Pitbull-Teacher Association

Last week I said that politics was a practical affair, for which people with ordinary practical experience were usually better qualified than theoreticians. The upshot was that Sarah Palin’s past as a mother and PTA member was nothing to sniff at. This Mail Online article on the PTA suggests that I was more right than I realized:

This lot wanted action, not thought. They wanted schemes to buy whiteboards, professional cricket coaching and a Spanish teacher for Year 6.

They wanted hard-nosed ideas for pushing their children ahead in life’s race, not debate about whether competitive sport is good or bad. They know the answer to that one. That’s why they’re running the show.

Yes, the world of the PTA is tough, money-minded and intensely personal.

Of course it may be that mothers in Wasilla are more relaxed than the urban professionals profiled in the article. But my experience suggests that mothers’ fierce and tough-minded pursuit of their children’s happiness is (along with men’s need to impress women) always and everywhere one of the main engines of human achievement. So, to reiterate, distinguishing yourself among a pack of motivated moms is nothing to sniff at.