What an amazing thing to find out that nobody realized teacher furlough days meant public school children would be missing school!

Gov. Linda Lingle said she assumed incorrectly that furlough days wouldn't take away from class time. Teachers are saying they weren't given a choice. Hawaii State Teachers Association leaders are saying that Lingle got what she wanted, making it seem like their membership didn't agree to the deal when they did.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Ben Vereen is at the state Capitol partying with the protesters. Cool, but definitely random. Maybe he knows who to blame.

Truth is, there's enough blame to go around. Lingle has been trying to whack the public school pinata since she got into office, even before there was a billion-dollar budget deficit. This was her chance to get in a good solid hit. The teachers union wisely took the option of furloughs rather than straight pay cuts or layoffs, but they made the choice to schedule those on class days rather than prep days and the school board signed off on the deal. Nobody worried about the kids losing class time until the reality of the first Furlough Friday came down and the community was up in arms.

Seventeen days of school cut from the school year is bad, but not as bad as the 21 days students lost in 2001 when the teachers went on strike looking for a retroactive pay raise. As those weeks went on, there were no parents holding concerts at the Capitol, and though Gov. Ben Cayetano got his share of screaming e-mails, Ben Vereen didn't stop by.

All involved need to holster their blaming fingers and instead use that energy to figure out what to do now. All is not lost. No, not the hurricane relief fund. Not a special session. Not raising taxes or "finding the money." There is no money. The state just closed a prison, for crying out loud. There isn't a secret stash of money hidden away in Lenny Klompus' desk drawer. Individual schools do have the option of switching out prep and waiver days for class days and of extending school days. Teachers can keep students busy with reading and homework.

It's important to remind ourselves that this is but a moment in time. Furlough Fridays are temporary, not forever. This crisis will pass and things will get better. And even in this difficult time, there are lessons for the students. Life is more than worksheets and word problems. It is often about figuring out how to make the best of difficult circumstances. This is good practice for, well, tough times like these.