At last, someone who understands

At last I have spoken with a public school teacher who knows more than me about the way the Third Grade Reading Guarantee has been set up to make more than just third graders fail.

Let me take a relaxing pause here.

Sadly, she and her colleagues currently feel rather defeated (What, before the games have even begun?)

Yet, I feel a renewed sense of hope. 

Yesterday, I went to the funeral of a family friend.  It was one of the best services of it's kind I had ever been to.  The person who died had a loving community and many valued our friend, not because she was perfect but because she lived in such a way where she had gotten to the root of what was important in life.  We will all miss her.

We sang a hymn, Abide with Me, at that service.  The words that are stuck in my head are,

"Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me."

I feel a sense of calm.

I could point out here that should this ridiculous law continue on it's course with the passing of time the Big Universities which currently educate plenty of public schoolteachers could see a drop in enrollment in Education should there be fewer worthwhile public school jobs for their graduates.  I wonder if their lobbyists that spend all sorts of time getting in the way of Orton Gillingham and other training methods could spend a touch of time on this subject?

I could also point out that the FL public school teachers union is now filing a lawsuit,  I cant imagine that around the country the unions arent watching what each other are doing to cope with the seriousness of this attack on their workers.

I could point out that the AFL-CIO completely understands what is going on and has this published on their website:  http://www.aflcio.org/Issues/education

So, I guess this brings me to my final point.  The law itself is set up to pick on the people who actually deserve our highest regard. 

People who have chosen to work with the most impoverished, underprivileged and needy school districts.

Teachers who work in districts where they aren't puffed up with pride merely saying the name of the district they are a part of. 

Teachers who have foregone the niceties of a district that come with well off parents willing to do anything, give anything and support the education of their children.

I call these teachers- frontline teachers.

They deserve every medal, every honor and all the community support they can get.  And yet, they are being attacked now both by the world they have tried to make a difference in as well as from behind, by the very folks who should be singing their praises.

So here we are back to money and classism.  We can pretty much add racism to the mix too since the majority of the population in an urban school district would fall into the minority category.

I'm going to go pray now.  This is not a defeatist position folks but rather the position of someone who understands how to humbly ask for guidance and help.

After that I'm going to re-read Psalm 34:17-22.  It's a frequent passage I think of in terms of all the children and families suffering from the lack of understanding about their dyslexia.

I wonder what bible verses mean and power hungry lawmakers read?