All right, 84% of you hate the idea of the candy corn Oreo. 10% want to at least taste one, and 5% are all over them. I think I need to eat one just out of sheer curiosity. But I’ll let someone else buy the box.
Now, have you heard about the college professor breastfeeding her infant during a lecture?
My dears, I have been out and about for the past few days, leaving me tired and exhausted at the end of the day instead of chipper and full of cheer, ready to write something that I daily pray is even mildly entertaining. We have also had an extended heat wave here in Glinda-land, which has tried the patience of even the most optimistic of my loved ones. Oh yeah, and out-of-town relatives coming in to visit, which will always be more attractive to me than sitting at the computer.
So, to make a long story short, sorry about the unexplained and unanticipated absence.
I suppose though, that many of you are beginning to gear up for the start of the new school year and are just as busy as me.
One of the things that I don’t miss from our formal schooling days are the damned supply lists that the school would email two weeks before the beginning of the semester.
I was buying everything from Kleenex to dry erase markers and everything in between.
Of course, it is technically not legal to send this list out, as public schools are supposed to provide students with everything except perhaps writing utensils. Is it better to have the families pay for it than the teachers? I guess so, except that I am sure there are some people who cannot afford everything on the list, which totals to about twenty-five items.
In my state, the idea that the state would actually pay for all needed supplies is a large joke which would have every parent doubling over with laughter. Hysterical laughter, most likely, but laughter all the same.
Does your school send out a list as well?
I’ve been meaning to tell this story for a while, but I’ve been so buried under stuff that my mind has been unable thus far to tell the tale in a fairly truncated manner.
Because man, the whole thing was just stupid. And get ready with some coffee and scones, because this is one loooong story.
In my state, some 2nd graders are tested for the gifted program. In some schools, every single child is tested, in others, only ones that have been recommended by teachers. In my particular district, a test called the Naglieri is used. The Naglieri is often used in many school districts with a large population of students that speak a second language or are economically disadvantaged, or both. Essentially, it doesn’t have any words and uses pictures instead.
So the Munchkin was recommended to take the test, but upon doing some research and speaking with my sister, who is a GATE teacher, I found out that some students with verbal giftedness can do badly on the Naglieri. Because duh, no words. I asked that very question of the district GATE coordinator at a parent information meeting, and she did indeed admit that some verbally gifted students could be overlooked with that specific test.
Cut to my son receiving a HORRIBLE score on that test. I mean, according to the Naglieri, he wasn’t even performing up to grade level standards. Which of course was not true.
I wrote a nice and polite email to the GATE coordinator stating that I didn’t think my son’s performance was reflective of his abilities, as we all could tell from his grades that he was obviously performing at or above grade level.
She replies that fine, if I would like, she could have a broader-scale IQ test administered, called the WISC-IV. This is a two hour test conducted by a trained school psychologist that spans a larger set of skills than the Naglieri, which is mostly focused on logic.
So the Munchkin takes the test, and when he gets in the car afterwards, he tells me his brain is “on fire.”
Which I sort of took to be a good sign.
His test scores come back, and there are four subsets of results dealing with specific areas of skill. His verbal is fantastic, definitely in the highly gifted range. He has some good scores in two other subsets, but only in the moderately gifted range. Then comes a low-ish score in the last subset.
I’m told that oh, too bad. That low-ish score means my son isn’t good enough to qualify for the GATE program. OKTHXBAI.
Wait, what?
72% of you disagree with the name choice of Beyonce and Jay-Z for their daughter. I’m even more fascinated that they trademarked it, although I guess they don’t want anyone profiting off of their child, which I suppose I can sympathize with.
Today I’m all about education, the kind for kids paid for by taxes, anyway…
Let me tell you about how I hate computer viruses. I had a doozy hit me on Monday evening sometime, and it was one of those where you couldn’t even start your browser to look for how the hell to get rid of it. I had two different antivirus programs running that didn’t catch the rootkit (which equals really bad) and it allowed eighty billion other trojans and other things into my computer. Man, did I have a headache for two days. But, all fixed now!
I read this article about a teacher at a California middle school who allegedly was in an “adult movie,” and was found out by some students, and placed on leave.
Now, I try to think of myself who is enlightened about the adult entertainment industry. I mean, it’s there. Boy, is is ever there. And I don’t have anything against adult entertainment workers, and indeed I am of the thought that prostitution should be legalized.
However.
As much as I hate to admit it, if I found out that this person was teaching my son, I don’t think I would react so magnanimously. I wouldn’t be calling for her resignation or anything, but I always think of what would happen if many years down the road my son were to see his former teacher in a certain type of film and what the psychological ramifications of that would be.
Maybe they wouldn’t be much of anything, but I just wouldn’t want to go there.
But then we get into the whole thing of private time outside of one’s occupation, and nobody wants to go back to the days when teachers couldn’t marry because that meant (gasp!) they would be having relations with their husband and ohmygod the world would explode. And of course, that didn’t happen.
I know it is unfair of me to think that the teacher probably shouldn’t have allegedly starred in that type of film, but I honestly can’t help it.
Let me know if I’m alone in my prudishness.
And let’s not even get into the fact that it was some students who tipped off administration about the teacher’s film exploits.
A high school in Cincinnati, Ohio is basically bribing their students with gift cards to attend school and do so on time.
You know what? Bribery works.
Any parent will tell you that. At least, any honest parent.
The thing is, research shows that when you repeat a certain behavior so many times, it actually becomes a habit, rather than something you are forced to do.
Since the school is facing high truancy rates, extremely (almost criminally so) high dropout rates, and a high poverty rate among their student population, they have my blessing.
