Dear Sue, I don't know how "No child left behind" is handled. But I should think that phrase would best be applied by ensuring that those children who do not qualify for promotion to the next level would be singled out for special help so as to achieve it on merit, not advanced to the next grade up without the necessary learning. Are you saying that is what is happening? We shouldn't lower standards, although I think our entire culture and educational system over the past 30 years has dumbed way down. A lot of that, incidentally, is due to pandering by commercial entertainment interests striving for the lowest level that appeals to the 12-year-old mind and keeping that child 12 years old for the rest of its life.

Excellent post Sue. I wrote you a comment but it got so long, I'll make it a post on my own blog. However I agree with that principal about the No Child Left Behind nonsense. What a crock!

Jeri, that's just the point--I see the stars and am a very spiritual
person--but I also know what's under the stars too.
The stark day to day existence of fellow human beings, shouldn't
come down to "getting over it" and blocking out the reality of
what's out there in our society. That's not looking down--that's
seeing things as they really are. That doesn't mean brooding about it.
It's attitudes like that that of ignoring the plight of fellow
human beings that impelled the have nots into
the French Revolution and the peasants uprising against the Russian
Czars.
By the way, I am known as a caring giving person and well thought of
here in my neck of the woods.

Sure, life is harsh and unfair. So get over it. Do what you can. Vote your conscience, help the unfortunate to the limit of your ability but don't brood about it, mentor a child..there are lots of ways to give. If you keep looking down, you will miss all the stars.

I think part of this is people don't want to "see" it. A good example was when Katrina hit, and people were shocked that folks lived without so much in the south. It's everywhere...you just don't see it.

This is a depressing look at what constitutes a large portion of our citizens. We have to solve the problem of the homeless, the uneducated, and uninsured to keep the paint from becoming a grim reality.

Sue, dear heart, do what you can to help the grimy underbelly and then look up..life really isn't all angst. Even a simple gesture of friendship or concrete help will help you and the recipient. We are finite beings and we have to help when we can...then put the rosy glasses back on.

For six months I slept under the bushes on hospital grounds. My welfare covered my medicine, a liter of milk and a loaf of bread per day.
From that experience I vowed never to depend on anything from the government.