In The Belly Of The Beast

THE REASON we need the welfare state, liberals tell us, is because we need a safety net to protect us from the excesses of the free enterprise system. Without the rights and the protections of an activist government people would suffer. Corporations have no mercy. The moment you can’t do the job, you are out on the street. That’s why we need workers’ rights and consumers’ rights and a host of benefits provided and enforced by government.

No doubt we do need protection from corporations. And fortunately governments are only too glad to pass laws to curb their power. So when someone gets chewed up by a corporation they can hope for redress.

So, we’ve taken care of Big Business. But what about Big Government? What about Big Education and the good folks hiding behind Our Teachers?

Unfortunately Big Ed can chew you up and spit you out just like the robber barons of old. Of course, they don’t have the company goons, like they did in the old days. No, they are much more sophisticated. They can rough you up and kick you out without leaving a mark on you, at least not on the outside, as Nancy Coppock found out.

Nancy worked as “a middle school remedial reading teacher in a small Texas town outside this major university town.”

I took my job very seriously because to me, the best thing I could do for mid- to below-average students, many minority and poor, was to make sure they could read to the best of their ability.

You can say that again.

One special ed student, Duane, had extreme emotional problems. Cunning and streetwise, Nancy was still “able to shame the young man into accepting just discipline” and the school principal noticed and recognized her for her achievement.

Then came the day when Duane suddenly “plunged a sharp pair of scissors downward toward my face” and stopped just inches from Nancy’s eyes.

Nancy reported the incident but asked that the boy not be punished. She wanted to settle the problem herself. But she never got a chance. The boy was not punished, yet eventually came “into the office and demanded to be punished.”

Nancy approached the boy’s psychiatrist and requested a chance to attend a session with the boy; the boy needed absolution, she told him.

Oops! Back up Nancy. Wrong religion!

I was told it would be *inappropriate *for me to attend another session and was sent on my way. Evidently, the doctor went straight to the school counselor, who then typed up a memo listing the reasons why I should be sent home from school because I was dangerous to Duane.

Then “I was informed that I was to not return to work until a psychiatrist had examined me and found me suitable for work.” Then nobody would talk to her at school. Then she was being tested by a psychologist. Then she was telling the principal that she wasn’t being treated fairly. Then she was told: “Well that’s your opinion.” She decided to quit at the end of the term, but she got to teach Duane until then.

On the last day of school, Duane cried like a big baby, wondering what he was going to do without me... He was in anguish because he knew I had been punished for what he had done.

They spat Nancy out. But they saved the system, and it can continue to make a difference in the lives of kids. That’s a relief. Duane went on to commit a robbery and shot at a pursuing policeman; but at least the school did all it could.

One thing is certain. The school district needs additional funding so that it can deal better with at-risk kids.

The thing about people and corporations is that, however bad they are, you can shame them, and fine them, and tax them, humiliate them, and cut them down to size.

In fact the dirty little secret about people is that, from time to time, if you extend a little love to them they will kneel at your feet.

But government is shameless and it is sovereign.

Who will protect us from the government?

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Christopher Chantrill blogs at www.roadtothemiddleclass.com. His Road to the Middle Class is forthcoming.