Day 532 Dropping literacy rates and the consequence of special needs.

I am reading  Weapons of Mass Instruction,  by John Taylor Gato. This is a quote from his book:

"WWII was over in 1945. Six years later , another war began in Korea and several million more men were tested for military service. This time 600,000 were rejected. Literacy in the draft had mysteriously dropped to 81 percent from 96 percent, even though all that was needed to classify a soldier as literate was fourth grade reading proficiency. In a few short years from WWII to Korea a terrifying problem of adult illiteracy had appeared seemingly from nowhere.

The Korean War group had received most of its schooling in the 1940’s while the conflict with Germany and Japan was being waged. It had more years in school, with more professionally trained teachers in attendance, and more scientifically selected textbooks than the WWII men. Yet, it could not read, write, count, speak, or think as well as the earlier less schooled contingent."

By the time we get the the sixties and the Vietnam War, that rate drops to 73 percent.

Now, we have an education system that employs thousands of people. And we have children that have learning disabilities that are, as in my home town, doubling in one year. I say this because if it is happening in my one little town it is probably happening in many many towns.

I was with my sister this week. She has an autistic child.  She has come to realize in all the years that she deals with the schools a number of things. 

First, she has begun to notice something about the treatment of herself when she goes to meetings in the school. She has begun to notice that when the adults go into an assembly that the adults are treated as children ( I should say ignorant - because children when they are young can be more aware than adults- just think of all the 14 year olds that are beginning to create things that improve the system) , they are taken into an assembly where things are “ explained” and then they are moved into the classrooms and explained again. As we can see in the numbers of literate people in decline, and the amount of money poured into education, what we are doing is not working, whether by design or not, the numbers show us that it is not working. And given that this American system has more prisoners than any other country, and that these prisoners are making combat helmets and a percentage of our utility gadgets at the expense of the taxpayer, we as a society have become dumber, meaning less aware, meaning less able to use our common sense, which we can blame no one but ourselves, because we accepted and allowed it.

Another thing that has happened, and I had a similar thing happen in high school, is that children that are processing very slowly, are given special tests so that the numbers in the state tests are not pulled down, which means we are not being told of what is really happening when the state test scores are presented to the public. When I was in high school in New York, they had my friends and I retake the tests, even though we had passed, to keep the numbers of passing students higher. So, even within this, parents are  being deceived and the school administrators, the ones that have been trained, are allowing this, because they fear losing their jobs- which comes before the child.  All of this is an illusion, because if parents became aware of this, it would mean to change the system, to allow teachers to begin to use their common sense. As one parent of a school committee said, it is that the teachers are given one new program after another, and can never simply use their common sense, develop their ability to develope their own way via their own experience, and as we know, children have a divergent thinking skill that is somehow lost by the time they reach the third grade. Which means how we are forming the child is not opening up that natural ability, that common sense ability. So, we have teachers that lack the time and the choice to develop common sense, and we have the consequence of this lack of common sense accumulating overall in the children of the next generation.

The third thing my sister has come to realize is that the reason she has changing aids is that the aids want to move onto working with “ normal” children, because, naturally, it moves at a faster pace. I have worked in “ special” classes, it is a constant redirection, again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again ad infinitum. 

I noticed with this child, that having a moment, where I could get a child with special needs to walk all the way into self generating took more than an hour. And this was for one word. Eventually the child did this. I also know that in the schools, a teacher has about 50 minutes and other students. For a child that is so confused, so nervous, whose nails are bitten down to the skin practically, how can that child ever have the moment to follow through and move through all the accumulated fear behaviors and begin to generate being able to speak one word, and write one word, with an understanding of the meaning of the word? With all the bells and the whistles, and the other children, is it no wonder that that child cannot read and write with any fluency? If the aids change every year, and the new aids are bottom of the pay scale, to save money, where is the time and space for constancy, and time to move through fears and limitations to begin to build understanding? Here, if we look at physical space and time, it does not exist, so the fear behaviors accumulate because they are not given opportunity to discover structure and practice this. Also, the special needs classrooms move at a slower pace, where one tiny tiny gain is seen as a HUGE gain, but this in itself is an illusion in a bubble. On top of this, we have a culture of so called “ positive thinking” where if this is questioned, one is considered to not be “ positive.” Obviously, only a parent can be responsible for the child, because as the system functions in the moment, what is best for a child is not being given simply because of the measure of time and the pressures of testing, and money spent on aids, and teachers who become frustrated in what is such a slow process that is limited by structure that they want to move onto a situation where the children at least have some capacity.

As has been shown in the declining numbers of literacy, our present system is in reverse. And, each of us is tied to survival, where we cannot stop and slow down ourselves and take the time to see what is actually happening in form and function in our schools, because of the economic pressure in a system of usury that moves all wealth creation via money to a few, and is now a corporate system that pushes products that entertain us as an escape from our own frustrations. And our frustrations are the same as that special needs child, it is the children that simply carry the consequences of lack as the life within is given no structure to express itself, thus it is to say that life is being suppressed.  It is like the inverse is happening, the greater the suppression the greater the number of special needs students. And I have to ask myself if this is moving exponentially, meaning the numbers suddenly double in one year. Each parent has to ask themselves, when their real estate taxes go up and the answer is the special needs for these children, will they blame the individual points or take the time to look at the whole and realize the consequences that created the problem? It has happened at a seemingly slow and steady pace, invisible to many, but, since the numbers are doubling, you could be next, and then, as with my sister, after walking the frustrations, the pattern will begin to emerge, and then the child is in middle school, and taking the time to reprogram the child will need more time.

Also, if we realize the Munchausen symdrome by proxy, many parents build their lives around these children, and become acclimated to that child’s behavior and the social network around that child’s problem and as a result fear losing what has come to define them. Obviously, this cannot continue, because eventually that child becomes an adult, and what was “ cute” when they were small is no longer cute, but even considered weird when they get into their twenties. This I have seen as well.  Will our taxpayer dollars pay for these malformed adults that require to live in assisted housing?  And, as we can see, the numbers are growing.

According to the numbers of literate people before WWII, people can become literate. Because the present system is so intrenched, the solution is to create a basic income guarantee, to allow each the time and space to slow down and breath, to remove the stress and frustration, which manifests as spite and blame, wanting someone else to be responsible because each of us is so caught up in the details of keeping a job, and as such can no longer see the patterns around us. Realize that everything is interconnected, and that what we allow that is not supportive of life absolutely, has consequences that eventually accumulate and catch up to us. 

We are physical beings, we need air, and water and shelter, and an inFORMation that allows us to see what is around us and how it moves with each breath, to realize that what we allow in the systems we create, determine our development and our function and that because we live on a physical planet where everything is connected, our choices can only be what is best for all. And, as the numbers of literate men in WWII show, the possibility for overall literacy exists.

A Living Income Guarantee will give us the space and time to get out of our bubbles of limitation, and allow the insight necessary to realize the whole and how what we accept and allow influences  the world around us. What exists was built by each of us as a collective, and since  the present system was built by those who came before us, there is no one here to blame. And, our history, an ego history, where a figure head is believed to have created and developed what is here, that could only have been developed by many, is not the whole story and really only a story where one organizational part what made a god-like image, we can realize that what has been impulsed as history, is not a story of practical form and function, and as such what we think we understand is simply a lack by omission. Thus, it is through omission that our information is limited. And this limitation creates frustration that is really suppression. And the suppression lacking structure looks without for definition, instead of within as information being exposure and development. Meanwhile that which is outside of us is also a limitation, of one aspect of reality made greater instead of being balanced and normal to the point where a practical common sense of physical reality is strong enough that invention and creative ability is developed and at interplay with the physical. As we can see, little invention is being allowed, as the monopolies buy a congress of votes and impose what is causing harm, and even buying the space on the media to tell a story that ignores all aspects of reality which is, overall, simply a reflection of what we are within. All of which, begs the necessity of a Living Income Guarantee. If each has the monetary means to meet basic living needs, then so many reactive behaviors will end, and the tide will turn as men stand and begin to express what was there all along, the expression of themselves as life, here.

                                      John Taylor Gato

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Day 390 Paranoise of inferiority, Unknowiing common sense.

I had a dream last night, of myself at a party, in a gathering, and I fear not being able to talk to anyone. Then this morning I looked at the dream and had to remember myself to common sense, to the principle of what is best for all, and that we are all the same, able to move as birds, together, sensing here, not with some “ magical projection ability” but one and equal to the very fabric of here, as the substance of life, as physics is discovering - or realizing - has always been here, where it is only ignorance as the beliefs within consciousness as mind as the human in separation that are in separation from the constant field of expression as the substance of life as the very essence of what we are, no projections needed, nothing created - so to speak- on dis-covering ourselves as life, this which we have not looked at but covered within believing ourselves to be more than, as imagination, as mind, as consciousness.

So, the anxiety within being able to speak to others, is myself having expectations, which means, I have desires, which means I have beliefs and am not stable here within enjoying here. Ironically, that which I desire, is right here, it is only myself as ideas, beliefs and opinions that have covered up and dis-respected life. So I am in a place in time to b-earth myself, dis-cover my at-most-sphere/fear point that I have accepted and allowed, where my character is a personification of having ignored myself as life, taking on a more than belief, as ego, imagining this until it becomes what I express, at loss with a stability with life/here, creating consequences of separation, isolation, lack such as dreams and miscommunications with the world around me, a world of men at this same point - a place to b-earth oneself as life, to remove the veil of separation as the pictures of consciousness of ignorance of the absolute value being life, and instead using relative values and associations to define self, resisting life, pushing away the bad, the separation, the judgement, and presenting the good, the happy face , the positive, the self validation and justification for a lack of self responsibility as life, here.

This dream, this play-out in my mind in fear of social stagnancy and outcast,  is myself being inferior to life, inferior to here, inferior to a capacity of myself to speak, to follow through, to see, to realize , to understand how the physical world functions. This world functions in a practical way, observable, measurable, mathematically structural-ble. There is no invisible hand, there is only a smoke screen of complication to hide the normal practical observable movement within the physical world. There is no need for a god to judge, the outcome of how this physical world is treated is visible, it is only a disallowance of research and physical investigation that withholds - doing so in self interest. If man is not educated, and placed in economic stress, this is done in self interest, to eliminate competition, a crime against life for all life. This will not work, cannot work, does not work, as history shows us, our history is one of war and destruction, all in the name of self interest, man in separation from life. On every level of this hierarchy of separation as inequality, there is abuse, ignorance, destruction, it is just that those on the top that move centralized regimes throughout time into same forms of different names, call their crimes, present their crimes, as being good, while the physical outflows are only perpetuating physical abuse of this earth.  It is time for this to stop.

In all practical common sense, if I imagine a belief that I cannot talk with others then I create an inferiority and follow this instead of using my practical common sense and looking at the movement of life here, being humble and realizing that what is here is the gift of life to cross reference my stability here, myself being equal and one to and as life here. This means looking at my self validations as what I reject that persists, and realizing this as equal and one to me, that I need not fear, that i can follow through, that I can perceive and equalize to me within the principle of what is best for all is best for self, and within this cause no harm, preventing further separation and creating understanding with and as life here.

Thus, this ambiguous idea that I cannot communicate with others is an imagination based on an idea of lack, and thus the anxiety is a state of stagnation, myself in paranoia of my own beliefs, opinions and ideas.

There was a situation with my sister when my children were smaller. It was just after the death of my husband. My son had been swinging on a swing, when my sister’s daughter , who was also small, ran in front of the swing. Now, my son, who was small and my sister’s daughter , who was small, had both been children doing what children so, playing, laughing, running in glee, thus both had not been aware of their surroundings, and to note that even if my son had noticed that his cousin was about to run in front of the swing ( there were bushes all around the swing sets ) he was really too small to suddenly be able to jump down from the arc of the swing onto the ground and stop himself from swinging into my niece. Did I want this to happen, did my son want this to happen, did my niece want this to happen? No.

My sister started yelling that my “ boys” were rough and had hurt her daughter. I was astounded, and as I went to explain the situation, I became very angry and started to yell. While I was yelling I suddenly watched myself become a rage of indignation, so big, so strong that within myself I stopped. I thought, what is this? This rage , this anger cannot be good for me of for the situation, even if I am “ right.” So, I stopped. I realized the stance of my sister was unreasonable, and trying to convince her of this, in that moment, was like taking a horse to water and trying to get it to drink. I thought, that my children would confront such unreasonableness in life, and that reacting to this was not always the best thing for self. Thus, and here my interest went to my children, that they had to realize that sometimes the behaviors of others have nothing to do with oneself, and that such does not define oneself, and that this is not necessarily something to accept, but to realize one can only state what happened in common sense and let it go.

What would inevitably happen, is my mother would come and tell me that i had to put up with such things, that my sister was sensitive and if I reacted then she would no longer come the limited times that she came. Here I was always in conflict, because it was like I was damned if I did and damned if I didn’t. Somehow putting up with what was unacceptable, was not the solution, as it only perpetuated the accusation of behavior that had no directive within developing awareness, instead the self validations were allowed to be supported to keep a peace, no resolution. 

Within this, I was taught to walk around emotional insecurities and self validations, instead of using common sense and directing myself within looking at situations where the physical was considered and looked at to learn to prevent mis-understandings. And within this, to simply state the mis-understandings and let it go, to focus here, practically, and then to release the acknowledgement of the observation. Within such scenarios, others sometimes speak up, and place common sense into words that can be very insightful. When this happens it is like a gift of insight, where i have stopped and thought, wow, what a way to see this, it is really directive, meaning not positive or negative, the value is absolute within common sense of here, where self direction is realized instead of emotional spite and blame.

A similar scenario happened later with my sister again, and I just got in my car and left, because I could see that I was getting angry again, and my anger was not a solution, so I left, to stop the reaction, as at the time I had not gotten control of  this. I had stated what had happened, and left. 

Within all this, I realize that I am inferior to myself, as an idea that I can be considered as being a “less than” that even in the face of common sense, I attach an idea of a less than, a fear of a less than, a paranoise of a less than. I can see that within the relationship with my sister there is self validation going on, and I am wanting to control this, and react when I don’t get the result I want, I am not so much as blaming my sister, or her daughter, or my son, but I am reacting to the idea of  being considered inferior despite the reality of the situation. Even though I acknowledge the situation, I remain within fear of judgement. I say to let it go, but I am not really, I am hanging on creating a hurt out of the situation, turning myself into a victim. UNKNOWING of my own common sense. The only choice, is to remain , here, developing stability, practicing this, letting go of the past, and  remaining stable within and as breath, within the principle of what is best for all is best for self,  that life is an absolute purpose of what is best for all, it is only to forgive the paranoise of separation into a belief that something can be lost, as this paranoia is a reaction based on an idea lacking common sense.

We all have common sense in abundance, fault finding in another is not common sense, if we abdicate our common sense, we lose self honesty, self responsibility. And in a system of inequality, where money determines life, would this not be used, would you not use this in another, to ensure your survival? The present system places all liability and all debt on the people, the huge numbers of people, where few have the benefits, and in a way this system, is telling us all, that we as the human, have abdicated our common sense, and it is right here, right in front of us. If you have a table and a chair and a bed, you are in a position to stand and to support - those who are so depressed,and on the brink of starvation - and to change this world into a system that values life before profit, a system that values this earth - our home - that values and is the response of this value being life Support BIG , a Basic Income Guarantee.  It is time to get this world into an order that is life. 

With my sister, what could have been a joy, in self discovery, was turned into a game of competition, as metaphysical ideas of one thing being more than another, when what was real was simply becoming aware of ourselves as life, learning to live, learning to move and enjoy ourselves as physical beings, expressing life. 

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