Children Left Behind

Another fateful trip to Wal-Mart this afternoon. We were leaving right behind a lady, age 35-ish or so, with two little kids. The girls were precious little sweet things, about ages 4 and 10 months. When a man commented how cute they were, the lady replied they were her grandchildren, not her daughters.

Hummm....a 4-year-old grandchild at age 35. Do the math.

The four-year-old wanted to ride on the outside of the cart across the parking lot. Grandma told her to get off the cart in a rather loud voice. There were a lot of people, carts and traffic in the parking lot. The little girl was obviously frightened and wanted to hold on to grandma or at least the cart. Grandma continued to loudly berate the little girl about clinging to her dress and holding onto the cart as they walked to their car.

We go two rows over to get to our car. About that time we (and everybody in the parking lot) heard grandma scream at the top of her lungs at the 4-year-old, "LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE AND GET IN THE DAMN CAR!!!"

Sigh.

The boys said, almost in unison, "And we're gonna have to teach that kid in a few years."

I'll bet when George W. and his cronies cooked up the No Child Left Behind crap, he didn't know this lady or others just like her who live here in Our Town. Lots of folks like this live here. We see 'em every day in Wal-Mart. Probably not so many live in George's neighborhood.

These poor kids have been left behind at birth...both of them, and lots of their friends. About the only thing public schools will be able to do for them is feed them a decent breakfast and lunch.

Sigh.