Differences

At last night’s fundraiser

for a 26 year old candidate

running for Jerry Nadler’s seat

(I’ve always liked Nadler.)

the candidate, intelligent,

articulate, enthusiastic,

was liked by the crowd but

not so much by me. What matters

to us all is different. I asked how he

intended to fix public schools.

Noah told us that the Upper West Side

a very liberal neighborhood

is one of the most segregated

school districts in the country.

Some of that comes from the idea

of gifted and talented schools

which define gifted and talented

in narrow conventional ways.

The candidate went to Stuyvesant

and explained how hard it is to get in,

etc. (Stuyvesant has a 2 percent black

population. How could that make sense

to him or the school?) Afterwards a beautiful

Cuban woman came up to me and said

she has a 4 year old daughter who is

gifted and talented. She asked what she

should do. I explained that the whole idea

of gifted and talented seems wrong.

Maybe gifted should mean kindness.

She went on to explain that her daughter

could read. Should she go to Hunter

Elementary? I said I didn’t know but maybe

she could ask the candidate. My guess

is he’d say yes.