Bliss’ Bailey Goes to School

Bailey by Harry Bliss looks like an easy laugh at first glance. Bailey is a stocky, softly spotted dog whose tail wags all the time. That’s one clue to how I learned to love this story. On the cover, in Bliss’ characteristically clean illustration style, Bailey is writing the title and author’s name in white chalk on a dark green chalkboard. On the first page is a bleary-eyed Bailey waking up one morning. A bird at his window shouts, “Don’t be late!” Another clue. We smile at Bailey as he wonders which color collar to wear and when he walks out of his doghouse wearing a backpack. We laugh at Bailey hanging his head out the bus window, giving his teacher a bone, and howwowwling during music class. Then a child in art class looks at Bailey and says, “He is out of control.” Mmmmm. Maybe we’re watching a highly enthusiastic, maybe even gifted-and-talented, student encounter school culture.

As luck would have it, I read “How the Ivy League Broke America” the same week I read Bailey. This is the feature article in the December 2024 issue of The Atlantic magazine. The cover art by Danielle Del Plato grabs your attention, and you can’t beat the catchy title. The article echoed some ideas I’d heard in educational contexts over many years. In my opinion, David Brooks expanded upon and repurposed them in an well-written article intended for a wider audience. Now seems to be a time to clobber the educated “elite.”

Brooks explains that the president of Harvard from 1933-1953, James Conant, wanted to replace an admissions process based on bloodlines to “criteria that centered on brain power.” (28) Long story short, education transformed into a landscape of tests. Test scores became the dominant measure of merit and critical to the college application. Brooks proposes six ways in which this particular system of meritocracy backfired and ways in which “a new, broader definition” of merit could redesign education.

And then I had an epiphany–how serious was Harry Bliss in showing us an eager Bailey up against academic and social demands? On his website is a cartoon in which a child is telling Bailey he will not like school. I wondered if Bailey’s enthusiasm would fade into apathy by the time he left elementary school, if not sooner.

I graduated from a top ranked school. Quite frankly, I worked my behind off. There was zero time for entertainment because the academic demands were extraordinary. My educational and socio-economic background paled in comparison to my classmates. Twenty-three years later, I self-published a thin book to benefit a nonprofit. In the acknowledgments, I thanked the supervisor in my first job for her patience–“When I fell out of the ivory tower and into real life”. Nevertheless, I was grateful for those rigorous four years. I had never been in the company of such curious colleagues who were so passionate about learning. I have met precious few since.

I sometimes miss those studious years when adulting wasn’t the top priority. I hope David Brooks’ article adds momentum to positive change. I hope Bailey finds his tribe of energetic, over-the-top, insatiable students.