Boost Up?

As I was watching the early morning news for weather information and school delays, I saw a story about a mother who was found guilty of micro waving her 23 month baby to death. Yes. She put it in a microwave. She turned it on. She cooked it to death.

Then last night on the way home I caught an advertisement from the “Boost Up” program, which I believe is sponsored by the US Army. Their slogan was “High school is hard; graduating is harder.” It was an add advising people to log on to this “Boost Up” program where they can find tips for helping at risk (or “at promise” as our inservice speaker advised us to say). They even had interviews with actual at risk kids who either helped other at risk kids stay in school or received help via the “Boost Up” program. Unfortunately, I could hardly understand, let alone, comprehend what the final girl was trying to say. Her speech was so slurred together and jumbled.

I’m still not sure what to think of this advertisement. The cynical side of me thought, “of course the Army needs those at risk kids to get their degrees so they can hook them with their GI Bills and send them off to whatever over seas meat grinder we are involved in.” But another side of me likes the idea that someone is trying to address some of the struggles these kids have just getting through high school. Unfortunately, for some, high school is hard and graduating is damn near impossible. But I don’t think it’s because the curriculum is too challenging. I’m against all the dumbing down and minimizing that our culture likes to do in order to get everyone to feel equal and good about themselves. But I think the “Boost Up” campaign is focused in the wrong area. It shouldn’t focus on high schools. It should focus on parenting and home life. What can we do, or what can their friends do, to help them when they get to school when by the time they arrive, they are hungry, tired, abused, drunk/high, or barely clothed because their parents have no clue how to raise them.

I guess that is the vicious circle that leads a mother to pop her infant in the microwave.