“How can you teach or learn in conditions like these?”

As some commenters have noted, you can, and in developing countries, conditions are often far worse (and I have seen plenty of that).

But as commenter Tony Casson noted, you shouldn’t have to in a major city in one of the richest countries on earth. A country that has earned 321 Nobel Prizes in scientific disciplines, a country that sent men to walk on the moon.

Where I live, in Japan, people are astonished when they learn that 15% of citizens live below the poverty line, struggling to provide for themselves and their children. Impossible, they think. Japan, like the U.S., is one of the world’s most developed countries.

And yet, the focus is at times in the wrong places. Japan is developing a maglev bullet train that will but travel time from Tokyo to Osaka (550 km/340mi) from an already amazing 2.5 hours to only an hour. Incredible. But what about that 15%?

What about the single mothers? What about the infirm and elderly?

Balance, and caring, are what are needed. Yes, we need our moon shots, but equally (or more so), we need to care for everyone.