Admittedly, this would only extend state power by incorporating more of us, but, well, in the end I think my brain is wired to analyze systems, like the state's, which makes me want to make it work, even though in the end I'm an anarchist and wish it would all just go away.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
School Dropouts and the State
Supposedly, the state cares about school dropouts. Especially, the City of Boston. But does our esteemed city really care about the future prospects of said dropouts? About their health and welfare and general happiness? Of course not. One senses that the desire to get dropouts back into school is either 1) so that they can be reincorporated into the discipline of state structures (ie - not on the street) or 2) so the liberals can pat themselves on the back. And yet 9 out of 10 dropouts that have been encouraged (manipulated) back into the school system (and end up in my classroom) lack the basic skills to be successful. After all, there was a reason they dropped out in the first place. Oddly enough, I find many of these students to be some of the most well-adjusted, interesting and thoughtful students - with the most interesting comments and insights. Unfortunately, they do really well in conversation but can barely read or write and ultimately, frustrated with lack of success, they drop out again. It's sad - as in the system is pathetic. If the state was really interested in serving the needs of these students it would not just send "street-workers" (isn't this what we used to call prostitutes?) to coerce students into school, but maybe it would actually try to figure out what the students issues are and provide support and remediation (tutoring?) to give students the skills they need to be successful before dumping them back into a system that failed them the first time.
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One of your former students, Anna Shaddae Rodriguez, sent me a link to you blog a while ago and I've been reading your entries off and on since. She says something interesting to me practically every single time we discuss the government with any sort of depth, "I look at the cogs that run the machine rather than just seeing it as one entire blob". Well, that's a paraphrase, probably a terrible one as well but it gets to the point far enough.
I do agree with you in principle that the result of recovering drop outs to put them back in the same exact situation is entirely fruitless. However, I can't really fault the effort because I do geniuenly believe that a good percentage of people that attemption to recover the drop outs do believe this in a better alternative than being in the streets.
Unfortunately for myself I can be extremely optimistic about the human potential, so I can bring that much ferver to the concept even though the execution was terrible. However, I do get to bask in my cynicism about the cyclical nature of failed systems. I'm still not willing to give on those systems though...
My name is Malik by the way.
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