School Policy

It's the Suburbs

Monday I realized what it was about the high school that really bothers me.

I mean there's definitely the jerky kids and there's the three hours of commuting every day. There's the constant feeling of being an outsider, due to the language and culture. There's the hopelessness when I go to ask a certain administrator a question and I have five minutes and he's talking in circles, not really getting to the answer, and eating up time - that blah-blah way of answering that he has. But the thing I really don't like is that it feels like I'm working in the suburbs.

Lisa, in Green Acres, states: "New York is where I'd rather stay. I get allergic smelling hay. I just adore a penthouse view. Darling, I love you, but give me Park Avenue." That's how I feel about Amsterdam. The Hague seems like the sticks. There's also the fact that I get to The Hague and then I travel into it (i.e. away from the Center) for half an hour.) It's like I could be in my home town. There's a real attitude in The Hague of this laid back, wholesome life.

It's like I looked up and I suddenly realized that I was smack dab in the middle of the exact place I've been running from my whole life. I'm a city guy. Fort Worth, New York, Amsterdam. Two out of the three on the small side, but all three with a lovely feeling of anonymity. A place where you can get lost, re-invent yourself and where you have to watch or you will get run over by someone on a bike or in a car.

Plus, people have suburb attitudes and it's hard to be around that all day. At the college, it feels like a college. It's set apart from the city in a rather industrial area, but it's not all "family" and there's not that ratched down feeling of "Slow down, man. You're walking so fast. What's the hurry?" Makes me feel like I'm walking through a lake of honey.

posted by Philip @ 6:49 AM