To quote Elizabeth Taylor in "Who's Afraid of Virginnia Wolf?"............."well baby aren't you something?" Who would believe, not Miss Darling, that actual students--living, breathing, forced into school by law, American students would somehow gather up enough actual physical and mental and emotional energy to literally stand up and walk out in regard to an actual cause. A cause. A belief. And then.... and then..... these babies' cause is............................... EDUCATION. Their's. These children who kick and scream, whine and complain, backtalk, cuss, refuse to do homework actually value.......teachers! They believe that what is being done in the United States of America is well, wrong. They recongize they need teachers. Actual teachers. In the classroom. And they are angry teachers are losing their jobs while we fund 3 wars, pay GE's tax bill, pad the rich.... These children, who Miss Darling has discussed at length in terms of lack of abilities, actually really super do want to learn something. They want to believe. They want to have a future. And they're being refused it. And they're mad as hell. At least someone is awake. How is it parents, government officials, I don't know, reasonable thinking people, can sit by and say, why yes, up the number of students per classroom.... we don't really give a damn if these kids are educated or not. Because frankly, that is what is being said. By actions. Education is already failing us.......... not due to teachers, not due to students.... Parents have to assume much of this blame... and not just for giving Juinor every single thing he wants and refusing to admit he can ever be at fault or for being too busy to check and see if perhaps Juinor is actually passing his classes..... but because these people who adore their children aren't standing up alongside their kids and saying: Fuck, no. No. You will not overcrowd the classrooms. No, you will not allow teachers to be booted out the door while our children already cannot read or write or think critically. Teachers need more help.... teachers cannot do the job required of them now, how can they do it with LESS numbers? Find the money, people. I'm a single mom. I raised two daughtes to adulthood with an average salary of 21,000 a year... that's an average. Somehow when things were important, like really super important--shoes, dentist, food, 16th Birthday--I found the money. This whinefest we have for a country right now can to. We don't need all the crapola. We just don't. We need...... healthcare, a clean world, sanity, hope, a dream, food, a sense of humor, and an educated population. We don't need bigger, better, more, faster. We don't need all the toys. Or to win all the wars. Or to play with all the soliders..... We need to be able to think and with shallow testing, which results in shallow teaching, and not enough teachers to even babysit much less educate, we aren't going to have it. Perhaps the rich kids... they can pay for rich kid tuition. The rest of us? Sickly and stupid. I have never believed that Mayan business........... But if it's the end of the world as we know it next year... .well, we deserve what we get.