re: #548 alexknyc

I hear you.

I have ninth grade Algebra students who can’t add or subtract fractions, ninth and tenth grade World History students who don’t realize the Romans didn’t have fighter jets and eleventh grade American History students who’ve never read the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution.

But their previous teachers are tenured and get good performance evaluations. Frankly, it’s a disgrace.

How exactly do you force the children of broken homes to learn

How does a teacher WILL a child to absorb information when they’re being passed along between feuding parents, ignored entirely to drink or do drugs?

to a T, every single one of my more dirtbaggy, stoner/drunk friends when I was in jr. high and high school, all of them had rough home lifes. One of them was being beaten up by his dad, another was living in a vermin infested apartment with a single father who was in the process of drinking himself to death.

My mother started to become their surrogate parent that made sense, once I became the Drummer To Know in high school, the garage bands practiced at my house, and then my friends would just come by and hang out with my mother, even when I wasn’t there, it wa spretty cool, and taught me a lot about how kids crave stability, and how difficult it is for a kid to function when they don’t feel safe.