[lbo-talk] from danielle to dani

[123hop at comcast.net]

What actually interests me, and nobody seems to write about this, is what the parents are thinking. I mean those who do this kind of thing. What they're thinking and feeling. That would be interesting. Calling them "monsters" is completely uninteresting. 

Why? Some years ago, an Oakland man beat his three year old boy to death because the toddler could not be made to read. The consesus was that the father was a monster. But those who should know better now tell us that five year olds should learn to read English. I don't deny some can. But the vast majority cannot and should not. And because they are made to, as a matter of policy, they are likely to think of themselves as failures and incapable of learning, starting at the age of five.

There is then also a lot of institutional monstrosity.

Joanna 

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