Thank you, Lee. I'm a public school HS teacher, and so much of what Kevin said resonates with me. I believe a big part of the problem (once again) can be tied to corporate America as the Dept of Ed (both state and fed) allow the ¨standardized testing¨ industry lobby for which measure will best hold students accountable with a one size fits all approach. Public school districts are penalized when students don't achieve standardized benchmarks that do not take students of all types of abilities and strengths into consideration. It then becomes incumbent on the teachers to teach to the (corporate-funded) standardized test or risk raising the eyebrows of the higher ups in the district, many of whom are completely out of touch with the everyday realities of the classroom. It's no wonder that many teachers don't have time to get to know their students on a personal level.....in order to make sure their students do well on standardized tests and are ¨college-
ready¨ they must stay focused on academic achievement alone. In a superficial attempt to make it seem like students are ¨more than a test score,¨ many states have agreed to add post-high school tracking of students and attendance rates to how they measure whether or not a district is achieving. The more graduates a district sends to college, the higher the district scores on the state report card, so there is a real push within high schools to stigmatize those who do not want to pursue a college education. In turn, you have many young people who enroll in college only to find that they can't afford it, so they need to take out a loan, and corporate America wins again. Along with the negative shadow cast upon those who may not want to pursue a college degree, you will often hear young people threatened with the prospect of having to work at McDonald's for the rest of their lives if they don't pursue college. Another component of measuring whether or not a school district is¨achieving¨ is by analyzing their attendance rates. Students are pressured to come to school (which is a good thing), but when they have extended absences, there is a punitive one size fits all approach used to get students to attend regularly. Social workers and counselors, Special Ed teachers, ESOL teachers, and Gifted teachers often find themselves working in silos as they try to get those at the top to understand the social/emotional reasons why students might have poor attendance. It truly is a microcosmic dystopia...no wonder today's youth are so attracted to stories like The Hunger Games, etc. And, just an aside...I have to say that, while I am skeptical that this shooting was a false flag, I give mad props to those who continue to question the media narratives. We need more people like them out there, and I think their voices need to be amplified instead of squashed...it's all part of retaining our critical thinking skills and moving away from the pitfalls of groupthink which is also contributing to our collective downfall as a society.