Children Sometimes Understand Things That

The Ones I Pity Are The Ones Who Never Stick Out Their Neck For Something They Believe, Never Know The Taste Of Moral Struggle, And Never Have The Thrill Of Victory.

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.

What I Tell These Young People Is, The World Is Not As Dangerous As The Older Generation Would Like You To Believe. Anyone I Know Who Has Ever Taken A Risk And Lost A Job Has Ended Up Getting A Better One Two Years Later.

When I Was Teaching In The 1960s In Boston, There Was A Great Deal Of Hope In The Air. Martin Luther King Jr. Was Alive, Malcolm X Was Alive; Great, Great Leaders Were Emerging From The Southern Freedom Movement.

As Damaging As The Obsessive Emphasis On Testing Often Proves To Be For Kids In General, I Believe That The Effects Are Still More Harmful In Those Schools In Which The Resources Available To Help The Children Learn The Skills That Will Be Measured By These Tests Are Fewest, The Scores They Get Are Predictably The Lowest, And The Strategies Resorted To By Principals In Order To Escape The Odium Attaching To A Disappointing Set Of Numbers Tend To Be The Most Severe.