The first thing I want to say about "Accelerated," darlings, is that I enjoyed it very much. Flawed as it is--it tries to be two books at once, and I detested the protagonist, Sean Benning, having sex with every single woman he meets!!!!! What is that about? Just because his wife, Ellie-- who turns up, now and then, and is a fucking bitch who should have been smacked across the face for her own good, maybe then she would not have walked out on her husband and her child-- is not around, he has to bang everything in sight? Why can't he just jerk off into a tube sock, like most guys in his situation???? Or is Miss Hruska simply living out her own, unfulfilled sexual fantasies? There ARE vibrators on the market, dearie!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Which is not to say Miss Hruska cannot write. As a descriptive reference to the book, I would refer to it as "The Children's 'Stepford Wives'". And while everyone, like the Bradley administrators, and that other disgusting bitch, Bev Shineman, get their comeuppance, Miss Hruska seems to ignore something--because she is a woman!!!!--that is glaringly obvious to me, as one who, thankfully, is not!
The children who are medicated, or overly so, in the book, are all boys. I agree with Miss Hruska that there is an epidemic of overly medicating children, but she seems, in making a case for that, to overlook one other salient point--that schools in the United States, from elementary through high school, give more attention to girls than boys.
There! I've said it! But then, darlings, this is MY blog, and I can say whatever I want. Because, on here, it is ALL ABOUT ME, and keep on reading, because you are going to find out some things now, and honeys, I hope this post goes viral, because I would not hesitate to say what I say to whomever I am referring from hereon to their very faces!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am brilliant, and I have always known it! But most people are scared to acknowledge that, and what they do not know is that I have an EGO! Which, for whatever reasons, I hid during those crucial school years, but I am not going to hide anything now.
I am brilliant, in spite of the fact that the public school system in Highland Park, New Jersey--I repeat--HIGHLAND PARK, NEW JERSEY--failed to meet my academic needs. They did so by not acknowledging them.
It started in 1959, when I was enrolled in Hamilton School, which is where I should have gone in the first place. Miss Kent was my kindergarten teacher, and she was one of these blond, Romper Room types. Sometime during that year, my parents were called to the school, and spoken to about my brilliance, which was called my "lack of emotional maturity," saying that at some point during the elementary years, it would be necessary to hold me back, and that it was better to do so in the lower than upper grades.
So, I was held back in kindergarten. But, instead of returning to Hamilton, I was put in Irving, located on South 11th Avenue, and which is where the dumb kids from the wrong side of the tracks were sent. I resented, from Day One, being among them, because I knew they were beneath me, and because I was smarter than them. Except for Ellen Weitzer--who turned out to be a real bitch, though she had her reasons--who did not come along till third grade--I doubt anyone there, beside me, had an IQ even adding up to 100, except myself!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And, of course, during these years, then and now, women are the primary teachers. Based on my experiences, I maintain that, during these years, boys should be taught by men, and girls by women.
At Irving, Ellen, Yolanda, Cindy, and Marta, got more attention than I did. If I asked for extra credit or more homework, it was scoffed at. And you have all heard the cursive writing story in Mrs. Cohen's first grade class, how the Mrs. Beinhower, Bergen and Brodsky always wanted to hold me back when I wanted to move ahead, especially in reading, but screw them, I did it, anyway!!!!!!!!! But did they pay any more attention??????? No!!!!!!!!!
Though I shy away from anything mathematical now, believe it or not, I was anxious to master the basics, so I could move on to advanced math. But who gave a shit about me? Then, in seventh grade, I had this dumb, young bitch, Mrs. Susan Sher--I do NOT forget!!!!--and I was not chosen to take Algebra, in the eighth grade, which I would have been better off doing. But, then that, and the eight grade math class, were taught by the incompetent Mr. Robert Barber, who was SO bad that some of the kids picked for Algebra--as smart as I, darlings!!!!!!--did so poorly, they had to repeat it in the ninth grade. That wasn't them! That was Mr. Barber! And thanks to he and Mr. Frankowsky in eighth grade science, I lost any interest I might have had in the science areas, which I DID have in the lower grades, only nothing was done to support it!
Every year, from kindergarten to fifth grade at Irving School, which did not challenge me in the least, because it couldn't deal with having a genuinely bright kid in its classes, when the rest were too goddamned dumb, and destined to end up in blue collar jobs, there was some kind of incident with the teachers. Mrs. Behmer had a fit because I wanted to read "The Yearling" in fifth grade, but said nothing, when Joan Marcik-- who was dumber than I, and what the hell did she do with her life anyway????---was reading it!!!!!! So, you know what??????? I went ahead and read it!!!!!!!!! Did anyone pay any attention?????????? No!!!!!!!!!!!! Why??????????? Because I wasn't a girl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now, to be fair, had I stayed at Hamilton, the quality of education would definitely have been better, but I don't think I would have gotten any more attention there. For one thing, because of where it was located, on North Third Avenue, it was closer to what all us Parkites knew as the President streets--Lincoln, Grant, Harrison and Cleveland Avenues--where all the socially prominent and wealthy people lived. And most of them had daughters, and most of them went to Hamilton, so these girls--like Diane, Roberta and Nedra--got all the attention there, just as they did in junior or high school--so I doubt if I would have gotten any more attention there. And, while this does not play into Miss Hruksa's case, it definitely plays into mine, being that I came from Highland Park--I was raised Roman Catholic, which automatically meant that, in the public schools there, if you were not Jewish, you were automatically thought of as less than!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The concept of Special Education in those days meant being retarded. In some ways, the Highland Park schools treated me for twelve years, as though I was. My own drive and sense of wanting to defy them, and show up everyone, especially the girls, gave me the drive to pursue my stuff, despite what teachers said. I needed to be in a class or situation, as I do now, that acknowledges me as the center of things! I do NOT deny this! But it was not until I reached college that teachers, I felt, acknowledged me to be intelligent!!!!!!!!!!!!
And let me tell you something--this concept, engendered in elementary school, of girls getting all the attention-- carries over to women in the workplace! If a woman gets her period, she has a legitimate reason to call out sick, but if a man has a migraine, that reason is thought as less than the woman's reason, which, psychologically, forces him to come in!!!!!!!!! Not me, dolls!!!!!!!!!! Where I work, there are some women who try and hog all all the attention, like Miss Perfect, our donor factotum, who gets praised by everyone, every time she dots an "i." Or Miss Morose, who can go around acting like a fucking bitch to everyone, glaring at them, like one of those Salem witches, claiming excuses like bipolarity or clinical depression, when all it would take is a course in manners and civility. But men don't get off so easily here; I have, time and again, suggested, to my immediate supervisor, good, creative film programs--an Annette Funicello Festival,
an Esther Williams tribute, or--my best!--a series of trash classics, in the guise of Mystery Science Theater, scripted by yours truly, where a group of us sit up front, and lampoon the film in that show's tried and true style. But I get ignored. However, if Mr. Toothpick, our male Twiggy impersonator, were to suggest it, oh, my God, it would go right through, and he would be hailed as a hero! Well, listen, Mr. T, don't get any ideas of stealing off of me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just like, for those I have mentioned on here who recognize themselves, which I don't give a shit about, anyway, if you have any ideas of suing me, FORGET IT!!!!!!!!!! I will have your asses in a sling quicker than you can move! As Joan Crawford said to the Pepsi board--Don't fuck with ME, fellas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It really IS all about me, isn't it? Well, why not, since I have a history of being dissed and ignored?????? Well, not anymore, darlings! Go viral! Go hate me! Go throw things at me! As Gena Rowlands says in "Gloria"--"Come on! Come on! I LOVE it!!!!!!!!!!!"
What do you think of all this, Miss Hruska??????????????????
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