When I woke up this morning, I lay awhile in my comfy bed with ceiling fan blowing cool air and debated about whether to actually get up and do the thing I'd said all week I ought to do.
The Houston National Cemetery, the second largest veteran's cemetery in the country, was scheduled to host a Memorial Day tribute at 9:30 a.m. today and early on I thought I ought to go and take my children with me.
We talk a lot about America during our homeschool studies -- even as we delve into ancient Greece and Rome I make a point to draw parallels between those cultures and the ideas that established them and the influence still felt in our culture today. I am desperate for my children to understand that very little happens in a vacuum. Rather, the history of who we are and what we do is deeply rooted in what came before us. It's a continuum, the reason we refer to the "timeline" of history.
Anyway, after numerous conversations about war and peace and why we have soldiers stationed around the world -- and in preparation for the hard conversations we will have someday about things like the Holocaust, A-bombs, Bataan March, etc. -- I wanted my older children to see the price we pay to live free.
So I packed them up along with my mother (who was a young woman during WWII) and we headed out for the veterans' cemetery.
After sitting in traffic forever, walking for what seemed like forever under the Texas sun that was already beginning to scorch everything in sight, and standing forever to hear speeches that weren't audible due to a poor sound system, we waited longingly for the parade of colors, soldiers and music we thought would surely come.
When it didn't, I began to question the wisdom of my decision. My mom and I were hot and tired, the kids were obviously bored and disappointed at the lack of gee-whiz.
The ceremony -- presentation of colors, wreath laying -- all took place at the steps of a semi-circular stone structure, just far enough from where we stood under shady trees to be invisible to us. We sang the national anthem, we did see a cannon salute and we did hear, albeit faintly, a lone bagpipe playing "Amazing Grace." But to say that the ceremony was moving or inspirational or interesting would be a lie. We couldn't really see anything and we sure couldn't hear. The disappointment was palpable.
It wasn't until we began the long, hot trek back to the car past rows and rows of tombstones that I realized with shame the following, and I was immediately remorseful and humbled.
The purpose of the Memorial Day ceremony was not to entertain the crowds. It was to remember those who gave of their time and, in so many cases, their very lives in defense of our country.
We were not entertained because we were not supposed to be entertained. We were supposed to honor and remember.
So if you ask me whether it was worth getting up early, hauling my three kids out in their U.S. flag t-shirts, driving for 45 minutes, and standing around in 85 degree heat at the edge of a cemetery that seems never to end, I have to say it was and here's why:
No matter how far I drove, how long I walked, how sweaty I got, or how tired it made me feel, no one shot at me and I don't rest in peace beneath the hot Texas sun with a flag at my head.
All gave some and some gave all.
Showing up to acknowledge that was the least we could do.
May 31, 2010
May 28, 2010
As Memorial day approaches . . .
We went to Hobby Lobby this afternoon where I bought up every single small flag-on-a-stick they had. My kids and I are going to decorate our front yard (we live on a high-visibility corner) with the flags in advance of Memorial Day. My girls have been involved in several projects to support U.S. troops in the Middle East this past year and we've had many conversations about the soldiers, why they went there, why they are still there, and what we can do to help them until they come home.
As Memorial Day approaches, I want to list for the record all the veterans in my family so that their names will live on in that unique perpetuity known as the internet long after I'm gone.
These are my family's soldiers:
Dillon Blevins, British citizen turned patriot, American Revolutionary War
Armstead Blevins, War of 1812
Hugh Blevins, War of 1812
William, John and Hugh Blevins, Jr. -- Confederate States of America, Civil War
Benjamin, Charles, and John H. Stephens -- Confederate States of America, Civil War
Thomas Hamby -- Confederate States of America, Civil War
Elijah Wells -- Confederate States of America, Civil War
Leonard Hamby, World War I
Clifford Evans, World War II
Lloyd Evans, World War II
Howard Evans, World War II
Dallas Evans, Korean Conflict
Sylvia Evans Davidson
Wells Hamby, Jr. -- served honorably in the U.S. Navy
Byron Evans
Christopher Hamby -- actively serving
Randy Evans -- actively serving
Julian Jones
Emily Farrar -- actively serving
Even with its myriad problems and the failure of its leaders to heed the sage advice of the Founding Fathers, America is still the greatest country in the world. It is still the shining city on a hill and I'm not ashamed to say it or teach it to my children.
Put out your flags, dear readers, before heading to the beach, the barbecue, or the beer hall. Men and women -- thousands upon thousands of them -- risked their lives or lost them in the name of everything our nation holds dear and we would do well to remember them on Monday.
As Memorial Day approaches, I want to list for the record all the veterans in my family so that their names will live on in that unique perpetuity known as the internet long after I'm gone.
These are my family's soldiers:
Dillon Blevins, British citizen turned patriot, American Revolutionary War
Armstead Blevins, War of 1812
Hugh Blevins, War of 1812
William, John and Hugh Blevins, Jr. -- Confederate States of America, Civil War
Benjamin, Charles, and John H. Stephens -- Confederate States of America, Civil War
Thomas Hamby -- Confederate States of America, Civil War
Elijah Wells -- Confederate States of America, Civil War
Leonard Hamby, World War I
Clifford Evans, World War II
Lloyd Evans, World War II
Howard Evans, World War II
Dallas Evans, Korean Conflict
Sylvia Evans Davidson
Wells Hamby, Jr. -- served honorably in the U.S. Navy
Byron Evans
Christopher Hamby -- actively serving
Randy Evans -- actively serving
Julian Jones
Emily Farrar -- actively serving
Even with its myriad problems and the failure of its leaders to heed the sage advice of the Founding Fathers, America is still the greatest country in the world. It is still the shining city on a hill and I'm not ashamed to say it or teach it to my children.
Put out your flags, dear readers, before heading to the beach, the barbecue, or the beer hall. Men and women -- thousands upon thousands of them -- risked their lives or lost them in the name of everything our nation holds dear and we would do well to remember them on Monday.
Homeschooling the hard questions
One of my favorite criticisms of homeschoolers is that we purposely leave our kids in the dark when it comes to the hard questions of life. Critics assume we all homeschool with the misguided idea in mind that we'll forever be able to protect our little darlings from the vagaries of life, the warts and all of the human experience, so to speak.
Wonder what they'd say about the conversation I had today with my eight-year-old daughter who came across the words "communist" and "communism" in her spelling list.
(Holy cow! Words like that in a spelling book published by Christian Liberty Press? You betcha.)
"What are these things?" she asked me in an annoyed tone of voice. "I don't know what they mean so I can't use them in a sentence."
I paused, wondering how to condense Marx and Engels into a bite small enough for a young child to understand. Later on when my kids are older we will actually read the Communist Manifesto and pick it apart to get to the gritty truth beneath the shiny, happy exterior. But for now, communism with all its attendant ills just doesn't have room on my radar.
Nonetheless the question was asked and, as my children's teacher of record, I have an obligation to answer truthfully.
"Communism is when the government forces you to share what you have worked hard to rightly earn with people who haven't worked hard and who don't deserve to have it," I said. "A communist is someone who thinks this is a good idea."
My daughter frowned. "That's like the story of the Little Red Hen," she said. "The hen kept asking her friends to help her do the work to make bread but they all said no. Then when the bread was done they all showed up wanting a piece."
Exactly.
"So why do people think communism is a good idea?" she continued. Good question and one I wasn't sure I could answer.
"I think this happens when people don't get the full story," I said. "They are told it will be good for them and they have no choice but to try it because if they don't their government punishes them. Over time, a lie told often enough becomes the truth and more and more people begin to believe it," I said. "But there are always some who don't and they are usually the ones who are heavily punished."
I then told her briefly the story of the Tiananmen Square massacre in China in 1989 when disillusioned Communists rose up against their government. I also told her that several thousand people were killed. (Official tally is 3,000, FYI.)
I also told her how her grandmother and I once travelled in communist Russia and how although the people were kind to us and we saw many beautiful things we also saw a lot of things that would not have been except for communism.
And then I told her it was time to get back to work on her spelling lesson. "When will we read about communism by those guys you told me about?" she said.
All in good time, I replied.
And I'm a mom of my word.
Wonder what they'd say about the conversation I had today with my eight-year-old daughter who came across the words "communist" and "communism" in her spelling list.
(Holy cow! Words like that in a spelling book published by Christian Liberty Press? You betcha.)
"What are these things?" she asked me in an annoyed tone of voice. "I don't know what they mean so I can't use them in a sentence."
I paused, wondering how to condense Marx and Engels into a bite small enough for a young child to understand. Later on when my kids are older we will actually read the Communist Manifesto and pick it apart to get to the gritty truth beneath the shiny, happy exterior. But for now, communism with all its attendant ills just doesn't have room on my radar.
Nonetheless the question was asked and, as my children's teacher of record, I have an obligation to answer truthfully.
"Communism is when the government forces you to share what you have worked hard to rightly earn with people who haven't worked hard and who don't deserve to have it," I said. "A communist is someone who thinks this is a good idea."
My daughter frowned. "That's like the story of the Little Red Hen," she said. "The hen kept asking her friends to help her do the work to make bread but they all said no. Then when the bread was done they all showed up wanting a piece."
Exactly.
"So why do people think communism is a good idea?" she continued. Good question and one I wasn't sure I could answer.
"I think this happens when people don't get the full story," I said. "They are told it will be good for them and they have no choice but to try it because if they don't their government punishes them. Over time, a lie told often enough becomes the truth and more and more people begin to believe it," I said. "But there are always some who don't and they are usually the ones who are heavily punished."
I then told her briefly the story of the Tiananmen Square massacre in China in 1989 when disillusioned Communists rose up against their government. I also told her that several thousand people were killed. (Official tally is 3,000, FYI.)
I also told her how her grandmother and I once travelled in communist Russia and how although the people were kind to us and we saw many beautiful things we also saw a lot of things that would not have been except for communism.
And then I told her it was time to get back to work on her spelling lesson. "When will we read about communism by those guys you told me about?" she said.
All in good time, I replied.
And I'm a mom of my word.
Study says college grads unprepared for workforce
From York University via NPR comes this newsflash:
Could this be, in part, because students graduate from high school unprepared for college?
(See previous entry on Texas and its $200 million education nightmare.)
A York University study confirms that college grades entering the workforce are not quite prepared for the tasks ahead of them.
NPR talked to the professors behind the study:
"What we found, was that there are a set of qualities, characteristics that these people would like to see in new college graduates," says David Polk, a York College professor. "Unfortunately, they tend to be lacking."
Those qualities include the ability to communicate and listen respectfully, motivation to finish a task and attention to appearance.
Researchers also found that graduates embodied a discernible sense of entitlement -- for, say, multiple weeks of vacation or rapid promotions.
York is working to better prepare its students for the workplace, urging them to ditch their flip-flops and cell phones and commit to their jobs.
Could this be, in part, because students graduate from high school unprepared for college?
(See previous entry on Texas and its $200 million education nightmare.)
More fun in public schools . . .
Periodically, I like to take a survey of national news related to public education.
From Minnesota's KARE Channel 11 news comes this little gem:
David Gibbons, 14, was changing classes in his Crosby, Minn. high school when he was attacked by another student playing a game called “sack tapping.” David’s mother, Christy Gibbons, said it wasn’t until hours later that they realized something was wrong. "One o'clock in the morning he woke me up and told me he was in excruciating pain," she said.
When I contacted Dr. Renee Shuster, superintendent of the Francis Howell School District, she admitted the movie is not part of any district curriculum and that the teacher did not follow the process for having the film approved in advance. She also said that Finkenbine had been offered an alternative assignment that involves reading and analyzing the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 7,000-word essay, “A Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”
Soooo. There you have it. Physical injury, potential physical injury, religious persecution, and political persecution topped off with a pejorative. Somewhere in all of this students are supposed to be receiving an education, the quality of which is indeterminate at this time.
Soldier on, those of you who teach your own. Your kids may never get to Harvard, but odds are they'll make it to high school graduation with all their body parts and worldviews intact.
From Minnesota's KARE Channel 11 news comes this little gem:
David Gibbons, 14, was changing classes in his Crosby, Minn. high school when he was attacked by another student playing a game called “sack tapping.” David’s mother, Christy Gibbons, said it wasn’t until hours later that they realized something was wrong. "One o'clock in the morning he woke me up and told me he was in excruciating pain," she said.
David was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital in Brainerd, Minn. where surgeons removed his right testicle.
And David is not the only student who has suffered the consequences of the “sack tapping” game.
"It's just gotten way out of control," said Dr. Scott Wheeler, a urologist in Brainerd, Minn. who says he performs three to four surgeries a year on boys with ruptured testicles and other complications as a result of “sack tapping.”
The Associated Press reports on a NJ case:A 17-year-old high school student from Haddon Township admitted in family court Thursday that he defecated in a classmate's soda during an auto-shop class.
Prosecutors dropped an aggravated assault charge in exchange for the boy's guilty plea to a charge of tampering with a food product.
Authorities say the victim sipped the soda, then spit it out as his classmates laughed on March 29.
A judge ordered the boy to serve probation, serve 200 hours of community service, write a letter to the victim to apologize -- and to write a 1,000-word report on why it's unhealthy to ingest fecal matter. (This assumes the student in question is able to write coherently and to correctly use such big words as "ingest" and "fecal." -- M.W.)
From WorldNet Daily comes this:
Oneida Middle School officials say their district-wide police in the Schenectady Public School District bans any bandanas or other apparel – including beads – that can be associated with street gangs.
The result? The suspension of 13-year-old middle schooler Raymond Hosier, who chose to wear the rosary as a symbol of his faith and in honor of a deceased brother and uncle.
And, finally, from Andrew Breitbart's biggovernment.com comes this piece de resistence from reporter Bob McCarty:
There’s nothing wrong with the fact Debra Blessman kept secret from her students the name of the film she would require them to watch and analyze during finals week at Francis Howell High School. Today, however, the teacher might be wishing she had not kept her superiors in the St. Charles, Mo., school district in the dark about it. She planned to base final exams on the Michael Moore film, "Sicko".
Apparently, however, Blessman did not expect any of her students to raise objections about the film. But one did.
On the morning of May 11, soon after learning about the film’s selection as the basis for the final exam in Blessman’s class, 18-year-old senior Celeste Finkenbine went straight to one of the school’s principals to raise her objections. Why? Because, based on her experiences with Blessman this semester and during a class three years earlier, Finkenbine didn’t think she would get very far pleading her case with the teacher she describes as a liberal.
Unlike the vast majority of her classmates, Finkenbine is a politically-active conservative who spends many Saturday afternoons attending anti-socialism rallies. When she’s not in school or holding a sign on a street corner, you’re likely to find her working at a local nursing home in preparation for what she hopes will be a career as a geriatric physician.When I contacted Dr. Renee Shuster, superintendent of the Francis Howell School District, she admitted the movie is not part of any district curriculum and that the teacher did not follow the process for having the film approved in advance. She also said that Finkenbine had been offered an alternative assignment that involves reading and analyzing the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 7,000-word essay, “A Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”
It’s somewhat ironic that Finkenbine’s alternative assignment relates to Dr. King, because it was during a recent class discussion that King’s name came up and, according to Finkenbine, her teacher laid her liberal cards out on the table.
Finkenbine said that, after she compared her participation in Tea Party rallies with the civil disobedience in which Dr. King participated, Blessman responded to her by saying, “Well, we all know you’re a ‘teabagger.’”
Afterward, Finkenbine recalled, the teacher started laughing and everyone in the class started laughing about Blessman’s use of the derogatory term, prompting the student to think, “Wow! Did she really just say that?” (FYI, a "teabagger" refers to a person who engages in a form of oral sex too X-rated to describe on Wordly World. -- M.W.)
Having heard this account of life in Blessman’s classroom, I contacted Dr. Shuster again.
In addition to wanting to find out how district officials would deal with the teacher for using a film that was not approved in advance, I wanted to know how they would address Finkenbine’s allegation that the teacher called her a “teabagger” in front of the class.
Schuster responded by e-mail, saying, “We would address this through the teacher evaluation process which hopefully leads to improvement but can lead to termination.”
Unfortunately, it appears all of the other students in Blessman’s class ended up having to watch and analyze “Sicko”.
Soooo. There you have it. Physical injury, potential physical injury, religious persecution, and political persecution topped off with a pejorative. Somewhere in all of this students are supposed to be receiving an education, the quality of which is indeterminate at this time.
Soldier on, those of you who teach your own. Your kids may never get to Harvard, but odds are they'll make it to high school graduation with all their body parts and worldviews intact.
May 27, 2010
Ancient warning for modern times
My mom, who knows my secret wish is to have every single American read and analyze Geo. Washington's Farewell Address, just sent me this rockin' quote by Cicero.
For anyone educated in the public schools like I was, you may have to struggle for a moment to remember (if you ever knew at all) who Cicero was.
Do yourself a favor, research it so you'll own the knowledge.
Meanwhile, here's what Rome's greatest orator had to say and darned if it doesn't sound like he's talking about our present-day gasbag conglomerate that's running Washington.
For anyone educated in the public schools like I was, you may have to struggle for a moment to remember (if you ever knew at all) who Cicero was.
Do yourself a favor, research it so you'll own the knowledge.
Meanwhile, here's what Rome's greatest orator had to say and darned if it doesn't sound like he's talking about our present-day gasbag conglomerate that's running Washington.
A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague.
Marcus Tullius Cicero [ancient Roman scholar, lawyer, statesman and orator 106BC - 43BC]
Indeed.
May 26, 2010
Is THIS treasonous?
I'm a pretty smart person -- or at least I thought I was. Apparently, though, I am terribly misinformed when it comes to the purpose of laws and the stated need to obey them.
Tonight's newswires carry stores about the troops President Obama is sending to the Mexican border. When I first heard about this, I had mixed feelings. The first was, "What took you the hell so long?" The second was, "Whatever, I'm just glad you're finally responding."
Now, as it turns out, those troops will have absolutely NO role in enforcing our nation's immigration laws in spite of the fact that they COULD help to enforce those laws if only our elected officials cared one whit about our own people.
News reports say the troops are going to stand around and try to stop the drug smuggling and gun running. Of course a lot of this is done by illegals so maybe U.S. troops will catch a few.
But realistically, Washington is such a heyboy when it comes to Mexico I doubt the presence of our soldiers will do much one way or the other.
I guess it would be just too darn politically incorrect to tell Mexican President Calderon that what we REALLY want to do is put troops along the border to keep his people in their place.
Let me rephrase that. What the American people want to do is put troops along the border to keep Mexico's people in their place -- the illegal ones, of course.
What Washington wants to do is another story. (Isn't it always?)
I ask the question again, folks. Have we elected a band of traitors?
Tonight's newswires carry stores about the troops President Obama is sending to the Mexican border. When I first heard about this, I had mixed feelings. The first was, "What took you the hell so long?" The second was, "Whatever, I'm just glad you're finally responding."
Now, as it turns out, those troops will have absolutely NO role in enforcing our nation's immigration laws in spite of the fact that they COULD help to enforce those laws if only our elected officials cared one whit about our own people.
News reports say the troops are going to stand around and try to stop the drug smuggling and gun running. Of course a lot of this is done by illegals so maybe U.S. troops will catch a few.
But realistically, Washington is such a heyboy when it comes to Mexico I doubt the presence of our soldiers will do much one way or the other.
I guess it would be just too darn politically incorrect to tell Mexican President Calderon that what we REALLY want to do is put troops along the border to keep his people in their place.
Let me rephrase that. What the American people want to do is put troops along the border to keep Mexico's people in their place -- the illegal ones, of course.
What Washington wants to do is another story. (Isn't it always?)
I ask the question again, folks. Have we elected a band of traitors?
$200 million to teach it all over again
The Houston Chronicle must think its weekend front-page scoop is new news. The story is all about how Texas taxpayers will spend $200 MILLION dollars to educate high school graduates in remedial college courses before they can begin their, ahem, college careers.
Let me repeat: Texas taxpayers will spend TWO HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS to re-educate high school graduates so that they can actually start taking college courses.
It begs the question, doesn't it? You know, the one that goes, "WTF do the public schools in this state do with their students for TWELVE years prior to graduation?"
Anyone reading and researching trends in public ed. over the past few years -- or anyone who read my previous 'blog post about the story from the Dallas Morning News addressing the same topic -- knows that what the Chronicle calls higher education's "dirty little secret" is really and truly public education's dirty little secret.
Kids are supposed to graduate from public school with enough knowledge to be ready for college. The fact that the colleges end up with poorly-taught freshmen is not really the colleges' fault, is it?
Schools have TWELVE years to get students ready for higher math, advanced level reading and writing. If they won't do it or can't do it, they need to say so and quit hiding behind the same old woe-is-us-we-need-more-money whine.
Oh, and they need to leave homeschoolers the heck alone. Until you get the beam out of your own eye, don't tell me anything about the speck in mine much less try to remove it.
My tax dollars do not pay for my children's education. And now, according to the Houston Chronicle, it seems they don't pay for anyone else's children to learn, either.
TWO HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS.
And did I mention that a staggering percentage of the remedial college kids never go on to actually earn a degree?
TWO HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS . . .
Let me repeat: Texas taxpayers will spend TWO HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS to re-educate high school graduates so that they can actually start taking college courses.
It begs the question, doesn't it? You know, the one that goes, "WTF do the public schools in this state do with their students for TWELVE years prior to graduation?"
Anyone reading and researching trends in public ed. over the past few years -- or anyone who read my previous 'blog post about the story from the Dallas Morning News addressing the same topic -- knows that what the Chronicle calls higher education's "dirty little secret" is really and truly public education's dirty little secret.
Kids are supposed to graduate from public school with enough knowledge to be ready for college. The fact that the colleges end up with poorly-taught freshmen is not really the colleges' fault, is it?
Schools have TWELVE years to get students ready for higher math, advanced level reading and writing. If they won't do it or can't do it, they need to say so and quit hiding behind the same old woe-is-us-we-need-more-money whine.
Oh, and they need to leave homeschoolers the heck alone. Until you get the beam out of your own eye, don't tell me anything about the speck in mine much less try to remove it.
My tax dollars do not pay for my children's education. And now, according to the Houston Chronicle, it seems they don't pay for anyone else's children to learn, either.
TWO HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS.
And did I mention that a staggering percentage of the remedial college kids never go on to actually earn a degree?
TWO HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS . . .
May 25, 2010
Teacher punished for Klan costumes
Usually, my rants against public school are just that -- AGAINST public school and all that the institution has come to represent. I rarely vent about teachers because usually it's the teachers who are caught and held fast by stupid procedures, moronic state and federal laws, and apathetic parents and/or students.
Tonight's posting is a rant against stupid administrators and parents and a big thumb's up for a teacher who apparently tried to put together a worthwhile history project but ended up suspended from her job.
No good deed goes unpunished, and the following story is a classic example if ever I saw one.
Atlanta-area high school teacher Catherine Ariemma is on paid suspension after four of her advanced history students walked through a cafeteria in KKK costumes. The students had been filming a video about racism in U.S. history and Ms. Ariemma specifically included the Klan because, as she put it, "You cannot discuss racism without discussing the Klan. To do so would be to condone their actions."
Ariemma, an award-winning veteran of the classroom who was cited for excellence by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and the Professional Association of Georgia Educators, accompanied her students through the school but as they passed through the cafeteria she realized too late that there were still students in there eating.
She didn't want her costumed students walking through the school alone because, as she said, she didn't want anyone to see them in their flowing white robes and get the wrong idea.
Ariemma, it seems, was damned if she did and damned if she didn't.
A student who saw the procession of kids in Klanwear complained to his parents. They, in turn, complained to district officials. And then a community activist got involved and all hell subsequently broke loose.
Now the community activist wants special security for the student who filed the original complaint. Oh, and he wants the school district to arrange for "sensitivity training"for its staff, city employees and sheriff's deputies. (?????) He also wants to make sure Ms. Ariemma is dealt with in a "fair and just" way but not so fairly and justly that the situation is ignored.
The activist says, "Good common sense should have told her this was not a good idea."
Which part wasn't a good idea? The part about giving her students an awesomely impressive hands-on project that no doubt had the potential to teach them far more about racism in American history than reading it from a crappy textbook? The part about making a video with costumes and scripts? The part about including the Klan in the conversation? The part about escorting the students personally through the school? Oh, wait, it's the part about not knowing when every single student was going to be in class rather than at lunch, right?
Like a teacher doesn't have enough to keep track of that she must also know the schedules of every single kid in a high school??????
The worst, to me, is that Ms. Ariemma's own superintendent of schools is not backing her up. Nope, he's siding with the politically correct kumbaya crowd led by the community activist. His take on the teacher's faux pas is: "In my opinion, it was offensive."
He concedes Ms. Ariemma could lose her job over it.
So here you have it, dear readers. At a time when good teachers are as scarce as buried treasure and students nationwide struggle to grasp the most basic themes in American history, a teacher who has never been reprimanded for anything but has, instead, been lauded by various and sundry entities may find herself in the unemployment line.
And all because she tackled a tough subject in an effort to actually teach a lesson.
Tonight's posting is a rant against stupid administrators and parents and a big thumb's up for a teacher who apparently tried to put together a worthwhile history project but ended up suspended from her job.
No good deed goes unpunished, and the following story is a classic example if ever I saw one.
Atlanta-area high school teacher Catherine Ariemma is on paid suspension after four of her advanced history students walked through a cafeteria in KKK costumes. The students had been filming a video about racism in U.S. history and Ms. Ariemma specifically included the Klan because, as she put it, "You cannot discuss racism without discussing the Klan. To do so would be to condone their actions."
Ariemma, an award-winning veteran of the classroom who was cited for excellence by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and the Professional Association of Georgia Educators, accompanied her students through the school but as they passed through the cafeteria she realized too late that there were still students in there eating.
She didn't want her costumed students walking through the school alone because, as she said, she didn't want anyone to see them in their flowing white robes and get the wrong idea.
Ariemma, it seems, was damned if she did and damned if she didn't.
A student who saw the procession of kids in Klanwear complained to his parents. They, in turn, complained to district officials. And then a community activist got involved and all hell subsequently broke loose.
Now the community activist wants special security for the student who filed the original complaint. Oh, and he wants the school district to arrange for "sensitivity training"for its staff, city employees and sheriff's deputies. (?????) He also wants to make sure Ms. Ariemma is dealt with in a "fair and just" way but not so fairly and justly that the situation is ignored.
The activist says, "Good common sense should have told her this was not a good idea."
Which part wasn't a good idea? The part about giving her students an awesomely impressive hands-on project that no doubt had the potential to teach them far more about racism in American history than reading it from a crappy textbook? The part about making a video with costumes and scripts? The part about including the Klan in the conversation? The part about escorting the students personally through the school? Oh, wait, it's the part about not knowing when every single student was going to be in class rather than at lunch, right?
Like a teacher doesn't have enough to keep track of that she must also know the schedules of every single kid in a high school??????
The worst, to me, is that Ms. Ariemma's own superintendent of schools is not backing her up. Nope, he's siding with the politically correct kumbaya crowd led by the community activist. His take on the teacher's faux pas is: "In my opinion, it was offensive."
He concedes Ms. Ariemma could lose her job over it.
So here you have it, dear readers. At a time when good teachers are as scarce as buried treasure and students nationwide struggle to grasp the most basic themes in American history, a teacher who has never been reprimanded for anything but has, instead, been lauded by various and sundry entities may find herself in the unemployment line.
And all because she tackled a tough subject in an effort to actually teach a lesson.
May 23, 2010
When my memory makes it better
Why do we remember? For years, scientists have puzzled over memory and how it works and why.
I leave the more cerebral investigations to the guys with the PhD's. Instead, I like to travel back in my memory to be with people or to visit places that are not accessible to me anymore in real time.
One of my best memories is of the grandfather who used to see me only once or twice a year because we lived in a different state. He never talked much, and I was too young at the time to pick apart his mind about anything, but he always made a point of inviting me to walk with him to a little country store across the road from the house he shared with my grandmother. The store was run by a lady named Inez Ledbetter, and it wasn't much bigger than my living room today. Mostly, Inez sold gas and Cokes. In the autumn when I'd go to see my grandparents for Thanksgiving, Inez had an old gas stove lit and my grandfather and I would sit on a little wooden slat bench next to it. Grandpa always got a Dr. Pepper. I usually got a Crush -- grape, lemon, strawberry, whatever Inez had in stock. The drinks came in tall, skinny glass bottles.
We'd sit and drink and not say much unless Inez thought to ask me what grade I was in at school or whether I was going to do this or that while I was in town. She and Grandpa would talk about the weather or the cattle or someone's new truck or the latest fire. Once we'd finished our drinks we'd head for home and that was that.
Once, on the way back across the big front yard to the house, Grandpa stopped at a big stump that was left after a century-old pine tree got struck by lightning and had to be felled.
He took out his pocket knife and showed me how to count the many rings visible in the top of the stump so I could figure for myself how old the tree had been. It was knowledge I filed away and didn't use again for more than 30 years when I got to turn around and teach it to my own children.
I used to dream about my grandfather sometimes and the dream was always the same. We'd be riding in a car, me driving, and on our way through the south Arkansas countryside with trees, fields and cattle flashing past on both sides. Grandpa was wearing a hat, not his farmer's straw hat but the kind of hat men of his generation wore when going to visit someone, and he was talking but I couldn't hear him. We'd ride along in silence, essentially, until I woke up. I was always grateful for those dreams, for the chance to see Grandpa one more time, and for the refreshed memory of my brief time with him.
I leave the more cerebral investigations to the guys with the PhD's. Instead, I like to travel back in my memory to be with people or to visit places that are not accessible to me anymore in real time.
One of my best memories is of the grandfather who used to see me only once or twice a year because we lived in a different state. He never talked much, and I was too young at the time to pick apart his mind about anything, but he always made a point of inviting me to walk with him to a little country store across the road from the house he shared with my grandmother. The store was run by a lady named Inez Ledbetter, and it wasn't much bigger than my living room today. Mostly, Inez sold gas and Cokes. In the autumn when I'd go to see my grandparents for Thanksgiving, Inez had an old gas stove lit and my grandfather and I would sit on a little wooden slat bench next to it. Grandpa always got a Dr. Pepper. I usually got a Crush -- grape, lemon, strawberry, whatever Inez had in stock. The drinks came in tall, skinny glass bottles.
We'd sit and drink and not say much unless Inez thought to ask me what grade I was in at school or whether I was going to do this or that while I was in town. She and Grandpa would talk about the weather or the cattle or someone's new truck or the latest fire. Once we'd finished our drinks we'd head for home and that was that.
Once, on the way back across the big front yard to the house, Grandpa stopped at a big stump that was left after a century-old pine tree got struck by lightning and had to be felled.
He took out his pocket knife and showed me how to count the many rings visible in the top of the stump so I could figure for myself how old the tree had been. It was knowledge I filed away and didn't use again for more than 30 years when I got to turn around and teach it to my own children.
I used to dream about my grandfather sometimes and the dream was always the same. We'd be riding in a car, me driving, and on our way through the south Arkansas countryside with trees, fields and cattle flashing past on both sides. Grandpa was wearing a hat, not his farmer's straw hat but the kind of hat men of his generation wore when going to visit someone, and he was talking but I couldn't hear him. We'd ride along in silence, essentially, until I woke up. I was always grateful for those dreams, for the chance to see Grandpa one more time, and for the refreshed memory of my brief time with him.
May 20, 2010
Will America be called "exceptional"?
The Texas State Board of Education is voting on new textbooks for our public schools but, sadly, they are not likely to be much better than the ones we've had.
Amid criticisms that the books pay too much attention to traditional American values (whatever those are) and don't give enough space to the touchy-feely kumbaya crap that passes for so-called social studies these days, there is another interesting point of contention.
Known as the idea of "American exceptionalism," it suggests that the United States is exceptional, unique among nations worldwide not only for the way in which it was founded but for the way in which its people govern and are governed.
The renowned author Joyce Carol Oates takes exception to the notion of exceptionalism as noted by FOX News reporter James Rosen in his 'blog:
Ms. Oates' remarks would be amusing if they weren't partly true as well as offensive. She is right that our leaders over the past 50 years have meddled in the affairs of other countries when they'd have been better off tending to business at home. She's also right that our culture leaves much to be desired. But I'm bothered by the notion that we are "indoctrinated with the propaganda that America is superior to other nations" and that our government -- in its ideal form -- is somehow not superior to others.
If these things are true, then why do we even have the illegal immigration problem I 'blogged about previously? Why do so many people risk life and limb to come to this country, even at the risk of being found out and turned back?
Would anyone bother to leave everything behind for a destination that was unremarkable? Unexceptional?
I think not.
The Texas SBOE has its share of idiots now with a conservative majority just as it did before when the liberals drove the boat. Textbooks are routinely found lacking in substance as well as fact and that's one of the reasons I don't use them in our homeschool. If you want to know what slavery was like, read the biography of a former slave. If you want to know what the Founding Fathers really thought about things, read their writings. If you want to know what a particular religious denomination believes, read its faith-specific texts. And if you want to know the truth of history, be prepared to read the same story from many different sides.
Alas, no textbook will give a student all the sides. It's no wonder, then, that kids come out of 12 years of public school with either a one-sided view of the most important ideas in western civilization or no view at all.
And for the record, I've travelled to other countries -- one of them communist -- and I'll go to my grave declaring America to be exceptional, the best, the only one worth dying for. Look at photos of Arlington National Cemetery or the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France and you'll see I'm in good company.
Amid criticisms that the books pay too much attention to traditional American values (whatever those are) and don't give enough space to the touchy-feely kumbaya crap that passes for so-called social studies these days, there is another interesting point of contention.
Known as the idea of "American exceptionalism," it suggests that the United States is exceptional, unique among nations worldwide not only for the way in which it was founded but for the way in which its people govern and are governed.
The renowned author Joyce Carol Oates takes exception to the notion of exceptionalism as noted by FOX News reporter James Rosen in his 'blog:
"[T]ravel to any foreign country," Oates wrote in the Atlantic Monthly in November 2007, "and the consensus is: The American idea has become a cruel joke, a blustery and bellicose bodybuilder luridly bulked up on steroids...deranged and myopic, dangerous."
Oates continued: "American exceptionalism makes our imperialism altruistic, our plundering of the world's resources a healthy exercise of capitalism and 'free trade.'
"From childhood, we are indoctrinated with the propaganda that America is superior to other nations; that our way of life, a mass-market 'democracy' manipulated by lobbyists, is superior to all other forms of government; that no matter how frivolous and debased, our American culture is the supreme culture, as our language is the supreme language; that our most blatantly imperialistic and cynical political goals are always idealistic, while the goals of other nations are transparently opportunistic."
Ms. Oates' remarks would be amusing if they weren't partly true as well as offensive. She is right that our leaders over the past 50 years have meddled in the affairs of other countries when they'd have been better off tending to business at home. She's also right that our culture leaves much to be desired. But I'm bothered by the notion that we are "indoctrinated with the propaganda that America is superior to other nations" and that our government -- in its ideal form -- is somehow not superior to others.
If these things are true, then why do we even have the illegal immigration problem I 'blogged about previously? Why do so many people risk life and limb to come to this country, even at the risk of being found out and turned back?
Would anyone bother to leave everything behind for a destination that was unremarkable? Unexceptional?
I think not.
The Texas SBOE has its share of idiots now with a conservative majority just as it did before when the liberals drove the boat. Textbooks are routinely found lacking in substance as well as fact and that's one of the reasons I don't use them in our homeschool. If you want to know what slavery was like, read the biography of a former slave. If you want to know what the Founding Fathers really thought about things, read their writings. If you want to know what a particular religious denomination believes, read its faith-specific texts. And if you want to know the truth of history, be prepared to read the same story from many different sides.
Alas, no textbook will give a student all the sides. It's no wonder, then, that kids come out of 12 years of public school with either a one-sided view of the most important ideas in western civilization or no view at all.
And for the record, I've travelled to other countries -- one of them communist -- and I'll go to my grave declaring America to be exceptional, the best, the only one worth dying for. Look at photos of Arlington National Cemetery or the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France and you'll see I'm in good company.
Did Americans elect a band of traitors?
You decide. . .
As Mexican President Felipe Calderon ripped Arizona's new law clamping down on illegal immigrants in front of Congress on Thursday, Democrats and White House officials rose to their feet to cheer, including Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Janet Napolitano -- two officials who have confessed to not even reading the law.
-- from FOXNews.com 5/20/10
And now read what George Washington wrote in 1789. I've made it big so you'll be sure not to miss his point. Read carefully and think about what he says. Then think about what has transpired these last two days as reported above. Got your attention?
"The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government.
As Mexican President Felipe Calderon ripped Arizona's new law clamping down on illegal immigrants in front of Congress on Thursday, Democrats and White House officials rose to their feet to cheer, including Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Janet Napolitano -- two officials who have confessed to not even reading the law.
-- from FOXNews.com 5/20/10
Confronting soaring frustration over illegal immigration, President Barack Obama on Wednesday condemned Arizona's crackdown and pushed instead for a federal fix the nation could embrace. He said that will never happen without Republican support, pleading: "I need some help."
In asking anew for an immigration overhaul, Obama showed solidarity with his guest of honor, Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who called Arizona's law discriminatory and warned Mexico would reject any effort to "criminalize migration."
And now read what George Washington wrote in 1789. I've made it big so you'll be sure not to miss his point. Read carefully and think about what he says. Then think about what has transpired these last two days as reported above. Got your attention?
"The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government.
All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests.
However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.
Now you see it, soon you won't
From a 5/20/10 news report on FOXNews.com:
'Nuff said.
Authorities say a Mojave Desert war memorial cross that replaced one that was stolen is illegal and must come down.
Linda Slater, a spokeswoman with the Mojave National Preserve, says a maintenance worker spotted the 7½-foot replica cross made of metal pipes on Thursday in a federal park.
The original cross was stolen more than a week ago. It had been the subject of a lawsuit arguing that the Christian symbol didn't belong on public land.
The U.S. Supreme Court temporarily allowed the old cross to stand, but Slater says the new cross isn't covered by the ruling and will be taken down.
How convenient. How very freakin' convenient. . .
"If My people, who are called by My Name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14
'Nuff said.
May 19, 2010
China: First its children, now ours
I've 'blogged on many occasions about issues involving China, especially those involving its children, and no doubt someone in that country would prefer I keep my fingers off the keyboard and my thoughts to myself.
But I can't, no, so here's a new China-themed posting to contemplate.
Seems that some parents in California are up in arms (not literally, of course, because that would mean aligning themselves with folks like the late Charleton Heston and the NRA) because so-called "Confucius Classrooms" are springing up in their public schools.
The program has been around for a few years and can be found in schools from New York to Oregon, according to a report by Fox News' Anita Vogel.
The classes are funded by private groups, universities and the Chinese government and are designed to teach Chinese language and culture to American schoolchildren.
Critics charge that communism is being given a favorable treatment, but supporters say the classes are benign and really do teach language and culture and nothing else.
Quoting from Ms. Vogel's report:
At Riverview Elementary, in Lakeside, California, just outside of San Diego, third graders are learning Mandarin at a rapid pace. The principal there, Olympia Kyriakidis, insists this is a major asset for her students. She says in addition to Spanish and multi-media classes, her kids are going to be at the top of their game and ready to compete in the global market.
Mmm. Nothing said about civics or reading, writing, and 'rithmetic -- you know, those pesky basic subjects that American schools seem to avoid in favor of sexy stuff like Mandarin and multi-media classes. The global market is calling and we must answer!
When I first read the article, I wondered why we don't pay for and send into China our own classes on the joys of the English language and American culture.
Then I remembered that the last thing China wants its people to have is unfettered access to anything remotely connected to democracy.
Sadly, this often seems to be the last thing our own educational system wants, too.
If you don't believe me, find a recent graduate of a public school in your community and ask him to tell you something about the Declaration of Independence, the cause of the American Revolutionary War, the Bill of Rights, the Constitution itself, the difference between a democracy and a republic, or the valuable warnings in George Washington's farewell address.
Odds are he'll look at you like you're speaking -- you guessed it -- Chinese.
But I can't, no, so here's a new China-themed posting to contemplate.
Seems that some parents in California are up in arms (not literally, of course, because that would mean aligning themselves with folks like the late Charleton Heston and the NRA) because so-called "Confucius Classrooms" are springing up in their public schools.
The program has been around for a few years and can be found in schools from New York to Oregon, according to a report by Fox News' Anita Vogel.
The classes are funded by private groups, universities and the Chinese government and are designed to teach Chinese language and culture to American schoolchildren.
Critics charge that communism is being given a favorable treatment, but supporters say the classes are benign and really do teach language and culture and nothing else.
Quoting from Ms. Vogel's report:
At Riverview Elementary, in Lakeside, California, just outside of San Diego, third graders are learning Mandarin at a rapid pace. The principal there, Olympia Kyriakidis, insists this is a major asset for her students. She says in addition to Spanish and multi-media classes, her kids are going to be at the top of their game and ready to compete in the global market.
Mmm. Nothing said about civics or reading, writing, and 'rithmetic -- you know, those pesky basic subjects that American schools seem to avoid in favor of sexy stuff like Mandarin and multi-media classes. The global market is calling and we must answer!
When I first read the article, I wondered why we don't pay for and send into China our own classes on the joys of the English language and American culture.
Then I remembered that the last thing China wants its people to have is unfettered access to anything remotely connected to democracy.
Sadly, this often seems to be the last thing our own educational system wants, too.
If you don't believe me, find a recent graduate of a public school in your community and ask him to tell you something about the Declaration of Independence, the cause of the American Revolutionary War, the Bill of Rights, the Constitution itself, the difference between a democracy and a republic, or the valuable warnings in George Washington's farewell address.
Odds are he'll look at you like you're speaking -- you guessed it -- Chinese.
Using murder to teach math
Just when I thought the presentation of math in public schools couldn't get any more convoluted (see previous 'blog post on "hairy" math), reality hits me upside the head.
Seems that a high school geometry teacher in Alabama was under investigation recently for using a hypothetical presidential assassination to teach about angles.
Like there aren't a gazillion other ways to illustrate angles?
The teacher was interviewed by the Secret Service, found to not be a threat, and remains in the classroom.
Even though he's not a threat to President Obama, I think he's a threat to his students.
After all, his choice of examples was in extremely poor taste and demonstrates a lack of common sense.
Not exactly the kind of person I'd want teaching my children anything.
Seems that a high school geometry teacher in Alabama was under investigation recently for using a hypothetical presidential assassination to teach about angles.
Like there aren't a gazillion other ways to illustrate angles?
The teacher was interviewed by the Secret Service, found to not be a threat, and remains in the classroom.
Even though he's not a threat to President Obama, I think he's a threat to his students.
After all, his choice of examples was in extremely poor taste and demonstrates a lack of common sense.
Not exactly the kind of person I'd want teaching my children anything.
May 17, 2010
George Washington and the study of grammar
My two daughters and I had an interesting conversation this afternoon about reasons why we should study the grammar of the English language.
We'd been through a review of the verbs of being, helping verbs, verb phrases, and the whole complete subject/complete predicate gig.
At that point, my 8-year-old said to me, "Mama, why DO we study this stuff? I know we're supposed to study it, but WHY?"
Good question.
I thought for a minute and then remembered a little booklet I picked up at the San Antonio homeschool convention this past weekend. Published by the Texas-based Wallbuilders, it contains the entire text of the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and George Washington's Farewell Address.
Why Washington's Farewell Address, you might ask?
If you've never read it, I strongly encourage you to look it up online. Read it carefully, savor every word, every thought, and then let the light dawn on you the way it did on me after I read it for the first time late last year. Washington was a prophet and this speech foretells with alarming accuracy the difficulties our country is now experiencing. I'd always know Washington was a great general, but I never knew he possessed a working crystal ball.
Anyway, I opened the booklet to Washington's speech and said to my girls, "When you take time to study English grammar and to understand the different parts of speech and how they work, you begin to collect a set of tools that help you to dig out the truths and great ideas hidden in very complicated language."
They looked at me quizzically as I continued. "Here's a speech by our first president, George Washington. It's important enough that I think all Americans ought to read it, study it, pick it apart, and see how it still applies to our lives today. But it's written in language that most of us cannot easily understand because most of us did not get an education that gave us the tools to understand it."
And then I picked a sentence at random and read it out loud.
"Huh?" one of my daughters said. "What does THAT mean?"
I read the sentence again and explained it in layman's terms. I understood the sentence well enough to do this. (Despite my own pathetic public school experience beginning in about 6th grade, I did manage to read enough to pick up a fairly strong vocabulary. Oh, and I also used the dictionary a lot when I was in college.)
Then I explained that the only reason I was able to understand what I'd read and then explain it in language the girls could understand was because I'd studied lots and lots of English grammar. Knowing the roles of the various words helped me to figure out how I should regard them.
"This speech is a lot like any other important document," I said. "It's like the Declaration of Independence or the Bible or a great play by William Shakespeare. It's got big words, long sentences, and lots of truth that is hard to see unless you read into it deeply, and you can't read or dig in deeply if you don't have a good handle on grammar and the meanings of words."
My older daughter spoke up. "It's like a treasure map that takes you to the gold and jewels so you read the map to find the treasure!"
They get it, don't they? On some level don't they get that grammar and vocabulary and reading and spelling and mathematics are all the means to an end, the very tools required to decipher and profit from the great truths of the human experience?
If they do, then a big part of my job as their teacher is already done. If they don't, then I know I've got a whole lot more work to do.
And by the way, I never read or was exposed to George Washington's farewell speech during my entire TWELVE years of public school and FOUR AND A HALF years of state university.
Why?
We'd been through a review of the verbs of being, helping verbs, verb phrases, and the whole complete subject/complete predicate gig.
At that point, my 8-year-old said to me, "Mama, why DO we study this stuff? I know we're supposed to study it, but WHY?"
Good question.
I thought for a minute and then remembered a little booklet I picked up at the San Antonio homeschool convention this past weekend. Published by the Texas-based Wallbuilders, it contains the entire text of the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and George Washington's Farewell Address.
Why Washington's Farewell Address, you might ask?
If you've never read it, I strongly encourage you to look it up online. Read it carefully, savor every word, every thought, and then let the light dawn on you the way it did on me after I read it for the first time late last year. Washington was a prophet and this speech foretells with alarming accuracy the difficulties our country is now experiencing. I'd always know Washington was a great general, but I never knew he possessed a working crystal ball.
Anyway, I opened the booklet to Washington's speech and said to my girls, "When you take time to study English grammar and to understand the different parts of speech and how they work, you begin to collect a set of tools that help you to dig out the truths and great ideas hidden in very complicated language."
They looked at me quizzically as I continued. "Here's a speech by our first president, George Washington. It's important enough that I think all Americans ought to read it, study it, pick it apart, and see how it still applies to our lives today. But it's written in language that most of us cannot easily understand because most of us did not get an education that gave us the tools to understand it."
And then I picked a sentence at random and read it out loud.
"Huh?" one of my daughters said. "What does THAT mean?"
I read the sentence again and explained it in layman's terms. I understood the sentence well enough to do this. (Despite my own pathetic public school experience beginning in about 6th grade, I did manage to read enough to pick up a fairly strong vocabulary. Oh, and I also used the dictionary a lot when I was in college.)
Then I explained that the only reason I was able to understand what I'd read and then explain it in language the girls could understand was because I'd studied lots and lots of English grammar. Knowing the roles of the various words helped me to figure out how I should regard them.
"This speech is a lot like any other important document," I said. "It's like the Declaration of Independence or the Bible or a great play by William Shakespeare. It's got big words, long sentences, and lots of truth that is hard to see unless you read into it deeply, and you can't read or dig in deeply if you don't have a good handle on grammar and the meanings of words."
My older daughter spoke up. "It's like a treasure map that takes you to the gold and jewels so you read the map to find the treasure!"
They get it, don't they? On some level don't they get that grammar and vocabulary and reading and spelling and mathematics are all the means to an end, the very tools required to decipher and profit from the great truths of the human experience?
If they do, then a big part of my job as their teacher is already done. If they don't, then I know I've got a whole lot more work to do.
And by the way, I never read or was exposed to George Washington's farewell speech during my entire TWELVE years of public school and FOUR AND A HALF years of state university.
Why?
May 15, 2010
The horse, the wheat and the catapult
A fellow homeschooler and I like to talk about what we'd do if we had a boatload of money and unlimited time on our hands.
She'd buy land out in the country so her daughter could have a horse.
Her husband, who used to be a wheat farmer, wants to be a farmer again and grow some more grain.
Me, I'd like a big space in which to construct a trebuchet (that's fancy for "catapult").
My friend says she'd let me build my trebuchet on her land and she and her husband would even help me do it. Now, that's a real friend!
She says she'd wall off her property and turn it into a homeschooling commune. When I remind her that the FBI would probably start looking at that whole scene in a new way (think Branch Davidians or the FLDS), she laughs and reminds me that we'd post the trebuchet at the gate so as to lob watermelons, hay bales, and even deceased livestock over the wall to make intruders go away.
I muse that the FBI wouldn't take too kindly to being nailed by a dead cow or a half-rotten watermelon.
I do love the thought of lobbing things far and wide, though. Wonder what an old Buick would look like flying through the air? Or a pile of scrap metal? Or an old boat?
The possibilities are endless.
At the end of the day, though, it's really about telling the world to shut up and go away. The poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson said it best: "The world is too much with us, late and soon, getting and spending, we lay waste our powers."
She'd buy land out in the country so her daughter could have a horse.
Her husband, who used to be a wheat farmer, wants to be a farmer again and grow some more grain.
Me, I'd like a big space in which to construct a trebuchet (that's fancy for "catapult").
My friend says she'd let me build my trebuchet on her land and she and her husband would even help me do it. Now, that's a real friend!
She says she'd wall off her property and turn it into a homeschooling commune. When I remind her that the FBI would probably start looking at that whole scene in a new way (think Branch Davidians or the FLDS), she laughs and reminds me that we'd post the trebuchet at the gate so as to lob watermelons, hay bales, and even deceased livestock over the wall to make intruders go away.
I muse that the FBI wouldn't take too kindly to being nailed by a dead cow or a half-rotten watermelon.
I do love the thought of lobbing things far and wide, though. Wonder what an old Buick would look like flying through the air? Or a pile of scrap metal? Or an old boat?
The possibilities are endless.
At the end of the day, though, it's really about telling the world to shut up and go away. The poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson said it best: "The world is too much with us, late and soon, getting and spending, we lay waste our powers."
Foul-mouthed principal, bellicose teacher
Heavy sigh. . .
You can't hear it, but there it is.
You also can't see me shaking my head as I begin to type this 'blog entry, but trust me, I'm shakin' it.
See, I've just returned from helping a friend with her curriculum sales at a homeschool convention and my mind is brimming with fresh images of what education can be and, in many cases, should be.
The contrast between those images and the stories I'm about to present is beyond substantial. More on my convention experience later. Now, let's get down to the school news of the week.
First, we have a teacher at a Houston-area charter school who was caught on tape (phone camera, actually) beating a 13-year-old student so severely that he arrived home with bruises, a black eye, and a knot on his forehead. The teacher has apologized for her actions, actions that were witnessed by OTHER TEACHERS who stood by and did nothing to help the student.
School violence is on the rise, did you know? According to the National Center for Education Statistics, more than 150,000 teachers reported being attacked by students during the 2007-08 school year. No word on how many students were attacked by teachers.
Next up is the principal of a Florida elementary school who responded to a PTA parent's request for information about an upcoming event. The principal instructed her assistant principal to tell the woman to "eat sh-- and die." The problem is that the email was accidentally sent to the parent, not to the assistant principal.
Oops.
Apparently, the school administration has issues with parents who want information and access to school events as evidenced by this direct quote from a reading coach at the school who acted as the principal's spokesperson: "Our PTA wants to control the school, which she (the principal) hasn't given to them,'' Orjeda said. "They want control of how the school building is painted, what's in the curriculum and the way teachers teach.''
Imagine that . . . Parents actually wanting some say in how their TAXPAYER FUNDED PUBLIC SCHOOL is run. The gaul! The irony! The nerve!
Look, I have no clue whether this school is being properly run or whether there's really a battle for control. That's not the point of the story.
The point is that a principal entrusted with running a school and supervising its attendees thought it was perfectly appropriate to respond to a parent in a foul-mouthed way.
The principal has since apologized but my guess is that she's not sorry because she was wrong. She's sorry because she got caught.
Parents are calling for her removal.
If I lived in that school district, I'd be calling for it, too.
You can't hear it, but there it is.
You also can't see me shaking my head as I begin to type this 'blog entry, but trust me, I'm shakin' it.
See, I've just returned from helping a friend with her curriculum sales at a homeschool convention and my mind is brimming with fresh images of what education can be and, in many cases, should be.
The contrast between those images and the stories I'm about to present is beyond substantial. More on my convention experience later. Now, let's get down to the school news of the week.
First, we have a teacher at a Houston-area charter school who was caught on tape (phone camera, actually) beating a 13-year-old student so severely that he arrived home with bruises, a black eye, and a knot on his forehead. The teacher has apologized for her actions, actions that were witnessed by OTHER TEACHERS who stood by and did nothing to help the student.
School violence is on the rise, did you know? According to the National Center for Education Statistics, more than 150,000 teachers reported being attacked by students during the 2007-08 school year. No word on how many students were attacked by teachers.
Next up is the principal of a Florida elementary school who responded to a PTA parent's request for information about an upcoming event. The principal instructed her assistant principal to tell the woman to "eat sh-- and die." The problem is that the email was accidentally sent to the parent, not to the assistant principal.
Oops.
Apparently, the school administration has issues with parents who want information and access to school events as evidenced by this direct quote from a reading coach at the school who acted as the principal's spokesperson: "Our PTA wants to control the school, which she (the principal) hasn't given to them,'' Orjeda said. "They want control of how the school building is painted, what's in the curriculum and the way teachers teach.''
Imagine that . . . Parents actually wanting some say in how their TAXPAYER FUNDED PUBLIC SCHOOL is run. The gaul! The irony! The nerve!
Look, I have no clue whether this school is being properly run or whether there's really a battle for control. That's not the point of the story.
The point is that a principal entrusted with running a school and supervising its attendees thought it was perfectly appropriate to respond to a parent in a foul-mouthed way.
The principal has since apologized but my guess is that she's not sorry because she was wrong. She's sorry because she got caught.
Parents are calling for her removal.
If I lived in that school district, I'd be calling for it, too.
May 11, 2010
Texas public schools hiding behind homeschoolers!
Yeah, I thought it was funny, too, until I realized the deeper implications.
For those readers who haven't a clue as to what I'm talking about, it's an article that appeared in today's Houston Chronicle about how Texas public schools are hiding behind the "left to homeschool" check-off box on their student withdrawal forms.
The numbers aren't adding up, and even homeschooling advocates are wondering whether so many kids are actually being homeschooled or whether public schools are trying to hide their dropout numbers behind that claim.
See, Texas schools get penalized for dropouts (okay, they get penalized indirectly because of homeschoolers, too, because every child absent from the classroom means lost funding) and they will do just about anything to lower their dropout rates.
If they actually tried to lower those rates, that would be good.
Instead, it looks as if they may be lying. If kids withdraw to homeschool, public schools don't get penalized.
Soooo. . .
According to the Chronicle article:
My only gripe, aside from public schools co-opting the decent reputation of legitimate homeschooling families, is the niggling suspicion that instead of forcing school districts to clean up their own houses some tree-hugging kumbaya-ist is going to try to use this problem as another excuse to regulate Texas homeschoolers.
The irony is, of course, that public schools are the most closely scrutinized, measured and monitored educational entities in the world and they STILL manage to turn out kids who cannot read, write, or do basic math without a calculator.
Why closer monitoring of homeschoolers would appreciably alter the status quo of poorly-taught citizens is beyond me.
But you watch, someone in Austin will use this as a reason to "follow up and make sure those kids are REALLY being taught at home."
And then we'll be stuck with the crappy regulations other states have in place, the ones that force parents to document every sneeze their kid makes during the school day and that force them to sit for standardized tests (the kind that prove nothing about what a child has really learned).
Maybe I'm borrowing trouble. Maybe I am the heir to Chicken Little's empire. But when it comes to the government's interest in those who live and work and learn outside its boundaries, one can never be too careful.
For those readers who haven't a clue as to what I'm talking about, it's an article that appeared in today's Houston Chronicle about how Texas public schools are hiding behind the "left to homeschool" check-off box on their student withdrawal forms.
The numbers aren't adding up, and even homeschooling advocates are wondering whether so many kids are actually being homeschooled or whether public schools are trying to hide their dropout numbers behind that claim.
See, Texas schools get penalized for dropouts (okay, they get penalized indirectly because of homeschoolers, too, because every child absent from the classroom means lost funding) and they will do just about anything to lower their dropout rates.
If they actually tried to lower those rates, that would be good.
Instead, it looks as if they may be lying. If kids withdraw to homeschool, public schools don't get penalized.
Soooo. . .
According to the Chronicle article:
Texas' lax documentation and hands-off practices make it impossible to know how many of these students are actually being taught at home. It also opens the door to abuse of the designation, which could help school districts avoid the sanctions that come with high dropout rates, experts said.
“This is just a bad practice on the part of these schools,” said Robert Sanborn, CEO of Children at Risk, a Houston advocacy group. “Schools are beginning to use the home-schooling designation as a way to encourage students to leave or indeed for some school districts to looks like they have fewer dropouts.”
My only gripe, aside from public schools co-opting the decent reputation of legitimate homeschooling families, is the niggling suspicion that instead of forcing school districts to clean up their own houses some tree-hugging kumbaya-ist is going to try to use this problem as another excuse to regulate Texas homeschoolers.
The irony is, of course, that public schools are the most closely scrutinized, measured and monitored educational entities in the world and they STILL manage to turn out kids who cannot read, write, or do basic math without a calculator.
Why closer monitoring of homeschoolers would appreciably alter the status quo of poorly-taught citizens is beyond me.
But you watch, someone in Austin will use this as a reason to "follow up and make sure those kids are REALLY being taught at home."
And then we'll be stuck with the crappy regulations other states have in place, the ones that force parents to document every sneeze their kid makes during the school day and that force them to sit for standardized tests (the kind that prove nothing about what a child has really learned).
Maybe I'm borrowing trouble. Maybe I am the heir to Chicken Little's empire. But when it comes to the government's interest in those who live and work and learn outside its boundaries, one can never be too careful.
May 9, 2010
Information -- Democracy's balm or its bane?
President Obama has me confused and I beg any reader of this 'blog who can set me straight to do so and fast.
He's quoted in a recent college commencement address as saying, "With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations, -- none of which I know how to work -- information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation."
Information = distraction not empowerment
Then further down in the same article he's quoted as saying, "What Jefferson recognized... that in the long run, their improbable experiment -- called America -- wouldn't work if its citizens were uninformed, if its citizens were apathetic, if its citizens checked out, and left democracy to those who didn't have the best interests of all the people at heart.
He's quoted in a recent college commencement address as saying, "With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations, -- none of which I know how to work -- information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation."
Information = distraction not empowerment
Then further down in the same article he's quoted as saying, "What Jefferson recognized... that in the long run, their improbable experiment -- called America -- wouldn't work if its citizens were uninformed, if its citizens were apathetic, if its citizens checked out, and left democracy to those who didn't have the best interests of all the people at heart.
"It could only work if each of us stayed informed and engaged, if we held our government accountable, if we fulfilled the obligations of citizenship."
Information = preservation of democracy
So which is it? Does our government really want its citizens to be informed? When we try, we are either blown off (think broken campaign promise to post major legislation in time for the citizens to read it BEFORE it's put to a vote) or else we have to defend ourselves against charges of domestic terrorism. (Tea Party supporters, for example, are regularly targeted for criticism by the White House.)
When we ignore our government (to our own peril, I might add) we are accused of being lackadaisical, ignorant, apathetic.
A lot of Americans, myself included, would love to hold our government accountable for its myriad of foolish choices, excessive spending and complete and arrogant disregard for the will of the people.
Problem is that when we try, our cries fall on deaf ears.
Makes me wonder . . .
May 7, 2010
A patriot some other day?
According to one California high school student, the five boys suspended for wearing U.S. flag images on Cinco de Mayo were in the wrong because they picked the wrong day to show patriotism.
"They can be a patriot on some other day. Not that specific day," sophomore Jessica Cortez was quoted in media reports as saying.
Worse than the whole brouhaha that school officials now have to admit that THEY themselves caused is the attitude of Miss Cortez and, apparently, others like her. Are entire generations of Americans of Hispanic heritage being raised to think of themselves as Mexicans, Spaniards, Guatamalans, Brazilians, etc. first and THEN Americans?
There was a time in American public schools when patriotism, civics, government or whatever name you want to give it was an integral part of every child's education. Students received in-depth schooling in the documents produced by the Founding Fathers, the national anthem was a no-brainer at every single sporting event, and the Pledge of Allegiance was expected to come from the mouths of every single child.
History textbooks touted the accomplishments of the men and women who made our country great, the ones who sacrificed everything, the people of color (think Harriet Tubman or George Washington Carver or Martin Luther King, Jr.) who braved the tide of bigotry and ignorance to make our society more fair for everyone.
No one contested the wording of the Pledge or argued that George Washington was being given way too much space in the history books.
That era is over and in its place we have moral relativism, wishy-washy history instruction, incomplete and, at times, downright idiotic textbooks, and a pervasive attitude among children whose ancestry is not Anglo that they should be celebrating something other than the country that gives them the best possibility to fulfill their dreams. They seem to think that being white equals being American when nothing could be further from the truth.
Who is feeding these children like Miss Cortez this crap? Who has told her that commemorating an obscure battle in a country she will likely never live in or benefit from is more important than celebrating and supporting her heritage as a child of America?
Shame on her school for silently standing by while she and her fellow Hispanic classmates left class to protest in the streets. Shame on her school for opening a can of worms that wasn't even trying to explode until officials said something on their own. Shame on the education she's receiving that either explicitly or implicitly tells her that all things are equal.
Because when it comes to America versus Mexico (or pretty much anyplace else for that matter), that's just not true.
Don't take my word for it. Look at the thousands of people who immigrate to our borders legally or not every year in search of something better. Those numbers say it all.
My ancestors hail from England, Wales, and Holland. But you'll never catch me calling myself anything but American. Why?
Because not one of them is responsible for giving me what I've had since birth -- life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
I daresay Mexico hasn't given any of these things to Miss Cortez, either.
"They can be a patriot on some other day. Not that specific day," sophomore Jessica Cortez was quoted in media reports as saying.
Worse than the whole brouhaha that school officials now have to admit that THEY themselves caused is the attitude of Miss Cortez and, apparently, others like her. Are entire generations of Americans of Hispanic heritage being raised to think of themselves as Mexicans, Spaniards, Guatamalans, Brazilians, etc. first and THEN Americans?
There was a time in American public schools when patriotism, civics, government or whatever name you want to give it was an integral part of every child's education. Students received in-depth schooling in the documents produced by the Founding Fathers, the national anthem was a no-brainer at every single sporting event, and the Pledge of Allegiance was expected to come from the mouths of every single child.
History textbooks touted the accomplishments of the men and women who made our country great, the ones who sacrificed everything, the people of color (think Harriet Tubman or George Washington Carver or Martin Luther King, Jr.) who braved the tide of bigotry and ignorance to make our society more fair for everyone.
No one contested the wording of the Pledge or argued that George Washington was being given way too much space in the history books.
That era is over and in its place we have moral relativism, wishy-washy history instruction, incomplete and, at times, downright idiotic textbooks, and a pervasive attitude among children whose ancestry is not Anglo that they should be celebrating something other than the country that gives them the best possibility to fulfill their dreams. They seem to think that being white equals being American when nothing could be further from the truth.
Who is feeding these children like Miss Cortez this crap? Who has told her that commemorating an obscure battle in a country she will likely never live in or benefit from is more important than celebrating and supporting her heritage as a child of America?
Shame on her school for silently standing by while she and her fellow Hispanic classmates left class to protest in the streets. Shame on her school for opening a can of worms that wasn't even trying to explode until officials said something on their own. Shame on the education she's receiving that either explicitly or implicitly tells her that all things are equal.
Because when it comes to America versus Mexico (or pretty much anyplace else for that matter), that's just not true.
Don't take my word for it. Look at the thousands of people who immigrate to our borders legally or not every year in search of something better. Those numbers say it all.
My ancestors hail from England, Wales, and Holland. But you'll never catch me calling myself anything but American. Why?
Because not one of them is responsible for giving me what I've had since birth -- life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
I daresay Mexico hasn't given any of these things to Miss Cortez, either.
Mexican flags, si. Jolly Ranchers, non.
Must be a phase of the moon or else the horsemen of the Apocalypse are shinin' up their saddles.
A third-grader in one of my city's local school districts has received detention for a whole week because she was caught at lunch in the possession of . . .
A PIECE OF JOLLY RANCHER CANDY!
That's right, a piece of candy. The student is all of ten years old.
The school is defending its decision based on a Texas law that prohibits minimally nutritious foods from being served to students.
The girl's parents didn't send the candy to school with her. Another child gave it to her.
The audacity of that child to share candy with a friend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(I could make a snarky comment about the highly touted socialization skills kids supposedly get only from public school, but I won't.)
The student will be separated from her peers at lunch and recess for a week. (Still biting back my urge to snark . . .)
A third-grader in one of my city's local school districts has received detention for a whole week because she was caught at lunch in the possession of . . .
A PIECE OF JOLLY RANCHER CANDY!
That's right, a piece of candy. The student is all of ten years old.
The school is defending its decision based on a Texas law that prohibits minimally nutritious foods from being served to students.
The girl's parents didn't send the candy to school with her. Another child gave it to her.
The audacity of that child to share candy with a friend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(I could make a snarky comment about the highly touted socialization skills kids supposedly get only from public school, but I won't.)
The student will be separated from her peers at lunch and recess for a week. (Still biting back my urge to snark . . .)
Texas, California -- It's all the same to me
Looks like the Cinco de Mayo madness has leached out of California and made its way to the little community of Klein, TX just up the road a piece from where I live.
A student was suspended for three days for yanking down a large Mexican flag his high school had prominently displayed for the 5th of May holiday.
I don't condone willful destruction of property, and I don't think schools ought to let anarchy rule the day, either.
But I do question the school's decision to put the flag up in the first place. In California, students wearing U.S. flag shirts were deemed "incendiary" and were suspended. Ironic.
In Klein, it was the Mexican flag and the student who made it go away was suspended. Irony heaped up high.
Public schools across the country would do well to remember two things: They are in the United States of America and they are paid for entirely by U.S. taxpayers and the taxpayers in their respective states.
Fly the American flag always. Fly the flag of your state always. Honor the people who make your jobs, your facilities, your raison d' etre possible.
Save foreign flags for international festivals or focused in-class cultural studies, and if you're going to put up a big flag of another country know that someone at some point is going to demand you put up a flag of theirs.
Israeli flag for Hanukkah? I think we should.
Saudi Arabian or Iranian flag for Ramadan? Why not?
Confederate flag for Robert E. Lee's birthday? Won't happen unless you live in backwoods Mississippi but it's an intriguing idea nonetheless.
Indian flag for Diwali? You betcha, if only to honor the culture that has brought us the beautiful sari, Bollywood, and my favorite Indian dish chana masala with raita and hot naan on the side.
It'll be interesting to see what the school in Klein does to explain away its foray into the world of political correctness. Even more interesting will be its defense of its school motto, "Excellence Without Compromise."
A student was suspended for three days for yanking down a large Mexican flag his high school had prominently displayed for the 5th of May holiday.
I don't condone willful destruction of property, and I don't think schools ought to let anarchy rule the day, either.
But I do question the school's decision to put the flag up in the first place. In California, students wearing U.S. flag shirts were deemed "incendiary" and were suspended. Ironic.
In Klein, it was the Mexican flag and the student who made it go away was suspended. Irony heaped up high.
Public schools across the country would do well to remember two things: They are in the United States of America and they are paid for entirely by U.S. taxpayers and the taxpayers in their respective states.
Fly the American flag always. Fly the flag of your state always. Honor the people who make your jobs, your facilities, your raison d' etre possible.
Save foreign flags for international festivals or focused in-class cultural studies, and if you're going to put up a big flag of another country know that someone at some point is going to demand you put up a flag of theirs.
Israeli flag for Hanukkah? I think we should.
Saudi Arabian or Iranian flag for Ramadan? Why not?
Confederate flag for Robert E. Lee's birthday? Won't happen unless you live in backwoods Mississippi but it's an intriguing idea nonetheless.
Indian flag for Diwali? You betcha, if only to honor the culture that has brought us the beautiful sari, Bollywood, and my favorite Indian dish chana masala with raita and hot naan on the side.
It'll be interesting to see what the school in Klein does to explain away its foray into the world of political correctness. Even more interesting will be its defense of its school motto, "Excellence Without Compromise."
What he said
On the heels of the recently-declared-unconstitutional National Day of Prayer, I offer up this quote from former U.S. House Speaker Robert Winthrop circa 1850:
"Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them or by a power without them; either by the Word of God or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible or by the bayonet."
The way things seem to be going, the bayonet (figuratively speaking, of course) seems to be gaining the upper hand.
"Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them or by a power without them; either by the Word of God or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible or by the bayonet."
The way things seem to be going, the bayonet (figuratively speaking, of course) seems to be gaining the upper hand.
May 6, 2010
And now for the Jesus cartoon. . .
There's really no point in asking for a halt to the madness. In fact, I'm actually pondering the worth of finishing this 'blog post. True to form, though, once I start something I like to complete it so I'll go on and gripe about the NEXT slap in the face of those who either love our country or profess the Christian faith -- or both. (Two for ones are highly coveted but harder to achieve.)
Turns out the creators of the intellectually deficient adult cartoon South Park have tired of trying to pick on the Muslim prophet Mohammed. Now they've turned their sights to a much less aggressive bunch.
That's right. They're gonna make a cartoon about Jesus Christ and it's gonna be offensive.
From the Hollywood Reporter.com site comes this:
Turns out the creators of the intellectually deficient adult cartoon South Park have tired of trying to pick on the Muslim prophet Mohammed. Now they've turned their sights to a much less aggressive bunch.
That's right. They're gonna make a cartoon about Jesus Christ and it's gonna be offensive.
From the Hollywood Reporter.com site comes this:
May 05, 2010
Comedy Central developing Jesus Christ cartoon
Comedy Central might censor every image of the Prophet Muhammad on "South Park," yet the network is developing a whole animated series around Jesus Christ.
As part of the network's upfront presentation to advertisers (full slate here), Comedy Central is set to announce "JC," a half-hour show about Christ wanting to escape the shadow of his "powerful but apathetic father" and live a regular life in New York City.
In the show, God is preoccupied with playing video games while Christ, "the ultimate fish out of water," tries to adjust to life in the big city.
"In general, comedy in purist form always makes some people uncomfortable," said Comedy Central's head of original programming Kent Alterman.
When asked if the show might draw some fire, especially coming on the heels of the network's decision to censor the Muslim faith's religious figure on "South Park," Alterman said its too early in the show's development to be concerned about such matters.
"We don't even know what the show is yet," he said.
Like all Comedy Central executives, Alterman declined to address the recent controversy over "South Park," where the network aired a heavily redacted episode after the show's creators were threatened by an extremist Islamic Web site.
"JC" is produced by Reveille ("The Office"), Henrik Basin, Brian Boyle ("American Dad"), Jonathan Sjoberg and Andreas Ohman.
Provocative patriotism piques public school
How's that for alliteration? It's the last lighthearted remark I'll make for the rest of this 'blog entry since the story that inspires it is anything but funny.
Out of California, the state whose public education efforts make my toddler look like Harvard material, comes the latest advocacy for everyone except those who are A.) Legally residing in America as the result of birth, naturalization, or appropriate visas and/or B.) Christian.
The story from reporter George Kirayama of the NBC Bay Area affiliate tells about a group of high school students who were suspended for wearing American flag shirts yesterday on Cinco de Mayo.
For anyone who cares, Cinco de Mayo -- or Fifth of May -- is a holiday celebrated by Mexicans living in America to commemorate the victory of Mexico over France at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. The Mexican soldiers numbered 4,000, the French 8,000. The defeated French lost their chance to resupply American Confederate forces during the Civil War. Cinco de Mayo is actually a regional holiday in Mexico, so why Mexicans living in America -- regardless of where they hail from in Mexico -- give a damn is beyond me.
Be that as it may, the students at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, CA were tackled by their principal for sporting American flags. According to the kids, the principal told them the U.S. gear would have been fine to wear on any other day, "just not today." The boys said school officials called their clothing "incendiary."
Part of the story is quoted below verbatim:
Vaya con Dios!
Out of California, the state whose public education efforts make my toddler look like Harvard material, comes the latest advocacy for everyone except those who are A.) Legally residing in America as the result of birth, naturalization, or appropriate visas and/or B.) Christian.
The story from reporter George Kirayama of the NBC Bay Area affiliate tells about a group of high school students who were suspended for wearing American flag shirts yesterday on Cinco de Mayo.
For anyone who cares, Cinco de Mayo -- or Fifth of May -- is a holiday celebrated by Mexicans living in America to commemorate the victory of Mexico over France at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. The Mexican soldiers numbered 4,000, the French 8,000. The defeated French lost their chance to resupply American Confederate forces during the Civil War. Cinco de Mayo is actually a regional holiday in Mexico, so why Mexicans living in America -- regardless of where they hail from in Mexico -- give a damn is beyond me.
Be that as it may, the students at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, CA were tackled by their principal for sporting American flags. According to the kids, the principal told them the U.S. gear would have been fine to wear on any other day, "just not today." The boys said school officials called their clothing "incendiary."
Part of the story is quoted below verbatim:
"They said if we tried to go back to class with our shirts not taken off, they said it was defiance and we would get suspended," Dominic Maciel, Galli's friend, said.
The boys really had no choice, and went home to avoid suspension. They say they're angry they were not allowed to express their American pride. Their parents are just as upset, calling what happened to their children, "total nonsense."
"I think it's absolutely ridiculous," Julie Fagerstrom, Maciel's mom, said. "All they were doing was displaying their patriotic nature. They're expressing their individuality."
But to many Mexican-American students at Live Oak, this was a big deal. They say they were offended by the five boys and others for wearing American colors on a Mexican holiday.
"I think they should apologize cause it is a Mexican Heritage Day," Annicia Nunez, a Live Oak High student, said. "We don't deserve to be get disrespected like that. We wouldn't do that on Fourth of July."
As for an apology, the boys and their families say, 'fat chance.'
Vaya con Dios!
More reasons to homeschool
Unwinding from a busy day of scout activities, schoolwork (my children's, not mine), and miscellaneous chores, I started thinking about more ways in which our family has benefited from choosing to homeschool.
(Before I get the posts that tell me -- again -- that homeschooling is not right for every family or that "public school worked great for my kids, so what's your problem," let me just say that I already know the first and have 'blogged ad nauseum about the second, i.e. public ed. wasted MY time and I don't want it wasting my kids' time.)
So, on to more reasons we appreciate and are grateful for the choice we've made:
1. Ancient Greece is much more fun when you can spend a year studying it rather than a couple of weeks. Why read about philosophers when you can debate their ideas? Why read about the fashion of the times when you can make your own chiton or peplos out of a bedsheet? Why learn about "pi" when you can read the story behind its discovery? (Archimedes and his need for a better measurement of a circle, btw.)
2. Math is much more fun when you don't have a standardized testing deadline breathing down your neck alongside a teacher, a teacher's aide, and fifty gazillion school administrators whose very salaries depend upon you nailing every question. No pressure = deeper thinking.
3. Science is much more fun -- and meaningful -- when you get to pick your own plants or flowers, draw them, study them, and then plant your own. Botany from a book isn't nearly as substantial as botany with dirt clods and flower parts scattered across your notebook.
4. Art is soooo much better when you get to do it virtually every day instead of as a special class once a week. It takes on so many more forms, some of which spring from the academic pursuit of the moment, some of which just come from inspired minds working at their own pace. Painting, sewing, building, drawing, crayoning, origami -- we joke we're gonna have to build an addition on to our house to hold all the arts and crafts our kids create.
5. Astronomy is so much more inspiring when someone bothers to introduce it to you in ways that don't confine entire galaxies to a quarter-page of a textbook. Again, drawing, painting, sculpting, observing, charting, discussing, demonstrating and experimenting -- my kids have learned more astronomy in one year than I learned in 12 years of public school and four more of state university.
Did you know there was a time in this country when to be considered truly educated meant that you'd studied astronomy? Me either, until I began preparations to study it with my children.
6. Family life -- yup, it's hard being surrounded by other people all day long. (Wait, isn't that what they do in public school?) But I've lost count of the opportunities to remind, encourage, remind, encourage, correct, discipline, train, remind, encourage, correct, discipline and train my children. And I've lost count of the undesirable habits, character traits, or behaviors that have fallen by the wayside as a result. Diligence, rather than patience, really can make a difference. And I can't write enough to describe all the things my children learn about conflict resolution and the importance of being kind over being right.
7. Personal responsibility -- sort of ties in with No. 6, doesn't it? Even my two-year-old volunteers to carry groceries, feed the cat, or take toys upstairs to their proper places. Part of education is learning to work, to have self-control, to do the hard things even when the easier things are so much, well, easier. My kids are still quite young but every day they must make choices and we clearly spell out the consequences for making the wrong ones. More and more we see smart choices born of discernment and reason. This may prove more important than anything they ever get out of a book.
8. Animal husbandry -- why study zoology or biology and take apart dead animals pickled in formaldehyde when you can have up-close interactions with live ones? We have cats, we're getting rabbits, we regularly observe birds, squirrels, and the evidence of moles. Insects of all kinds, arachnids (mostly spiders), reptiles, amphibians -- we see them, we encourage their presence in our yard, we rescue them from the side of the road (turtles). It's not about anthropomorphizing them, it's about observing them in their natural habitats (cats notwithstanding) and reading and discussing their life cycles, feeding habits, etc. When you homeschool, you get to spend a lot of time watching actual birds, butterflies, and other critters instead of seeing them on videos or the computer. You become well-versed in the place of animals in the natural order of things. Nature itself is real, tangible, and integral to your understanding of many things because you get to spend a lot of time out in it.
9. Variety of sensory experiences -- in addition to No. 8, my children sing and two of them dance and play a musical instrument. They are not always diligent to practice, but they are learning what happens when they don't, and the tide is beginning to turn.
10. Books -- my children who read are able to read and read and read on virtually any topic under the sun. Too often I get ready to present what I think will be new information on some obscure topic, say, architecture of ancient Rome and one of my older children will pipe up with, "Oh, did you know that the baths at Caracalla were made of polished marble with beautiful mosaics around the ceiling and in the floors?" and off we go. They end up telling me rather than me telling them, and it's all because they read it on their own.
11. Toys -- I never knew there were so many ways to use blocks and now I think my boys have found them all. The blocks become food, guns, money, people, swords, roadways, train tracks, books, cordless phones (my favorite), computers -- pretty much any object in the "real" world can be visualized in a set of blocks. Oh, and the time to do that visualizing? It happens because they have unstructured hours. It's called "time to think."
Okay, that's it for now. My five-year-old is begging me to show him graphics from a CD that came with a big book titled, "Cool Stuff Exploded" that shows you the insides of everything from car engines to wind turbines and robots. He wants me to print out some pictures so he can make his own book. :o)
(Before I get the posts that tell me -- again -- that homeschooling is not right for every family or that "public school worked great for my kids, so what's your problem," let me just say that I already know the first and have 'blogged ad nauseum about the second, i.e. public ed. wasted MY time and I don't want it wasting my kids' time.)
So, on to more reasons we appreciate and are grateful for the choice we've made:
1. Ancient Greece is much more fun when you can spend a year studying it rather than a couple of weeks. Why read about philosophers when you can debate their ideas? Why read about the fashion of the times when you can make your own chiton or peplos out of a bedsheet? Why learn about "pi" when you can read the story behind its discovery? (Archimedes and his need for a better measurement of a circle, btw.)
2. Math is much more fun when you don't have a standardized testing deadline breathing down your neck alongside a teacher, a teacher's aide, and fifty gazillion school administrators whose very salaries depend upon you nailing every question. No pressure = deeper thinking.
3. Science is much more fun -- and meaningful -- when you get to pick your own plants or flowers, draw them, study them, and then plant your own. Botany from a book isn't nearly as substantial as botany with dirt clods and flower parts scattered across your notebook.
4. Art is soooo much better when you get to do it virtually every day instead of as a special class once a week. It takes on so many more forms, some of which spring from the academic pursuit of the moment, some of which just come from inspired minds working at their own pace. Painting, sewing, building, drawing, crayoning, origami -- we joke we're gonna have to build an addition on to our house to hold all the arts and crafts our kids create.
5. Astronomy is so much more inspiring when someone bothers to introduce it to you in ways that don't confine entire galaxies to a quarter-page of a textbook. Again, drawing, painting, sculpting, observing, charting, discussing, demonstrating and experimenting -- my kids have learned more astronomy in one year than I learned in 12 years of public school and four more of state university.
Did you know there was a time in this country when to be considered truly educated meant that you'd studied astronomy? Me either, until I began preparations to study it with my children.
6. Family life -- yup, it's hard being surrounded by other people all day long. (Wait, isn't that what they do in public school?) But I've lost count of the opportunities to remind, encourage, remind, encourage, correct, discipline, train, remind, encourage, correct, discipline and train my children. And I've lost count of the undesirable habits, character traits, or behaviors that have fallen by the wayside as a result. Diligence, rather than patience, really can make a difference. And I can't write enough to describe all the things my children learn about conflict resolution and the importance of being kind over being right.
7. Personal responsibility -- sort of ties in with No. 6, doesn't it? Even my two-year-old volunteers to carry groceries, feed the cat, or take toys upstairs to their proper places. Part of education is learning to work, to have self-control, to do the hard things even when the easier things are so much, well, easier. My kids are still quite young but every day they must make choices and we clearly spell out the consequences for making the wrong ones. More and more we see smart choices born of discernment and reason. This may prove more important than anything they ever get out of a book.
8. Animal husbandry -- why study zoology or biology and take apart dead animals pickled in formaldehyde when you can have up-close interactions with live ones? We have cats, we're getting rabbits, we regularly observe birds, squirrels, and the evidence of moles. Insects of all kinds, arachnids (mostly spiders), reptiles, amphibians -- we see them, we encourage their presence in our yard, we rescue them from the side of the road (turtles). It's not about anthropomorphizing them, it's about observing them in their natural habitats (cats notwithstanding) and reading and discussing their life cycles, feeding habits, etc. When you homeschool, you get to spend a lot of time watching actual birds, butterflies, and other critters instead of seeing them on videos or the computer. You become well-versed in the place of animals in the natural order of things. Nature itself is real, tangible, and integral to your understanding of many things because you get to spend a lot of time out in it.
9. Variety of sensory experiences -- in addition to No. 8, my children sing and two of them dance and play a musical instrument. They are not always diligent to practice, but they are learning what happens when they don't, and the tide is beginning to turn.
10. Books -- my children who read are able to read and read and read on virtually any topic under the sun. Too often I get ready to present what I think will be new information on some obscure topic, say, architecture of ancient Rome and one of my older children will pipe up with, "Oh, did you know that the baths at Caracalla were made of polished marble with beautiful mosaics around the ceiling and in the floors?" and off we go. They end up telling me rather than me telling them, and it's all because they read it on their own.
11. Toys -- I never knew there were so many ways to use blocks and now I think my boys have found them all. The blocks become food, guns, money, people, swords, roadways, train tracks, books, cordless phones (my favorite), computers -- pretty much any object in the "real" world can be visualized in a set of blocks. Oh, and the time to do that visualizing? It happens because they have unstructured hours. It's called "time to think."
Okay, that's it for now. My five-year-old is begging me to show him graphics from a CD that came with a big book titled, "Cool Stuff Exploded" that shows you the insides of everything from car engines to wind turbines and robots. He wants me to print out some pictures so he can make his own book. :o)
May 5, 2010
What autism cannot do
This weekend, two of my children played in their first piano recital. It's always tricky trying to predict how kids will do under pressure and even trickier when one of them has quirks related to an autistic spectrum disorder.
In my daughter's case, she cannot stand the sound of people clapping or cheering. It is, for her, like nails on a chalkboard, a cacophony of distorted noise that physically hurts her ears and causes her to cry out things like, "Stop, people! Stop that right now!"
Not exactly the sort of reaction anyone expects at something so formal as a piano recital.
So it was with some trepidation that I encouraged my daughter to practice up and hit the stage.
Three short pieces played with absolute perfection later, I found myself clapping madly with tears in my eyes as she not only demonstrated her aptitude for music but bravely withstood the adulation of the audience with nary a wince or a rebuke.
Unless someone else in the audience that day had a child with similar hangups, I daresay no one could appreciate the tremendous strength it took my daughter to endure something that hurts her senses the way the sound of clapping does.
I was proud of her for playing so well. I was even more proud of her for smiling and bowing in the face of a great big fear.
In my daughter's case, she cannot stand the sound of people clapping or cheering. It is, for her, like nails on a chalkboard, a cacophony of distorted noise that physically hurts her ears and causes her to cry out things like, "Stop, people! Stop that right now!"
Not exactly the sort of reaction anyone expects at something so formal as a piano recital.
So it was with some trepidation that I encouraged my daughter to practice up and hit the stage.
Three short pieces played with absolute perfection later, I found myself clapping madly with tears in my eyes as she not only demonstrated her aptitude for music but bravely withstood the adulation of the audience with nary a wince or a rebuke.
Unless someone else in the audience that day had a child with similar hangups, I daresay no one could appreciate the tremendous strength it took my daughter to endure something that hurts her senses the way the sound of clapping does.
I was proud of her for playing so well. I was even more proud of her for smiling and bowing in the face of a great big fear.
Giving up our kids?
A friend of mine had a recent kerfuffle with the coach of a local youth sports team to which her son belonged. The coach and my friend did not agree on several things, so my friend decided to remove her son from the program.
Fine enough.
As she was discussing this topic with another acquaintance who also homeschools, the woman told my friend that when one enrolls one's child in a competitive sports program one must be willing to give up their child 100 percent to the program's coaches.
I found this interesting and disturbing.
As homeschoolers, one of the hallmarks of our decision to teach our own is that we are not willing to give over our children to the state to receive its version of an education. Likewise, anyone I pay to tutor my children in ballet, piano, or any other subject does not somehow share joint custody of my children with me.
Au contrare. They are hired by me to teach my children something I cannot. They are employed by me, if you want to be technical about it. Do my children become theirs simply because I have hired them to teach a particular skill or subject?
Nope.
The notion that it's okay to give up authority over one's child to another entity for any reason is one that needs to be thought out a little more carefully. It's especially surprising coming from someone who homeschools.
To whom do our children belong?
Fine enough.
As she was discussing this topic with another acquaintance who also homeschools, the woman told my friend that when one enrolls one's child in a competitive sports program one must be willing to give up their child 100 percent to the program's coaches.
I found this interesting and disturbing.
As homeschoolers, one of the hallmarks of our decision to teach our own is that we are not willing to give over our children to the state to receive its version of an education. Likewise, anyone I pay to tutor my children in ballet, piano, or any other subject does not somehow share joint custody of my children with me.
Au contrare. They are hired by me to teach my children something I cannot. They are employed by me, if you want to be technical about it. Do my children become theirs simply because I have hired them to teach a particular skill or subject?
Nope.
The notion that it's okay to give up authority over one's child to another entity for any reason is one that needs to be thought out a little more carefully. It's especially surprising coming from someone who homeschools.
To whom do our children belong?
Update on trashy poster at school
After I 'blogged about what I saw at my local elementary school -- the trashy People magazine cover blown up larger than life and posted on a bulletin board easily viewed by children -- I debated about whether and how to let the school district know my dismay.
I finally decided to back up my concern with words of encouragement to remove the poster, so I contacted the district superintendent's office to let them know my thoughts.
The message was forwarded to the principal of the school in question who promptly and very courteously e-mailed to THANK me for bringing the poster to her attention. Apparently, neither she nor any parent whose child attends the school noticed it, despite its location next to the main entrance.
No matter. The principal let me know the poster had been removed and that she was issuing revised guidelines for the posting of any material on school grounds.
Little victories. I take 'em where I can get 'em.
As for the principal? I only wish every single public ed. administrator in this country was as diligent and interested in parental feedback as she seems to be.
I finally decided to back up my concern with words of encouragement to remove the poster, so I contacted the district superintendent's office to let them know my thoughts.
The message was forwarded to the principal of the school in question who promptly and very courteously e-mailed to THANK me for bringing the poster to her attention. Apparently, neither she nor any parent whose child attends the school noticed it, despite its location next to the main entrance.
No matter. The principal let me know the poster had been removed and that she was issuing revised guidelines for the posting of any material on school grounds.
Little victories. I take 'em where I can get 'em.
As for the principal? I only wish every single public ed. administrator in this country was as diligent and interested in parental feedback as she seems to be.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)