This is where the shameless self-bump comes in handy. Or just write something incendiary in the title like "Should I eat this [hyena cadaver]?"

What if you feel the federal gov't should not be, or provide, any example of schooling for the public at large? He would be more likely to get my vote if he used his pull as senator to publicly urge dissolving the entire US Dept of Education and sent his children to any-school-I-don't-care-which.

People will give what they want to. They think that giving the kid a shiny toy will personally lift the heart of that kid. Additionally, it's EASY to pick up a plastic toy at Target. (It is the same reason people who provide bagged Cheetos at a relatively sedentary team sport like pee-wee softball instead.) If you think asking for money contribution instead of a plastic gift goes over like a lead balloon, try suggesting giving of their time toward a special afternoon with a kid. The outcome will most likely be radio silence, or a something similar to the appearance of Brigadoon. Anyway, singlehandedly providing the inventory for a Goodwill store is a sign of overconsumption. But now I have also come across tawdriness. Recently I went to a school supply store (which I do about once/year). Every year I am dismayed by how LOUD everything in the store appears. Big, bold, shiny primary colors everything for sale. Like red, blue, and yellow paint were gotten wholesale. It was an eyesore, and the whole place just seemed to reek of drawing a thick black line between adult and child, between respect and pandering.

How long have you felt this way? If you're feeling depressed and unhappy about the role of teacher and it's not going away, I think you should consider a new job. Put it this way, if your kids' teacher at school wrote the same post, would you want her to keep doing that job? It is brave of you to try to define and face your problem. To test if it's true, can you put the kids in some sort of early arrival afterschool program, do what you like in those hours, and see if you don't wish those hours would stretch longer? If those hours are enough, then problem solved. If you yearn for more time, then maybe school is a good idea.

All those "hs-ers betray the cause" threads and commentary rest on the rather specious argument at its core that we are actually wanted. I do not believe any ps wants me there. No school board election has ever had "bring back the hs-ers" as a platform. Schools do not try to retain families who decide to hs, or even try to identify those about to stray. All the arguments for the "field theory of education" (a.k.a learning-through-osmosis) made me feel there must be lavender-hued waves of deep melancholia -- mass pining away for something that was never there. I do not believe it. Not even for a minute. In order for the lame duck argument to float, they must assume that I would be supportive and frankly, non-combative (metaphorically speaking). Why would any club want a member who does not want to be a member? Knowing the way you are about your kids' education, do you think any queen bee teacher would want you around?

Me too, on all counts. But now I think some sort of manipulation is going on. And I will not let my addiction cost $79 year. We should all order Slow Cooker Recipes or Fast Food Nation, and then cancel the order, citing the reason of "Item(s) Would Not Arrive In Time" when they ask (and they always ask!) :)

I meant for people who are too cheap to fork over the $79/yr after the free year ran out. I remembered that amazon shipped out pretty quickly after I placed the order in my pre-Prime days. Now it takes days even to leave + the slow boat shipping method = I need an amazon prime co-op.

Does it seem like amazon holds up shipping out your order for days on end now? It just feels that way to me.

:blushing: I broke out the over-the-ear headphones on the first day of Reading Eggs. There's a song?

There is a Chinese boy born with blue eyes ... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2095309/Someones-eating-carrots-Chinas-cat-eye-boy-dark.html

Could it be that she asked you about rye bread, you heard white, proceeded to answer, and she was too polite to stop you? It's nice that she asks about your daily kid details and about what you like to eat.

I have the Pro one too. Works great and fits well over 2 burners. I noticed the price went up a couple of bucks since this morning though!

No... I feel it is worse than that. If the idea is "trickle down academics", then there would be more (any???!) outreach to re-enroll high school dropouts. You know -- to help them get their diploma and benefit from the good influences of kids who intend to get their hs diploma. Failure to re-engage dropouts is actually one of the biggest complaints of the NGA (Natl Govs Assoc). No, all this trickle down stuff is self-serving, hypocritical, feeble and flawed. Feeble and flawed because it attempts to effigize a strawman-scapegoat. They need to work on PR a bit more to attract hs'ers if this is anywhere near the goal. Look at it this way... they expend the same effort to engage the most needful and the most "helpful" of students. In a word ... Nothing!

Sure, but this doesn't make it any less funny! It is the fault of those who are never in the classroom at all. It is the fault of people who pay, but do not play. If it is such a big deal, they ought to be canvassing hard to engage us, scouring public library records for who has the biggest fees. Teachers should want whole roomfuls of us hs'er moms interacting with her daily (hourly!), and telling her our expectations and what we would differently. Funny I don't hear "Recruiting more hs families" as a campaign platform when school board elections roll around.

If you didn't get the $50 admission fee memo, maybe someone also neglected to mention the standard $50 cash gift should be donated toward your admission fee?

From whatever sort of mindset you want to call mine, even I can see that Ravitch in a book review has managed to gloss over a key point on the author's view: Dr. Sahlberg puts high-quality teachers at the heart of Finland’s education success story. They all have a master's degree. Every high school teacher must be proficient in at least 2 foreign languages. It is harder to get teaching than into law or med schools. The only thing DR concedes after pounding the poverty angle: "So selective and demanding is the process that virtually every teacher is well prepared [in Finland]." Whoa ... virtually every teacher is well-prepared?? What a concept! This alone will kill any technology transfer of the Finnish model to the U.S. Contrast this with the many personal stories and horror stories of typed on WTM on just how dumb and ... dare I say it ... zero-growth minded many U.S. education majors appear to be. Just yesterday I was speaking with a recent teacher cert recipient who, in looking for her first teaching job, was lamenting how she only wants to teach "educateable" children who are nice -- children who are smart to begin with, and thus do not have issues and personal problems and are receptive to her [enshrined] abilities to teach, blah, blah, blah. This is the kind of trash thinking that current American pedagogy is churning out. If any country's model for anything offers hope, that is a good thing. I'm not the only who believes that teacher quality is the cornerstone of this hope -- not only in Finland, but also Singapore, South Korea (all the heavy hitters). It is really not hard a concept to get your arms around, but definitely a hard one to sell to the egotistical, bloated and entrenched.

No it does not surprise me at all. Is this not the sole reason that 504 plans exist (and should be negotiated carefully) for students with disabilities or impairments which may or may not be obvious to school staff? It is one way of defining for a teacher or a whole school administration that what they believe about how to carry on with respect to your child ... i.e. to give allow her an equal shot at education ... is less important that what you and other experts who have evaluated this child more fully believe. There is always the thought, which I do not think is examined or explained nearly enough in teaching certification classes on "Or else what ... whaddya gonna do about it?" Non-compliance is a violation of a federal statue. I would think losing federal funding is definitely in the cards. But who wants to be the one to break federal law?

Exactly! Why can't the Finnish model be applied successfully to even smaller, socialist European countries -- like France? Anyway, Diane Ravitch only knows one song ... it goes something like: Poverty is the beginning and end of all kids' education. It doesn't matter if Supreme Court Justices are their teachers. Teachers can't be held responsible. If everyone had more money ... If schools took care of your every need ... Everyone would be fine. DR was one of the chief architects of NCLB under Bush. Later, she decided she was just plain wrong. :confused::confused:

Actually, "mistake" was my interpretive descriptor of what the compliance person said. She did not actually admit to any wrongdoing on behalf of More at 4. She only said it appears as if the original lunch would've complied. I wonder why the original was sent back home and not offered along with the supplemented meal. Isn't the point to try to make up the perceived nutritional deficit, and not completely try to replace what the family is doing?

“With a turkey sandwich, that covers your protein, your grain, and if it had cheese on it, that’s the dairy,†said Jani Kozlowski, the fiscal and statutory policy manager for the division. “It sounds like the lunch itself would’ve met all of the standard.†The lunch has to include a fruit or vegetable, but not both, she said. The person who had the final word on compliance said someone made a mistake. Maybe they should just apologize and give back the $1.25.

:lol: :lol: You might want to scan the note and make it your avatar!

When all else fails, there are Sleepeze: http://www.earplugstore.com/sleepeze1pair.html You really can't hear anything -- not even smoke alarms if you turn it up enough. It's probably not a great idea to exposure your hearing to so much sound, but it beats being driven insane by chronic lack of sleep. Caveat: if you need these, the person you're sleeping with needs probably some sort of snoreguard or other fitted mouthpiece

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Yogurt smoothies. They will drink them all without even thinking. You will plastic cups, straws, and some Glad Press n Seal.

:iagree: And I don't think heat always calls for levity, or attempts at levity. [btw, thanks ... I love the block images option!]