The Secret of the Sidewalk at New Trier HS

New Trier HS in Winnetka, Il is often ranked as the number one school in the nation. But only its custodians know its truest secret. The secret of the sidewalk....!

When an ancient king ordered his wise men to find the secret of life, they traveled his kingdom for a year before they returned with these Solomonic words: "And this too shall pass..." As an educator, I traveled the campus of New Trier for 25 years, and found the secret in a small sidewalk on its campus. Not in any words; just in its placement.

For years the custodians had landscaped the area with attractive greenery, but by adolescent nature the kids always took a shortcut that trampled right through it. Next, the custodians planted a thorny row of bushes. The kids trampled right through it. In aesthetic desperation, the custodians drew a chain across it. That's right -- the kids trampled right over it.

Today you can find this secret right there at 385 Winnetka Avenue. The custodians gave up and put in a sidewalk. From Plato to Edmund Burke to William Buckley to Newt Gingrich, conservatives will always tell you that human nature is resolute, and neither custodians, school principals nor political reformers are apt to change it very easily.

Enter our reform-minded new president. If he can find a way to salvage our current banking crisis, he wants to take us to some long-neglected summits. Places like healthcare reform, energy reform, and education reform. However, both history and psychology tell us that national human nature is hard to change. Reinforcing this instinct are each of the vested interests in society who stand to lose with any such reforms. Translated: They will use all their wealth and power to convince us that our don't-make-waves instinct is absolutely correct.

Does that make them an evil cabal, a vast right-wing conspiracy, a contract with the devil...? Those would be easy to confront, because they have a name. Today's re-emerging resistance to national reform is far subtler. And for them far nobler. Generally it's a big-A-American pride in "what we've always been!" As in the case of such habitually posed either-or choices between good medicine vs socialised medicine....available energy vs unrealistic energy.... universal education vs privileged education.

Among those advocates of what is called "the great American status quo" are most doctors, most oil companies, and most teacher unions (yes they have one at New Trier, although I'm not sure where they stand on reforms like charter schools for in effect New Trier already is one).

In "this too shall pass," the ancient king's wise man offered comfort in the midst of trials, but challenge in the midst of comfort. Change is always a challenge. But today, the challenge has changed! In today's game, virtually all the old rules and hash marks and goal posts have crumbled. True, this has happened before in history, but not this fast and not all at once. Crumbling icecaps, crumbling banking institutions, crumbling drug enforcement. crumbling border patrols, crumbling police and health protection, crumbling churches and moral codes.

The President is historically accurate when he says "great perils also mean great opportunities." We all agree on the perils, but not on the opportunities. In the final measure, it will be for us to decide whether we keep trampling across the campus of life according to our old shortcut instincts. If so, then once again the call to reform may have to give in, as we put in that sidewalk whose secret says: "I tried, but couldn't get you to try with me."