Numbers

As an artist, I'm not particularly fond of measuring, being required to fill out quantitative data for grant proposals and add up points for grades, in a process that sometimes seems arbitrary. However, numbers seized my attention this week, bringing a new respect for the humble digit.

Half listening to public radio on the car radio, my foggy consciousness heard: "I would say we have to have an economy that isn't based on growth." Hmm. Not possible, since the way we "measure" how well our economy is doing is based on a growth model, isn't it? That started me thinking, since we're all worried about jobs and budgets.

Then the newspaper: "Broken Promises," shouted the Tribune headline today. Thinking it was another senator's scandal, I picked up the paper. Hmm. I see. The promise of low cost, higher education for all in California has slipped away compared to 50 years ago. For some reason, I decided to type in 'US Economy' on the internet.

A New York Times article reassured me that there are fewer recessions now than there used to be. Great, I had no idea! Wikipedia was a little less optimistic. There were lots of different sections in that article and -- wow! Look at all those percentages letting me know what went up and what went down! To my surprise, this article had a section on Education, my area of interest, being a part time arts educator. Hmm. We're 15th out of 29 rated countries in college completion, just above Turkey and Mexico. This is so interesting, I could do this all day.

But then, sadly, I scrolled to the section on Employment. I knew most of it already, from my own job situation and the struggles of those around me, old and young. But the numbers? The numbers I read today were harsh, if true. What do we as educators in the Oakland Public Schools make of it? Perhaps our new Superintendent is right: the focus of our high schools from now on will be in training and placing young people in jobs. The numbers I read are for the entire U.S., so California would be a bit different, but here they are:

"The unemployment among African-Americans continues to be much higher than white unemployment (at 14.9% vs. 8.6%).[46] The youth unemployment rate was 18.5% in July 2009, the highest July rate since 1948.[51] 34.5% of young African American men were unemployed in October 2009.[52] Officially, Detroit’s unemployment rate is 27%, but Detroit News suggests that nearly half of this city’s working-age population may be unemployed."