by Paul Dueweke
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“Sounds like you had a great relationship with your kids,” Guinda said. “I wish my dad had been around to do stuff like that with us.”
“Those were wonderful days, but it didn’t always stay like that.”
“What happened in 2010?” Guinda asked.
“You really do your homework, don’t you.”
“I owe it all to COPE.”
“I remember 2010, all right,” he said. “That was the year of the science fair.” He sipped his beer and made some repeated pattern in the condensation with his thumb.
“I could brush off all the political hype and platitudes of the day, but I took it a lot more personally when these social tides started to affect our kids. The education community was great at masquerading various politically correct issues as compassion for some group. Trilingual education, multi-culturalism, and cultural diversity were the main buzzwords then. One evening I noticed Susie working on her computer. And she wasn’t just surfing the Web the way most kids did to fool their parents and teachers into thinking they were engaged in some great educational experience. She was working hard on something.”