Inmates Run Asylum, Film at 11

I am not sure how things got this disjointed or why things got this disjointed or who is responsible. All I know is that Thursday morning I'm supposed to facilitate a meeting of all the art teachers in our high school cluster from K through high school. Because our former superintendent, Mr. All Apple All The Time, resigned/retired at midyear, suddenly all the "we will use all Apple products even if it breaks the bank" mantra has gone away. Now we're in a time warp (insert Rocky Horror imagery here)and going back to the LAST trend which was "Understanding By Design." This is what preceded the glorified, overpriced Venn diagrammography of the last trend before we began as a district to worship at the altar of Apple.

We have a coordinator whose authority covers Dance, Theater and Art. She claims to have knowledge of all of them, but in reality we only see her maybe twice a year for fleeting seconds of time as she dashes in our classrooms while classes are in session, throws some bauble at us and then scuttles a hasty retreat to the more friendly theater environs. I didn't start out disliking her. I was overjoyed to have someone to intercede for us, to champion our causes or at least to make us less invisible to the powers that be. I was naive.

This year has been what less elegant people would calls a cl*st*rf*ck. I don't use that kind of language, but it doesn't mean I'm not thinking it. From the earliest part of the year, every action demanded of us as a discipline was scheduled on days when we were doing semester exams or standardized testing. I realize the folks in administration don't have enough to do, but when I'm stuck proctoring exams for three days, asking me for an inventory of my equipment does not endear me to anyone. Even such a banal thing as our district art show collapsed under the weight of competing causes such as our State competition, Scholastic Arts and Writing Nationals, and all the hoopla that goes with sending in college admissions forms. It was too much in a short period. Plus it is ridiculous to have an annual district high school show in the middle of the year when half of ours students haven't even been in an art class yet.

It didn't have to be like this. We have means of communicating. But instead of directly telling us what's going on, the coordinator relied on a committee she formed. If it was a group of like minded folks, it would be a great thing, but we have a couple of long time teachers in wealthy, mostly white schools (one on national TV for showing racist signs at a basketball game) and they don't play nice. Because of our different demographics and wealth levels, we can't magically pull funding out of our hats. In a similar fashion, we can't demand students show up because most of their parents work weekends. Our kids work just as hard and deserve better. Heck, I have four kids heading to RISD, two to Parsons, one to Pratt, one to Memphis and one to Carnegie Mellon. Yet for all the praise these kids get, you would think they had learned to tie their shoes by themselves. But when the other schools win even slight honors, the world, and district, must stop and admire. It's not right. Due to this attitude, nobody tells anyone, anything until the last minute.

This leads me to cycle back to the first graph. On Friday, while I was grading finals, logging in grades, I get an email at 3:30 in the afternoon demanding to know what I was presenting at the In-Service. I had only gotten word an hour earlier that middle school teachers as well as teachers from the tech center would be coming. I didn't have time to banter and told her that I would figure it out over the weekend. She got upset, demanded a meeting, claimed I was disrespectful. Perhaps so. But I tend not to respect people who get paid more than I do, but DO NOT DO THEIR JOBS. What's even more laughable is that when I asked my Assistant Principal what WE were doing in the morning before the presentation, she said "I don't know. I don't think anybody knows. It's like administration suddenly realized they had an In-Service on the calendar and they didn't plan anything so they're shoving it on us and now we seem to be passing the buck to you guys." She really said that. I appreciate the honesty.

So I will do this presentation along with our new hire (who is awesome) and we will discuss Understanding By Design and we will figure out goals for fifth grade art and high school art one and we will submit our ideas on implementing change. Not that anything will change. But at least they can't say I didn't do my job.

It just makes me kind of sick to think that even if I do an amazing job (and frankly my lesson plan on this sounds lightyears better than anything we've had the last five years!) I will only be perpetuating the job life of this really unfortunate leader.

What In the World Are They Thinking?

Two stories from our local news:
Teen Threatens to Blow Up Graduation
Middle Schooler Writes Graphic Story Describing How He would Attack and Kill Classmates

In the first story, a 17 year old Hispanic honor student is immediately, and I think correctly, arrested when three classmates came forward and told authorities of his threats on social media to plant IED's at the graduation ceremony. In this case, either because his family wasn't affluent, or because he wasn't a student who had special education dispensation, he was arrested. End of story.

The second story is more problematic. A middle school student posted online a graphic, detailed and specific ELEVEN CHAPTER story on how he would attack, kill and molest other students. He had been removed from the school in the Fall term for undisclosed reasons but re-enrolled in January. The story was discovered and the specific students were alerted, but the general population, including parents, didn't know of the situation until after Spring Break. 

Stop for a minute. How would you feel if your son or daughter was on this kid's "kill list?' I know that my kid wouldn't be attending school until the student in question was removed, but the authorities are saying it's a free speech issue.

Then come the other excuses:
He's been bullied because of a physical disability.
He's a special education student.
The tacit message is that because of ADA and the wealth of the parents, this kid can do just about anything he wants. This is a message saying that the needs of one student should outweigh the peace of mind of every other student and staff member. This is what ADA has wrought.

What was meant as a means of making sure that kids capable of learning with assistance to overcome physical disabilities has become a catchall bullyclub for providing outrageous and expensive education in the same public schools struggling to pass average kids in regular subjects. When I walk down the hall and see one teacher with one student all day I honestly wonder what is the purpose? When I witness special education students dropped into regular education classrooms without aides, without help and without consideration of the needs of the rest of the class I have to wonder at what point the parents of other kids say enough. I've witnessed how a lawyered up special ed student's parents can bully and cajole, and yes bribe, officials to do whatever they want in regards to their child's education whether it is appropriate or not. I've seen how a six foot four bipolar out of control can bully a teacher and peers. Is being a special education student an excuse?

I hear far too many people making excuses for outrageous and potentially dangerous behavior. Does anyone remember that they tried to justify both Columbine and Newtown on bullying? Isn't it possible that emotionally disturbed students may view anyone who doesn't suffer as they do as a bully-thereby justifying their own unchecked rage? 

Let's say that the school let's this kid fester in his self-created rage. Let's say he gets hold of instructions for an explosive or poison or brings a weapon? Would the school be willing to take the blame for failing to stop this student when they could? Would the parents? I'm sorry, I want all kids to feel safe and all kids to get the education they need. But what has happened in order to serve very few is hurting many students in many ways. 

This Article Confirms Everything I've Said About Education for the Last 5 Years.

Fortune Magazine published this story and it doesn't strike me as surprising. Over the last five years, since the imposition and increase of technology by our administration and by the country at large, I have seen a reduction in work ethic, retention, writing and reading abilities. We no longer teach cursive so there is no motor memory of writing. The assumption by the powers that be is there will always be a calculator or a computer accessible to do the mundane tasks of basic math or spelling. This erosion of basic skills is resonating through the workforce. Parents who pushed computers at early ages over reading kids bedtime stories are now faced with young adults who do not read for pleasure or enrichment and possibly cannot read on a literate level at all.

Yet what is the drumbeat we hear? TECHnology TECHnology TECHnology....how many vocational programs were gutted to buy into the rarified coursework of Animation or Graphic Design? How many kids fully capable of hands on skills in a variety of trades such as electrical repair, plumbing, auto repair, cosmetology, cabinetry and more have found themselves instead in classes they do not need and do not want? The myth that every kid is going to college is a fallacy. Every kid doesn't belong in college. Many kids go to college only to fail and end up in dead end jobs with a large student loan in tow. This is no way to improve an economy.

I guarantee that in China or Japan or Korea or India or Russia they are not teaching their children to do math using computers. I promise you that these nations also celebrate their complex language structure by requiring students learn to write and communicate. These are skills that are vanishing from a large part of the population. Ironically we are removing the very exercises that would instill deeper retention. Cursive writing is used to help dyslexic students internalize the shapes of letters. Rote memorization of multiplication tables affects a different part of the brain than using a calculator and allows for deeper understanding of the PROCESS of multiplication.

As I have said before, technology is a good servant, but a bad master. Every sci fi movie alludes to this fear of technology actually countermanding the desires of humans. Perhaps we are on the threshold of that becoming reality. When you go to the doctor, the younger ones often spend more time looking at the computer than the patient. For that reason Johns Hopkins has medical students taking art history classes to teach them to OBSERVE THE PATIENT. How many medical mistakes have occurred because of the failure to note the reaction of the patient over the steps of protocol?
We have young mothers sitting at playgrounds enthralled with Angry Birds while their children are out of control. We have students watching movies during class. What is more the overlay of social media on a population that has not been taught basic social skills has led to most of the angst we've witnesses in society over the last few years. Can you name one incident-political, social, legal or economic-that wasn't in some way by social media?

It's time to stop this nonsense. I'm not saying to forbid media, but it's time to stop just giving in to trends. Frankly I think Apple and Google and Facebook and all the other manufacturers and websites share the blame for the sick dissolution of social discourse. And make no mistake, for all you liberals out there, none of these companies do it for any other reason beyond making a buck. So while hipsters walk around talking on IPhones about how high their student loans are and complaining about how they don't have any money, step back and think about all the things we have now that are branded and promoted and therefore deemed popular. Is Starbucks really better than a cup of coffee you make yourself? 

Such weakminded behavior leads to some of the mob/gang/group atrocities we've witnessed online. How are the SAE's any different than wilding mobs attacking innocent people at a midwestern fair? How desperate are these kids to find some magic pill that can insure their success the way Mommy and Daddy did when they were in public school? While both are vile and nasty and racist and violent, this doesn't spring full born from their own heads. Have you listened to the lyrics of popular music? I ban those songs in my classroom and yet I have had heated discussions with students who think the n-word is allowed simply because they themselves are black. I think bad, rude, insensitive language goes across the boards. You cannot permit some people to use the words with impunity and then get outraged when someone uses them. NOBODY SHOULD BE USING THESE WORDS. Stop trying to be hip and cool by joining into activities that are mean, dangerous and simply unnecessary. And the kids on the bus using the n-word in Oklahoma are every much as vile as the gangs who assault innocent people on the street for the sake of "fun." 

By the way, lest you think I am out of touch, much of this is fueled by things my own kids-ranging from 25 to 30-have told me about their peers. Every week it's a new complaint about coworkers that are hunted down by bill collectors or people who run up credit card bills at restaurants leaving friends to cover the bill. These dime a day millionaires have bought into the Oprahization of America believing that their mere existence qualifies them for the best of everything. Nobody deserves the best of everything, especially if they can't pay for it. 

Here's the column and link. Read it. Share it. This is important.

Millenial Fail

Surprised? So were the researchers who tested and compared workers in 23 countries.

We hear about the superior tech savvy of people born after 1980 so often that we tend to assume it must be true. But is it?

Researchers at Princeton-based Educational Testing Service (ETS) expected it to be when they administered a test called the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). Sponsored by the OECD, the test was designed to measure the job skills of adults, aged 16 to 65, in 23 countries.

When the results were analyzed by age group and nationality, ETS got a shock. It turns out, says a newreport, that Millennials in the U.S. fall short when it comes to the skills employers want most: literacy (including the ability to follow simple instructions), practical math, and — hold on to your hat — a category called “problem-solving in technology-rich environments.”

Not only do Gen Y Americans lag far behind their overseas peers by every measure, but they even score lower than other age groups of Americans.

Take literacy, for instance. American Millennials scored lower than their counterparts in every country that participated except Spain and Italy. (Japan is No. 1.) In numeracy, meaning the ability to apply basic math to everyday situations, Gen Yers in the U.S. ranked dead last.

Okay, but what about making smart use of technology, where Millennials are said to shine? Again, America scored at the bottom of the heap, in a four-way tie for last place with the Slovak Republic, Ireland, and Poland.

Even the best-educated Millennials stateside couldn’t compete with their counterparts in Japan, Finland, South Korea, Belgium, Sweden, or elsewhere. With a master’s degree, for example, Americans scored higher in numeracy than peers in just three countries: Ireland, Poland, and Spain. Altogether, the top U.S. Gen Yers, in the 90thpercentile, “scored lower than their counterparts in 15 countries,” the report notes, “and only scored higher than their peers in Spain.”

“We really thought [U.S.] Millennials would do better than the general adult population, either compared to older coworkers in the U.S. or to the same age group in other countries,” says Madeline Goodman, an ETS researcher who worked on the study. “But they didn’t. In fact, their scores were abysmal.”

What does that mean for U.S. employers hiring people born since 1980? Goodman notes that hiring managers shouldn’t overestimate the practical value of a four-year degree. True, U.S. Millennials with college credentials did score higher on the PIAAC than Americans with only a high school diploma (albeit less well than college grads in most other countries).

“But a degree may not be enough,” Goodman says, to prove that someone is adept with basic English, can do what she calls “workaday math,” or has the ability to use technology in a job. Curious about how the PIAAC measures those skills, or how you’d score yourself? Check out a few sample math questions, or take the whole test.

Snow in March in Texas

I'm a Texas native.
I've grown up here and seen a wide range of weather from hurricanes to tornadoes to storms that would fry the normal person's hair.But one thing was always pretty consistent and that was the change of weather during the year. I don't remember one March day from my childhood where it snowed in Texas. I don't remember the kind of weather we have endured the last five years. What's interesting is that while the green types keep saying this is all evidence of Global Warming, our winters have been longer and colder in north Texas in the past five to ten years. Even when I was in high school back in the 70's winter centered from late December through mid-February. Now we're seeing the situation that is so confused that the bulbs I plant after the first frost have come up trying to bloom just in time to get frozen by one or two unprecedented winter storms.

My hypothesis is that the magnetic poles, which are not fixed, are shifting as they do from time to time. This in turn is resulting in altered weather patterns for the entire northern hemisphere. But, that being said, this is not the much ballyhooed Global Warming nor it is something we can control.

This year, in north Texas, we've had almost as much snow as we have ever had. My backyard featured seven inches of snow that fell last night, which was on top of nearly an inch of ice. I would say this isn't normal Texas weather for March, but for the last five years or so this type of weather has creeped into the Spring Break calendar. Tonight it will be 21 degrees here which might be normal for some Rust Belt states, but decidedly colder than history would have it for Dallas. Perhaps hell has truly frozen over. Given what's gone on lately, it wouldn't surprise me.

Tax Reality

My son broke his ankle last January. This was followed by a series of economic hurdles that included having to pay $5000 out of pocket just to get admitted to the hospital. After the surgery-two plates and sixteen screws-my son missed nearly two months of full time work. It was simply impossible for him to do his job as a high end bike sales rep. He couldn't drive. He couldn't stand up all day. But his company held his job and created opportunities for him to contribute. The end bill was around $45K for surgery and two and a half days of hospitalization.

This is where the trouble began. The nurses and doctors didn't wean him from the IV pain meds until he was being wheeled out the door. Because I teach school and had already missed several days to care for him, his older brother picked him up. My son suffered outrageous withdrawals, for which nobody seemed to have answers. He endured the agony for four days. Then we began getting bills. Although the hospital that the surgeon used had the brand name of a hospital on my son's insurance, because it was 51% owned by the doctors working there, we had to haggle to get the amount covered. We had no choice really. He broke the ankle on New Year's Day and the longer we waited, the worse the recovery would be. There were only two doctors from a list of 20 given by his insurance who could see him. Likewise, we had to either choose the facility offered or risk waiting two to three weeks. Now I ask you, does that sound like prudent and immediate care? But I digress.

Fast forward to this week. All my son's papers were in order (sounds menacing doesn't it) for filing taxes. He did get compensation from his company's accident insurance policy to cover his out of pocket expenses. He still ended up missing two months of work and had to make up for lost income. But when he went to file taxes, he was told that the compensation he used to pay off the hospital and doctor would be TAXED. So even though he ended up spending 12% of his annual gross income on medical bills, my son, who work retail, who has only recently made enough to afford to move out and live on his own, will owe money. When he told the person doing the taxes effectively that he would not be filing, she replied "but you make more than lots of people."

This is how conservatives are made.

I Do My Job-Why Can't Other People Do Theirs?

A valid question.
I'm a high school teacher with all the job responsibility and paperwork that entails. I make lesson plans,  grade projects, call parents, go to meetings, make arrangements for competitions, collect permission slips, and on and on and on. I do this year in and year out.

We got a coordinator that we share with theater and dance.
She's handsomely paid.
For what I am not sure.
I call and she's never in her office. She allows her pet teacher to run meetings which means every event is designed to fit nicely with that teacher's schedule and not necessarily ours. This year, because this teacher wanted to win all the top places in our district show, they had the once a year, district, high school art show in late January. Never mind that we just got a new crop of classes and kids. Ignore that our regional show is coming up shorting. Forget that we have GRADES due-and all of that in the same week.

Fast forward to now. Teacher in question did win all top prizes-I'm not sure how when my kids got first in painting and first in drawing, but whatever. And Monday is Open House and Eighth Grade Roundup where we talk kids into taking art-and our "art coordinator" decided it would be a good thing for us to take down the show in the 90 minutes between school getting out and the event. We physically cannot do it. It takes 30 minutes just to drive over there and another hour or so to take down the art then 30 minutes to get back. That means no break from 7:30 am until 9:00 pm.

I already have high blood pressure. I simply cannot continue doing this kind of thrill kill schedule.

Here We Go Again

So once again radical Islamist decide that they are the arbiters of what free people can think, feel, write or draw. That this happened in France should be no surprise-they've been trying to remove all religion from their midst becoming a secular society by banning religious jewelry and only consolidated Islamists into a unified force. The moral of this story is appeasing bullies does no good.

This is not the first attack in Europe. A bus was targeted in London. A British soldier butchered by Islamist terrorists on the street. A bombing in Madrid. The thing that is different is that in every case the European response was to cower and allow sharia to grow. It is the same sick liberal mentality that refuses to see the Boston Marathon Bombing, the Ft. Hood shootings or the Navy Yard shootings for what they are-raw Islamic terror attacks.

It is deeply disturbing when I see Islam growing in suburban areas. While I would love to think these mosques are innocuous as the local Presbyterian church, I don't see the members of that synod throwing firebombs at shopping malls, Indeed, no other religion right now has exhibited such unbridled and unwarranted attacks as those who claim Muslim heritage. From Somalia to Indonesia random acts of violence on innocent people for the sole cause of not being Muslim make this appear to be the actions of some type of delusional madness.

Is that what Islam preaches? Violence? Hatred? Death?

And what is more, have the apologists in Europe-and here in the U.S-FINALLY gotten the message that the only way to end this is to seize control of these Muslim nations and take away their power? It's either that or somebody is going to end up flat and glassy and glowing.

The Illustrated Star

My husband and I have been married for 32 years. We've been together nearly 40 years. Neither of our families was wealthy. HIs family had so many kids and my family just never seemed to accumulate wealth. I went to college on a Pell Grant. My husband went to college for one year because his Dad was a self made man and believed if people wanted college they would pay for it themselves. Nobody gave us anything because nobody was in the position to give us anything. We never asked.

Our first Christmas two months after we married was bittersweet. We lived in a small, bug infested suburban apartment and we were so strapped for cash we couldn't afford a tree. I guess Christmas was on a Friday or Saturday because two days before Christmas we found a medium sized tree in the dumpster. We took it home, put it in water. I borrowed old (and probably hazardous) lights from my parents, bought pressed glass ornaments from the dollar bin at Pier One and our tree was set-except for the star. My Christmas trees have always had stars. The star signaled the shepherds and wise men. The star signaled hope and gave direction. I went and dug out my colored pencils and drew a star. The star was flat, made from thick scrap illustration board from my class. But I drew it so that it looked three dimensional. It has been on our tree for 32 years.

Our Christmases came and went. I started each child on a collection of ornaments. Mike had cars. Bobby had puppies. Christi had cute little animals. As they grew, the collections grew. And then the kids moved out, married and now have their own Christmas trees with their own pieces of our Christmases on them. I will never have a designer tree. Oh yes, they're beautiful and make wonderful backdrops for the holiday photos, but my trees and my ornaments are little pieces of my memory. Memories don't always conform to fashion. And they shouldn't.

When I look at my kids, none of whom are wealthy or in prestigious careers, but who are good people who work hard and pay their bills, it makes me fear for them. It seems that virtues like honesty and honor, trust and faith, love and respect are no longer part of the fabric of the American Dream. Fame, notoriety, provocative behavior and greed seem to trump the sweetness of what used to be goals. I'm not sure who speaks for my children anymore. They have no champions in their corner. All I can cling to is that time changes everything and life is more a roller coaster ride than a road. Let's hope this pendulum swings back before we lose more than just Christmas, but our souls.

Recreating the 1960's

It seems to me that lately we have a generation-the grandchildren of those who marched in Selma and who fought for civil rights for all people-intent on reliving and recreating those years. While I understand the legacy of slavery 150 years ago resonated in the dissolution of families and culture, there's nobody alive now who was a slave or a slave owner. Most of the victims of Jim Crow laws are quite elderly and unless I'm unaware of it, the openly racist tactics of pushing people of color into second class status have been over for quite awhile.

We have programs designed to help minority students acquire a high school diploma and even to advance to college and professional schools. So why are so many students failing to take advantage of the system set in place to help them achieve? We've culturally simplified the tests-we even offer a safety net of tutoring, retests and mentoring programs to help the historic underachievers. Here's a little secret some people may not know-Anglo kids fail too. And they have far fewer safety nets in place. The idea that being white somehow protects you is a joke and half to these kids.

So we move the most recent unpleasantness. Like the Trayvon Martin case, the Michael Brown case was tried in the court of public opinion by those who have social and political agendas. In both cases, evidence was misrepresented by reporters who should have known better. In a similar way, agents and provocateurs used both of these cases as leverage to get the locals to open their wallets. Be careful when someone claims to be here to help-ask who they are helping beyond themselves. As the result of this false "evidence" rioting was promoted and occurred. The end result of this has yet to be seen, but there's no doubt that some businesses and their associated jobs will go away. This means that as the result of rioting Ferguson will have fewer job opportunities and is almost guaranteed to drop in terms of the ability to sustain itself.

The complaints of the 1960's were discrimination in housing, in education and in jobs. With fewer businesses, there's less tax revenue meaning the schools get less money. Few businesses also means fewer jobs and more people on welfare. It's almost as if this was the endgame for the entire situation was to create more poor, minority people. When you look at the protests, they are based on complaints that are legally flimsy. While nobody wants someone killed, neither do citizens want petty thieves and bullies wandering the streets. For all the public complaints about Michael Brown's death there have to be those who know the real background. Brown was kicked out by his parents and by his grandmother-that's not what happens to "gentle giants". Brown had to make up high school credits after graduation. That's not what kids with a bright future do. That is what kids who have a history of disrupting classes, bullying peers and skipping school do. So why are so many so willing to protest? I'm not saying all cops are golden, but it seems like certain cases have been hand picked by DOJ and the media for some purposes beyond the peaceful promotion of racial equality.

Who is pulling the strings on this and why?

Subjective Judgement: A Comparison

When we look at the instance of Darren Wilson shooting Michael Brown, judgement seems to line up largely according to political lines. Of course those who had seen the shooting, who had no dog in the hunt and who gave anonymous testimony were probably the most accurate in terms of what happened and when. But the rest of the "witnesses" seem to cling to what they want the story to be even when it is refuted by evidence. They would never tolerate that kind of treatment of one of their own. So it breaks down into a game of "Who's The Hypocrite?"

Twitter also plays these games. I like twitter-probably a little too much. It's a good way to get information quickly and allows for a free flow of back and forth if you choose. Twitter is not the only site that has this kind of dubious ambiance, but it's the best known. My biggest problem with twitter is the nagging tattle tail enforcement of their "rules". Twitter's "rules" seem to change at will. And enforcement of those rules is based on whichever little meathead is in charge of the site at the time. For example: The New York Times published the address of Darren Wilson opening up not just him, but all of his neighbors, to attack. The two writers who did this hid behind a cloak of arrogant journalistic hubris. A few hours later two other websites posted the writers' addresses-one in Chicago and the other in New Orleans. I copied them and posted them AS DID MANY OTHER PEOPLE. My account was suspended. 

Keep in mind that tax rolls are public records. While I didn't do the heavy lifting of sifting through tax rolls, I don't think suspending my account makes sense when other subsequent people posted them as well and seemingly were not banned. Furthermore, if it is wrong for me-a private citizen who COPIED addresses from two other blogs then why is it not wrong for these self-important trumped up reporters to post Wilson's address exposing him and his neighbors to violence? What kind of game is twitter playing here? If they want to be the arbiters of what is right and wrong, fine. But by God do not get on a high horse over distant reporters' addresses when you allow them to point out a man who's life is in danger by publicly issue threats from the New Black Panthers. If it is wrong for one, it is wrong for all. I am willing to abide by that, but are the New York Times or Twitter?

Today

Today is better.
I am not going to subscribe to the notion that the wave election of last week is the cause but it certainly helped. It's nice to know you aren't alone in your angst. That we now have some government paid clown telling us what Tea Party types always assumed-that ACA is not sustainable and that the data given to the CBO was all lies-finding out the Ivy League "expert" quoted by one and all on the DNC thinks we are a bunch of inbred boobs pretty much dooms him to a limited income and future.

I started painting little four inch canvases for the holidays. I play to put a loop of ribbon on them and sell them as the school bazaar for money for competition. Maybe then some of my students will compete....maybe. Anyway, painting has altered my mindset for the better. I got a big canvas and I have my drawing ready. It's time to paint.

Tired

Perhaps it is the world we are living in.
Perhaps it is my age.
I am tired.
So tired that if I could I would quit.
It isn't that my job is any more difficult than it was before. Nor is it that I am incapable of doing my job well. But I am losing my grip. I notice that I miss having a walk on a cool October morning. I don't have time to bake, to sew, to draw. I don't have time to clean. My house is a disaster area because between my "full time" job that lasts days on in and my husband's pieced together quilt of part time work, nobody is at home in any amount of time. Dustbunnies are flourishing under my bed. What laundry I wash and dry seldom gets folded and put away. The cursory cleaning I do of the kitchen and bath keeps the Health Dept at bay, but in reality it creates a lonely world because I am too embarrassed to have anyone come over.
I am so tired.
I am so sad.
Sometimes I am scared. The world has become a scary place. It's safer and more secure when you are the World's Cop than when you are the World's Piggybank. I love how nations that revile us are so quick to stick out their hands. In the meantime, here at home we have a president who seems disinterested in the heavy lifting of governing. He leads an alphabet soup of  Federal agencies and offices that seem to be nothing more than organized theft and spy rings intent on stealing from and spying on people like me. I see my kids struggle. They put off buying homes. They put off having kids. And these are the very people who should be parents. In the meantime ignorant inbred folks breed like bunnies assured a Federal handout will come with every new kiddo.

What has happened to us? When did we allow small groups to dictate to the large ones? When did we replace rule of law with the rule of who is loudest? I watch the news and the protesters in Ferguson are little different than those mobs that call themselves ISIS in Syria and Iraq. They only want their views expressed and they're willing to kill and main anyone who dares to have a different view. This is not the way it used to be. And it's not the way it should be. What has happened to us?

Welcome to Ebola Central

I live in the Dallas area. My son and daughter in law live mere blocks from the first Ebola patient, less than a quarter of a mile from the other. They are all of the same age, hang out at the same restaurants, bars and theaters. There's hookah bars, open air fruit stands, dog parks, and more all within the same area both nurses lived. And my son and his wife are there.

The head of the CDC says they can't catch Ebola from casual contact. But then they make all workers wear hazmat suits. We have a county judge, who is incidentally up for reelection, literally tramping through the contaminated apartment without any protective gear. He says he does it because "that's the way I would want my family treated. " Bullshit. He did it because there's a camera there. And since then, this local weasel who got his positions through Democrat party manipulations in the county, Clay Jenkins has sought publicity at every turn. In the meantime, after his little show for the press, he goes home to his family including a nine year old daughter that attends public schools in Highland Park. Imagine the fear of other parents not knowing if their child will be the one who picks up the virus thanks to this man's selfish behavior.

But it's more than that. I am genuinely sorry Mr. Duncan died. Nobody should have to suffer that fate. But since he KNEW he had been exposed and LIED to come here, I think we can pretty much write off any of his fiancee's claims to anger at his treatment. There is now a story floating that Duncan didn't tell the nurse the first time that he had been in WEST Africa, just that he came from Africa. Dallas is in the middle of the nation. It's simply not unreasonable to think that such a disease would show up in New York or Miami or Atlanta before Dallas. There are also reports that in the early stages the mild fever before the full onset can be controlled with Tylenol. So even the CDC's touchless temporal scans would not suffice to find the sick person. It's like a particularly gruesome version of Where's Waldo.

I went to the State Fair-a large gathering. I've been feeling queasy all day. Perhaps it's simply psychosomatic. Perhaps it was the heat. I refuse to  limit my life because of something brought here through carelessness and selfishness. But having said that, I find myself using hand sanitizer frequently. I send kids to the nurse for the least thing. I call my kids daily to the point that I can hear their eyes rolling. I know the weakest-the elderly and the very young-are often the targets of this disease. I worry about my Mom who at 85 is already battling enough chronic disease. I worry about my grandson who has just started preschool and could be exposed through sheer ignorance to this disease. I ache with worry.

And in the meantime, the market has had its fourth down day, rumors are that Soros is selling short, we have a government more interested in circling the wagons than solving the problem. Between the CDC, IRS, NSA, EPA I'm truly not sure what will be left after Obama leaves office. Let us pray.

What's Wrong....

I've posted so many blogs about these issues. Many of them interlock which makes them so much more difficult to fix. But I personally need to outline what has happened so that I can deal with the scope of what this administration has accomplished in regards to altering our way of life.

1. Bribes: Before the heat of the election had even cooled, people were being offered "easy money". The most obvious form of this was "Cash for Clunkers." This poorly designed program was said to be created to get older, less environmentally sound vehicles off the road. The funded amount was supposed to last at least two months. I don't think it even lasted two weeks. The problem is that people traded in older PAID FOR and ended up taking new cars, using the bonus as downpayment and ended up with more car payments. The last thing low income people need is MORE DEBT, but that's exactly what Obama created. What is more, those older cars were very often good enough to drive to work, but rather than recycling them for parts or using parts from these cars to replaced damaged cars, all they did was crush the cars making them essentially useless except as scrap.

Other bribes include bonuses for hybrid cars, bonuses for buying homes in certain key areas, bonuses for teaching in Title IX schools and so on. It sounds like free money, but they all come with strings attached and a cost.

2. Obamacare: I refuse to call this the "Affordable Care Act" because nothing about it is affordable. It was pushed by DEMOCRATS onto Americans under the mistaken cause of providing insurance for the uninsured. If you care to look at recent stats there are almost exactly the same number of uninsured people in this country now as there were five years and several billion dollars ago. ACA was designed as a method of surreptitiously taxing the middle class via insurance so that the money could be used as a kind of slush fund for the Obama administration's agenda. Agreements were made to deny tort reforms, which are proven to lower costs of medical care, in order to get the Trial Lawyers' Association's support. Agreements were made behind closed doors with Big Pharma by the DEMOCRATS to prevent any competition from overseas pharmaceutical manufacturers driving up the cost of medicine. And then to make sure all bases were covered, they added a tax on all medical devices which also drives up bills. Most of us who have insurance are seeing much higher premiums and deductibles that make the concept of insurance almost laughable because most people can't afford to pay the deductible. Add to this mess the sneaky way the increases in premiums and cancellations are being held mere days after the midterm elections and you have a hot mess.

3. Corruption: Oh let me count the ways.
-Fast and Furious-Now former AG Holder is still in contempt of Congress, still hasn't testified and still holds the record for being the most obnoxious recent resident of the hot seat.
-Benghazi-We don't know who called the stand down. We don't know why. We haven't heard from any of the survivors (although I think a book is coming out soon). We have a White House obviously stonewalling. I seriously don't think it's Hilary. I think Valerie Jarrett is Soros' agent in place and she's doing a great deal of the heavy lifting. This probably explains why Obama never reads his security briefings anymore.
-IRS-Really....seriously....a building full of accountants and lawyers-people who love paper more than life itself-and they lose documents? Nobody believes this. Nobody. Not even the people claiming to believe it.
-NSA-Ongoing and hi-did you find those letters I lost last month?
-Snooping on journalists-you'd think this would piss off the media. After all, Obama has developed a reputation for aloofness only equaled by Richard Nixon. He refused them access to public events, he has them locked in closets, beaten by security guards, chased by Secret Service and yet still the mainstream media loves him like an abused puppy. Please media-get help.

Pray for the Children

As a teacher I have a tender spot for children, small animals and babies of all breeds. When I was young, I was hopeful. I thought there was a future where I could have a home and children and a job I loved. It wasn't unrealistic because most people were capable of achieving those modest goals. I am not sure what happened along the way, but I feel a great deal of sadness when I look at my own children. What kind of world have we given them?

My kids are the ones you don't read about in the newspaper. We are not rich so they couldn't be spoiled. They participated in school activities, cared about their grades, sought college or at least some training. As young adults they worked at jobs. Some of them were not the deluxe careers sought by some young adults, but it paid the rent and the bills. My kids have struggled. Despite college degrees, the jobs are few and far between. This group more than any other has borne the brunt of economic savagery wrought by this administration. While the president claims to love the middle class, he dines and golfs with the one percent he claims to hate.

I just got off the phone with my daughter. Married two years, she works two jobs to the tune of 12 hours a day. Her husband works with autistic children and has just finished his Masters. They can barely afford their bills and money woes are taking a toll. She has already told me that she sees no way they can ever afford children, much less a house or any of the other rites of passage. Their problems started when her paid off car was hit by an uninsured driver. She was forced to buy a used car which right now are where new cars were just a couple of years back. There is no other way for her to get to work. She is very sad.

My oldest son, newly married, just moved into a small older duplex. He and his wife are trying hard to save money to buy their own home, but just yesterday a driver ran a red light and hit my daughter in law's paid off Toyota because as the other driver said " I didn't think I had to stop at this intersection" (There's a light there.) This comes on the heels of my son being hit by a guy in a Chrysler who was too busy fiddling with his phone to stop at the light. So they too are stuck with two car payments and no way to avoid the additional expense.

My youngest son, 25, has only recently been able to afford to move out. The rents in this area are ridiculous unless you want to live in a war zone. As it is his expenses are claimed to the penny with insurance, gas, food and child care rising every month.

This is what happens when you have people in power more concerned about agenda over efficiency. I look at the young faces in my class and I wonder what the future holds. Our borders are insecure-rumors persist that ISIS is gathering in Juarez, the cost of everything is rising and it seems that the administration is more concerned in starting a civil war than in running the country. All I can do is pray. I raised my kids to be good people and they are good people. They deserve better than this.

Using Children for Extortion

The story unfolding along the southern border of the United States is not new to those of us who live there. For years there has been a steady stream of undocumented workers who are here illegally. The popular chant is that they only come to work. That should explain the erosion of wages that are occurring under the Obama regime. Oh sure, they talk a good game about "living wages" that are unsustainable for most small businesses, but continue to ignore journeymen plumbers, electricians, machinists and carpenters that are simply priced out of the market by a surge of unchecked workers who may or may not be qualified to build your home. (As an aside, in the chichi upper class environs of McKinney TX a few years back, a custom builder was found to have used uncertified workers -most likely illegals-to wire houses. Only later when houses started having fires were the houses discovered to have been not up to code. This was hushed up with out of court settlements)

So those problems along with identity theft, spikes in uncompensated claims for emergency,fire, police, water, energy and housing have added to the economic burden of the region.

Even the most liberal among us were beginning to say enough is enough.

Then they sent children.

Americans are decent people. Unlike many other cultures we don't demand our children quit school and start working at an early age.  Most people seek to help children as witnessed by campaigns like Feed the Children, Toys for Tots and other independent programs that do not exist anywhere else in the world. Our tenderness is our Achilles heel. Cartels-which incidentally indulge in many other crimes beyond drugs such as human trafficking, smuggling, brand encroachment as well as bringing people here illegally. So someone (I'm still reserving judgement as to whether this was precipitated  to stampede Congress to make a snap decision on immigration) started and effectively spread a rumor regarding amnesty-something that our president was slow to refute. We have facilities full. If a hurricane, tornado or other disaster hits the region, Texas, Oklahoma and surrounding states will have few options for housing the survivors.

My final thoughts are these: What loving parent places their toddler in the arms of a coyote? It makes no sense. It's just too pat a story. What other criminals and even terrorists have managed to elude our grasp because the Border Patrol was changing diapers? Our softness is setting us up for failure.

Shameful

Of all the things I have seen, the extortion of the elderly and their families has to be among the worst. Insurance companies terrify them into purchasing policies that are essentially worthless. Doctors ignore their complaints rather than investigating concerns. But among the worst of the worst is the housing and care industry for the very oldest among us.

My mother was hospitalized last week. She is scheduled for skilled nursing (rehab) for three weeks. Right now she can walk with a walker, but we have no idea what other things she can do for herself. She lives on social security from my Dad-just enough that she doesn't qualify for Medicaid. She has no savings-Merrill Lynch purged her accounts of that when they bought out BofA. She has no investments, no cache of jewels, no hidden wealth. And yet the cost of finding her safe living accommodations is over $3500 a month. That's more than my takehome pay after taxes. While my Dad was stationed in Sasebo and Nagasaki immediately after WWII, because it wasn't "wartime"

She can't live with us-our one working bathroom isn't accessible. The other one is a mess of leaky pipes that we can't afford to fix. We have no money. She has no money. There's no programs to help her or us. Oh...and on top of the $10,000 taken out of our checks we had to pay $600 more in taxes this week.

The Hits Just Keep On Coming

So we begin the year with my son's catastrophic ankle break. Two plates and 16 titanium screws later, he' still hobbled. My other son was hit when a guy in a big car ran a red light. My son had two witnessses and the police officer say it wasn't his fault but we had to lawyer up because the other guy's denying it. Last week my husband came down with pneumonia and then Friday I came down with acute brochitis. Later Friday my 84 year old mother calls 911 rather than me and ends up in a hospital half way across town because they're the only one that honors Humana. Seriously...could  I please have a break?

Ft. Hood-Deja Vu

I guess being a big military base and in Texas makes Ft. Hood a giant target. I have to wonder if things would have been different today, and back in 2009, if the Clintons had not actively campaigned to remove working weapons from all on base military except MP's. The Navy Yard shooting also could have been mitigated if the shooter KNEW there would be ten guns pointed back at him for every one he pulled out. 
The bottom line is this-we are training young men and women to shoot weapons and do so responsibly. Shouldn't we at least trust them to have them on their own base? Frankly from this perspective it looks like the Clintons were early adopters for hamstringing our military and making them ineffective. 

BTW, if ANYONE dares to say this guy was mad about congressional lack of action on immigration, I will go nuts. This is just the kind of drama ridden prop the Left needs to create to shove through another inane and costly bill like the poorly titled "Affordable" Care Act.

Our prayers go out to the men and women of Ft. Hood and to those who find themselves safer overseas than at home.

Why Administration Micromanagement is Driving Teachers Nuts

I have taught for a long time. I know what I am doing. I am open to new methods, new technology, new ideas, but I do not need an administrator repeatedly and without warning, throwing new things at me. We have a chief administrator that would change the color of the sky if he could do so. Change for improvement is great. Change for the sake of change (and the sake of career grandstanding) is not.

In the past year we have changed:
-The online gradebook
-Online attendance
-Method of purchasing supplies
-Vendors
-Attendance policies
-Grade policies
-Computer hardware (PC to Mac based)

When looking at a list of stressors, too much change in anyone's life is bad. Is it any wonder that we are seeing a Conga line out the door of retirees. What is more, younger teachers are actively seeking employment in other districts and other professions. You would think after seeing the Gallup polling data from teachers (God knows this administration love them some data) they would see the almost palpable frustration over how we have to deal with things on a daily basis. Just in feelgood actions of placing severely disabled kids into regular classrooms with no aid, no resources, no support at all, leaves teachers wondering about the validity of what we do. What good is it to create a curriculum when nobody is held to those standards. You can walk into any high school in my district and find different procedures in play. It makes no sense that we hold our kids in school A accountable for work that school B ignores.

I guess at some level my school administrative staff sees there's a problem. But their solution is to offer just more of the same. Now and for the rest of the year, we will be giving up one planning period a week to essentially vent. Knowing the people in charge and how they can sometimes not take criticism well, how much of a psychological relief will this be?