An Australian partner recently introduced me to the term “under the bonnet”, the Australian/British version of “under the hood.”  I prefer the Australian version because it more accurately represents the dichotomy of the fun working on the exterior/looks and the drudgery of working on the interior/logistics of a system.

Building infrastructure isn’t fun; it’s a necessary evil.  If you don’t build infrastructure properly, people can actually die — as seen in Boston’s Big Dig Tunnel earlier this summer.  Corruption and incompetence in large scale public or even private (hello, British Petroleum) works projects is not a surprise.  Public school systems across the US have also suffered from poor maintenance and renovation. 

As I read about the Thomas Jefferson High School in Virginia, a noted public school, I was shocked at the abysmal state of its building:  mold, falling ceiling tiles, falling ducts.  What shocked me even more was that the parents’ group raised over $15,000 and spent that money on a spectrophotometer.  Cray donated a supercomputer when the previous supercomputer was destroyed by a leaky roof.  While, legally, money raised by a parents’ group may not be able to be spent on building infrastructure, the parents’ group could refuse to spend the money until the building is repaired properly.  Shouldn’t the physical safety of the students trump the desire for the latest & greatest equipment?

Mucking around under the bonnet is not a lot of fun or as noticeable as decorating the bonnet itself.  Pretty ribbons or a supercomputer won’t help when the bonnet collapses on itself.

Posted by Samantha