"Nobody suffers like the poor." -Henry Chinaski in Barfly

Poverty is the thing.

I work in a school. Before I started I expected the parents to be apathetic or absent. The parents I've talked to care deeply. The problem, as I see it, is that they are poor.
We talk and talk about this or that. The simple truth is that poverty is fucking people in the ass. Public education has been under assault for 40+ years.
I used to think that standardized tests were a misguided attempt to measure student and teacher performance. After less than one year in a public middle school, I am convinced standardized testing is a tool to destroy public education.
I'm beginning to wonder the same about Common Core.

Another thing I'm dealing with is how boring is the content I'm hired to teach these kids. I realized today that I've been hired to sell swampland in Florida.

"...sell you dirt to fucking deadbeats money in the mattress..."
                             -Richard Roma in Glengarry Glenn Ross

I'm trying to get kids to read boring stories and boring articles. It's killing me. (Not really, but it sucks. Instead of digging around and trying to find something decent for them to read, I'm here, writing and connecting to you, dear reader. You must think me a scoundrel.)

Public Education is our only hope. I'm not some dipshit who thinks kids need to go to college and fuck their lives away on some useless gender studies or theater arts degree, no! But I do believe that art uplifts, it expands consciousness. We need critical thinkers.

Educated people are constantly fucking up. Educated people shoot dope and watch Stephen A. Smith on television. Education isn't going to make scumbag fuckfaces into decent human beings. But stupid poor people with smartphones are going to be our undoing. They are going to join violent groups if they don't have an outlet. They are going to get fat and sick and addicted and they are going to spend their lives in our privately run prisons.

Why the long face?

That said, I clearly believe in the redemptive power of art. Otherwise, why would I waste my mutherfucking time here with you?

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