Suddenly Texas schools are talking about testing students in grades 3--8 using the STAR exams. Great! Go from online classes and no text books to testing general knowledge the last six weeks of class. Asking one of my grandchildren about this and she gasped, "But I took that combined class last summer!" Is it going to surprise us that test scores will be miserably bad? Sometimes folks tend to think that schools can do no wrong; and some of us think they haven't done much right lately! Maybe it won't matter. And maybe it is time for schools to look for different methods of determining what a student needs to know.
Today was a thinking day. My first question would be: Why did people want to come to America in the first place? Then the state of Texas map overlaid on Europe pretty well tells us why. They did not have enough room over in any part of Europe for the extension of families or cities. Reading about the Germans who settled in Texas has been an eye-opener! They were promised good farm land if they came and made decent settlements and farms. No one informed them of the weather, the Apaches, the raiding Mexican troops, or the illnesses caused by lack of vegetables and minerals. Then there were no preventions for mosquitoes or the illnesses they caused. So if the Germans made it work in Texas, they had to be a tough bunch of cookies! But the same was true throughout this country. The second sons of England's nobility had no inheritance in that country. So going to America was about their best chance of becoming richer or having a place to call home. Virginia was an English colony originally. Guess who settled there: second sons. Generally well educated and having been reared with some knowledge of English law, these men formed a decent government mirroring that of their homeland.
Then it occurred to me that the folks seeking our borders now had a totally different reason for coming to America. Look at the maps and think about the populations of those countries. Central America has approximately 44 million people. The lands not along the coasts consist of mountains that produce an enormous variety of crops including vegetables, fruits, and nuts. The land is not barren by any means. But there is little government regulation in most of the countries there. Which also means there is plenty of room for criminals to lord it over anyone or any city. Just like in Mexico, some cities "belong" to certain drug lords. And drugs are just a tiny bit of the problem. Human trafficking continues from one end of Central America all the way through Mexico and up into California. The children "sent to the U.S." by families is probably a small percentage of the thousands of children we see at the borders today. Somehow we can't expect those children to know that moral behavior includes even semi-obedience to the Ten Commandments. Stealing, killing, and any type of disrespect will be the legacy of this "migration." And then there are the diseases they bring with them. Currently our nation is unable to address homelessness among our veterans, homelessness among children of drug abusers, homelessness among the mentally ill, much less the ability to feed our own children who are suffering from lack of food. Housing alone is a nightmare. Dallas, TX is expected to house 3,000 teenagers for 90 days in the convention center. But what happens after 90 days? How will these teens be fed then?
Some of the problems we live with in this country are small in comparison to what it was like in Europe during the wars there. Not WWI and WWII--ALL the stupid wars in Europe. People barely survived in those countries, and it was not just the Black Plague or starvation due to the volcanoes spewing out clouds of ash that kept the sun from shining. Maybe we should be happy to be able to COUNT the number of children coming through our borders--400 per day. But what really worries me is how they will be fed! Can we start planting veggies on the right of ways? Turnips will grow almost anywhere. Some cities are planting fruit trees along their roads to feed the homeless. That sounds great, but fruit trees bare one crop a year. We need some ideas and need them quickly if we are to feed this migration of lost souls!
Guess that comes of thinking too much, but it has just been one of those days. At least we are still getting rain. Have not gone down to check the rain gauge, but am happy to report that swimming to the hen houses has not been necessary yet.
May you all rest well--mentally, physically, and emotionally. God has us in His hands. You are loved.
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