tschram

Let me begin with an apology. I realize readers might view what I’ve written as hurtful. And they might see my ideas as unnecessarily divisive. That’s what the student editor of the Emory Law Journal called an essay by University of San Diego law professor Larry Alexander, a self-described conservative who rejects the prevailing academic consensus around race. Most scholars attribute high rates of poverty and incarceration among African Americans to racism, pointing especially to the continued effects of slavery and legalized segregation. But Alexander blames these problems on the dissolution of two-parent Black families, which he roots in Great Society welfare programs.

Over the course of the past two years, as COVID-19 violently extinguished nearly 850,000 American lives, I’ve read about the strain the pandemic has placed on our doctors and nurses. But I did not fully appreciate the fraying rope that is our health care system until last month, when both my elderly parents got COVID-19.

Creativity and flexibility, especially amid a pandemic, have become the name of the game when it comes to learning. Along with traditional in-person school, there now exists hybrid learning, homeschooling, alternative schools, virtual online education or any mix of those combined.