Purls of wisdom on the S.F. Board of Ed
It's the latest scandal in our fractious school district: Knitgate.
It's shocking but true. BOE Commissioner Jill Wynns &mdash who (like the other six commissioners) is paid all of $500 a month to sit through hundreds of hours of meetings, try to solve insoluble problems and take endless beatings from the public (verbal, I hope, though there was a moment of panic when an angry speaker reached into her purse for a pencil at a recent heated meeting) over her inability to do so— sometimes does needlepoint or knits during meetings.
There have been pointed (so to speak) comments about that from her critics for a while. They've gotten heated during the sad and angry issue of school closures, and some critics are proposing a "knit-in" at a BOE meeting as a jab at Wynns. The comments, I note again, started well before the school-closures controversy. (All BOE members voted to close or merge some schools; this anger is about one particular split vote.)
I maintain that if it were Sarah Lipson (the other female BOE member) doing the knitting, Wynns' critics would be admiring the yarn — Wynns and Lipson often being on the opposite sides of issues.
I posted a comment about this on the sfschools listserve and got a flurry of interesting responses, not by any means from Wynns' political allies, pointing out that kinesthetic learners absorb information better when they're doing something like knitting. The discussion has turned into a knitting fan club. Now the knit-in may evolve into a pro-knitting event. All BOE members would rush to learn to knit to cater to this new constituency.
Even Wynns' sharpest critics readily acknowledge that she's a fount of information and the best-informed BOE member about complex issues like funding. Maybe that's because she knits while she listens.
OK, here's what the critics say. It makes people feel like they're not being heard when she knits while they speak. It's true that Wynns is not prone to warm, fuzzy professions of "I feel your pain" -- not that she doesn't feel people's pain.
One sfschools poster says flatly that elected officials shouldn't knit during public testimony, a new rule I hadn't heard. Matier and Ross: Wynns Spotted in Yarn Aisle at Beverly's.
My quilting friend Margo carries her handiwork in a tote bag emblazoned, "Ladies' Sewing Circle and Terrorist Society." Maybe it's time for a Ladies' BOE Watchers and Knitting Circle.
Full disclosure: I am personal friends with Jill Wynns -- though I admired her from afar standing up to former Supe Bill Rojas during the Rojas Reign of Terror before I ever met her face to face.
Not only that -- I was invited to a birthday gathering for departing Superintendent Arlene Ackerman that was also essentially a going-away party, and knitted her a scarf as a gift.
Handicrafts police! Drop the needles, lady!
— Caroline
It's shocking but true. BOE Commissioner Jill Wynns &mdash who (like the other six commissioners) is paid all of $500 a month to sit through hundreds of hours of meetings, try to solve insoluble problems and take endless beatings from the public (verbal, I hope, though there was a moment of panic when an angry speaker reached into her purse for a pencil at a recent heated meeting) over her inability to do so— sometimes does needlepoint or knits during meetings.
There have been pointed (so to speak) comments about that from her critics for a while. They've gotten heated during the sad and angry issue of school closures, and some critics are proposing a "knit-in" at a BOE meeting as a jab at Wynns. The comments, I note again, started well before the school-closures controversy. (All BOE members voted to close or merge some schools; this anger is about one particular split vote.)
I maintain that if it were Sarah Lipson (the other female BOE member) doing the knitting, Wynns' critics would be admiring the yarn — Wynns and Lipson often being on the opposite sides of issues.
I posted a comment about this on the sfschools listserve and got a flurry of interesting responses, not by any means from Wynns' political allies, pointing out that kinesthetic learners absorb information better when they're doing something like knitting. The discussion has turned into a knitting fan club. Now the knit-in may evolve into a pro-knitting event. All BOE members would rush to learn to knit to cater to this new constituency.
Even Wynns' sharpest critics readily acknowledge that she's a fount of information and the best-informed BOE member about complex issues like funding. Maybe that's because she knits while she listens.
OK, here's what the critics say. It makes people feel like they're not being heard when she knits while they speak. It's true that Wynns is not prone to warm, fuzzy professions of "I feel your pain" -- not that she doesn't feel people's pain.
One sfschools poster says flatly that elected officials shouldn't knit during public testimony, a new rule I hadn't heard. Matier and Ross: Wynns Spotted in Yarn Aisle at Beverly's.
My quilting friend Margo carries her handiwork in a tote bag emblazoned, "Ladies' Sewing Circle and Terrorist Society." Maybe it's time for a Ladies' BOE Watchers and Knitting Circle.
Full disclosure: I am personal friends with Jill Wynns -- though I admired her from afar standing up to former Supe Bill Rojas during the Rojas Reign of Terror before I ever met her face to face.
Not only that -- I was invited to a birthday gathering for departing Superintendent Arlene Ackerman that was also essentially a going-away party, and knitted her a scarf as a gift.
Handicrafts police! Drop the needles, lady!
— Caroline
Labels: SFUSD Politics
1 Comments:
" Purls of wisdom on the S.F. Board of Ed "
Ugh.
As Voltaire said:
"Puns are the death of Wit".
Suppose not much else can be expected from name-dropping knitters ...
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