Twelve hours to Go.......

Two Words

School. Dazed.

Good news- By this time tonight, I'll be out of my exam. Bad news- I'm still so far from ready for it that I think my head's going to explode. I'm not sure why, but I've always had a habit of putting off my studying until the last possible second, then stressing myself out, and then ultimately scambling and somehow pulling a decent grade out. I don't know why I even bother getting concerned about tests, considering that in my entire academic career I've failed only one test, and that was becuase I was caught cheating on a spelling test in the second grade. Apparently, spelling tests are not open book or open note. Of course, if someone had made me aware that that was wrong, I would have been more careful. Nevertheless, between that, the usual work is annoying stress and the MJ-dropping of the face of the earth thing (72 hrs, no contact-dude, just tell me to F off, I'll be fine, I just need to know), the stress level is a little rough right now, so I figure I need to change subjects completely. So I figured I'd relate an interesting story about something that took place up here in Cleveland, in the city schools, and give my little commentary on it, because, of course, I'm qualified to comment on these things.

Let me start of by prefacing this story with the fact that Cleveland city schools are terrible. And I don't mean bad is in they're kind of dirty and kids get into fights once in a while. I'm talking 4th graders punching teachers bad. I literally wouldn't send my worst enemy's children to these schools, b/c literally no child deserves to be put in an environment like that. In fact, rather than try to recount the story, here's a column about the school's from the Cleveland paper last week that will give you a pretty good idea of how bad it is.

Honestly, are you kidding me? I know that we're not the only city where this is going on, but it's ridiculous that this is happening everywhere. I know that we spend so much time blaming these things on the parents, the teachers, etc. After reading the article, the part that bothers me is the fact that they don't discipline these kids, and that's at home or at school. If I ever threw a bottle at someone, anyone, especially in school, I wouldn't even bother going home, because my parents would kill me for showing that kind of disrespect.

So what do we do about it? I have no idea, for I am not a government official, but then again, the schools being run by our government is probably a big part of the problem. I'm not even touching that.

Now I acknowledge that there are definitely students in these schools who do want to learn, but obviously, the teacher is spending more time trying not to die than teaching, which is bad for everyone involved. Now mind you, we have plenty of kids in these schools who have next to no business even being there, especially once they hit the age of 16 or so and have proven that they have no interest in being educated. What I don't understand is why they don't just start booting these kids, and I don't mean put them on the streets.
It's very simple. As many of you know who live here, there are plenty of places in downtown Cleveland that are very very dirty and undesirible. So, you don't want to go to school? Grab a broom, we'll pay you minimum wage. It's about all those kids would be able to do w/ out having even a high school education anyway. Plus, it'd be cheaper than paying city workers to do all that menial work, plus it would reduce student/teacher ratios and make the school tax dollars more effective on a per student basis.
Wait. You don't want to grab a broom? That's fine too. I'm sure we can find a nice, empty deserted island
somewhere in the South Pacific we can drop you off on, where you can't detract from society anymore. What? We can't just banish a 16 year old kid with out his mother/father/terribly irresponsible parent figure? Great. Send them too. Chances are that they are draining society in someway as well.


Is this feasible? Probably not. Is it politically correct? Absolutely not. Is it kind of interesting to think about. Apparently I think so. Regardless, it's depressing to me to see people who have dedicated their lives to educating our children having to live in fear of doing their jobs.