THURSDAY MORNING
Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 5:36 amGOOD MORNING TO US ALL!
Very much warmer here today at 18 degrees. I heard on the news that at least one of the Leonid meteors made a huge streak and light across the sky in the Utah area....did anyone of us see it out there? I sure would have loved to have spotted that!
Two more days this week, then two next week, and it'll be turkey feast day vacation from school. I guess my daughter and her live-in guy, Joe, will meet me in Chazy to have a turkey dinner with her grandmother and great aunt. I'm not sure what I will contribute to the feast, but maybe blueberry crisp and whipped cream, as I have plenty of my wild blueberries frozen. What are the rest of you doing to celebrate being thankful? I am beginning to be thankful for every day that brings me closer to getting free of my job. But the financial difficulties of retiring still haunt me and are constantly on my mind, so there are many mixed emotions. Every night I dream about my future home in a tent under an overpass somewhere, surrounded by others who have not enough money to do anything but try to stay dry and warm!
I need to find an old painting shirt this morning to wear when making our balsam wreaths to sell in our 'mockup' store. I learned yesterday in the Life Science class that 5 of my kids attend that not one of them can multiply or divide. We were making a graph of the results of the number of drops of water we could get to stay on the surface of a penny. We were to find the average of 8 tries. Impossible for every one of them with no calculator. Some could add the column of 8 up, (with many errors) but not one could find the average. Another bunch of kids in there from other, more capable classes, could not divide, either. Multiplication and division skills are now a thing of the past, along with spelling, reading, writing, a basic knowledge of geography, and the most basic facts of U.S. history. The education system of our country is shameful. What are we thinking? I truly don't think it's because our population has dumbed down over the decades. Although, if we are not to remember important facts and ideas now, we must at least know how to find the answers on the internet. NOT! Most of our students do not know how to find legitimate facts about anything on the internet, either.
Another horror I discovered yesterday is a result of a study unit of careers, home budgeting, and living management. All of the kids I had with sheets to fill in were looking up info on the internet to find entry salaries, median salaries, advanced salaries, education requirements, job locations, and what the jobs entailed. Sadly, all were looking up jobs like doctor, lawyer, cop, FBI, chef, teacher, and on and on. Not one of these kids will be getting a high school diploma. What the heck is this teaching those kids? That they are all failures, always will be, that they will never achieve success at anything, and that the world is against them??? What on earth is a fact sheet designed for kids hoping to get at least a high school diploma doing in the hands of my kids who are all on IEPs? (Independent Educational Programs) And I am helpless to do anything about it, as I am not the teacher.
Coffee time, then a hot bath to sooth me down a bit before I hit the floors running again. Hope you are all doing something way more rewarding than bucking a system that seems to be fostering hopelessness in our children. Am hoping to read some happiness on here, and sorry to not be able to contribute to that at this point. I love reading about your adventures in the more real world!
Very much warmer here today at 18 degrees. I heard on the news that at least one of the Leonid meteors made a huge streak and light across the sky in the Utah area....did anyone of us see it out there? I sure would have loved to have spotted that!
Two more days this week, then two next week, and it'll be turkey feast day vacation from school. I guess my daughter and her live-in guy, Joe, will meet me in Chazy to have a turkey dinner with her grandmother and great aunt. I'm not sure what I will contribute to the feast, but maybe blueberry crisp and whipped cream, as I have plenty of my wild blueberries frozen. What are the rest of you doing to celebrate being thankful? I am beginning to be thankful for every day that brings me closer to getting free of my job. But the financial difficulties of retiring still haunt me and are constantly on my mind, so there are many mixed emotions. Every night I dream about my future home in a tent under an overpass somewhere, surrounded by others who have not enough money to do anything but try to stay dry and warm!
I need to find an old painting shirt this morning to wear when making our balsam wreaths to sell in our 'mockup' store. I learned yesterday in the Life Science class that 5 of my kids attend that not one of them can multiply or divide. We were making a graph of the results of the number of drops of water we could get to stay on the surface of a penny. We were to find the average of 8 tries. Impossible for every one of them with no calculator. Some could add the column of 8 up, (with many errors) but not one could find the average. Another bunch of kids in there from other, more capable classes, could not divide, either. Multiplication and division skills are now a thing of the past, along with spelling, reading, writing, a basic knowledge of geography, and the most basic facts of U.S. history. The education system of our country is shameful. What are we thinking? I truly don't think it's because our population has dumbed down over the decades. Although, if we are not to remember important facts and ideas now, we must at least know how to find the answers on the internet. NOT! Most of our students do not know how to find legitimate facts about anything on the internet, either.
Another horror I discovered yesterday is a result of a study unit of careers, home budgeting, and living management. All of the kids I had with sheets to fill in were looking up info on the internet to find entry salaries, median salaries, advanced salaries, education requirements, job locations, and what the jobs entailed. Sadly, all were looking up jobs like doctor, lawyer, cop, FBI, chef, teacher, and on and on. Not one of these kids will be getting a high school diploma. What the heck is this teaching those kids? That they are all failures, always will be, that they will never achieve success at anything, and that the world is against them??? What on earth is a fact sheet designed for kids hoping to get at least a high school diploma doing in the hands of my kids who are all on IEPs? (Independent Educational Programs) And I am helpless to do anything about it, as I am not the teacher.
Coffee time, then a hot bath to sooth me down a bit before I hit the floors running again. Hope you are all doing something way more rewarding than bucking a system that seems to be fostering hopelessness in our children. Am hoping to read some happiness on here, and sorry to not be able to contribute to that at this point. I love reading about your adventures in the more real world!
