"If you look at the hopes and dreams from 1992, it didn’t pan out that quality would rise because of marketplace accountability… It turns out you need government accreditation to drive quality, and the human capital to make schools go. The hard lesson is, it is so dependent on human capital."
— James Merriman, head of the New York City Charter School Center, conceding that “the intellectual premise behind school choice — that in a free market for education, parents will remove students from bad schools in favor of good ones — has not proved true.” Source: Trip Gabriel,http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/education/02charters.html?pagewanted=4&src=tp.
...
What about your life?”
“Hah! That’s a good one.”
“What about your past?”
“What about it?”
“When you look back, what do you see?”
“Wrecked cars.”
“Any people in them?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“People who are just meat now, man.”
“Is that really how it is?”
“How do I know how it is? I just got here. And it stinks.”
“Are you kidding? They’re pumping Haldol by the quart. It’s a playpen.”
“I hope so. Because I been in places where all they do is wrap you in a wet sheet, and let you bite down on a little rubber toy for puppies.”
“I could see living here two weeks out of every month.”
“Well, I’m older than you are. You can take a couple more rides on this wheel and still get out with all your arms and legs stuck on right. Not me.”
“Hey. You’re doing fine.”
“Talk into here.”
“Talk into your bullet hole?”
“Talk into my bullet hole. Tell me I’m fine.”
— Denis Johnson, “Steady Hands at Seattle General,” in Jesus’ Son (NY: FSG, 1993; rpt. NY: Picador, 2009), pp. 110f.
Reasons to live today: Roleplays, coffee cups the size of my head and free refills.
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