2003_08_24_skyedreams_archive

On a Paranoid Theory Being Vindicated

I have a friend, a brilliant historian, author, professor, and former

Catholic school teacher, who asserts that the American educational

system is designed to create and maintain a large underclass to serve

the purposes of the economic elite. I used to tease her about her

paranoid (not to mention Marxist) tendencies...until recently, when by

way of Electrolite, I found this.

Then, today, I found this. One of the families profiled were Billie Jo

Smith and her children:

Billie Jo Smith and her children live outside McArthur, Ohio. They're

new to hunger. Her husband was the sole breadwinner but the marriage

broke up a few months ago, and now the money's gone. The kids are on a

free school lunch program and, often, 12-year-old Shane brings part of

that meal home.

Shane, Billy Jo, Joey, and Jenny are living on $700 a month in welfare

and food stamps. Sometimes Jenny doesn't eat at all between lunches.

"It's terrible. I usually wait until the next day to go to school and

eat," she says.

Billy Jo Smith is banking on a good education to lift her children out

of poverty. The kids are good at math but, still, school is a

struggle. Jenny says hunger makes her fall asleep sometimes at school:

"I can't concentrate half the time. Sometimes, I'm really weak in

class."

There is something monstruously evil in children going hungry in the

world's wealthiest nation. Politicians always spout off about "leaving

no child behind", but when it comes to setting national priorities

children always come in somewhere between the corporate farming

subsidies and the iguana breeding studies. We know that well-nourished

children do better in school, but the first thing to go during budget

cuts are school meal programs. We know that healthy children are more

likely to grow up to be productive adults, but we skimp on pre-natal

and children's care. We know that children who have access to

interesting activities are less likely to become delinquents, yet art,

music, and after-school clubs are now rare as dodo's eggs in the

American educational system.

Please note that I am saying "we". These things would not happen if a

majority of us, the American people, did not acquiesce in or even

approve of these things. I remember the derision with which so many

conservatives and libertarians greeted Hillary Clinton's It Takes a

Village; no, said Robert Dole righteously, it takes a strong family.

Well, there are strong families out there in America's heartland, and

coastland, and every square feet of land, who are floundering because

their share of the American dream has evaporated. Their children are

suffering from malnutrition, with all its attendant physical and

mental ills. Our response has been modern updating of Scrooge's

questions: are there no food banks? are there no churches?

We are told that in this global post-industrial economy, the most

important assets for a nation are its workers. We are told that an

educated, creative workforce is the key to maintaining national

economic growth. But actions indicate that we want exactly the

opposite, and that makes no sense. Unless, of course, we accept my