The Disappeared Children

The Disappeared Children

1.      Luxurious looking and spacious hallways; colossal columns with magnificent carvings and giant French windows glistening in brilliant sunshine of perfect proportions. Pavered courtyards bordered by beautifully kept flower beds and inviting green fields which serve the purpose of play and recreational grounds. This is what greets you at Pearsons Gates Academy. This is the new ultra-modern school which has been built to board students who have been failing the National Standards Tests. The Disappeared have been separated from their families, friends, hopes, dreams, and futures.
2.      Children, ages five to eighteen were walking diligently along the hallways. They were heading to their respective classrooms. These classrooms were equipped with the most modern of furnishings and futuristic electronic devices and equipment. This is where the apex of twenty first century teaching and learning takes place daily. The resplendent classrooms which are airy and illuminated by large gushes of natural light from the numerous and huge windows, are perfect for learning.
3. NEWS BREAK: Education police said they received another tip from school officials that all the children in a single home failed their Reading and Math test. PGA officials obtained an emergency custody order to remove the students and enroll them in the Parsons Gates Academy. When authorities arrived at the Plutarch's home, they said a 4-year-old girl answered the door. Police said the mother was asleep on the couch and when awakened by officers, she became augmentative and uncooperative. Police said they removed all six children from the Phoenix home Monday after their mother and father failed to show up for a mandatory Parental Accountability meeting.
4. The students here are progressing relatively well in Numeracy and Literacy! Things could not have been better as they have superlative teachers who have been PGA trained. The teachers are courteous, knowledgeable and know just how to execute their craft. They get the students actively involved in learning through acting, singing and dancing. The technological advancement in the world of education is at its summit here at Pearsons Gates Academy. Every spacious classroom had its own 3D holographic learning lab.
5.      It sounds very impressive and it is; well, at least that’s what all the overly anxious parents thought until they realized that this was all a pipe dream. A dream that would never be realized. Instead of being taken to these splendid Academies, which, of course, doesn’t exist, the failing children were hauled off to engage in slave labor in dehumanizing and grossly-overcrowded gargantuan factories. Most of the students were from poor minority families causing a number of families to believe their was a plot to exploit the disappeared children.
6.    “Are we ever going to go back home?” asked Danna, the youngest of all the children. Jesus who was the eldest and acknowledged as being most clever, quickly responded, “we will outwit and more important outnumber the guards tonight at 10, we'll escape and find our way back to our families and homes.” The thousands of former students have been surviving the cruel adversities, working 18 hour days, with very little healthy food and sweat shop conditions that would desolate any without hope. The children demonstrated great virtue all while hope was stripped away when they failed their test.
7. Parents worried endlessly about the their lost children as they queried PGA officials about their children.
8. The well-mannered quiet children all sat stone-faced at the huge, food bare tables in the mess-hall and waited for the guards to waltz in and march them to the den-of-culinary-atrocities to deposit their meal trays. This was a ritual that occurred daily at 10 pm.
9. The ‘lookouts’ who sat at the four corners of the room waited for the moment when all 80 guards collected their meals and sat to eat unaware of the children plot. The ‘lookouts’ stood up and the fierce animalistic instinct of thousands of children kicked in. They pounced on the guards who were far outnumbered, relieving them of their rubber batons, hitting them mercilessly in the process of subduing them, really beating them silly for good measure.
10. Before long, all the battered guards were on the slimy porridge covered floor in a dazed state. Little did they know that the children would be able to overpower them an in such a completely unified and solid way. The rotten PGA minions lay on the floor writhing in excruciating pain occasioned by blows from their own batons.
11. All the children, led by Jesus and Danna dashed through the wide double doors, ran along the corridors and into the fields. Twenty-four hours later they all arrived at a farm near the freight depot. They waited for a freight train headed north to the US border and placed the smallest children on the train with a compassionate chaperone. The rest headed north enduring the arduous journey on foot to the US border. Being the led by the smart-charismatic Jesus, he made it relatively easy for them to navigate their way back to their small town across the border. Their anxious and worried parents were overjoyed to see them and they were all in school the next day.
12. In a supernatural-ingenuous flair, the students led by Jesus and Danna outwitted the guards and escaped the subjugation. The children were diligent-strategic and meticulous in planning their every move and did not hesitate to execute their best-laid plan with great deliberation. The students used what little technology they had to document what really happened to them. The Disappeared shared the great atrocities and injustice of separating families in the name of School Reform and Accountability. The world learned first hand what the PGA was really doing.
13. But what really led to the inception of this modern Greek tragedy, that all participants could or should have done without? Close examination revealed that thinking, fun, creativity, innovation and curiosity was taken out of learning because of the commercialization of education and the overbearing testing of the children mandated by politicians. There was no longer any joy, curiosity or excitement involved in teaching and learning. The enormous stresses associated with doing National Standards Tests were imperious and almost terror-like.
14. However, following this ghastly episode of the diapered children, the teachers and administrators have now revolutionized teaching and learning. Teachers are now in control of all educational decisions, they are paid like doctors, students are enjoying over an hour of recess everyday, there are more fun and games involved in lessons and there’s no mandatory testing.
15. To everyone’s surprise and delight, the passing rates have now been catapulted upwards from 20 percent in the poorest schools to 90 percent.
16. As for the PGA officials and factory guards who wielded power over the children as innocent victims; they were all imprisoned and subjected to mandatory rehabilitation courses. Never again would this ill-fated occurrence be allowed to take hold of education and innocent children.
17. There trods our obligatory ending, which we'll see in our fu­ture, All the children learn happily ever after. The End?