Treme just stuns me. David Simon is the master. Episode were watching now featured Fats Domino. Incredible. One of the sidebar stories is about a session musician whos also teaching a high school band class. He discovers one of his seventh grade students cant read. He tries to get the child help, and finds that there are no resources. Too close to home. When I was a senior at North Surry High School in Mt. Airy, NC in 1977, I got talked into tutoring 9th and 10th grade students. Tammy Brittain and I would give up our study halls (no big deal; I played paper football anyway; BAD senioritis) and we would try to help kids who were struggling. There was this one kid, a sophomore, who absolutely couldnt read. Tammy and I were astounded--how could you get to 10th grade and not be able to read? But he was a nice guy who didnt cause trouble. Teachers passed him because they liked him. And at that time, if he got a high school diploma, he could work at any number of factories and make an OK living. Why rock the boat? Tammy and I were WAY over our heads, but we tried. I brought in my motorcycle magazines because he liked bikes. We tried newspapers. We didnt have a clue what we were doing, But two hapless high school seniors tried to teach him to read. And we failed. Spectacularly. That summer, I saw the kid working in the same furniture factory where I was earning cash for school. Hed dropped out. And I knew that he still couldnt read and probably didnt know how much he was making each week. The next fall, at Western Carolina University, Dr. Phil Wade explained this to me. He said there was a difference between grief and grievances. Grievances are things you can change. Grief is not. Ive been tempted to look up the kids name on the interwebs. But Im terrified that I might learn what happened to him.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 03:28:29 +0000
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