A word about chaos and poverty. My mum was a nursery school teacher working, particularly in her earlier years, in a very deprived area of the city. Chaos was, indeed, a major factor in the lives of these defenceless infants...
because chaos is that great and terrible side-effect of need that no glib spouting of recipes or elite theories of dependence ever really encapsulates. My mother worked hard with these children to provide stability. A safe haven. Comfort. Basic security....
When you don't have anything - when lives are lived hand-to-mouth - when parents hold down multiple jobs - when bailiffs are never far - chaos is always there. And with chaos comes hunger, missed meals, and that constant knot in the belly from low-level anxiety and stress...
My father was one of these children himself. I went to school with many of these children. The chaos wasn't their fault then, and it isn't now. But they are always made to be accountable for it in ways that those ruling over them never are...
It takes a particular set of mind to contort itself into the notion that by starving these tiny victims of chaos, we will each them how to order their own lives better. To those old classmates, a minutes peace in the day and a full belly were the only teachers that mattered.//
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