Jonathan Kozol’s Diary: Day 68
Slept well last night, rather better than the poor, inner-city children who will attend a rundown, decrepit school this morning with rats in the halls, raw sewage in the bathrooms, and poorly lit corridors that hide the corruption brought on by six years of the Bush Administration’s No Child Left Behind Act.
Got in the car and tuned in NPR, which had the latest news on the Congressional hearings on reauthorization of NCLB. The poisonous essence of this law lies in the mania of obsessive testing it has forced upon our nation’s schools and, in the case of underfunded, overcrowded inner-city schools, the miserable drill-and-kill curriculum of robotic “teaching to the test” it has imposed on teachers, the best of whom are fleeing from these schools because they know that this debased curriculum would never have been tolerated in the good suburban schools that they, themselves, attended.
I used that yesterday, but it’s still goooood. ☺
Stopped at Denny’s for the Lumberjack Slam®. Sent the third buttermilk pancake back for the demoralized teachers living in a state of siege, as well as the pressure to conform to teaching methods that drain every bit of joy out of the hours that their children spend with them in school.
When I got to the office there was some hate mail from right-wing zealots about my partial fast. It’s not surprising that these Neanderthals are ignorant of the latest methods of social activism. Cindy Sheehan had smoothies and ice cream during her fast! I’m getting by with a lettuce-less chalupa for lunch.
Judging by the comments on yesterday’s Huffington Post story, even some of my friends are questioning my decision (though, dear diary, none of them knows my secret dream is to make Alexander Russo’s Hot for Education list and a few pounds less could do it for me! Fingers crossed!).
Yes, I’m partially risking my life, but little Oscar and Shaniqua need to know that someone out there is sacrificing for their right not to have to write topic sentences at the beginning of a paragraph. And sacrifices are necessary if the greater good is to be served. How else could we have gotten rid of Sanjaya?
Got to go now. The delivery guy’s here with my General Tso’s Chicken (hold the scallions). TTFN.
September 14th, 2007 at 00:48
The Onion couldn’t have done this better.
I thought I’d make it through the whole piece without losing it, but “hold the scallions!” was just too much.
I’m going to go eat three Snickers to show my appreciation.