Athena in a Minivan

Is Your Child NDD? (Nature Deficit Disorder)

This article at the Bruderhof is interesting.  I am of the belief that our children do not get enough of nature. It is hard to achieve this when you live in town. This weekend we are headed to Oklahoma to visit Honey's mom and the rest of his family. They are farm folks.  Great Grandpa still lives on the farm with cows, stray dogs and other critters. One Aunt has various horses and creatures. Grandma has a huge backyard. It will be great to be outside.

Children and Standardized Tests

Last fall I had the opportunity to give a speech at a Moms for Kerry rally held before the election. It was thrilling to be a part of this venture as we worked as moms to get John Kerry elected. Alas, November came and George Bush was still president.

Here is an excerpt from that speech:

Currently, No Child Left Behind requires students to pass a standardized, fill-in-the-bubble test on a certain date. If the children do not succeed, the teacher and the school and the child are punished. Many teachers are forced to teach to the test rather than to the students in the classroom. These rigid standards amount to fear tactics meant to scare teachers and administrators into compliance. If you look in every classroom, in every school, in every city, in every state in America you will see one common thread. The people managing those classrooms are proud to be called teachers. I believe that fully funding No Child Left Behind, raising teacher pay; improving mentoring, professional development, and teacher training; and providing pay incentives for teachers who improve their skills and excel in helping students succeed will put a great teacher in every classroom. Having a great teacher in every classroom will lead students to succeed. When teachers are offered more than threats and fear, they give more willingly in return.

Today I had a face put to what I had written about. The TAKS scores for graduating seniors came out today and five students at one high school did not pass one or more sections of the TAKS and as a result will not graduate from High School. Some of these students are non-native English speakers. One was a child who struggled to write proper English in order to get above a 1 on the writing score. Another didn't pass the math test.

Of the five students, one was especially devastated. Invitations had already been sent out. Family was coming from out of town to attend graduation. Maybe Grandmother had prepared a special gift. George Bush or Rick Perry should come to this young lady and tell her face to face that she is not going to graduate. I don't know the details of why she didn't not pass this test. I don't really care. George Bush does not care. He sees a school district that 94% if its seniors pass the TAKS and thinks SUCCESS.

We need to fight for that 6% who can't or don't pass this test. Did they not try? Are they not capable of passing ever? George Bush may tell you if he even cared that she can take it again in the summer. Will there be a graduation ceremony then? Of course not. Does she deserve to graduate? I think so. Maybe hold her diploma until she passes the TAKS but don't punish a student who tried her best, who struggles in a subject, who didn't drop out, who kept her grades up, who finished the race and and then found out they had moved the finish line.

Can Laundry cause depression?

A Resounding YES!!! (along with sadness, and a feeling of being out of control)This is what my couch looked like on Friday. It is now Monday and I have only 5 loads left to wash and dry and fold. I see the end in sight. Maybe I should try this laundry system that the military uses.

Last week was spent in a food induced coma. If it didn't eat me first, I ate it. CONFESSION: I ordered a slab of ribs and a loaded baked sweet potato (plus green beans, but they had bacon on them) and ate every bite and even licked the bones. Now, I'd like to see that on Desperate Housewives. I drank an half gallon on milk with Ovaltine.

Sunday night my friend Lisa called. She too had a bad week and we could tell in that neither of us called to walk. Well, tonight we are getting back to walking. We decided we could not do this alone. We needed each other's support. We even have a goal. We are going to walk in November a half marathon in support of the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society.

God never intended us to live our lives in isolation. He gave Adam a gift of Eve, He gave Jesus his disciples, He gave Abraham Lot, He gave David Jonathan, He gave Paul Timothy and he give us friends. I am grateful for my friend this week.