Wanneer kinders verdwyn... Oor die krag van ontferming.

In Spiritualiteit speel wysheid 'n deurslaggewende rol. Altyd weer gaan dit om onderskeiding: hoe loop 'n mens die geestelike pad met insig, volwassenheid en tot jou en ander se welsyn?

Hiervoor het 'n mens nie noodwendig 'n universiteitsgraad of 'n hoë IK nodig nie. Slim, hoogsgekwalifiseerde kan 'n totale gebrek aan onderskeiding hê. Akademiese intelligensie waarborg nie emosionele intelligensie nie. 

Maar sekerlik is dit vir 'n mens se lewensloop uiters belangrik om alle opvoedkundige geleenthede aan te gryp. Altyd weer, so wys die praktyk, kan mense beter oorleef en beter leef as hulle hulself verder kwalifiseer, aan die lees bly en hul insigte op vele maniere verder te ontwikkel. 

Om dit te kan doen, moet 'n mens die waarde van opvoeding begryp. Die praktiese wysheid van boeke soos Spreuke fokus gedurig hierop en waarsku teen dwaasheid. Die spirituele lewe is ook en veral 'n lewe in wysheid (nie "kennis" nie). 

Daarom is dit krimineel om kinders in hul opvoeding te na te kom. Daar is niks wreders en verontmenslikend as om jong kinders in hul vormingsjare te benadeel nie. Daar is niks meer edel as om vir jong kinders in hul vormingsjare die beste van opvoeding te laat kry nie. Dit besef elke goeie ouer duidelik. Dit gaan om die kind se toekoms, om sy of haar geluk en lewensvervulling.

Daarom is dit so 'n skok om vanoggend in die plaaslike media te lees hoe kinders selfs in onafhanklike skole op 'n oneerlike manier benadeel word sodat skole "goeie" syfers kan toon. Blykbaar, as 'n mens die berigte kan glo, is dit 'n wydverspreide praktyk dat kinders nie amptelik ingeskryf word sodat eksamen-uitslae goed sal lyk. Hierdie kinders kry nooit hul sertifikate nie en verdwyn eenvoudig van die toneel. Hulle word 'n verlore geslag, sonder kans tot verdere opvoeding en sonder kwalifikasies wat van hulle sterker mense sou kon maak. Hulle word oorgegee aan mislukking en afgeskryf as onopvoedbaar.

Ons prestasie-gedrewe maatskappy veroorsaak dit. Ongevoelig en sonder ontferming elimineer ons sulke mense ter wille van syfers en subsidies en reputasie.

Natuurlik is dit goed dat daar gesonde druk op kinders is om goed te doen. Hulle moet hul skoolwerk ordentlik kan doen en onderwysers moet met toewyding, dissipline en noukeurig begeleiding nie huiwer om die beste uit kinders te haal nie. 

Die groot uitdaging is vir skole om hierdie gesonde druk op 'n kreatiewe manier vol te hou op kinders wat nie wil saamwerk nie, wat lui is, wat sleg presteer, wat nie skool bywoon nie, wat nie hul pligte nakom nie en wat ongedissiplineerd is. Dit is 'n moeilike taak, wat van die leerkragte baie genade en vasbyt vra. Dit bly hul taak - en die alternatief is nie om kinders op te gee nie of van die radar af te haal nie.

Wat 'n mens verbysterd laat is dat kinders op 'n korrupte manier bedrieg word deur hulle nie werklik vir eksamens te registreer nie.

So voel ek toe ek die berigte vanoggend lees. 

Te goed weet ek dat sinici nou weer sê dit is tipies van die chaos in ons land. 

En, sowaar, juis in vanoggend se NYT is daar 'n lang berig oor presies dieselfde probleem in die eerste wêreldland van Amerika. Daar is kinders in skole op presies dieselfde manier as hier by ons bedrieg en uitgeskakel. 

Dit is korrupte minagting van jongmense in hul vormingsjare wat orals ter wêreld kan kop uitsteek. 

Dit laat my opnuut besef hoe naby wreedheid onder die oppervlakte van ons bestaan lê. Dit is menslik om die sukkelaars, die onwilliges, die armes, die ondankbares onder ons kinders agter te laat en om op te gee oor hulle. Meer nog, dit lyk asof sommige mense wat sulke kinders bedrieg en laat verdwyn, min gewetenswroeging daaroor het. 

Is ontferming dan nie juis 'n sleutelwoord in Spiritualiteit nie? Het Jesus dan nie tien melaatses, ondankbares inkluis, genees nie? Was daar nie tien meisies, die helfte daarvan die dommes, by die vreugdefees nie? Is dit nie deel van die goddelike ekonomie om juis nie op die gevallenes en die swakkes en die weerloses op te gee nie?

Ontferming, daardie sterk omgee, die Moeder Teresa-instelling, vir mense in die moeras, is die teken van die sterkeres, van hulle wat die kruis op hul skouers neem en die pad volhardend loop - altyd hopende dat genesing en welsyn tog sal gebeur. Ontferming is ontferming juis omdat dit gerig is op die weerloses, op hulle vir wie mense normaalweg geen toekoms sien nie.

Hier is die berig in die NYT van vandag:

El Paso Schools Confront Scandal of Students Who ‘Disappeared’ at Test Time

EL PASO — It sounded at first like a familiar story: school administrators, seeking to meet state and federal standards, fraudulently raised students’ scores on crucial exams.

Roger Avalos, a former El Paso student, with his mother, Grisel. He says his principal urged him to drop out and suspects an effort to improve test scores.

But in the cheating scandal that has shaken the 64,000-student school district in this border city, administrators manipulated more than numbers. They are accused of keeping low-performing students out of classrooms altogether by improperly holding some back, accelerating others and preventing many from showing up for the tests or enrolling in school at all.

It led to a dramatic moment at the federal courthouse this month, when a former schools superintendent, Lorenzo Garcia, was sentenced to prison for his role in orchestrating the testing scandal. But for students and parents, the case did not end there. A federal investigation continues, with the likelihood of more arrests of administrators who helped Mr. Garcia.

Federal prosecutors charged Mr. Garcia, 57, with devising an elaborate program to inflate test scores to improve the performance of struggling schools under the federal No Child Left Behind Act and to allow him to collect annual bonuses for meeting district goals.

The scheme, elements of which were carried out for most of Mr. Garcia’s nearly six-year tenure, centered on a state-mandated test taken by sophomores. Known as the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, it measures performance in reading, mathematics and other subjects. The scheme’s objective was to keep low-performing students out of the classroom so they would not take the test and drag scores down, according to prosecutors, former principals and school advocates.

Students identified as low-performing were transferred to charter schools, discouraged from enrolling in school or were visited at home by truant officers and told not to go to school on the test day. For some, credits were deleted from transcripts or grades were changed from passing to failing or from failing to passing so they could be reclassified as freshmen or juniors.

Others intentionally held back were allowed to catch up before graduation with “turbo-mesters,” in which students earned a semester’s worth of credit for a few hours of computer work. A former high school principal said in an interview and in court that one student earned two semester credits in three hours on the last day of school. Still other students who transferred to the district from Mexico were automatically put in the ninth grade, even if they had earned credits for the 10th grade, to keep them from taking the test.

“He essentially treated these students as pawns in a scheme to make it look as though he was achieving the thresholds he needed for his bonuses,” said Robert Pitman, the United States attorney for the Western District of Texas, whose office prosecuted Mr. Garcia.

Another former principal, Lionel Rubio, said he knew of six students who had been pushed out of high school and had not pursued an education since. In 2008, Linda Hernandez-Romero’s daughter repeated her freshman year at Bowie High School after administrators told her she was not allowed to return as a sophomore. Ms. Hernandez-Romero said administrators told her that her daughter was not doing well academically and was not likely to perform well on the test.

Ms. Hernandez-Romero protested the decision, but she said her daughter never followed through with her education, never received a diploma or a G.E.D. and now, at age 21, has three children, is jobless and survives on welfare.

“Her decisions have been very negative after this,” her mother said. “She always tells me: ‘Mom, I got kicked out of school because I wasn’t smart. I guess I’m not, Mom, look at me.’ There’s not a way of expressing how bad it feels, because it’s so bad. Seeing one of your children fail and knowing that it was not all her doing is worse.”

The program was known as “the Bowie model,” and Mr. Garcia had boasted of his success in raising test scores, particularly in 2008, when all of the district’s eligible campuses earned a rating of “academically acceptable” or better from the state. But parents and students had another name for what was happening: “los desaparecidos,” or the disappeared.