Dawn Neely Randall, a teacher in Ohio, sent me this true story.
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After dismissal during my hallway monitoring, I saw a 4th-grade boy who hadn’t gone out the exit door, but had instead stayed back without anyone around and had his hand in a big bowl of plastic silverware packets.
I couldn’t imagine what he had been up to, but figured it would involve slingshotting something across the room somewhere/sometime.
My voice startled him: “What are you doing?”
4th-grader: Nothing.
Me: Well, you’re doing something. You were supposed to be outside by now. What’s going on?
4th-grader: Just grabbing about three or four spoons.
Me: Did you get permission to come back and get them?
4th-grader: (Deer in headlights) No.
Me: May I ask why you’re taking them, then?
4th-grader: (Eyes puddling up with tears)
Me: It’s okay. I’m just wondering why you would come all the way back here by yourself to get spoons.
4th-grader: Because we don’t have any at home.
And legislators are going to expect a child who doesn’t have a spoon to score as well on mandated tests as a child who has his own laptop.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It does not help that most of our representatives are wealthy people that have no idea about the struggles of those that live in poverty. Our system works on cash, and those with lots of it and lots of connections are the ones that can afford to run for office. Most of them cannot represent the poor when they have no idea of what this means, and they have no inclination to find out. Many of our current leaders spend more time blaming and castigating the poor rather than trying to figure out ways to create more opportunities to reduce poverty. Trump is only going make everything worse. He thinks arrogant billionaires should decide what is best for everyone. The only thing he will create for this country is a huge deficit.
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He just picked another billionaire, Wilbur Ross, for the Cabinet, to be Commerce Secretary.
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What in the name of all that is holy is up with these billionaires who are consistently anti-public schools, anti any public services or common goods? Nearly 100% of these billionaires appear to be libertarians, Ayn Randians, tea baggers, regressives and far right wing loons. They love social Darwinism and survival of the fittest. What will this country look like in 4 years? Even if Trump does not run for a second term, which I seriously doubt, it will likely be Pence or some other GOP horror. In 4 years, Trump will have the power of incumbency to bully his way to another term. The only question is: will the American people who voted for Trump have finally woken up to the disaster that is Trump & gang. I certainly hope so.
Oh well, forget Trump for a few hours and just party, party, party.
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Wilbur the Vulture Capitalist Ross. Stocking the Swamp.
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Joe
That wake up call will be only as loud as the opposition from the Democrats and who it is leading that opposition. They have to be called out and obstructed on every issue. Time for some litmus tests. Time for people to rise up and as I keep saying, make the “Tea Party look like a game that little girls play “.
Or we can keep focusing on Identity politics and see how that works out. Don’t get me wrong social issues are fine and they are important .
“BUT IT IS THE ECONOMY STUPID”
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Oh wait, there’s more (from politico): Quote – President-elect Donald Trump is likely to tap Todd Ricketts, the co-owner of the Chicago Cubs and a member of the powerful conservative Ricketts family, to be deputy secretary of commerce, POLITICO has confirmed. Wilbur Ross remains the likely choice to lead the Commerce Department.
Ricketts is the son of billionaire TD Ameritrade founder and conservative donor Joe Ricketts, and the brother of Republican Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts.
The Ricketts family initially opposed Trump in the Republican primary, with the family helping to fund an anti-Trump super PAC and Todd Ricketts supporting Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s bid. But once Trump sealed up the nomination, the family came on board. End quote
Geez Louise, wall to wall wing nut billionaires.
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retired teacher
That is not necessarily true. Spending is what the country has needed for 8 years . Eight years that Republicans prevented it. Spending would have stimulated demand raised incomes and grown our way out of the deficit. Of course now that spending will come with much poison attached, that will harm the American public, long into the future.
Sixty two percent of Americans have no savings could not pay for an emergency . God knows how many more have minimal saving. It was almost criminal that this had not been the focus of the Democratic candidate.
.
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Dawn is a never tiring advocate for children. Thank you Dawn and Diane.
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I thought the answer to bridging the gap between the kid with the laptop and the kid with no spoons in his home was grit. We’re all going to need a lot of grit the next four years.
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pbarret
Plenty of Grit for sale at Grit.com and from the other marketers of grit–books, TED talks, and whatever.
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The sad fact is that most plastic spoons, forks, etc. don’t last long. They easily break with too much use just like poverty crushes those who live under its unyielding, oppressive burden.
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Just finished Our Kids where Bob Putnam lays out in stats and vignettes the effects of that crushing burden and the effects of wealth. I’m writing him because he and I were classmates in tiny Port Clinton, OH and I think he glosses over some of the poverty there in the 50s that my cousin (who also read the book) and I saw. But Putnam’s overall view is exactly what we have to keep in view and highlight if we are going to win elections and right this country. Even though HRC got many more votes than Trump, he is the president-elect (unless a whole lot of faithless electors show up in January) and a lot of Americans voted for him out of desperation (and a lot of faux news), not just out of bigotry and prejudice (lots of that, too).
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This heartbreaking story would probably be seen by the oligarchs in the same vein as “Let them eat cake!” That is, they would probably say that the boy should be lucky to even have food to eat, & that cake can be eaten with hands.
BTW, has there been a trial date set yet for the ex-CEO of Wells Fargo Bank? (Sarcasm, here.) Ever since all of that fraud came to light, not only did I worry for all those cheated customers, but also about the 5,000+ lower level employees who were forced & pressured to set up the false accounts…then, were fired. Of course, having had to resign meant absolutely nothing to aforementioned CEO–plenty of $$$$$ in the bank, so to speak.
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Education is the answer to most of the world’s problems. Yet our leaders seem determined to dismantle our education system. So ignorant and short-sighted!
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