GWOB
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Posts posted by GWOB
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Welcome! You are living my dream! We are a quirky bunch here. We will provide you with hours of entertainment. You may at one point have to take a stand on issues such as cupcakes, kilts, crockpots, shopping carts, shoes in the house, kilts, and Teaching Textbooks. Oh, and given the current calendar date, Halloween. We love cool newbies! I hope we can entertain you along the way. You will definitely receive tons of homeschooling wisdom from the ladies here.
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You know you've been assimilated when the librarian knows your number... :D
:lol: Wait?! You mean that's not normal? :lol:
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I have my library card number memorized too! Of course, it's only 4 numbers. And it's kinda a pervy 4 numbers. Very pervy. So I'm just a nerdy 12yo boy;):tongue_smilie:.
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Well, I'm a smaller girl with serious child-birthing hips and I refuse to wear skinny jeans. However, I do enjoy tucking my jeans into my boots. I really like my Old Navy Sweetheart jeans for that purpose. They are fitted more closely to my calves, which make them easy to tuck into boots. Look for straight-cut jeans or jeans that are tighter around the calves.
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I was happy no one from the audience was stupid enough to fall for the Pizza Hut thing. That's about all I can say without getting political.
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Oh goodness YES! Yes, as Christians (if you are a Christian) we should forgive people as Christ commanded us to do. However, I have not read anything by Christ that says we have to be stupid about it. There is a HUGE difference between forgiving someone for their human condition, and continually going back for more abuse. Personally, the thought of going back for more crud makes me want to lose my Jesus. I have very close relatives who are in constant need of forgiveness, yet I refuse to engage with them because they are consistently abusive. Big difference.
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You know, as LCMS Christians, we are all on the same page (being a confessional church). However, some of us are words on that page and some of us are really creative doodles. Same general page, different areas of the page.
My poor, long suffering Pastor confirmed me despite the multitude of questions I had. He knew my political sympathies, yet acknowledged I was rather orthodox in my religious views.
On free will. One of the most beautiful things (to me, coming from a fundie, evangelical background) about the LCMS church is the acknowledgement of the desperate need of a Savior. We know we are flawed human beings. We give God the credit for our salvation. Yes, you can choose to turn away from God. But how awesome is it to know that God/Jesus/the Holy Spirit brings us (in our pathetic human forms) to salvation? What's the LCMS saying? "For by grace alone, are you saved alone, by Christ alone." Something like that.
Oh, and props to Carol for giving you Luther's own words on the subject. Luther's Small Catechism is phenomenal. It's like the Lutheran cliff notes. Your local LCMS church would be happy to give you a copy.
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You know Luther wrote an excellent catechism. (Luther's Small Catechism to be exact.) Just saying;).
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But wait, I've been told that 7th grader = toddler.
:iagree: My 7th grader cries more than my drama-queen 5yo:glare:. Hormones suck.
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My husband would like to add: you knew the freaking answer to this question 40 MINUTES AGO, how do you not know how to add since I went into the kitchen to get another cup of coffee?!?!?
:lol:
FOR REAL!!! :lol::lol:
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Vomit, not excrement.Not that the clarification will make any difference...:D
Nope. The place from which it is excreted does not matter. It's gross.
:lol:
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I think you guys may win for the cutest couple ever! I KNOW your dh's little brother wins for Best Photo Bomb!:lol: May the two of you enjoy years and years of happiness together.
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You just contributed to my long list of food weirdnesses.
A few weirdo examples:
Honey is bee excrement. I cannot touch it.
Eggs are chicken abortions. I eat eggs daily.
I cannot bite into a strawberry, but love strawberry-flavored things.
I cannot eat an orange, but I drink orange juice (no pulp) like it's going out of style.
I eat tons of apples, but hate apple juice.
My food cannot touch. Ever. The universe will cease to exist if my food touches. Soups are ok.
Now, because of you, I will never be able to eat an uncooked tomato. The stain of the tomato belly button will now have to be cooked out of all tomatoes. Spicy salsa will be an exception, because the universe knows that the spice of the peppers is greater than the tainted belly button tomatoes.
Yes, I have issues.
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I didn't comment on your other post. I probably shouldn't comment on this one, but I am still hormonal and hopped up on real Sudafed.
First of all, Congrats! You are gaining a daughter! They can be infuriating, but gosh do I love my gals.
Second, fake happiness. Pretend you are trying to win an Oscar. I know you think this isn't ideal, but this makes your son happy. Just go with it. Smile and wave. I speak from experience. Dh and I got married against our parents' wishes. My dad said, and I quote, "If this **** lasts 4 years, I will actually kiss (dh's) a$$." I have pics of my dad kissing dh's bum;). That comment ruined any potential for a close relationship between dh and my parents, and I still struggle with resentment.
Finally, it will be ok. I married dh when I was 19 and he was 22. We both finished college after years of marriage and a few kids. We are still going strong 12 1/2 years later. Young marriages can be both strong and beautiful.
It will be ok. You seem like a smart, classy lady. You will handle this like a champ. Just remember to give grace and both your ds and future dil will respect you forever. Grace. That's the key.
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Moments like those that make me really and truly understand why some mothers in the wild eat their young.
:lol::lol: This was actually my FB status today!:lol::lol:
Op, I sooooooo get it. Bless my kids' hearts, but today was a HUGE yellow school bus day. If those people did not look like both dh and I, I would swear they were switched at birth with wild baboon/monkey-crossed wild animals. And let's not get started on the deodorant thing:glare:. I just may be the only mother of a boy in the world anxiously awaiting the day her only son discovers girls. Perhaps then he will actually change his underwear and shower on a regular basis.
They are lucky they're cute. Otherwise, I may be tempted to leave them on the side of the road:tongue_smilie:.
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:iagree: It's part of the reason why I started homeschooling, and most of the reason why I continue. I am lucky in that my ds has never wanted to go to ps, and still says he wants to homeschool all the way through high school. When I think of what his friends endure, my heart breaks for them. I don't think my heart could take it if my own ds were having to endure that day after day.
:iagree: My oldest dd is such a sweet girl, except for when she is being 12 and hormonal:tongue_smilie:. She takes everything personally. I just cannot imagine her dealing with 7th grade drama and emerging without severe damage to her self-image. My sweet, funny, dorky, lovable ds just has not clue when kids are teasing/taking advantage of him. Sounds good, but he would just get lead into so many terrible things because he thinks everyone is his friend. Dd5 really could not care less what people think of her. She'd be fine socially, until she absolutely refused to conform (she will never be one to conform to anything).
I refuse to accept the fact that children somehow need to deal with stupid bullies in order to be well-adjusted. As an adult, I can just walk away. No one is forcing me to deal with idiots on a daily basis. If I think a situation is detrimental, I can leave it. Ps kids can't. My kids would have their souls smothered in that situation.
So I'm with you on rejecting ps. It just ain't happening here.
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That is actually what upsets me so much about this. I am Christian, and I HATE that I am lumped in with these people, who obviously have NO CLUE what Christianity is actually about. Have they ever even READ the Bible? Seriously, Jesus hung out with sinners, tax collectors, etc. He certainly would have sat at anyone's lunch table!!!!!! That anyone could promote this kind of exclusion in the name of my religion makes me want to throw up. Seriously..it actually makes me sick to my stomach. I can only imagine the heartache it causes Jesus.
Don't forget easy women. Jesus hung out with hookers, thieves, cheats, liars, and all kinds if disreputable people. I thought we, as Christians, were supposed to try to be like Jesus. The AFA is completely off the mark here.
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We are a nation of immigrants.Even within a group, needs are vastly different on an individual basis. Each child needs to be valued and receive instruction appropriate to his needs. No one should be wasting their time, teacher or child.
:iagree: Exactly. Meet the individual child where he is. Don't assume he needs something because of his race.
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This is complicated stuff. You're thinking, and listening, and thinking some more. That's a good thing.
All of the kids are eventually supposed to be at a 100% pass rate, as I understand NCLB - the ultimate goal is the same for all kids; some just have a lot farther to go, thus the disparate interim goals.
Race is already in the equation in PB Co. Pretending all the kids are doing equally well doesn't help. They're not. There is a significant race gap.
Understanding the makeup of the underachieving group in terms of all kinds of metrics - income level, ESL status, disability, etc. - will help the district to recognize barriers and create solutions. In some areas race isn't an issue. In PB Co, it is.
I think the school district is just trying to do the piece they're responsible for - the education part - and to do it within the confines/requirements of NCLB.
Yes, there are other things that need to be addressed. And yes, it's a complex system where various factors (economics, education, crime, etc. etc.) all affect each other - no one of them stands alone and no one organization can fix the problems alone. They are all intertwined.
But the school district, I would hope, should at least try to do what they can with their piece of the puzzle. It does at first seem strange to see different expected pass rates for different races. But when you look closer, it's a much more complicated situation. The district is recognizing that it has a race gap, and is setting ambitious goals for its under-performing minorities in an effort to close the gap and bring up the performance of all their students. We all wish the gap wasn't there in the first place. But since it is, at least they're trying to deal with it.
I am to dumb/tired to figure out how to parse your quote:tongue_smilie:.
From what I gathered from the linked article in the original post, this was not a PB county thing. This policy was passed by the Florida State Board of Education. (Please correct me if I am wrong.) So the whole state of Florida is saying Asian kids are the smartest kids, followed by White kids, Hispanic kids, and finally Black kids?
I can *kinda* see the spirit of the policy, which aims to close achievement gaps, but the letter of the policy of a whole entire state just rubs me the wrong way.
And I do give them credit for acknowledging and trying to bridge achievement gaps. And I acknowledge that the Florida Board of Education can only do so much. But I do not trust Kathleen Shanahan, head of the Florida BOE, a person with absolutely no education background, to make decisions such as these. This seems political to me.
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I'm confused. The school district is proposing to focus on improving performance gaps by bringing up *all* groups' performances. They want to close the gaps by taking the lower-performing groups and putting them on a faster track to improvement.
One group is starting at a 69% pass rate, and the district wants them to improve to a 88% pass rate - 19% more kids passing. Another group is starting at a 38% pass rate, and the district wants them to improve to a 74% pass rate - 36% more kids passing. They've got farther to go to get to the point where both groups have the same pass rate, but the lower group will be moving faster, to close the gap. The 88% and 74% are interim goals - ultimately the district, and NCLB, wants the lower group to catch up with the higher group, and the district has set the interim goals with that in mind.
If we look only at "general improvement", we're not considering that the lower group needs significantly more improvement than the higher group, and that, for whatever historical reasons, may have different needs than the higher group. If their needs were the same, then there would be no gap. Recognizing that a gap exists is the first step to figuring out how to close the gap.
Pretending that there are no differences just doesn't work in a community like PB Co. where there are in fact significant, measurable differences of this magnitude. (Not every community has these differences. Not every community needs these strategies.)
I get what you are saying. I really do. I just cannot get over the race thing. I acknowledge it may be a character fault, and I reserve my right to be completely wrong on this issue.
Of course, we can flip my argument on its head and say "Why aren't the white kids supposed to improve as much as the minority kids?" In my humble, less-than-genius opinion, the problem occurs when you throw race into the equation. And again, these policies are treating symptoms, not causes. Let's get to the root of the problem. Let's address the different incarceration rates between Blacks and Whites. Let's address the limited opportunities for minorities. Let's address pathetic funding for schools located in minority neighborhoods. Let's be real about the hardships minorities. Let's take an honest look at potential racial bias in standardized tests. Perhaps that is really my "beef" with this subject. You can treat a symptom, but unless you get to the core of the problem, you will accomplish nothing.
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I stand by my statement. If you believe a plan that focusing on improving performance for groups with lower proficiency somehow encourages teachers to ignore students in those groups, then you lack common sense.
Wait. The plan you have vehemently bashed throughout this thread does exactly what you say you can buy into.
And yet, the poster who proposed this plan said nothing about different improvement standards for different races. In fact, she said something to the effect of "Can't we all just be people?" Why can't we just reward teachers for general improvement and leave race out of the equation? I want my kids to look at a person and see "the content of their character, not the color of their skin." (That's a rough paraphrase of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., btw) That's the world I want my kids to live in. I don't want a school board, state, or country telling my kids that people's intellect is based on skin color. I want them to believe the words "That all men are created equal. That they are endowed by by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." I hardly think that by believing in these words I am exhibiting a "lack of common sense."
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Why are you waiting? You don't need to...get a tunnelbear.
Then you can sit sobbing and broken like the rest of us. :crying:
Not. Gonna. Do. It. This is my Jesus trump card. When I get get to Heaven and God tells me about all my sins, I want to say: "Remember that time I waited 4 months to watch Downton Abbey because you SAID I needed to work on patience? I want my Heavenly body to have perky booKs, no stretch marks, and no cellulite. And I want a cabana boy to clean my mansion's pool." It's a valid plan. Don't laugh. It will work. :lol:
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Actually, if you use a bit of common sense you would see this policy actually moves in the opposite direction.
Let me get this straight. A proficiency rate of 38% is less problematic than a plan to increase that rate to 74% in X years. Got it.
Let's not resort to personal attacks here:). Questioning someone's common sense is not a valid way to argue your point. I can see where you are coming from. I just do not feel the same way. I respect our differences, and I am learning a lot in this discussion. Personal attacks cheapen the seriousness of this issue.
As some others have said, a bunch of states are doing this, and it is a way to avoid some of the NCLB aspects. My dh is a teacher in a local district, and he was saying their requirement is for each year, each group to close their gap by 50%.So if a group was at 80% currently, the next few years would look like: 90, 95, 97.5, etc. Accordingly, if a group was at 40%, their next three years would look like: 70%, 85%, 92.5%, etc.
The idea is closing the gap, for all groups. The change expected, is the same, but looks different when applied to different group's starting points.
I agree with those who've said it's complicated. I see what they are trying to do, I think, but at the same time, I think it's sad/ridiculous/etc, that we feel the need to apply different expectations to different groups (or honestly, to even be divided into racial groups), in 2012. Can't we all just be people?
I can buy into this. The objective is to close the gaps and increase achievement. Teachers should be rewarded on closing gaps. When you thrown race in there, it just comes with hundreds of years of history and baggage.
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You are correct.
I am not at all surprised by this. I graduated from a PB Co. school. There is nothing really new about this. They've just finally put on paper what they've been practicing for decades. Anyone who pretends that racism is not happening, has not been happening, without end for decades beyond the civil right movement is an ostrich. One cannot live in the South and not be acutely aware of that elephant in the room.
:iagree: I grew up in Louisiana and Georgia. The county where I lived in Georgia was closed off to Blacks. It still is:glare:. Just 4 years ago my stupid 17yo sister told my kids "All Black people are suspicious." My parents didn't get why I was livid. I almost puked when an elderly Black lady bowed to me and called me Ma'am when we accidentally bumped into one another. She was scared she'd lose her job because she bumped into a white lady.
Racism is still alive and well. Let's just call a spade a spade, then try to fix that problem. These policies scream racism to me. The bottom line is that we are expecting less of an entire race of people because of the color of their skin. That makes this white gal want to puke.
Feeling poorer/political conversations in your life
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
I can have an honest, intelligent, rational political discussion with exactly 2 people whose views differ from my own. Everyone else somehow ends up saying I am going to hell for my views. I would love to have an intelligent conversation with someone from the other side, but thing get so ugly so very fast.