Congress passing a law forbidding U.S. soldiers to die on the battlefield - and just as effective.

It's frustrating, but I remain confident that we will ultimately prevail in this one-sided struggle. After all, we ourselves were once on the other side, and though it was a brutal and bloody campaign, we eventually capitulated. But I'm afraid this war may take longer than some have predicted.