I Encourage Teachers To Speak

There Has Been So Much Recent Talk Of Progress In The Areas Of Curriculum Innovation And Textbook Revision That Few People Outside The Field Of Teaching Understand How Bad Most Of Our Elementary School Materials Still Are.

Now, I Don't Expect What I Write To Change Things. I Think I Write Now Simply As A Witness. This Is How It Is. This Is What We Have Done. This Is What We Have Permitted.

Competitive Skills Are Desperately Needed By Poor Children In America, And Realistic Recognition Of The Economic Roles That They May Someday Have An Opportunity To Fill Is Obviously Important, Too. But There Is More To Life, And There Ought To Be Much More To Childhood, Than Readiness For Economic Functions.

East St. Louis-which The Local Press Refers To As "an Inner City Without An Outer City"-has Some Of The Sickest Children In America. Of 66 Cities In Illinois, East St. Louis Ranks First In Fetal Death, First In Premature Birth, And Third In Infant Health.

Nationally, Overwhelmingly Non-white Schools Receive $1,000 Less Per Pupil Than Overwhelmingly White Schools.