A HIGH IMPACT GUIDE TO...
CLEAR THINKING IN THE
BLACKBOARD
JUNGLE
P
YS
ED
DENT
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As
summer grinds to a close, the last things you want to think about are the
impending headaches and test-takes of the upcoming school year. Just bust those final
airs and keep school out of your brain till the first bell rings, right? Well, before you
head for the hills (or curbs, or whatever), absorb some of this scrawlage. Don't worry,
there will not be a quiz later. Oh, by the way, if you've already served your sentence
in the State Educational Institution, you can skip the words, ogle the photos and
reminisce about the good ol' days when all your meals were paid for and they couldn't
fire you for being late, just give you a detention.
The ideal purpose of the public school system-to provide all members of our glorious
democracy with the education and social skills necessary to flourish in and contribute
52. Тнеления МACAINE
to society is valid and almost admirable. Unfortunately, the means to that end aren't
always justified. In fact some of the means have more dubious ends, while other means
are just plain mean.
"But," you ask, "what does all this mean to me?" It means that school is not always
fair and it doesn't always promote the sense of well-educated social harmony so
treasured by our forefathers. In other words, the hallowed halls of primary and
secondary education are populated largely by narrow-minded cliques with standards
harsher than most prison gangs, miserably underpaid teachers who'd gladly take the
time to prepare inspirational lessons if they didn't have to work a night job to make
rent, ulcerous administrators who place skateboards a couple of notches below flaming