Buckets of Rain

That's the projected path of Ernesto, reaming Florida a new ass-hole. Coming at us from due south, pushing water ahead of it all the way from Cuba.

I will forego the obvious jokes about the Hispanic name and the fact that it's coming from Cuba through the straights like the usual illegal immigrants. The only thing missing is the plywood raft. But that will probably wash ashore, too.

The RLA is teaching three classes this semester, and he has three "special" students. One is bi-polar, ADD, can't read, may be dyslexic, yadayadayada. I'm going to go out on my favorite politically incorrect limb here, so if you are easily annoyed (like me) or still willing to say that everybody should be able to go to college, no matter what, then stop reading now.

Because you know that I believe that college should be an opportunity for everyone...within fucking reason. I don't think that money should be the deciding factor, but an ability to read should be.

The RLA's special student has someone who comes to class with her, to take notes for her. She can't read and she can't do simple math, so she can't read a ruler or figure out what half of seven inches is. (For the record, the RLA has many, many students with the same handicap: can't read a ruler or calculate half of seven, but they aren't "special", they are just victims of the Florida school system, and the culture that promotes standardized testing at the expense of critical thinking skills.) The RLA is expected to help her to pass.

For what? Who the fuck is going to hire a bi-polar, functionally illiterate, attention-deficient person AND their keeper/handler/helper? Because it doesn't matter that she was able to get a high school diploma (and why? why should children be learning that particular lesson: that it doesn't matter how little you do, can do, try to do, are able to do, you WILL get a high school diploma... which makes it worth less than the paper it's printed on, in my opinion.)

Why should this girl be taking up space that someone else could be using? What good is her degree going to do her, if she can't actually do the work she was graded on?

How has America, or at least Florida, reached this point? How could we have degraded the worth of our education to such an extent? If you don't have to be able to read, if you are taught that there will always be someone there to hold your hand, and do your work for you, how can a person be expected to be able to function at all? How can passing this girl along, year after year, benefit her in any way? Oh, she has self esteem? Good for her. Does she have an attention span? Can she even work the register at Mickey D's? Can she match the change shown on the register with what she holds in her hand? I don't expect a mainstream student to actually be able to make change, or count it back.

We are a nation of enablers. Not everybody is capable of a college-level education. Not everyone needs one. Why can't we just say that? You aren't capable of a college education. You can't read. (It isn't her fault) You can't sit still for three hours at a stretch . (It isn't her fault, she's got ADD) And if this girl's inability to read isn't her fault, then whose fault is it? Don't say it isn't anybody's fault because it is. Who gave up on her? At what point in this child's life did people decide that it was just to hard to work with her, and teach her to learn, that it was easier for the community to make her handicapped? At what point did they stop sitting with her and helping her sound out her letters and words, and just stick a reader next to her.

When did squirming in one's seat become an incurable disease, and not a behavior issue? Sometime after I left elementary school, that's for sure. I was told that I'd be duct-taped to my desk if I didn't stop wriggling. I was never diagnosed as being ADD because nobody had heard of it. Good thing, too, because instead of being labled, I was taught to have an attention span. I was expected to meet certain standards, and those standards weren't flexible to meet the lowest common denominator. You were either capable, or you were not. If you were not, you were encouraged to become capable, or to lower you personal expectations to match your natural abilities. Not capable of higher math? Go into construction work, and not engineering. Good with your hands, but not so much with language skills? Maybe you'd like to go to a tech school and become an auto mechanic.

We were taught that all work is good, and all work is noble, but that not all work is good for all people. Someone has to work retail, and you don't necessarily have to have a master's degree in marketing to do it.

Nowadays, we are teaching that anybody can do anything, and that is a disservice to everybody.