Chapter 9

There is something wonderful about hearing a young child's dreams of a bright future.  In their minds, it is so simple, so perfect.  The world to them is one that is honest, fair, efficient, goal-driven and nice.  Why it cannot be that way bothers me.  It makes no sense.  Reading about that teacher that was, to put it bluntly, crushing the hopes of the kids who dreamed of such a world was angering.  Our schools are home to many social issues covered in this chapter.  Shipler explains that teachers need to be supportive, yet firm.  In my opinion, it is WRONG to tell any person, young or old that they cannot do something.  Being encouraging would probably do more good than people realize.  Instead, teachers tell these kids that they cannot achieve these dreams, they can't do what they want to do because it isn't realistic.  That's stupid as hell in my mind because it is US that make it how it is, WE are the ones that make life how it is.  If the world was how we wanted it, we would never have to tell a kid they couldn't do something.  And I'm not trying to be hard on teachers, I understand that it is a very rigorous profession.  It's not just them, it's the void that exists between them and the kid's home lives.  Shipler makes a good point about the obvious void between home and school.  This is one of those things like Joe talked about with the vicious cycle, parents have no money, have to work, the kids have to fend for themselves, their grades suffer, they can't get into college, they're poor, and so on.  In my opinion, if we start fixing these smaller problems, such as being advocates for associations such as Home and School (St. Mary's Elementary in Glasgow has this) these will act as stepping stones, and turn the cycle around.