Ok, it seems that some people from Kansas think that all of the standardized tests their children take in Kansas cover the same materials that children take in other states, and that since Kansas ranks fourth, last year, I believe, that they're children are learning the same stuff as the rest of the nation's children. Let me just ask something: since both of my high schools on the East Coast offered French, Spanish, German, and Latin; and students are REQUIRED to not only take, but master, at least "first year" skills in one language, how can a Kansas student, who is not required to even enter a foreign language classroom at any time during his or her high school career, even begin to compare? You can rank fourth all you wish, but your children will not be as prepared for college or life outside of Kansas, with the pathetic offerings of your schools. And that's pretty much the whole area, not just one city or town, so please don't feel special.
On a related note, I know someone from a neighboring small town here in Northeast Kansas, who embarked upon a military career after high school. This poor man's lack of culteral skills led to a physical beating that could have cost him his life, simply because he had never met someone of a different race, and was openly and verbally unaccepting of many individuals of that race while dining in a resturant. I must give him credit; he blames himself and his big mouth for what happened......yet I'm still going to wonder if that type of violence can kill a person faster than war. I don't know......no statistics.......just a fleeting thought.
On another related note, I married a wonderful person who isn't prejudiced and would never discriminate in the manner I described in the above paragraph. His children, my stepchildren; however, do. They had never seen anyone from India, Vietnam, China, Jamaica, Russia, Indonesia, Isreal, or any African nation until he brought them to visit me. One of them comes home from school at last several times a week with prejudiced sounding guff coming out of his little mouth. When I sit down and discuss the things he states about others, the upshot is always that he wouldn't know what a person from a different background looks like ( he does not remember visiting me) and has no idea what he is really talking about. It's just guff he learned at school. At school. Now................I attended school back when the whole country was still fighting about Brown vs. the Board of Education, yet no teacher at any school I attended was ever backwards enough to make racist comments in his or her class. Not ever. Not even once. But the things my children heard many of their teachers here in Kansas say about Obama during the last presidential election, just because he does not need sunblock at the pool, are downright shameful. No; you guys are not preparing your children for anything but life in a small community in Kansas with your silly-assed daycare system that you call "school". Sorry. I'm gonna have to call it as I see it. And what's really sad is that I don't see a future in a Kansas small town for either my stepchildren or the child of whom we have guardianship. There's not a whole lot any of them can do, here in Kansas. They do deserve an education though.......how come each "community school" is really just a "training situation" for existance in it's community, and nothing else?
One more question: there is a much bigger Native American population in Kansas than anywhere I have ever lived. How come my children know as much about their cultures as they did before they moved here? How come my children have never met anyone from those cultures?
..........The Boston Globe
