The Associated Press is reporting that a Rochester, New York, school is sending its children out to document and write essays about the poverty and drug dealing in their neighborhoods:

The public school's 75 sixth-graders are preparing for an unusual assignment this month: Using donated disposable cameras and their essay books, each one must come up with a personal view of "health and safety" in their impoverished neighborhood on the city's west side.

This is not, in itself, a particularly offensive excercise. However, a statement from one of the students is telling. As part of his assignment, one boy will be on the lookout for "those little bags they put drugs in that be all over the ground."

"...that be all over the ground"?

Maybe they should be teaching grammar instead.