Some of us know it isn’t. I had to go thru my own mindless and vicious struggle for power when I taught 7th grade in an incredibly damaged neighborhood school, diversity to the gills, no money for anything, being judged on how well I taught the “White Man’s Way” to kids who had absolutely no stake in that world: poor white trash, ghetto black kids, immigrants from Mexico and points south, who were routinely pulled out of school to babysit or work while the parents worked 2 and 3 ill-paying jobs, Hmong who couldn’t speak or write English, Thai and Vietnamese kids whose names I shamefully could hardly pronounce, Ukrainians. And only a few of them could stay in their seats due to a kind of PTSD that is visited on them by our horrifying culture. And they are all dumbed in a classroom of 30 to 33 practically elbow to elbow, and the teacher told to “bring them to benchmark” with nothing more than force of personality and will. I did it for 18 years, and while I was good at it the 1st 9 years, the 2nd 9 years was indeed a vicious power struggle as the administration got stupider, the kids got more PTSD and I got more tired. It was an utter tragedy. But the middle class got richer and happier and more greedy as the School Board shoveled more money into their schools and ignored the poor kids schools thereby creating a group of people ripe for T-rump, when he came along and now they wonder o my o my, why don’t those people behave themselves and obey the cops. Then the wouldn’t get shot. There are those who see us “returning to the land” as a solution but these Middies don’t belong in the Forest. They’ll just burn it down, like they did Paradise in NO Cal. And many poors are in the forest—making meth and target practicing on the Subaru’s of the yuppie recreational, back to nature, weekend hikers. As you say—there ain’t no place to hide from the real world. It’s here and now and boy howdy, is it mad!!!
A very sad story, a real glimpse at life as it is in the "foremost democracy" in the world: a house of cards built on quicksand. But don't blame yourself because you couldn't correctly pronounce foreign names, and couldn't deliver the best education: People understand if you show good faith and willingness to learn. I'm sure you helped many people as the best part of an otherwise corrupt, irrational, and inhuman system.
Some of us know it isn’t. I had to go thru my own mindless and vicious struggle for power when I taught 7th grade in an incredibly damaged neighborhood school, diversity to the gills, no money for anything, being judged on how well I taught the “White Man’s Way” to kids who had absolutely no stake in that world: poor white trash, ghetto black kids, immigrants from Mexico and points south, who were routinely pulled out of school to babysit or work while the parents worked 2 and 3 ill-paying jobs, Hmong who couldn’t speak or write English, Thai and Vietnamese kids whose names I shamefully could hardly pronounce, Ukrainians. And only a few of them could stay in their seats due to a kind of PTSD that is visited on them by our horrifying culture. And they are all dumbed in a classroom of 30 to 33 practically elbow to elbow, and the teacher told to “bring them to benchmark” with nothing more than force of personality and will. I did it for 18 years, and while I was good at it the 1st 9 years, the 2nd 9 years was indeed a vicious power struggle as the administration got stupider, the kids got more PTSD and I got more tired. It was an utter tragedy. But the middle class got richer and happier and more greedy as the School Board shoveled more money into their schools and ignored the poor kids schools thereby creating a group of people ripe for T-rump, when he came along and now they wonder o my o my, why don’t those people behave themselves and obey the cops. Then the wouldn’t get shot. There are those who see us “returning to the land” as a solution but these Middies don’t belong in the Forest. They’ll just burn it down, like they did Paradise in NO Cal. And many poors are in the forest—making meth and target practicing on the Subaru’s of the yuppie recreational, back to nature, weekend hikers. As you say—there ain’t no place to hide from the real world. It’s here and now and boy howdy, is it mad!!!
A very sad story, a real glimpse at life as it is in the "foremost democracy" in the world: a house of cards built on quicksand. But don't blame yourself because you couldn't correctly pronounce foreign names, and couldn't deliver the best education: People understand if you show good faith and willingness to learn. I'm sure you helped many people as the best part of an otherwise corrupt, irrational, and inhuman system.
It should say dumped in the classroom, not dumbed. They weren’t dumb by any stretch of the imagination.