Just about all myths are based on Love and that is why.
We read myths for learning about the gods and godesses and their affairs.
We read it because it's a classicle.
PART IV
20. Life Situation
FTG again—Oct. 9
Dear Ellen,
Your letter gave me the lift I needed; I was beginning to think I wasn't communicating with anyone! My students have come to me so empty-handed that I don't know where to start, or what to give them, or how to fill in the gaps.
The other day Bester popped into my SS (special-slow) class, and I gave an emergency composition to be written in class. The topic was 'My Best Friend,' and as I read the papers, I wondered: How do I correct them? What do I correct? Spelling? Punctuation? The inarticulate loneliness between the lines? I don't know where to start, or whether to laugh or cry. Perhaps the two are the same.
And I'm not communicating literature to them either. I saw that when I gave a quiz on mythology.
That leaves just you and me. I loved your account of the painters redecorating your bedroom. Certainly, you should stand pat on pale blue and mauve; don't let them get away with buff!
In the same mail came a letter from Mattie, telling me of a February vacancy at Willowdale. Very tempting. It's a small college where I could get an appointment even without a PhD. Trouble is—I
I look up his PRC. That's the Permanent Record Card kept for each student throughout his years in high school; it includes marks, IQ tests, aptitude tests, personality ratings, teachers' evaluations, percentile curves, notes, letters, affidavits, interviews, truant officer's reports—the history of a child encapsuled in a folder.
His IQ is 133; his marks last term: 65, 20, F, 94, 45. The 94 is in Social Studies. The 20 is in English. I marvel: why 20? why not 18? or 33? or 92? Is it based on his thinking, feeling, punctuation, absence, self- expression, memory, insolence? And where on the percentile curve does he fit? Or a girl like Alice? Or a boy like Eddie? What mark does Eddie get for the way the white world has treated him? Or Alice—for the fantasies the movies have fed her? Or I—or even I?
On the left of the blue line are Attitude Ratings for Citizenship, Cooperation, Cleanliness, Leadership Potential—to be marked from 1 to 5. Ferone's average is 1 1/2. Getting along with Peers=Good; Getting along with Teachers=Poor.
Next to that—'Disciplined on the following dates,' and a long list, ending with 'Obscene language in auditorium.'
On the right of the blue line are the CC's—Capsule Characterizations. At the end of each term, each teacher enters a succinct phrase for each student. 'Should try harder' is the favorite.
I glance through other PRC's.
'fine boy'
'fine boy'
'should try harder'
'fine boy'
This is the defeated looking Puerto Rican boy whose name no one remembers and who signs himself: Me. (He wished himself a happy birthday in my Suggestion Box.) I make sure of his name: Jose Rodriguez.
The CC's are followed by the PPP's—Pupil Personality Profiles—devised by Miss Friedenberg—a self- appointed Freud. These are based on her interviews with the kids, and are phrased in pseudoanalese. Ferone 'should channel his libidino-aggressive impulses into socially acceptable attitudes.' Vivian Paine 'suffers from malfunctioning of the ego due to compulsive obesity.' Lou Martin 'exhibits inverted hostility in manic behavior- patterns.' Eddie Williams 'must curb tendency to paranoia due to socioeconomic environmental factors.' Rusty, the woman-hater 'shows signs of latent homosexuality induced by narcissistic mother and permissive masturbatory practices.' Alice Blake 'is well balanced and integrated.'
Occasionally, among the inanities in the PRC's, are sudden entries of teachers with insight and a desire to help; entries of after-school conferences with kids, home visits, extra tutoring, honest attempts to deal with their problems. But they are rare.
Right now, I feel, is the most critical time in the children's lives—their last chance to turn into what they will eventually be. And so many are lost to us forever! Statistics on dropouts are staggering. What has become of those kids, and where are they now?
Ferone isn't a statistic. Eddie Williams isn't a statistic. Jose Rodriguez (I remembered his name!) isn't a statistic. And there isn't much Calvin Coolidge is offering them.
Under Reasons for Dropouts, teachers have written:
'Business opportunity.'
'Financial need.'
'Further development of experiential possibilities.'
But I went directly to the source: I asked my own students to write me honestly why they wanted to leave school. I am enclosing a few of their notes:
I dont go for school, if you're a color person it's all a lot of lies, nobody does like they do in books. At lease in my experience. And teachers, they're no better than parents, either too busy or yelling their heads off. And all prejudice.
I know school is supposed to help me with my life, but so far it didn't.
When I turn 17 my father says why should he feed an extra mouth. Ha-ha, that's me!
We must look 'behind the books' in school. This shows we 'American boys' are concerned not with 'swalling' things they way they are given to us without looking at the contents of the bottle and seeing what it contains. In these 'atomic days' you never know when 'America' will call on its young men so we must learn to think for themselves. Not being 'hoodwinked' like our forfathers in the war. But mine wants me to stay in school.
