Are Our Elementary Schools A Joke?

I found myself with two children one day, one in second grade and one in third grade, I was aware that they came from a difficult school district, and that the one in third grade had struggled through second grade and need help.  I did not know the extent of the help.  So we get everyone enrolled in school and my second grader, she does great, most of her grades are 3 & 4 (don’t even get me started on this number thing), but my third grader was behind form the start.  The school notified me of his difficulty, so I put him in an after school math program, his teacher, counselors and myself were involved.  We worked with him or so I am told through the school year trying to help him get up to speed while introducing course work, by the end of the year these New York State tests determined him to be at a second grade level. 

The school was going to push him right up to 4^th grade when I asked about summer school.  So here we are enrolled in summer school his last resort before I request he be held back.  Now let’s discuss summer school, it’s 3 hours, yes just 3 hours and so far he hasn’t learned a thing, they are on multiplication and division and he is still struggling with adding and subtracting.  So he comes home and I teach him, which begs the question why I send him to school if I am the one that has to teach him anyway. 

So he goes to school for three hours, which means we get up get ready and hope the bus isn’t early as it was today, and we don’t have to make a mad dash to the school.  There is a schedule, but apparently it is okay to ignore the schedule if you are early, if you are early and no one is there just keep going right?  That is what the bus does, so we as parents go out ten-twenty  minutes early for pick up and drop off because half the time we have no idea what to expect, way to set an example!  At least our kids are learning how to be early for an appointment. 

I digress, back to the school, so he goes to the school and they make tie-dyed T-shirts and do whatever else the first week, come the second week I still see no homework sent home.  He says he hasn’t really learned much since starting, and although it is only week two shouldn’t he have ironed out some of his deficiencies?  So here I am teaching my boy how to add and subtract (and he is in 3^rd grade!) because I have lost all faith that the school is teaching him anything.  I ordered the text books, I took time from my schedule, and I sat down and gave him assignments and assessed his learning myself.  Why am I sending him to school again?  So he can socialize, okay that is important, but what is he learning about socializing? He is learning what his peers teach, he is learning the good that bad and the in between, so I teach him tolerance and I teach him how to defend himself, and how to think for himself, but the school does not teach him that I do.  So I am teaching him social skills and I have to teach him core content, then why am I sending my kid to a school?  Why not home school him?  Well because I am a single parent household and society puts little value on family anymore.  Our society has advanced in some ways and degraded in others.  It would be great to homeschool my kids, but sadly society has made it difficult to survive on a dual income let alone a single income, and as a single parent I have to work harder to provide for my family.  It is getting hard not to turn this into a societal blog, but I will refrain.  

Some children don't want to do the work, if they don't and you push them through you are teaching them they don't have to work to progress, that is not a message I would choose to send.  Some children have "disorders" (putting my personal feelings aside) if this is truly the case they need special assistance and a solid foundation not to be left behind. The bottom line is our education system with its ”no kid left behind” policy is a joke, it’s a wonderful concept to leave no child behind, but if you are just pushing a child through when they haven’t the proper foundation, you are failing them in an even bigger way.  What happens to a house without the proper foundation?  It crumbles.

The Zimmerman Trayvon Debacle

What a world we live in.  I am not even sure where to start, as this is a blog I feel I can just dive right in, but let me start with a few side notes and disclaimers.   First I am not a lawyer, I was not in the court room, and all information I have obtained (like most others) has been third party.  I don’t necessarily trust the opinions and information gained through our politicians or media.  I’m frustrated at the ignorance, lack of compassion and intolerance that our society seems to find acceptable.

The only people that know what happened that night are George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin, since only one of them remains with us we have one side of the story. One perspective.  Regardless of how objective George Zimmerman may be, his story will always be incomplete.  He cannot know, as we cannot know what Trayvon Martin was thinking, how he felt, why he reacted the way he did, or if his perception of George Zimmerman was that of a serious threat.   We only have one side of the story and we are left to determine the truth, with the poison of hatred and politics polluting the water.

That being said, let’s go back to the beginning.  Trayvon Martin was walking in a neighborhood, George Zimmerman was acting as neighborhood watch.  George saw an unfamiliar person walking through a neighborhood.  It has been said there were a rash of break in’s in this neighborhood, is this relevant or not, we will discuss.  Here is where it goes sideways, George (possibly more suspicious of any outsider due to increased break in’s) was alarmed at person he did not recognize.  This person was wearing a hoody, it’s possible he didn’t see the person or the race of the person in the hoody, it is possible that no one in the neighborhood goes out walking with a hoody on.  There are a ton of possibilities.  A large possibility is that George approached this man/boy in the belief he could talk to this person, it is a large possibility that he had no expectations of a fight at all.  That is one side of the story to this point.  What is largely known (and again 3^rd and 4^th party removed) is that George Zimmerman  (ignoring the suggestion not to approach the stranger) got out of his car and approached Trayvon Martin.  It is unclear to me how approaching this person escalated into a fight, and it is irrelevant in a way, let me tell you why.  It did escalate, out of control to the point that Trayvon was beating George, repeatedly slamming his head into the concrete.  There is no good reason for this extreme, indeed it need not even come to blows, but the fact that it did come to such extreme blows, meant that George was afraid for his life and he reacted by shooting, whom he thought was a man, that was beating is head in.  Why did it come to blows, what circumstances would be acceptable for it to come to blows?  There really are not any, no matter what someone says to you, there is always the choice to walk away, and like I tell my kids, people can say anything they like, and you may not like it, and you may not feel it is true, but words are no reason to strike someone.

George Zimmerman made bad decisions, he had poor judgment, it is possible he thought he was doing something good, it is possible he thought he could handle things peacefully, but he did not.  Trayvon may or may not have made equally bad decisions, it is difficult for me to say because he is not here to be heard, but if in fact, he did repeatedly slam George’s head in the ground that was a bad decision.  What upsets me, and what I don’t understand is why this came to such desperate acts, why couldn’t George Zimmerman ask this person where they were going, who they were staying with, and not out of a place of suspicion but out of a place of compassion.  Why couldn’t George ask Trayvon if he needed a lift to where he was staying.  Why couldn’t Trayovn have pointed out that he was visiting and ask for a lift, or perhaps he enjoyed his walk and he could express that.  Instead we are teaching people and cultivating a society of fear and out of this fear people react unpredictably and with anger and rage. 

Let’s get to the verdict and the aftermath.  The jury made their decision they were not all convinced without reasonable doubt of George Zimmerman’s guilt, the legal processes were followed, the verdict was found.  Many a person has disagreed with court decisions that were not in their favor but the process was followed, a process put in place to protect the innocent.  I’ve read a great deal of the aftermath of this verdict and I am appalled.  Many are protesting and protests have turned violent, death threats have been issued not only against George Zimmerman but also against random white people, or Hispanics.  Is this the way?  Do people really believe this is how we should behave?  Someone mentioned on a Facebook post that the law was followed and people did not march on the streets when O.J. Simpson was acquitted, and I find this an interesting point if it were to be a racial issue we would have a comparison, but this is not really a racial issue, and if it was I would insist that the media get the race right, he is Hispanic, not just white, but race should not matter.  Am I naive to think that we should be evolved enough not to judge someone by color, not to assume that every issue between different races is a racial issue? But I am not interested in making this about race, I am more interested in making a point about compassion and the lack of compassion in society.  I am more interested in making a point about people resorting to violence before finding a peaceable solution. 

It is normal for the family of Trayvon to feel as they do, they suffered a great loss, and they will have a great many emotions, but for others to take to the street in Trayvon's name, commit acts of violence, burn flags, and make threats there is no good reason for that. The law was followed, the verdict was reached, it was not a mistrial. George Zimmerman acted in self defense according to the law.    

I am afraid that society is degrading, we live in a world where we are allowing our freedoms to be taken from us, we are poisoned by our media and politicians who tell us what they want us to hear, and we are in denial about a great many things.  Worst of all we will fight each other more readily than we will show compassion.  We challenge the court system when it suits us, we use it to our advantage when it suits us, we burn our own flag, do we have any values left.  Is there integrity left in America?  Are we doomed to hate? Why is hate the first emotion? Why can people not find more compassion in their heart?