Posted on 04/26/2005 5:02:47 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
All of this is going on AFTER the teacher took away the jelly beans she had given her earlier.
My question was not of the school but of the mother. I haven't seen anything other than what was posted here and what has been on the evening news.
I understood the reference to meetings as having come from the mother not the school. However, as in all things, I could easily be wrong.
I didn't watch the whole tape, so I didn't really know what was going on. I could see immediately that the teacher was setting the kid up for a little show, though. The teacher and the principle should be fired. Then the kid's family should be investigated by social services to find out why the mother was too busy to come to the school. There is obviously something wrong with the child, but this wasn't the way to handle it. The two times that I know of the police being called, the mothers were both present as well.
The big news in all of this is not the story itself. It is the fact that some genius thought it was necessary to put A Current Afair back on the air. Even with the same graphics and noises...I turned the channel the other night and thought it was 1986 all over again.
Something to ponder:
My Paternal Grandmother was full-blood Northern Cheyenne. She was born at a time when the reservations were really getting going (she was born in the early 1880's)
She didn't like the way she (and her people) was treated by "white" society--but he also realized there were plenty of whites (and other races) that WERE good people.
She always hated the "victim mentality" syndrome---and those that used it to get away with anything they possibly could. She got plenty tired of the lazy good-for-nothings that sat on the 'res' and whined about how hard they had it---alll the while collecting their monthly checks from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
I remember a VERY long time ago, when she spotted a teen on the 'res' doing the whining bit. She listened for a bit, went up to him and gave him a smack and some good advice:
"Get off your sorry ass and get a job"
????
Yes, it was..and, it's FICTION!
My grandmother and her sister were named by the midwife..Mabel and Myrtle, so this is not new. Where I work we had a girl named Velvet Beavers- who can say this was not recklessness bordering on abuse. Outside of TV who can say that bloack kids named Mike or Susan don't have it easier than kids named Ja'Neisha or Condolezza?
You said: You did know, of course, that one of the ways African-Americans were kept at the bottom of the pile in the South was to not teach them English~!
Yes, I knew that. I went to a predominantly black high school, by the way, in the early 70s, at a time when most blacks (at least the ones I hung out with) were working to be a part of the mainstream of society. They were black and proud, as they'd say. This was when many blacks wore the red, green and black patches, but the era of African-sounding names had not arrived. I am aware that some of these names have meanings, and certainly everyone has the right to the name of his or her choosing (or the parent's choosing). My kids's names are Samuel and Hannah (Bible names we promised during infertility times, rewarded with twins). We could have named them Snookie and Blossom, or some other names, with meaning or without, but there is a certain reality about how such children are viewed, and the obtstacle that must be overcome, for right or wrong. If a parent knows this, why create the problem? Is having a Yoruba name (if that is what this is) more important than being judged for one's talents and abilities?
We have no idea where she worked or how far her commute might have been.
Years ago when I worked in downtown DC and had no parking space I relied on public transportation. If they needed me at school, I would have had to have taken a taxicab, and it would have been a 45 minute trip.
Commuting times are really bad around here. I didn't find the mother's response concerning how long it would take her to get to the school out of line.
The other individual in the conversation was Jewish. I don't believe they use that name for their kids.
What was happening, however, was that African-Americans who managed to move out of the world of Gullah and Geetchie and learned passable English simply adopted names similar to those used by the larger culture!
BTW, when I first started working at Post Office Department Headquarters we still had employees who knew those older languages. One of them, Gullah I believe, is an Yoruba dialect with lots of English, Spanish and French vocabulary. The other one, Geetchie, is actually English with lots of Yoruba, Spanish and French vocabulary.
There was no uniform standard so if you moved around the South where these languages were spoken you'd have to make serious adjustments.
The day I retired I don't think we had a single individual who knew more than a handful of words from either language.
What was happening, however, was that African-Americans who managed to move out of the world of Gullah and Geetchie and learned passable English simply adopted names similar to those used by the larger culture!
BTW, when I first started working at Post Office Department Headquarters we still had employees who knew those older languages. One of them, Gullah I believe, is an Yoruba dialect with lots of English, Spanish and French vocabulary. The other one, Geetchie, is actually English with lots of Yoruba, Spanish and French vocabulary.
There was no uniform standard so if you moved around the South where these languages were spoken you'd have to make serious adjustments.
The day I retired I don't think we had a single individual who knew more than a handful of words from either language.
The host cracks me up. He is a real-life version of David Puddy (Elaine's boyfriend the last few seasons) from Seinfeld right down to his squinty eyes.
A couple of weeks ago I was home sick for a couple of days and watched it. At the end of one of the segments my husband said, "High five" and we just cracked up!
This school district better have some good lawyers because they are going to need them. I have to wonder why the teacher didn't just request that the girl be classified special ed. Perhaps the mother had refused permission for the testing and that led to the video taping.
The little girl, Ja'eisha was acting like a brat. However, given the way she couldn't sit still i wouldn't be surprised to find out she's on some kind of medication which is causing her to act that way.
She doesn't look 24, she looks more like 34-44.
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