The children still kept getting hit. The adults couldn't figure out why. They followed the children and watched them. What they discovered was that the children recited the rhyme and then crossed the street. They didn't really understand what they were saying. They treated the rhyme as if it were a magic incantation.
So what's the point. The point is that the lovely sentiment and slogan, "Leave No Child Behind," is nothing more than a magic incantation. It's going to take a lot more than a few words to solve the problems in our educational system.
By the time a child reaches even Pre-K 3, the destructive process which creates at-risk children has already put down solid roots in these children's lives. Poverty, ignorance, and a lack of family structure have begun their insidious attack on the spirits of these innocent children. Perhaps if these children entered a perfect educational system, the majority of the damage could be undone. But we all know that isn't the case.
Instead, they enter an educational system that has neither the resources nor the power to make any significant changes. Teachers are often forced to simply "endure" these children because they are powerless to change the direction of their lives. It's no accident that teachers often become bitter and jaded because of their frustration.
I have said it before, and I'll keep saying it until people listen, we have to change our world before our children can succeed. Those of us who are educated and financially comfortable need to understand that our children will be forced to live with the at-risk children. They will have to pay for their welfare, destructive actions, and the prisons many of them will eventually occupy. It is far less expensive, in both human and financial terms, to solve the problem before it becomes unmanageable.
If we make the schools the focal point of the at-risk child's welfare, we might be able to make a difference. If teachers can provide information to school counselors who can, in turn, coordinate the work of social agencies, it would be more likely that what is needed will be what is done.
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