Make sure you get this...

make sure you know this!  Everyone is not as dumb as you think.  There are a lot of people with "a lot of sense".  Earning or obtaining a college degree certainly does not guarantee you will have  "common sense".

First of all the term "common sense" is a misnomer.  It's a misnomer because "common sense" is not common at all.  My life has taught me that it is very rare.

I write every day.  It is a compulsion, some form of o.c.d.  Yes, I am affected. Life dealt me the "Joker".  Perhaps I can qualify for some type of mental disability.  Fortunately or unfortunately I managed to retire successfully from "teaching".  Thirty years of doing what I wanted.  Teaching, molding, nurturing, instilling something good.  That was my intention, anyway.  I am not perfect.  I loved teaching and I always did the best I knew how.

I love children.  I am their advocate.  Our children are being wronged in our public schools.  Well, let me rephrase that.  The children that I taught, the children in the school system I retired from are being wronged.

Too many parents are so easily led by the media that they miss the point of an education.  The poor teacher is blamed for all of society's ills.  Teachers are blamed for "No Child left behind".

No one speaks up for or protects the "teacher".  Test scores are falling! "Those damn poorly educated lazy teachers!" ; becomes the immediate mindset.

No one bothers to mention why "Johnny can't read".  Johnny or Johnny Mae has been up all night secretly watching cable or pulling up porn sights on the Internet.   Little Lakeysia and Patron, Mary Jane, Beth or whom ever it is; is not interested in learning a damn thing.  Dumb as we think they are,   they already know life sucks and who really cares anyway?

We are phony, hiring a "spokesperson", a PR team to put up a front to pretend that we are doing what we all know we are in fact not doing.

"We love the children", right?  Where is the hot water?  Where is the soap?  Where is the toilet paper?  Do you think we can find a clean bathroom?

So we blame the kids.  "The luddle b******* throw the toilet paper in the toilet!....'they" are just too nasty, we can't keep up!"

Lets go to lunch.  What are we having?  "Beef nuggets!"  What the blank is a "beef nugget"?  Go to Kroger and find some dry, hard as a rock, greasy, cold "beef nuggets". "Well, dey eatin' free!...what dey expect?"

Lets travel down to the library, you know the one with very unfriendly hours and an extremely hostile staff.  The term child or student friendly is forbidden.  Can a student drop in before school? No!  What about after school?  The libraries in most schools are harder to get in than Fort Knox! Not only do the students have to have a formal written pass (reminds you of "slave passes" doesn't it? ) and an ID card! (reminds you of apartheid in South Africa )  Once the poor child has been scrutinized by the school's TSA (Terrorists  Sanctioned by Authority) the bell rings and we blame the kid for failure to complete his or her homework.

Don't believe me.  Check out the counseling center.  Most students in "Duh Igga" county think an "elective" is something the counselor picks for you.

Is there any pimping going on?  You mean soft drink machines, unhealthy snacks, honey buns, candy bars?  Do you think the world of Coca-Cola is in bed with the public schools?  "Surely you jest!"

How do we handle this problem?  Children are losing, showing up in colleges woefully unprepared.  Blame the teacher!  Blame that heifer!  "Those that can do, those that can't TEACH!"  Make sure that is always your attitude.  Make sure you pretend to be a concerned parent.  Require her to have conferences at ungodly hours like 7a.m.  (No one told her to live way out there in the sticks.)

Demand access to the teacher's roll book.  Make sure that she can successfully manage being a teacher, minister, nurse, entertainer, story teller, comedienne, mind reader, mild, meek, easily intimidated butt kisser so that the parents know that you are in control of your school; Mr. or Miss Principal-I-got-my-job-doing jobs-wink-wink.

Forget this is a school and we are educators.  Some drunken former superintendent said that we should service our "clients" like a department store.   So, we did, "customer service" became the watch word.

The poor teacher rushes to school, fighting Atlanta traffic.  She gets there early for cafeteria duty, bus duty or hall duty.  She is not allowed to sit for the 30 to 45 minutes that she is serving.  (We don't like the way it looks.  Why the idea of you grading papers while high school kids act like kids is preposterous!  Why you should grade those papers at home! neglect your own kids!  Call parents!  E-mail parents.  You are nothing but a teacher but you have to be on call like a doctor for far less money, too.)

  If she is smart enough to get a "profile" from her doctor she is considered a "smart Alec".  She is not a team player.  Let's ostracize her.  Destroy her reputation, label her a trouble maker, a rabble rouser, a "Union Rep"! oh my!

Why can't the principal or one of the six  assistant principals handle those situations?  Situations?  Yes, parents that have to drop their children off hours before school starts.  Why?  They don't live in the district!
Why do "they" live in upscale neighborhoods that are "unfriendly" to their "wayward children" then turn around and  put their "little darlings"  in a "darker" neighborhood school?

Put your child where you can run the system, the school, the teachers.  Send your child to school to get good grades.  Learn?  We are not trying to learn.  We are not trying to read those boring books.  We are just trying to get over.  Teach your child how to get over on the "system".  Teach them to be mealy mouthed whiners.  Dress them in the best, "dress to impress".  Teach them that they are entitled.  Please never mention the word consequences or responsibility, and  manners.  (Manners! some ignorant "southern" form of  mind control.)

Make sure you understand me.  Hear me and hear me well.  "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he."

"We can't fix the bottom until we fix the top.  We have to clean up the fountain head."

I'm praying for "leadership".  I am praying for GOD's guidance.

Be richly blessed.

Much Love, Peace and Happiness,
Rachel