12 Year Old Wins Car For “Good Attendance”
Posted by bmac on June 24, 2008
Just caught this on Fox, don’t have a link. This was in Chicago, where apparently, they’re offering incentives like iPods, laptops and fucking CARS, to get kids to do something they’re SUPPOSED to do, go to school.
Maybe we should get them a house for eating their vegetables.
We’re so doomed. The CEO of Chicago public schools is on with Shep Smith, trying to defend this asinine policy, and he said 85% of thier students are living below the poverty line, and “fighting huge, huge battles to get to school everyday.”
Really? Is it a “huge battle” to walk into a fucking classroom? Sorry, it’s just not that hard. I don’t care how poor you are. This is so ass backwards, we might as well close every school in Chicago right now.
I caught a documentary on HBO last night called “Hard Times At Douglas High: A No Child Left Behind Report Card.” A two hour film that tries to blame Baltimores problems on Bush’s No Child left Behind, even though Bush’s program was not implemented until AFTER the absolutely disastrous year this Documentary captured.
Here’s an example. Douglas High has an average freshman class of 500 every year. They graduate an average of 180. Douglas is losing 320 students a year, all on their own, and the teachers all acknowledge this. Now, how the fuck is this the fault of No Child Left Behind? How can you even put this in the title of the documentary, when only after the dismal performance of this school, did the feds step in and re-organize?
HBO is full of shit, and this thing is laughable, when their own cameras capture things like a guy beating the crap out of 5 girls right in the hallway, full force face punching, completey ingnored by any school authorities. Somebody clearly had to step in to fix this school that has become a gathering place for thugs, where teachers beg students to just go to class, as they stand in the hallway mocking them.
Somehow it’s all Bush’s fault.
A Fine Line Between Stupid And Clever 
cranky said
If this kid falls into the 85 percent of the Chicago student population living below the poverty line how is this kid going to be able to afford to pay the income taxes on this attendance gift? ‘Cause it sure as fuck is income at the fair market value of the car. And the state and local taxing authorities are going to want their cut too. That kid is so fucked.
What we really need in the public schools is a significant increase in the number of thugs receiving beatdowns or a free ride to the mortuary. Way past the time to start thinning the herd. Personally, I blame Obama and his ilk for this shit. His town, his state, his failed policies. Rewards for doing what you’re supposed to do. What bullshit.
pajama momma said
*sigh
and it’s kids like mine A/B honor roll A citizenship who get nothing but being bullied by the other kids for being a nerd oh and a complimentary ribbon from the school every six weeks, but no help from the bullies.
One kid punched my son in the face so hard, his head went back and split his sister’s lip open. My son refuses to do anything about it (my son is a wrestler and could make the other kid hurt) because he doesn’t want to ruin to get in trouble.
The teachers seat him with the bad kids because they hope my son’s behavior will rub off on him. That doesn’t happen, he just gets picked on. He asked me if he could eat garlic before class so he could breathe on those mean kids in his class, but I won’t let him because then everyone will hate him.
I was going to send him to private school for 5th grade, but he will be a crossing guard (ah, that’s a bonus for the good/smart kids that I forgot about) and will get a Washington DC trip out of it in addition to being able to give referrals to other kids who misbehave. His whole goal is to watch his bullies like a hawk when school resumes so he can nail them all with referrals. You go Graham!
bmac said
Well, there’s the problem right there PJ. The troublemakers always get passed, because teachers don’t wanna deal with them for another year. They’ll squeak them by with D’s to get them outta their hair.
I went to mostly black schools from 5th grade to 12th, and year after year, guys that couldn’t read routinely got passed, because they were a pain in the ass. I’m talking about junior high and high school kids that read at kindergarten level. I’m sure I graduated with a whole bunch of illiterate people, and this was 25 years ago, when most of these kids had two parents at home.
So it’s not all bad parenting to blame here, it’s teachers and schools that won’t hold these kids back, pass them so they’re the next teachers problem, and then cry about not having enough money and resources. They need to be held accountable.
Stormy70 said
I canceled HBO because it shows nothing but crap, usually in a lame documentary form.
Netflix is my drug of choice.
Rosetta said
This all comes down to one single problem: parents and teachers that no longer give a shit because they have abdicated their control over the kids.
If I didn’t graduate from college, my parents would have beat me and then disowned me.
Respect for authority no longer exists (Hey thanks, dope smoking hippie piece of shit baby boomers!!) so kids no longer listen to their parents or their teachers. Or any authority figure for that matter.
Society is basically sewing a Lord of the Flies culture for children and what we reap from that is horrendous and it’s going to get worse before it gets better, if it gets better.
The irony is that over the last 50 years, every kind of violence in our culture has exploded with one exception; beating an insolent kid’s ass often and with conviction. That has all but gone extinct.
Coincidence?
I think not.
baxtrice said
Pardon me for a second, but it’s hard, to go to school? Oh, brother. I graduated about 12 years ago, and there was so many public education programs, we were basically being babysat for 8-9 hours a day; free/discounted lunches, cheap supplies and teachers that barely cared that you were alive. Sure the bullies and troublemakers were still there and you will never stop all the fighting, but it’s not a war zone in there.
Education’s been circling the drain longer than Bush the 2nd has been in office, but it’s easier to blame him than to actually think this one through.
Rosetta said
Baxtrice,
It’s become easier to blame W for EVERYTHING rather than think it through.
The boogeyman personified for the intellectual infants on the left.
Idiots.
baxtrice said
You know, I live in TX, and W was my governor before he was my president and though I have my disagreements with some of his policies, I still don’t see why some people become positively unhinged at the very mention of his name, he did the best he could with what he was given.
And yes, they are idiots. *tee hee*
bmac said
Rosetta!
Nice to see you around these parts girlfriend! Been awhile.
How’s tricks?
pajama momma said
So it’s not all bad parenting to blame here, it’s teachers and schools that won’t hold these kids back, pass them so they’re the next teachers problem
Oh and what’s even worse? The schools, like my son’s who keep the kid in forever instead of doing something else with the idiot. My son was 9 during this school year and one of his bullies that was IN HIS CLASS was 12 freaking years old. The kid was huge compared to the other ones, he was mean and picked on everyone, the kid should have been sent to some sort of special ed program. I have no idea why he was kept around so long.
bmac said
Bullies are a part of life. I dealt with them myself, got punched square in the face, right in the middle of class once, and the teacher didn’t do shit. And that was 25 years ago.
Ultimately, the student can get an education in almost any environment if they want it, because I did it in a pretty brutal atmosphere, and you can never count on teachers to control thugs, especially in an urban school.
Good luck to Graham (is it Graham you’re referring to?) tell him it won’t last forever, or teach him how to fight dirty. And sometimes, flight is better than fight. The bullies in my school always hung in groups, for the very reason that if someone fought back, they could gang up on him. That’s when you gotta swallow your pride and get the fuck outta dodge. No shame in self preservation.
pajama momma said
Yep, it’s Graham. He’s such a good boy.
Scary thing is we’re bussed in to the rich kids school. So you’re right, bullies are everywhere. But the other schools here are far worse.
Rosetta said
Nice to see you around these parts girlfriend! Been awhile.
I hear you, brother! Sometimes the work calendar and the social calendar are at high tide together which infringes on my innernettubes fun time.
What’s new in the bmacs world?
Tarkus said
I totally agree with the CEO for the Chicago school board. You just don’t understand the huge battles that I personally had to endure trying to get to school. Mainly those battles consisted of getting stoned in the parking lot, playing Mortal Kombat at the local convenient store and trying to get to home base with that mahoney head (I had to adopt that term from you, Bmac) chick from the spirit squad – yes spirit squad. I couldn’t actually bag a real cheerleader.
bmac said
HaHaHaHa!!!
Mahoney heads always do in a pinch!
For me it was Defender at 7-11, cranking Van Halen in the parking lot, and going to the lake.
Rosetta said
*puts quarter on machine*
Dude, I will totally school you in Defender.
Rosetta said
bmac said
Bring it on bitch!
*slaps $40 in quarters on the table*
*gets giant Cola Slurpee, and extra large bag of Corn Nuts*
Rosetta said
Hahahahaha!
FUN!!!
When I convince Mrs Rosetta to buy me this
http://www.hammacher.com/publish/10648.asp
I’ll have you over and we can kill a weekend playing video games.
bmac said
That’s sweet! And it’s got asteroids!
Asteroids man, I spent a fortune on that game. I used to take a damn bus to the arcade with a roll of quarters.
Kids today ain’t got that kind of commitment! Don’t have to get off the fucking couch.
Rosetta said
Whenever I would go to the mall with my parents, they would drop me off at the arcade while they shopped.
That was the happiest hour of my life.