Miseducation Nation

Sadly I'm not surprised at the news that reading scores for 8th graders have declined over the past decade.  I have to agree with the fact that this is troubling. The reasons should be obvious to administrators, but the question is what are they going to do to hold students (and to a great extent parents) more accountable?  Many kids really come to school with the expectation that they can sit in class, take selfies, play videogames, and watch unrelated, inappropriate content online, and still get an "A" in class. I'm not exaggerating. I was teaching a class of freshmen high schoolers recently and tried to show them an example of what they needed to do to turn in an acceptable presentation. One group was in the back of the class taking a group selfie, and when I redirected them to put their phone away, the student who owned the phone got angry and stormed out of class because I had the nerve to interrupt them. The sad part is she was allowed to remain outside of the class for the rest of the period. If I were the administrator in charge I would have confiscated her phone for the rest of the day, and contacted her parents to come and get it, with the understanding that she would be suspended if the behavior continued. In addition,. I would have marched her disrespectful little behind back to class, and ensured that she understood such nonsense would not be tolerated!

In the same class another student decided that he was going to watch a YouTube video out loud, while I'm teaching at the front of the class.  He proceeded to laugh at whatever he was watching. When I asked him to close the Chromebook and pay attention he proceeded to tell me, "Miss, can't you see I'm watching a video on YouTube?" As if I was disrupting him when he was doing something gravely important. So, it gets better... I walked over and told him to either close the Chromebook and pay attention or I would confiscate it. This little lost angel is going to turn to this friend and say, "Didn't I just tell this bitch I am watching YouTube!"

Needless to say he got booted from my class and then tried to to lie and say he didn't call me a bitch. None of the kids involved are anywhere close to being grade level competent in Science... But that is the behavior they present in class because that is what they have been allowed to get away with up to this point.

I don't know when the word "consequence" became more unacceptable than the N-Word in school, but I think the biggest failure of the public school system (and many private schools) is that they are now afraid to be bold enough to let kids know that there are major CONSEQUENCES for negative behavior--be it not doing school work, or if they are disrespectful to teachers. If I ever even dreamed I was in a class and called my teacher a bitch, I would wake up and apologize. No, I wouldn't do this because I feared my parents would "knock me into next week".  My parents never had to use corporal punishment, because they made sure that my siblings and I were raised in an environment where respect for our elders--especially people like teachers who were trying to help us to gain an education or do something productive in our lives--was a normal expectation. In addition, I could look at examples of people in my life/community who made certain choices, and the consequences or rewards of those choices.  I knew what I wanted my future to be like.

Today, a lot of schools use the an approach called the "restorative justice/practice" model, where you talk to the student about what they have done wrong, and what they can do better. However, in my experience, the kids abuse the process. Some will not even acknowledge the adverse behavior and act as though whatever happened was the teacher's fault, or that the teacher's picking on them for no reason. They know that at the end of the conversation they go back to doing the same thing. They are not being held back when they don't meet appropriate standards to go to the next grade, so why do they care if one or all of their teachers give them failing grades?

People express concerns about machines taking human jobs, but if there isn't a serious attempt to get students back on track academically and behaviorally, I sure as hell would trust a machine to do an appropriate job more than I would trust most young people within the next 5-10yrs!

Right now I'm still in Sir Sidney Poitier "To Sir With Love" mode, and I am not ready to throw in the towel because I believe that raising the educational achievement in public schools is a worthy fight we can't afford to abandon... But some days it's not easy when I could be making a lot more money working under better condition without a rude kid in sight.

The dilemma of going vegetarian

Starting next week my goal is to try to eat a vegetarian based diet, and limit my dairy intake for at least 2 months. I don't plan to give up meat and dairy 100%, but I will only eat them every other weekend. Today I was in the grocery store and realized what a challenge this will be. Most of my favorite foods are dairy-based (cheese, yogurt, eggs), and while I could probably do without beef and chicken, I love seafood (mainly shrimp, lobster and scale/bony fish). While I don't eat an abundance of meats right now, do like dairy. My main reason for doing this is to see how it changes my overall health, and because livestock agriculture plays a huge role in global greenhouse gas emissions. I'm not going to suddenly turn into a "Meat is Murder" judgmental fanatic, but I will make these conscious, personal choices. On my shopping list are: Drinks: Coconut, Almond and Soy milk. I like Almond Silk, but I'm going to try packaged coconut milk as well. I've only ever h ad it by naturally producing it, but that would be challenging here. Water, maybe some orange juice, as well as hard cider--but only Stella Artois :-). It's overall low in calorie and sugar content. Snack: homemade granola. and veggie chips, as well as cucumber sandwiches, and avocados. Meat: I'm going to try some of the veggie alternatives, but I probably can just get by on imitation crab meat for the first two weeks. I also have fish to last a while, so I will just eat it on weekends. Greens: To date, I've always bought lots of veggies and fruits, but I end up having to freeze them because I don't eat them fast enough. That will change. It will be 90% veggies 5% fruit and 5% "meat" for the duration of my personal challenge.

I recently watched the documentary "Cowspiracy", and while I think Kip Anderson's method for extrapolating some of the numbers for the impact of agricultural runoff and human livestock consumption was somewhat flawed, it doesn't understate the reality that our meat-heavy diets and mostly sedentary lifestyles are literally costing us the planet and our health.

It is really a conundrum for me because on the other side are dairy and livestock farmers who work VERY hard to earn their livings... Growing fruits and vegetables are just not as profitable, and the U.S. Government already has to subsidize many farmers because they make so little from the sale of their products. So what is the solution? Is there a way to have both a healthy planet and lots of T-Bone steaks? I think we need to do more to find a solution that works for both farmers and consumers before it becomes an even greater crisis.

Hey Baby, It's Been A While (Part 2)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I really should be writing about regression analysis right now, but I've decided to take a few minutes to bring you up to speed on the past year and a half. I definitely didn't intend to take this long to write the 2nd part of my piece on pregnancy, but being a single mom with an amazingly energetic, cute-as-a-button baby, who somehow morphed into an even more amazingly independent, smart, cuddly not-so-little toddler, I barely have time to do more than pick up toys and read bedtime stories these days.

So, let's see:  I'd promised to share some insight into my first trimester of pregnancy, and surviving endless nausea. I'm sure every woman who experiences nausea during pregnancy thinks her experience is "the worst", but truly, mine was awful for two month.  I think I would have preferred to actually vomit more instead of just feeling constantly nauseous all day.  I would somehow make it through the day, then wallow in discomfort on my couch for the rest of the evening until I fell asleep.  Then I discovered two things that changed the whole experience. 

1.  Orange juice mixed with ginger ale first thing in the morning.  I would drink about a pint of it on the way to work and then pray that my belching sessions would end by the time I got out of the car. It really helped with the acid reflux and indigestion.

2. Seaband Acupuncture bands.  I don't recall how I stumbled upon this marvel, but it was truly an amazing product. Perhaps I was looking for non-drug anti-nausea alternatives and Google did me one solid when this popped up in the search results.  I immediately went out and bought a pair from my local pharmacy.  Initially, I would put it on first thing in the morning after my shower, and within about 15 minutes the nausea would subside.  I've never liked wearing watches or other wrist jewelry, so when I first tried Seaband, I would take it off after about an hour. However, the nausea would return, so I'd have to put it back on.  The benefits definitely outweighed the desire to not wear anything on my wrists. At some point I even started sleeping in them.  I don't know if they work as well for others, but I definitely would recommend them.  I have no affiliation with the company.  I ended up buying a second pair because I was a bit concerned about  losing one (you have to wear one on each wrist for maximum effect).  

After the first two months of nausea my pregnancy proceeded without a lot of theatrics.  Thankfully I was healthy physically, and more importantly I think being mentally excited about the coming of my child, despite a world of uncertainty, helped to create an insulated bubble of happiness that carried me through.  I remember finding out I was going to have a boy around 22 weeks. I'd already picked out names--about five years ago! It was a choice between Wilhem (my paternal grandmother's name is Wilhemina, and she had the sweetest soul), Leonides, like the heroic Spartan king, or Gideon, after the biblical hero, and also the moniker of one of my favorite TV characters, Jason Gideon (quirky side note: the character was created by a guy name "Jeff", which also happens to be the name of my son's dad). 

Both the biblical story of Gideon and the Greek myth of Leonides are about brave warriors, accomplishing incredible victories against immense odds.... with 300 men. Their courage, faith, and determination allowed them to do the impossible.  The deciding factor for me was that Gideon lived to enjoy the rewards of his bravery and died of old age (something I hope for my son), while Leonidas gave the ultimate sacrifice for his people when he was still very young.  I have no idea whether my son will end up choosing a military path, or if he will ascribe to any form of religion as an adult, but when choosing a name I wanted to give him one that embodies a sense of the possibility of accomplishing his goals, despite unbelievable odds.  It's a theme that has been central to my own life story thus far.

Ok, back to regression analysis. Next time I'll talk about my delivery and the past 20 months of being a mom. I hope my hiatus won't be as long next time, but can be very busy with a toddler who's literally skipping and jumping around the house every waking moment of his day.