My thoughts will be posted on this page from time to time. I've noticed the older I get the more insite I have, or at least I like to think I do. Anyway I need to vent and possibly stir the pot a little, because I heard somewhere that a few waves can be a good thing. Maybe that was surfing...  oh well what the heck. From time to time I'll be posting my thoguhts and rants and raves here. Remember feedback is always wanted.

Our only "Greatest Renewable Resource" ...

... well, I've been attending college trying to get myself moving again and keeping my mind fresh, or at least in some kind of working order. So, while watching the news a few times last month I noticed some alarming things taking place here where I live. The first being a 30 million dollar budget cut from the local school budget and then in the same news broadcast I see 30 million dollars being used to build a new court house, "where a park will no longer reside". Now think about that, we're not going to educate as well as before because the money just isn't there, and on the other hand we need bigger jails, prisons and federal court buildings, where a park used to reside. I'm no rockets scientist or even a budah, but that seems to be a little fishy to me.

Anyway I started mulling this over and this is what came out and went directly to Congressman McCarthy's email box -

I feel the issue of renewable resources has been sadly misjudged. With the previous statement above I think there is a very strong case to be made here. Since starting school again and attending classes, I know of only one resource that is truly renewable and directly responsible for our survival as the human race - our children. What I see happening today is a tragedy, and a failure on our parts as adults. Not just a few of us but all of us. Our school systems are asked to make cuts while money is set aside for bigger or better courthouses, jails and prisons? Now, I know these are probable not directly related to one another but  this is only one example of what I see taking place and it's only in my home town, I hope ...

There was a teacher attending a class I took in college and she was discussing a class we others and my self and tells me, "I brought chocolate bars to school to teach my 3rd graders about fractions". She also stated that 86% of the kids couldn't grasp the fundamentals of fractions from the handed down curriculum. I thought that was odd at the time since we are in the information age right? So she brought in some chocolate bars and passed them around. Mind you she bought them with her own money to teach our children something very important because of a failing school system that couldn't get the point across. Through hands on teaching and being able to feel and use other senses they quickly grasped the simple idea of fractions.... she was reprimanded for bringing food into the classroom. I immediately bursted out you got to be ... then it dawned on me, too much legislation, not enough common sense. I know this is probable not making a whole lot of sense but it brings me too the main worry I see.

Now mind you I'm observing school through actually attending and seeing what happening in person. I see school being turned into work. A way of training our children to be office workers with no practicle training or should I say hands on training. Children get up and go to school, sit in a classroom and study to pass a test that says they can function at a certain level in today's society. We're removing FFA, wood shop, auto shop soon to come art, music and even sports!!!

This is so deconstructive as a society that someone needs to step up. Not everyone will become a astronaut or a physicist. There are people who love to work on cars, grow food to support others and even those who do waste management. Point being - some children, kids or even adults in general don't learn things by reading a book or even listening to someone else when being told how to do something. They need other things, like using a ruler in wood shop to measure 1/4" increments to understand all of a sudden four quarters makes a whole, or 1 inch. Sports, music, shop classes and even Future Farmer of America are vital events in anyone's life that stimulate them using all of a childs senses to learn, and round them out as individuals. To make them whole and allow them to find their way through life and choose what they want to do by experience.

We don't need anymore jails, prisons or even bigger court houses. I think we need more teachers and more of a variety in the classroom as far as ways to learn things. We need these teacher that think of chocalate bars to teach fractions! I think the no child left behind, needs to be seriously re-evaluated. We need to educate our greatest resource, "OUR ONLY RENEWABLE RESOURCE", and find those scientist, astronauts and plumbers that can take us into the future.....

It's been almost 2 months since I sent this of and I've revised it a few times. I heard from them right away but I think it got swept under the rug. I mean really, come on if they were interested in the rest of us they would use those educations they fought so ...... hard to .... get , HEY WAIT A MINUTE!!!!

Seriously let's take a giant leap for all man kind and start educating in different ways to reach everyone in school ...

So since my last posting here I have been down to the high school my daughter attends and got a rude awakening ...

I walked into the waiting room where there was a receptionsit with two student helpers who asked why I was there. This is a closed campus and the security is kinda tight. So, I answered them and one of the girls led me to a room that was much larger and had, I'd say about eight desks worth of sitting space in it. There were 4 secretaries in there when I arrived and they promptly asked what I needed. Now at this point I was still focused on why I had gone there which was to show the school that I indeed did still live in the appropriate school district to attend the high school. The reason I say this is becasue it's my fourth child going through this high school ... yes, I have done this for 8 years and will probably have to do it 2 more years till my daughter graduates. So I'm stand there waiting for the lady to make a copy of my electric bill and I turn around to see the offices and notice to my wonder, WHOLLY CRAP!, in a flash I found the money that seems to not be available for the schools to maintain a proper operating staff. It all made sense to me ...

I was looking at the offices of the Principle (75,000 a year), Assistant Pinciple (75,000 a year), Vice Principle (53,000 a year), Assistant Vice Principle (53,000 a year) and swung around to see all the secretaries. As I swung around and said something they told me that schools now days needed this staff to operate at an efficient level. Which is why I was there for the eighth year in a row to validate where I lived. So I took that and said wow, ok I can ponder that one later. The secretary helped me with the problem I had gone there to take care of and told me again...... and I quote " a g a i n " that I wouldn't have this problem next year. So I proceeded to leave and went into the rear of the building where I needed to clear and absence my daughter had occured because of a doctors appointment. You'll never guess what I saw, another huge room with three desks and one women with about two or three student helpers. I bit my tounge and said thank you and left to go to my car.

Well, I made it to my car and started thinking about what I had just seen. My high school had the same amount of students and we only had a principle, assistant principle and 2 secretaries. Then I started thinking about the art classes that you can't take unless you've proven you can pass the "Test" to graduate, thanks to no child left behind, along with the music classes and shop classes where kids would never get to make things with there hands and the autmotive shop where well boy can be boys ... This is rediculous as I said before, and we are killing ourselves by not educating our children in a multitude of ways.

We need to start helping teacher by getting assistant teacher in large classrooms, expand our teaching practices letting those teacher who have ideas use them and meld them into a corriculum that isn't working. I believe we should have more art classes and more shop classes and every child should hear and be involved in music. These are the things along with reading writing and arithmatic that make us who we are and as children they need to be able to have no boundaries and explore on a ravinous level. Their minds are growing at fenominal rates and they should sample everything. They shouldn't be taught that everything rides on a test, but rather everyone has their place in the world and they have the right to explore it and choose for themselves. As parents it's our duty to provide them with the teachers, tools and facilities they need to suceed in life. Or when it comes time for them to take over they'll only about themselves which is where we are now. This world is truely what we make of it and we know this to be true. This is a great time in our evolution and with all the information and exchanging of informatio we need to take responsibility for our childrens future ...