The Sum of All Things According 2 Me: January 2017

Saturday, January 28, 2017

Tit for Tat

I am not sure how the namecalling, the labels and epithets further this national dialogue. How does littering my Facebook page with "liked" articles calling the president Hitler and subscribing those who voted for him as bigots and geeks do anything to knit together this broken nation? For eight years I watched as everything I had done for years-being a mother, being a wife, being a good citizen, being patriotic, supporting our military and police-was called into question. I am not naive enough to believe 100% of any group is good or evil, but the repetitive drone and smears of the Left are making me not dislike them as a group, but avoid them as individuals.

My sister in law lives in a million dollar home on the beach in California. Her husband has a hefty pension paid for by the state of California. Basically they are highly funded welfare cases. She's a liberal. Today she posted on my Facebook a lengthy diatribe calling Trump Hitler and vilifying those who didn't blindly choose to vote for a deeply flawed Hillary Clinton. This daily harangue, some of it deliberate disinformation and misinformation, has legs.

My grandson's mother has half sisters and family in Seattle. Since discovering her family roots, she has decided to embrace a strident leftist tone. She has talked about taking her sons to the local women's march. I know the kind of signs and "costumes" are out there. My grandson can read-because he's smart as a whip. I don't want him exposed to this toxic spew of hatred.

My other sister in law lives in Aurora. Her husband pays all their bills. They spend to the limits of their credit. She's a liberal and also lobs FB bombs at me.

I'm not one who likes launching grudges, but why is it okay for them to throw all of this at me and I am not permitted by the social conventions and something I like to call "manners" from dishing back in kind. So I've dumped them both, coming short of blocking them just in case in their childless states they need help.

I'll dial 911 for them.

Sunday, January 22, 2017

A helpful list....

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Tired of this......

I wish this was hypothetical.

I have a senior student, we'll call him Bill.
Bill is in an advanced studio class, which should be a signal he like art and has done some of the previous classes successfully. Bill stopped working in the middle of the first semester. He didn't do half of the projects and didn't turn in the digital portfolio, which is the semester exam. This semester I emailed parents, counselors and principals that the student was over-engaged with his phone and wasn't working in class. My previous interaction with parents and administrators led to nothing but more aggression, so I decided to shape the class where the student could work as he chose, as long as he turned in work. I gave three weeks worth of project and allowed students to work in any order they chose as long as a project was turned in every week.

He turned in nothing, but spent plenty of time on his phone. When I asked what preparation work he had done, he replied he was working at home. The end of the semester is here and he has produced nothing and has one of the lowest scores I've ever given. I don't know what more a teacher can do than give students assignments and expect them to turn in work. I try to design engaging pieces. We did covers for CD's and poster sized printouts. And yet somehow in spite of that I fear the blame will fall on me.

Just last week the mandate went out for all students to upload work to their portfolios (not the art one-the one they are supposed to keep as "a district of innovation." And when said students hadn't uploaded work, it was blamed on teachers. I presented information three times. Yet it appears that students are to bear no burden for their work or their responsibilities.

Saturday, January 07, 2017

Futures

Once again, I face the task of dismantling Christmas. I admit to being sentimental. I have the nativity set I bought piece by piece from Avon when my kids were small. I set it out each year, surrounded with angels in its own little environment. I have the crafty glitter-laden ornaments my children made, the marbled ones my daughter and I made more recently and a collection of ornaments dating back from our first Christmas as a married couple (we found a tree on Christmas Eve, thrown out by a nearby office and an old string of lights which ended up burning the carpet of our apartment) We didn't have a star that first year, so I illustrated one. It still tops our tree. There's ornaments for the times our children were baseball players, dancers, musicians. And in taking down these memories from our tree, I wonder who will collect them when I am gone.

Each of these pieces were a part of our family. Yet my children don't seem interested in pursuing the idea of children. I know they would be great parents. My son and his wife are wonderful people. My daughter and her husband are great with kids. But it doesn't seem as if they are even considering becoming parents. Perhaps it has to do with their economic struggles. All these thirty somethings work hard at jobs that offer little real security or long term promise. Although they've paid off student loans and bought houses, they all seem more interested in acquiring things than being parents. Perhaps it is selfish of me, but I feel that becoming a parent has been the making of my youngest son. I truly don't think you can look beyond yourself until someone else depends on you for everything. But my grandson lives with his mom and step-father. Any memories we would leave him probably wouldn't be especially valued by him because his mother wasn't involved.

I look at the shiny balls and smiling angels and wonder if they will end up as just a lot sold as antique in some shop. Or worse, I fear that my memories and theirs will simply end up in a landfill, forgotten. I don't want to be the stereotypical Mom who asks when I'm going to have grandkids but golly, I see families with far less having kids out the door. I want someone to carry on. I want someone to remember us. I want a baby to love and spoil unconditionally.

In our nation, the birthrate is dropping. I think too many of the next generation have decided it's not worth the time and bother to become parents. That's sad because that kind of love simply doesn't exist outside of becoming a parent. Maybe things will change. Right now, I'm pretty sad.