Student: "Mrs. K, I don't have lunch money"

[Sapiens]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/1...679/290/651601

"Mrs. K, I have nothing to barter." "Mrs. K, I don't have lunch money"
by bkamr
Fri Dec 12, 2008 at 04:48:02 PM PST

The American Public School system is the the only institution where there is compulsory attendance for a huge percentage of Americans, everyday. And, those young Americans who pass through our doors bring with them a diverse and immediate picture of the state of America, because in their eyes and with their stories, we see and hear about their families, hopes, dreams and fears.

If you want to know how a community is really doing, you don't have to wait for unemployment statistics. Just ask a community teacher. We have been hearing how children are moving around and moving in with Grandparents. We began scrambling in October to to meet the needs of initially just a few kids who suddenly started to show up dirty and rumpled. We've arranged for them to use the locker rooms in the morning to get cleaned up.

We've been seeing signs like these that Main Street's kids and families are REALLY hurting for a few months, even in the pretty well-off, suburban community we live in.

BUT, today took the cake for me. It was a BIG wake-up call, and I'm still crying. I have a story and Call for Action after the fold.



* bkamr's diary :: ::
*

Today, I inadvertently made 4 of my precious students cry. There is NOTHING worse for a teacher than to see one of your ducklings tear up. I didn't mean too. I was actually trying to be a good teacher. I teach in a Middle School. We have a terrific school with a fine core curriculum, and we even have additional, special classes for the Arts and Music including chorus, band, and strings.

We also offer special, additional classes in specific core subject areas, and that's where I fit in:

For 8th graders who struggle in core social studies classes, I offer an additional class in government where I get to do LOTS of hands on things like role plays, debates, projects, spirited discussions, videos ... I wear crowns and patriot hats, use puppets, and throw kids in jail under their desks for sedition! I also have the opportunity to do one-on-one tutoring with extra chances on tests to ensure mastery in key principles for future voters.

For 7th graders, physics is a bear of a content area, and I offer a focused course on the physics of energy! (We actually met this year and decided that this would be the key science area for this generation's future, so while I am also helping students with other science skills ... the focus is energy. And, I like to think we are on the cutting edge with the program) My 7th graders also have classroom pets and plants they care for to demonstrate how energy transfers through the web of life. I teach with LOTS of toys to demonstrate energy transfer. And since they always pass the final, they get rewarded with the video "An Inconvenient Truth."

For my 6th graders, reading non-fiction and critical thinking are their top challenges, so I teach the engaging social studies subjects of anthropology, archeology, and economics (they LOVE it) to motivate them to read. We do hands on digs, study diverse cultures, and learn how business works with Junior Achievement. They voted to use their profits to give a gift of chicks and bees to Heifer International, this year.

I try to make each of my classes an adventure in learning. And even though my classes are filled with students who often struggle in their core subjects, I regularly see them come alive as they not only master the content, but also develop self-directed learning skills that will help them succeed in other classes, as well.

I'm sharing all this, not to toot my horn, but so you will know 4 things upfront:

1. We are just a mid-performing (test-wise) suburban school in Anywhere, KY.

2. I'm really not unusual. Our school is filled with teachers doing the same kinds of thing, day after day.

3. THIS is the "terrible school system" you hear about in the papers. Um hmm.

4. I am NOT the kind of teacher who regularly makes kids cry!

Soooo, I was just doing my regular job, today. That's where things fell apart thanks to the real pain of our Main Street meltdown hitting real children.

For my 8th graders, some of my kids didn't get an 80% (mastery) on the Forms of Government test. As per my usual routine, I gave up my lunch and offered a LUNCH BUNCH study time and test re-take opportunity. One student arrived early sans lunch. I was busy gathering up lab equipment off tables from my 7th grade science class, so I wasn't looking at my early student as I said, "Hey, go on and get your lunch. You can eat while we do our Rapid Study Technique before the re-take."

I could feel the silence and non-movement of my student. So, I turned and looked. There were tears on the table beneath his bowed head. I pulled up a chair and asked, "Family or friends." Silence. That meant it was a family issue. Probing gently, I got, "Mrs K., both my Mom and Dad got laid off and our house ... our house. I was too worried to ask for a check for lunch money, and I'm too embarrassed to ask for the P&J lunch." When he said "our house," it came out like a moan.

I was immediately heart-broken. Other students were beginning to arrive in my classroom, so I covertly passed him a $10 bill from my pocket and loudly said - "Hurry up, now. Thanks so much for thinking about me! Are you sure can you carry 2 lunches back for the both of us?" He got fed and got an A on the test.

I called his Mom, and they will be filling out the Free Lunch form that I'm mailing to her. Since the form won't get through processing for a week or so, I put $15 in his lunch account to cover, next week, and I added the family to our "Holiday Feast Food Drive" list.

His parents were laid off from Citicorp and DHL. They live in our neighborhood of 200K homes. They are losing their home. Neither has health insurance anymore, and few prospects. They were an upper middle class family who just fell into poverty. Their son is grieving his home, is scared, hungry and crying.

In my 6th grade class, we are learning about different types of economies. One fun, active learning experiences I have done for years is Barter Day! We have trading rules that call for students to bring $5-10 dollars worth of USED toys, Gameboy games, videos or books etc. to school to trade in a barter market. In previous years, this has NEVER been an issue. No child in OUR school didn't have a book, a Matchbox car and video or used Gameboy to bring in! Plus, we do a regular size candy bar trade that I hold for the last day before the holiday for them to enjoy while we watch and analyze our "treat video" Indiana Jones vs. "real" archeologists. The kids have great fun comparing and contrasting Hollywood vs reality and analyzing the Thugee's culture.

For the first time, I had 3 children come to me before our Barter Day class -- in tears! Two of them shared that their parents had told them that their old toys were being wrapped up and given to younger siblings or cousins for Christmas and one told me that ALL his toys were on Ebay! I wiped away tears, gave big hugs, and told them not to worry.

Fortunately, I have a 12 year-old son, and we only live a mile from the school. So, I pulled my son out of class for a 2 minute conference to ask him if I could buy some of his old things in the basement. He has literally hundreds of little cars, piles of books he's already read, and I had my own stash of stocking stuffers. (Special note about my little, big guy, he refused to take money and asked to just make it a gift of his things.)

Back I rushed with 10 Barter Bags! Because, I suspected that if 3 came to me, there might be more who were suffering in silence. I was sadly right. I handed out 2 additional bags for children who had nothing to barter. It turned out to be a happy ending; Barter Day was a resounding success, this year.

BUT, I learned my lesson, and I hope you will hear my message. THINGS ARE WORSE than the traditional media is reporting. As a teacher in what was a previously average, Middle Class school, I am seeing children who are hurting and an in need.

And, I inadvertently made them cry, today. LIFE is DRASTICALLY NOT the SAME!

Here is my Call to Action: -- Even if you think "This is NOT needed in MY Middle Class School! Sadly, it very might be very, very needed.

1. Food Drives at your schools -- DO IT! If you can afford to do it, please remember to send food in with your kids. We are not just "making bags of food for some food bank, somewhere." We know the families of kids on Free and Reduced Lunch and we know that they may not get anything during the holidays. Many schools and teachers are quietly delivering those bags of food to those families. We need your help.

2. Just for You (Dignity) Bags -- Make them. Kids are showing up smelly. That is HORRIBLE for Middle Schoolers and High Schoolers. Just drop off a bag of soap, toothbrush toothpaste, small shampoo and deoderant. Just drop off a bag at your school's front desk for "someone who might need it."

3. A TOY! or Clothes! -- Go to a used clothing store and deliver a few Ambercrombie shirts or look in your closets for extra outer wear. We are giving out jackets and hats and mittens like you wouldn't believe.

It is NOT just giving as usual, folks. It IS a time like we have never known in our lifetimes. YES, good used, washed things are welcome and give them to your local MIDDLE CLASS schools. We will find kids to help with them.

And, thanks for reading this rant. Just writing the day out helped a little.

[politicalfootballfan]

Re: Student: "Mrs. K, I don't have lunch money"

----nm----

[Andreuccio]

Re: Student: "Mrs. K, I don't have lunch money"

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/1...679/290/651601




I hate soft pieces, but this needs to be shared so others have a fighting chance against the Usurers.

Bit late in the game for that, isn't it?

[Scot]

Re: Student: "Mrs. K, I don't have lunch money"

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/1...679/290/651601
I hate soft pieces, but this needs to be shared so others have a fighting chance against the Usurers.

Sounds to me like this poor kid would be in a much better situation if his parents had joined the ranks of the evil usurers (savers).

That may sound a bit insensitive, but listen, I know what it's like to be a poor kid. I had a literal garbage dump put in my back yard by the slumlord from whom we rented a house for $165/month. Yeah, a real genuine hole full of his tenant's trash. I remember when dad came home to tell us how he gave him "permission" to bring in the backhoe and dig. I know the smell of poverty. I remember daughters arguing with their mothers about ways to make extra money. I lived in a place where the adults gave advice to a couple of young truants on how best to locate hallucinogenic mushrooms. I remember stolen vehicles being dumped and burned on my street.

And know plenty of people that have had it much worse.

This kid is going to be alright. But the sad, ugly, horrible truth is that a painful lesson needs to be learned by his parents and millions of other Americans. There is no way around it.

My mother learned during the last real crisis. Divorced and working, she has never had a job earning more than $16/hour. She saves and is able to pay cash when she's ready for a new car. Her credit rating is 810.

And it's her money getting lent out. Maybe you don't think she deserves compensation for letting other people spend her money on their $200,000+ homes.

[FRED]

Re: Student: "Mrs. K, I don't have lunch money"

Sounds to me like this poor kid would be in a much better situation if his parents had joined the ranks of the evil usurers (savers).

That may sound a bit insensitive, but listen, I know what it's like to be a poor kid. I had a literal garbage dump put in my back yard by the slumlord from whom we rented a house for $165/month. Yeah, a real genuine hole full of his tenant's trash. I remember when dad came home to tell us how he gave him "permission" to bring in the backhoe and dig. I know the smell of poverty. I remember daughters arguing with their mothers about ways to make extra money. I lived in a place where the adults gave advice to a couple of young truants on how best to locate hallucinogenic mushrooms. I remember stolen vehicles being dumped and burned on my street.

And know plenty of people that have had it much worse.

This kid is going to be alright. But the sad, ugly, horrible truth is that a painful lesson needs to be learned by his parents and millions of other Americans. There is no way around it.

My mother learned during the last real crisis. Divorced and working, she has never had a job earning more than $16/hour. She saves and is able to pay cash when she's ready for a new car. Her credit rating is 810.

And it's her money getting lent out. Maybe you don't think she deserves compensation for letting other people spend her money on their $200,000+ homes.

***** Five star post. Thanks.

[Rajiv]

Re: Student: "Mrs. K, I don't have lunch money"

***** Five star post. Thanks.

Before you go too far over board on that, I would request that you look at the problems associated with the charging of interest.

The act of saving should not be confused with the act of lending, and the act of lending with interest should not be confused with investing into income earning activities.

Some of the best writings on the problems associated with interest are written by Michael Hudson, Writings of Margrit Kennedy are also useful.

In particular, Hudson's The Mathematical Economics of Compound Rates of Interest: A Four-Thousand Year Overview Part -I and Part -II

And Margrit Kennedy's Interest and Inflation Free Money and Why Do We Need Monetary Innovation?

From Hudson's latest article - What is to be Done? The End of the Washington Consensus

Today’s “new economy” is based not on new technology and capital investment, as former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan trumpeted in the late 1990s, but on price inflation generating capital gains (mainly in land prices, as land is still the largest asset in the U.S. and other industrial economies). The economic surplus is absorbed by debt service payments (and higher priced health care), not investment in production or in sharing productivity gains with labor and professionals. Wages and living standards are stagnant for most people, as the economy tries to get rich by “the miracle of compound interest,” while capital gains emanating from the financial sector provide a foundation for new credit to bid up asset prices, all the more in a seemingly perpetual motion credit-and-debt machine. But the effect has been for the richest 1 per cent of the population to increase its share of interest extraction, dividends and capital gains from 37 per cent ten years ago to 57 per cent five years ago, and nearly 70 per cent today. Savings remain high, but only the wealthiest 10 per cent are saving – and this money is being lent out to the bottom 90 per cent, so no net saving is occurring.
.
.
.
.
.
Likewise destructive are compound interest and capital gains over the long term. The real economy can grow only a few per cent a year at best. Therefore, it is mathematically impossible for compound interest to continue unabated and for capital gains to grow well in excess of the underlying rate of economic growth. Historically, economic crises wipe out these gains when they outpace real economic growth by too far a margin. The moral is that compound interest and hopes for capital gains cannot guarantee income for its retirees or continue attracting foreign capital. Over a period of a lifetime, financial investments may not deliver significant gains. For the United States, it took markets about twenty-five years, from 1929 to the mid-1950s, to recover their previous value.

Today’s desperate U.S. attempt to re-inflate post-crash prices cannot cure the bad-debt problem. Foreign attempts to do this will merely aid foreign bankers and financial investors, not the domestic economy. Countries need to invest in their real economy, to raise productivity and wages. Governments must punish speculation and capital gains that merely reflect asset-price inflation, not real value. Otherwise, the real economy’s productive powers and living standards will be impaired and, in the neoliberal model, loaded down with debt. Policies should encourage enterprise, not speculation. Investment seeks growing markets, which tend to be thwarted by macroeconomic targets such as low inflation and balanced budgets. We are not arguing that inflation and deficits can be ignored, but rather that inflation and deficits are not all created equally. Some variants hurt the economy, while others reflect healthy investment in real production. Distinguishing between the two effects is vital, if economies are to move forward to achieve self-dependency.

[Andreuccio]

Re: Student: "Mrs. K, I don't have lunch money"

Before you go too far over board on that, I would request that you look at the problems associated with the charging of interest.

The act of saving should not be confused with the act of lending, and the act of lending with interest should not be confused with investing into income earning activities.

Sapiens put up an interesting post that touched on that subject a couple of days ago. One school of Islamic thought, apparently, differentiates between usury, or loans for consumption, and interest, or loans for investment.

http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6898

Unfortunately, the post was in Spanish, so it didn't get a lot of attention.

[marvenger]

Re: Student: "Mrs. K, I don't have lunch money"

poor kid would be in a much better situation if his parents had joined the ranks of the evil usurers (savers).

That may sound a bit insensitive,

yeah it does a bit. The usurers aren't the ones saving their meagre incomes. the usurers are the ones making massive capital gains off debt created bubbles and using the proceeds to earns compond interest, spend less than they earn which is still a shit load, and have fancy lawyers, financiers in the know if they are not one, and politicians in their pockets to protect their creditor status; failing that they get taxpayer bailout to protect themselves.

You need to be a bit more pissed off Scot. While I grew up from about the age of 10 quite comfortable and with a good education, my parents didn't and there's plenty of people in my family including my father who grew up eating porridge 1 meal a day for extended periods if they were lucky. You're extremely lucky, have a good mentor from somewhere, or have great genes, probably a combination, if you come out of that environment well adjuted.

Doesn't have to be that way in my view.

[Rajiv]

Re: Student: "Mrs. K, I don't have lunch money"

This lecture by Chris Cook may shed some more light

Capital Partnerships: a Debt-Free Solution to the Property Crash

Chris Cook, an international expert on Open Capital and a widely published energy market consultant, will discuss his ground-breaking ideas for capital partnerships, a financing structure that could provide a debt-free solution to the Irish property crash.

The global financial crisis has highlighted the urgent need to refinance trillions of euros' worth of property-backed securities and debt. cooke proposes an innovative, sustainable solution: a new class of affordable, asset-based property finance, using the legal structure of limited liability Partnerships. amongst their other advantages, they dissolve the distinction between rental and purchase options, offering the benefits of both.

With this stimulating lecture, Feasta is inviting policy makers, financiers, property developers, social housing executives, local authority representatives and officials, lawyers, architects and planners as well as members of the general public trapped in negative equity or in rental accommodation to discuss real solutions to the current crisis with one of the world's leading experts in the field.

[media]http://www.feasta-multimedia.org/2008/Chris_Cook.mov[/media]

Introduction to the Lecture by Richard Douthwaite

[MEDIA]http://www.feasta-multimedia.org/2008/Richard_Douthwaite_intro.mov[/MEDIA]

[tsetsefly]

Re: Student: "Mrs. K, I don't have lunch money"

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/1...679/290/651601

that was a tough read, the teacher sounds annoying, touting her own horn and writing a sappy article like that one...

As for the kid, I feel sorry for him but its a lesson to all parents save your money! unless off course you are trying to help out the economy!

[tree]

Re: Student: "Mrs. K, I don't have lunch money"

that was a tough read, the teacher sounds like an annoying c***... touting her own horn and writing a sappy article like that one...

Yeah, and IMHO, only an ill-mannered human would use the phrase "annoying c***" on iTulip. It's my understanding that we don't use such language here, libertarian leanings notwithstanding, and asterisks do not excuse it.

[Mega]

Re: Student: "Mrs. K, I don't have lunch money"

I wonder at what point the American people get off their ARSE and FIGHT!

Iraq & Afgan peoples did!
Mike
Oh yes the people of Vietham as well ;)

[Wild Style]

Re: Student: "Mrs. K, I don't have lunch money"

I wonder at what point the American people get off their ARSE and FIGHT!

Iraq & Afgan peoples did!
Mike
Oh yes the people of Vietham as well ;)

When there are fires in the street. When one in three people are in the process of losing home/job/ability to feed one's self. Until then, its just not going to happen

[tree]

Re: Student: "Mrs. K, I don't have lunch money"

Good question, Mega.
I told a friend of mine, a pollster for lefties, that I thought there were be mass demonstrations in D.C. in the next couple of years.
He looked at me like I was nuts.
I grew up in D.C. I participated in many very large demonstrations here protesting the Viet Nam war.
There can be demonstrations again.
There will be.

[Jim Nickerson]

Re: Student: "Mrs. K, I don't have lunch money"

Good question, Mega.
I told a friend of mine, a pollster for lefties, that I thought there were be mass demonstrations in D.C. in the next couple of years.
He looked at me like I was nuts.
I grew up in D.C. I participated in many very large demonstrations here protesting the Viet Nam war.
There can be demonstrations again.
There will be.

I tend to agree with you, tree, but the question really is when will enough Americans get pissed off enough to take to the streets to express their displeasure. Your guess of 1-2 years is as good as any. My opinion is that currently things are not nearly bad enough to provoke any activism, and if one watches MSM, which unfortunately I occasionally do, my impression is that the public is continuing to be fed its usual dose of misinformation sewn with hope that things will soon be turned around.