"I feed them peanut butter crackers, beef jerky, or Pop Tarts when Michelle Obama's school breakfast or lunch isn't enough to fill their bellies."

Just saying...... otherwise it's spot on.

the highly endangered program of free breakfasts and lunches, kids are still hungry.

The Rubpubes and idiots in Congress and state legislators balked at even the idea of following the black lady in the WH over nutrition for kids so they may learn. The garden, the initiative to being well balanced food to those that need it to think and grow properly was mocked and ridiculed. It was a shocking campaign against a First Lady and her ideas to help children.

I don't mean to be dismissive of her letter, that just jumped out at me because I've been made hyper aware through my grandchildren's schools that they're not to bring any peanut products to school.

Peanut allergies are not uncommon.

Like the basic message but that is dangerous because the school probably doesn't have a set of epipens.

And there were lots of complaints that the new portion sizes were not enough for hungry teenagers. Our school has at least half the kids on free and reduced lunch, so for many of them it's the one reliable meal of the day. I believe the portion issue has been addressed.

... it as a dig too. Yeah, this guy may care for the kids but I'm not convinced enough to retweet this or share it in any way. If he truly cared about the things he mentioned he wouldn't just be writing screeds but be out getting rid of some of the right wing crazies that run that fascist state.

While he's "out getting rid of some of the right wing crazies..."who will be in his classroom? In my state (Kansas) substitute teachers don't even have to have a degree anymore, if I remember correctly. It's assuredly as bad (or worse?) in Oklahoma.

And how would the time he spent on the "screed" (do you intend the negative connotation the word carries?) be better spent on "getting rid of the ... crazies"? I know how many hours and hours it takes to even make a little headway in a solid red state.

I have no quarrel with the "fascist state" label, nor with the "right wing crazies" (except that in my mind it's a good example of a redundancy used for emphasis).

Sorry if this seems extreme--it tends that way I suppose--but I quit teaching 25 years ago after teaching 2 years in Wichita schools and realizing there was nothing really being done to solve the problems.

I don't question your sincerity or the validity of your points, but I did feel the solution you suggest was simplistic.

Without any money nothing can even begin to be fixed.

But he says nothing about first steps. He says "out getting rid of." Not so easy to do.

Thank You!

And, btw, I see no apology necessary on your part.

could apply to any number of states. Especially the ones with repub. governors. They all want charter schools, with vouchers. They are nothing but money machines for unscrupulous people. The "lesser" kids get left behind no matter what.

devolving into a third world country. Any country that no longer values education or its children is doomed. There was a time when we were the envy of the world when it came to public education.

Many of the S.O.B's that deride to defund public schools had great public educations. That just don't want to pay taxes that help this generation's kids. They use their uneducated supporters to hold up as to why public schools are so bad. But I will bet a dollar to donuts that those supporters never took advantage of a public education. A whole crowd of "you can't tell me what to do" losers. The very parents of the subject of this letter. Unfortunately, they are going to be the biggest losers in the presidency..

Spot on...

Coming from family full of teachers, from K-high school, this was painful to read...and the direction we're heading isn't going to help the children who do desperately need help and/intervention. They've already been written off as not worthy of becoming productive members of "this" society so just cattle prod them thru the process...testing's what it's all about right?

I can remember the joy on my mom's face as she described when one of her 1st grade students discovered "I can read!"...she knew she had a positive impact in that child's life...

I feel for this fine human being and wholeheartedly applaud him trying and sacrificing for the children no one cares about. If you have made a difference, and I'm positive you have, in one child's life...it's worth it!

Thank you sir!

Sad state of affairs in the US...

their wealthy cronies.

They want a population that doesn't believe the news. (Fake News) Or who just listens to FOX.
They don't want kids that read or kids with basic math skills.

True story: I am a volunteer for a canine rescue group. Each year 30-40 of us sign up for a Christmas Card exchange. We all take pictures of our dog(s) and have them printed up on Christmas Cards. The cards run about $.35ea if you do your cards a Snapfish and have them printed at Wal-Mart. Last year I went to pick up my order of 50 cards. $17.50 + tax, right? The clerk rang it up as $875.00 and didn't bat an eye at the total. (She was supposed to scan the bar code on the package and enter a quantity of 1. Instead she entered a total of 50.) But the fact that it rang up an insane price didn't give her pause, because she doesn't understand basic math.

They don't want kids who read. Got help us if they have kids reading books by Twain or Huxley or Orwell or Anne Frank, let alone books by MLK, or ... dare I say it Kant or Nietzsche. Or even kids who read Tolkien or Rowling. They might get ideas and we can't have that.

And they certainly don't want kids learning history. And God forbid we have a teacher that tries to talk about how, on a simplistic level the Civil War was about slavery, but it was a way more complex issue.

My granddaughter is just finishing up Jr. HS. She is in the Jr. National Honor Society and maintains about a 3.9 GPA and goes to a 'good' school in an upper middle-class community. And the things she doesn't know are appalling. (Small disclaimer here. My wonderful spouse has a PhD in history, so we may know a little bit more about the '...rest of the story' than most.)

But the GOP wants ignorant masses who don't know any better.

We need to point out the assholery of the Tea Baggers at every opportunity. And never mind about doing it so they aren't offended. I say offend-away!!! Call them out. I'm now 77, and have known since I was 12 that the Repugs were not for me. Three things most solidified this for me:

1. When Eisenhower ran, one of my schoolmates commented "He'll drop the bomb on those Koreans."
2. After the Kent State killings, a teaching colleague commented, "They got less than was coming to them."
3. During the ACA town hall meetings a man shouted, after the question arose about what to do about those who couldn't afford insurance, "Let 'em die!"

If they don't agree, kill 'em. What better evidence of the "Christian" spirit of the rethugs?

These illiterate, incurious, lazy bastards in government are doing everything they can to get rid of education and schools. They want to stay in power and create a slave state/country. That is what Reagan started in the 80's when he began his assault on education. Since then it has been an all out war against education.

Deplorables.

I actually think that the last GOP prez who didn't work toward this goal was Nixon, but who knows what lurked deep in his psyche?
There is proof though that our education system is broken.
Look who these idiots vote into office over and over. THAT is true ignorance.

"White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class by Nancy Isenberg"

And if the Preface and Introduction is as good as they are, then maybe it's time for change from the likes of those in power in Oklahoma and other places

When I read this letter from this Teacher I kept thinking of one Betsy Devos and her minions, that was confirmed by a self righteous senate and the senator(s) from this state and the one that comes to mind is Inhofe, that piece of worthless crap, and are enabling this crap and what this teacher is going through and others like him across the country.

When I went through school, we got what was NEEDED

I'm afraid there's a lot of "My grandpappy survived the Great Depression so don't talk to ME about being poor. We had the gumption to get out of it, why don't they?"

Well, no, Sunshine, YOU didn't do a damned thing and your grandpappy had a lot of help from the New Deal when he got out of the Great Depression. These people always forget that part, thinking they're superheroes who have somehow been vaccinated against poverty and all its consequences. Gumption won't buy you a cup of coffee and neither will hard work most of the time, not if you were born poor.

However, the book has a great story about how the English started to consider people from the countryside who had been thrown out of work by mechanization, the Enclosure Act, and other boneheaded policies of the aristocracy to be "trash" since they were marginal workers who were paid too little for work that was sporadic, at best. They were ragged and smelly and offensive to aristocrats who had no clue that their own wealth had created such poverty, and the policy became to dump them here and in Australia, throwing the trash away where it wouldn't be quite so unsightly.

Here the meaning is a little different. Without the modifier "poor," the term "white trash" becomes a descriptor of a set of personal values instead of a class term in colloquial American English.

Still, the book is a great read and not an overlong one. I'm glad you mentioned it.

He defines ignorance.

I feel badly for this teacher, given his honest passion.

Nevertheless, sometimes I think to myself that it would be ideal if the South were encouraged to secede again.

Their legislators are buffoons, and they do nothing but reelect them. They are rotting in the effects of their own ignorance, and there seems little is possible to break the cycle. They are dragging the rest of the country down with them.

THANK YOU for posting this.

because there's only one parent in the home and s/he is working three low paid jobs to keep the lights on in the roof over their heads. The door might be locked against thieves and there's no spare key and no money to have one made. The kid is supposed to do homework on the porch and/or go play until the parent comes home, not come home early with a cough and fever. Employers don't care about kids with coughs and fevers.

He needs to realize that not all the parents are doped up, shacked up, or fucked up. Many of them are just fucked over, and that's fucking over the kids. In that context, it's no wonder that some parents try to numb out. And no one seems to care.

Most of them are likely doing the best they can with too little to work with and it's never enough, not for them, not for the kids, and not for the local schools.

And the problem in the inner city is people not voting at all because they've felt so disconnected from and betrayed by the political system that sees them as takers instead of as people who are working damned hard for too little reward.

This looks and sounds likes the fake stuff they were spreading around on Facebook. This was written by someone conservative. The complaints about not having supplies? First taxes they get what they pay for. Why didn't he write a grant? The whole post smells from it's Michelle's fault they didn't get enough to eat to I am getting paid less? I worked at an energy company. This sounds like the republicans that will not admit that they are and say I'm independent because they don't want to be associated with their president or just plain anti gubermint.

about feeding the children when Michelle Obama's program couldn't (so to speak) seems to be a damning finger blaming her and only her as opposed to the damned GOP.