I was talking to a school principal yesterday--she said the No Child Left Behind incentive in schools is a failure. It homogenizes all students--no one is expected to excell anymore. 90 is the new 100. Parents aren't interested in PTA meetings. The future of American education looks morose to her.

She said none of the presidential candidates have mentioned schools and education. And she said "People call me a pessimist--but I tell them I'm a realist." AHA! A woman after my own heart, someone who sees life without rose colored glasses. That is my motto: if you are a realist, then you must be a pessimist.

I worked six years in home health, for an agency, then for the health department. I'll tell you what I saw in people's homes. This is the nitty gritty of the great grimy seamy underbelly of American society:

People who have fallen through the cracks.

The deprived, the depressed, the desperate.

The lonely and the alone.

People barely making it.

People just scratching by.

The undereducated-and uneducated.

The uninspired.

The uninsured.

The disenfranchised.

The poverty.

The mentally ill.

The homeless.

The neglected.

The abused, the traumatized.

The drug and alcohol raddled.

The hungry.

Nurses, policemen, teachers, and social workers know these people and these situations exist. I've been in those neighborhoods and those homes. There is absolutely a class difference in this nation.

Well fed, well dressed, well educated people living priveledged lifestyles may not be aware of the seething masses--but they live right under our noses. In every town, every city, every burg, the great grimy underbelly is alive and well.

In Mobile, at a cloverleaf intersection in a nice part of town, there is a patch of pine trees where transients and homeless would go to sleep at night. Sometimes one of the nameless would be found dead from exposure, or drugs or homocide. Police made sweeps to look for bodies that disturbed local residents, then made it illegal as a refuge for the homeless to sleep there. 

One of these days the people living in the great grimy underbelly will be the rule rather than the exception and class wars will be a reality.
Susil

Comments:

Dear Sue, I don't know how "No child left behind" is handled. But I should think that phrase would best be applied by ensuring that those children who do not qualify for promotion to the next level would be singled out for special help so as to achieve it on merit, not advanced to the next grade up without the necessary learning. Are you saying that is what is happening? We shouldn't lower standards, although I think our entire culture and educational system over the past 30 years has dumbed way down. A lot of that, incidentally, is due to pandering by commercial entertainment interests striving for the lowest level that appeals to the 12-year-old mind and keeping that child 12 years old for the rest of its life.

comment by tealstar on May 12, 2008 4:52 AM ()

Hi teal; mainstreaming mentally challenged kids into
classrooms with "normal" kids can't help but dumb down the
level of education. There is a series of articles about drop-outs
in schools in our paper--the kids say they are bored and not
learning anything. When I was their age (here goes old fogey) we had
to work hoe-ing and picking and sweating in the fields, and we were
SO glad to go to school to get away from that. Maybe when kids drop
out, they should be forced to work for a year at hard manual labor
out in a field--then they'd be glad to be in school! (And take away
their electronic toys too.)

reply by susil on May 13, 2008 9:11 AM ()

Excellent post Sue. I wrote you a comment but it got so long, I'll make it a post on my own blog. However I agree with that principal about the No Child Left Behind nonsense. What a crock!

comment by catdancer on May 8, 2008 6:22 PM ()

Hi Karen; looking forward to that blog!

reply by susil on May 9, 2008 11:51 AM ()

Sure, life is harsh and unfair. So get over it. Do what you can. Vote your conscience, help the unfortunate to the limit of your ability but don't brood about it, mentor a child..there are lots of ways to give. If you keep looking down, you will miss all the stars.

This is a depressing look at what constitutes a large portion of our citizens. We have to solve the problem of the homeless, the uneducated, and uninsured to keep the paint from becoming a grim reality.

Sue, dear heart, do what you can to help the grimy underbelly and then look up..life really isn't all angst. Even a simple gesture of friendship or concrete help will help you and the recipient. We are finite beings and we have to help when we can...then put the rosy glasses back on.

For six months I slept under the bushes on hospital grounds. My welfare covered my medicine, a liter of milk and a loaf of bread per day.
From that experience I vowed never to depend on anything from the government.