Education Commentary

I just saw this on Facebook and had to share.  I think it is so sad that this is how our education system is.  I have volunteered at my kids schools over the years and it has broken my heart to see smart kids who think they are stupid because they can't express themselves the same way as other kids.  Not every child is the same, not even siblings, but we need to have more options for children in education. Even with the we have, there needs to be some way to help our children understand that if they are learning in a nontraditional way that it is okay.  It was hard when I was homeschooling my boys and they fought me almost the whole time because it was different from what their friends were doing.  

Right now I am volunteering at one of our local schools and one of the teachers have opened up to me and explained how he has lost dozens of days of instruction because of standardized testing and assemblies.  He can't get through all of things that he is supposed to teach to his students because they keep taking his classroom time away.  How can we expect our kids to succeed on these standardized tests when they don't can't receive all the lessons that they need.  In our situation one of the things that took away instruction time was an assembly for cheer-leading; in fact there have been a couple assemblies involving extra curricular groups from the high school that come to recruit for new members for their groups.  I am happy that the principal has stepped in when he can and moved some of these would be assemblies and moved them to little demonstrations during lunch.  While these events can get kids excited for their next year in school, they are not educational.

I love the schools that my boys are attending now and they are now excelling in school.  They also have some of the toughest teachers now than they have ever had.  I think the one thing that has helped is those teachers pushing them and having them learn that they are capable of doing this harder work.  As I have watched my children grow and see how they learn this topic has become more and more important to me.  Now that I'm in school to become a teacher I am even more aware of how our educational system works.  I hope I can continue to volunteer and learn so that I can be the most effective teacher as possible for my future students.

Retiring a Flag

Our Stars and Stripes!

We had the opportunity to attend a flag retiring ceremony the other night and it is one night that will stay with me forever.  I have always thought of myself as a patriotic person. I have great pride in our country and insurmountable pride for our members of our armed forces.  I find myself realizing, every so often, my own ignorance of what is going on around me and have to take a moment to appreciate the safety and blessings that I enjoy by living in the United States of America.

Before this week the only time that I have been part of any kind of flag ceremony that has been emotional for me was when they took the flag off of my father's coffin, folded it, and presented it to me.  It was one of those moments when it truly hit me what he did for our country and what others do every day.  

When I was in elementary school we learned about the flag and how to respect and care for it.  It is a lesson that has always stayed with me and one that I will act upon.  Right after having that lesson I went to the store with my mom and the flag flying out front was tattered and had rips in it.  I complained to my mom what a disgrace that was and that it was wrong for them to keep flying a flag like that.  She told me to tell the store and took me over to customer service. I did tell them how I felt and by the time we were done shopping there was a new flag flying.  Over the years I have done this many more times and have never been afraid to share my feeling when it comes to this great symbol of our country.

This week when we attending this ceremony I wasn't prepared for the feeling that would assault me.  It was such a solemn moment watching each flag be folded and then reverently placed upon the fire.  The closest way of explaining the feelings that I felt while watching them burn was like losing a family member.  The man leading the ceremony was Kenny's 1st Sergeant when he was in the National Guard and he had Kenny be one of the ones to place one of the flags in the fire.  I think that was a special moment for Kenny to have that connection with someone from his Guard days again.

Witnessing such an emotional event brought very vivid images to my mind and I wish at times like this that I was more poetic and able to share my feeling better.  I am not even doing justice to the evening that we had with my simple thought that I have shared so far.  If you ever have the opportunity to attend a flag retiring ceremony I would recommend you do so.  It has helped me to remember again how dearly I love our Stars and Stripes.

New Blog

This may not be new to many of you and I have been using many of the suggestions and recipes on this blog for a while, but I just added it to my list of blogs and wanted to share how amazing this woman is.  So far, all of the things on this blog that I have tried have worked wonderful and has made me excited to do laundry, has saved some of my clothes from being thrown out (which has saved me money, always a good thing) and even made me excited to try the cleaning suggestions.  I just got done going over some of the suggestions and can't wait to go scrub my bathroom, of all things!

I know that "One good thing by Jillee" is already very successful and I'm proud to help further that success by maybe adding one more reader.  She is wonderful and puts so much work into her blog.  If you don't already know about her blog, please check it out.

http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/

Sacrifice

My cousin shared this on Facebook today and I had to share this with everyone.

I don't think people truly understand the cost and sacrifice it takes for us to be able to enjoy our way of life.

Thank you to all who are brave and willing to serve our Country!!

Leaving the sidelines

When I was younger I loved politics.  I loved to get up on Sunday and watch all the political shows like Meet the Nation and because I knew it all I would have great debates with the T.V.  Now I'm older and realize that there is much that I don't know.  I have a family now that I need to protect and at the same time educate as to what is happening in our Nation.  I know that I have voiced my opinion here many times and even though when I started this blog I thought it would be just another cute place to update and record our little life, I can't leave it that way.  I have way too much going on in this little brain of mine and I will no longer fret over my postings and if they might offend.  There are things that need to be said.

Growing up with parents that were from the Vietnam era, I heard stories about people protesting.  I heard how our citizens didn't support the government (and unfortunately our soldiers).  People back then were not afraid to stand up and protest when they saw something that was wrong.  They were willing to get out there and march and rebel against a government that was not working for the people. Let's go further back to when our new little Nation was ruled over by a corrupt government that was across the ocean.  People then also stood up and had to not just protest but fight against wrong.  

Fast forward 30is or so years and we have a group of people running our Country that are, most likely, just as corrupt or more so now.  I already wrote about Kelton and his volcano theory, now we have people protesting and becoming a part of OCCUPYWALLST.  On the radio this morning they said that it is not just college students any more, that there are middle age adults joining who have lost their jobs.  On CNN's home page it shows a story that the unions want to join in with OCCUPYWALLST.

Part of that same story that I was listening to on the radio said that we also have an OCCUYSLC group.  They are planning a march for tomorrow evening, however, their web site does not have the time or location on there yet.  The radio story said that it was to begin at The Capital and move to Pioneer Park.  I put one of their flyer's above.  For the first time ever, I am pondering being part of a true movement instead of saying that I'm too busy with my family and others are taking care of it.

How can I sit by any longer knowing how many of my friends that have lost their jobs this year. My neighbor who has a college degree but makes minimum wage.  Our own income has dropped, sometimes by as much as $800 a paycheck.  Our government doesn't have enough money to run our Country and threaten to shut down.  If they do that, I know several people who rely on their disability, their SSI, they are government employee's, and they are enlisted in our armed forces.  How can I sit by and see/or know of people who are working hard and all they might get is an IOU instead of a paycheck.  Other threats have included taking away our military's pension and their low cost health care.

I can no longer sit silently when I see how all of this is affecting my neighbors.  Our ancestors were probably just as nervous as I am now to stand up and say enough is enough.  If our government has enough money to give billions in hand outs to banks and other lending institutions, why can't they cover the basic day to day operations of our Country?  If we have to cut healthcare to our low income citizens, how can we continue to  fund 2 wars?  Oh, that's right, we are giving our soldiers IOU's!  Unless, our government can take out another loan and put us further in debt, all we watch the bickering and drama that will take place just so they won't have to follow through with the threat of shutting down.

It is still my responsibility to research out this movement to make sure that the rebellion they mention on their flyer is to stick with the peaceful movement that was started on Wall St.  It is still my responsibility to educate myself as much as possible with the truth and not just what is being fed to us in the media.  Then I can move forward with knowledge in hand and leave the sidelines.  It's my time to have the same strength that others have, to not allow myself to sit by and watch things fall apart around me.  All those people before us who have fought, protested, and gave their lives so we could live in this amazing Country, I feel, would be ashamed of where we are now.

The lava is really starting to boil!