I am supposed to know something about education. Where people get that impression I will never know, but some people think I understand it.

Anyway, when Katrina hit several families were relocated to Oklahoma and I got involved in helping them to settle in. They ran the scale from professionals to hard core drug users. It was a disaster and God was no respecter of position.

The children involved were in junior high. There were only a few of them and all of them were coming from the NOLA school system to an Oklahoma school system which, while good, is still in Oklahoma so not truly out there in terms of excellence. But it was obvious from the start the NO kids, even though they were in junior high, could barely function at a second grade level.

But one of them pointed out there was no need to learn to read and he would prove it to me. We went to a coffee shop and when he ordered he just pointed at the pictures on the menu and said he would like to order it. The Waitress then asked a lot of questions and left. He then noted that he had just ordered, was going to get what he wanted, and could not read a word in any language.

He had learned this from adults who could not read and after viewing their fine example he said that most of the kids in NO figured if the adults they knew could make it without reading then so could they.

None of the kids lasted more than a month or two and soon moved in with relatives in other states. As NO recovered the adults all moved back except for one couple who never fail to express their thanks for the kindness they were shown when they lost everything. But this couple are the type of people that will do well wherever they are.

It does make me wonder how bad is NO if rural Oklahoma is a big step up?