[I Buried My Guns]

"...She just sat up there with this little space of empty seats around her and played, and played, and played. I wondered what life was like for her..."

I would guess life for her is sad, empty, and lonely, with the alternative even more depressing and empty.

When I worked in schools I saw hundreds of these vignettes played out every day. It was truly depressing, and I swore that if I ever won the lottery I'd assist low SES youth by helping the ones who had academic promise by paying their tuition to a private school. To leave white kids in a minority-dominated school is almost a death sentence.

[lentulusgracchus]

....I swore that if I ever won the lottery I'd assist low SES youth by helping the ones who had academic promise ....

I admire your impulse, but what is "SES"? Bureaucratic abbreviation?