An Awful Lot Of People Come To

The First Goal And Primary Function Of The U.s. Public School Is Not To Educate Good People, But Good Citizens. It Is The Function Which We Call - In Enemy Nations - 'state Indoctrination.'

But For The Children Of The Poorest People We're Stripping The Curriculum, Removing The Arts And Music, And Drilling The Children Into Useful Labor. We're Not Valuing A Child For The Time In Which She Actually Is A Child.

The Future Teachers I Try To Recruit Are Those Show Have Refused To Let Themselves Be Neutered In This Way, Either In Their Private Lives Or In The Lives That They Intend To Lead In School. When They Begin To Teach, They Come Into Their Classrooms With A Sense Of Affirmation Of The Goodness And The Fullness Of Existence, With A Sense Of Satisfaction In Discovering The Unexpected In Their Students, And With A Longing To Surprise The World, Their Kids, Even Themselves, With Their Capacity To Leave Each Place They've Been ... A Better And More Joyful Place Than It Was When They Entered It.

East St. Louis-which The Local Press Refers To As "an Inner City Without An Outer City"-has Some Of The Sickest Children In America. Of 66 Cities In Illinois, East St. Louis Ranks First In Fetal Death, First In Premature Birth, And Third In Infant Health.

Children, Of Course, Don't Understand At First That They Are Being Cheated. They Come To School With A Degree Of Faith And Optimism, And They Often Seem To Thrive During The First Few Years. It Is Sometimes Not Until The Third Grade That Their Teachers Start To See The Warning Signs Of Failure. By The Fourth Grade Many Children See It Too.