Back-to-school spending flap on Wall Street

The obligatory back-to-school spending registered on Wall Street as a general indicator that the economy is improving, however, parents who begrudgingly went further into debt to spend money on their children so they can get a decent education, will be retracting spending severely until the beginning of the Holiday season.

Reuters reported that Wall Street was flat because the financial sector balanced against the gains of retail.

Better watch out. There's going to be a steeper drop between now and Black Tuesday due to the back-to-school effect.

Update Downdate

Who cares? I never send any mail but I still occasionally receive Christmas cards from friends and relations. I'm lucky my mother allows me to stay with her while I get back on my feet. Here in Springfield, Illinois it's not easy. I've been trying to get "back on my feet" for at leasts six years now. The whispers have started that I'm using my mother as a krutch.

I will eventually wear out my welcome here too. Where I will go I don't know. The last time I wore out my welcome I was forced into joining the military out of desperation for a job, but this time I'm too old for the military.

I'm not getting ahead in Springfield, and from what I'm reading, neither are a whole lot of other people unless they start their own businesses. As far as I've seen, in Springfield you never get beyond one paycheck away from homelessness if you work for someone other than the government.

It appears that graduating from college doesn't put you farther up the income ladder, it raises questions in the minds of prospective employers. They must be asking themselves "If he's a college graduate, why is he applying for employment here in Springfield of all places?" They must be thinking that if they don't even give you the courtesy of a job interview.

An early unlikely education

When I was growing up in Springfield, I went to a school in District 186. This was back in the 1970's. There was still racial tension from desegregation a decade earlier, and the great White Flight out of town created a terrible school funding situation that lingered for at least twenty years.

Public school was terrible. I often pretended I was sick just to stay home because I hated it so much. During the day I would watch PBS and there was a program that at first seemed extraordinarily boring. After watching a few episodes something clicked inside my head.

It was a program on PBS that taught Latin. Words were dissected into their components and their meanings were explained. I became fascinated. It literally opened a whole new avenue, widened the lane – so to speak. Comprehension became much easier for me. No thanks to public school education in District 186.

So, if your children aren’t feeling well and don’t want to go to school, always have educational programming available for them, like Latin. It’s always good to learn a language used by the medical and legal profession.

I’ve been trying to find the name of that old program on PBS, but have yet to receive a response. I think it was called something like “Wordsmith.” If you remember it, please leave a response.