Yesterday's Dropouts. Today's Events.

This morning, I've been thinking of little else besides the chaos in Boston. That city used to be my home, and with many friends and family there, I'm having a very difficult time staying focused on much else... but, on my walk to work this morning listening to the coverage, NPR returned to its regularly scheduled programming.  

My thoughts of Boston were interrupted by Kavitha Cardoza from WAMU, who is, with the support of CPB's American Graduate Initiative, doing a wonderful series on yesterday's dropouts. In fact, just a block away from my office, her piece on the "High Price For Low Literacy," featured a clip from my boss: 

But perhaps the biggest cost is one that can't be measured. It's the invisible cost of what might have been. John Bridgeland, with Civic Enterprises, a public policy firm in D.C., calls dropping out a "dream buster." Students who drop out usually don't vote and don't volunteer.

“With millions of students dropping out every year, it’s like generations of talent needlessly lost,” Bridgeland says. “You think about the civic fabric of our communities and what life could have been like. You realize the dropout epidemic is a huge loss to our nation.”

I found the piece very grounding.  

The civic fabric of Boston isn't torn, it's strengthened.  And across the country, the work of strengthening communities goes on.  Hopefully Boston will be back at it, doing what it does best, in no time. In the meantime, I'll be drinking Dunkin Donuts in D.C., thinking of my home away from home.