Rich and poor and good and evil

I remember rabbit ears, and I remember how modern and progressive we felt when we got our outside antennae. Later on I remember the crappy old tv sets my beer drinking buddies had and how they had elaborate assemblages of coat hangers and tinfoil to get reception, and once they had a picture nobody was allowed to move from their seat lest they lose it, unless it was to get beer for everybody.

No Kindergarten huh? Perhaps that’s why you never became a commie in the sixties. Back in the day all we did at Kindergarten was play, but when I became a sub I noticed that they are already teaching them how to read and some very basic math. Kids of today learn more in school than we ever did.

Some report came out today that Chicago Blacks were lagging behind White kids in test scores. This is always happening. The answer is as plain as the nose on your face. The problem is the Black kids are poorer than White kids. Poor children do worse than other children because everything is harder for them. I know we have just had a long discussion about poor people, and it’s probably too early to get back into that, But there is this No Child Left Behind rationale, that the problem is that the teachers are not teaching Black children well enough, so what we should do is fire all the bad teachers and close down the bad schools and it’s all bullshit and the main thing driving it is converting schools to charter schools so that they can bust the union. Just saying.

I’ve probably told this story before, but every school but one that I taught in said the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of the day, and of course everybody stood for that. But one time I was in the office and the pledge came on and I looked around and there were no kids so I settled down into my seat with my paper, but it was strangely silent and when I looked up all the clerks were facing the flag (every room had a flag of course) with their hands on their hearts, so I stood and took off my hat and joined them.

I always take off my hat and do whatever is required whenever one of those situations arise, just to show all those wingnuts, that even though I am a liberal I am just as good an American as they are.

Actually I think the whole thing is stupid. Pledges, prayers, moments of silence, weddings, graduations, funerals, those parts where everybody stands tall and looks solemn. Some people think it is a sign of respect, but I think it is a big waste of time.

At some point it came to the attention of my sisters and me that other kids were getting an allowance, so of course we demanded one too. There were chores we were supposed to do around the house which we did when we couldn’t somehow wriggle out of them, but there wasn’t that much of a connection between them and the allowance. If I didn’t take out the garbage a couple times a week, I still got my full allowance.

I’m not sure what side I am on about paying kids to be good. One time I subbed at a school for very bad kids, when they got off the bus they walked past a gauntlet of burly teachers into the school, there was chicken wire everywhere. They had some program where they could earn points by behaving and earn certain prizes, and the prizes were all prominently displayed so that was always on their minds. I didn’t get the impression that it worked very well though. Those kids were like little tough Jimmy Cagneys, they’d rather spit in your hand then accept a gift, dirty coppers.

I know it’s not that simple, but if a good is only good because he is getting something for himself, he is liable not to do good without being paid. On other hand, at least he is good when he is being paid. It’s kind of like one of those bull sessions. If you do good because it advances your situation, are you really being good?