Options in Education

One of my daughters is active in the anti-standardized testing movement here in our little state. They call it “opting out”. Some in the movement object to the heavy-handed way the federal and state educational agencies dictate policies to local districts. Others are against standardized testing in general, citing its useless collection of bureaucratic data that proves nothing and provides no benefit for students. Some of those against testing also claim that the constant emphasis and pressure to do well on mandated tests brings a great deal of useless stress to kids who might already be struggling with school work. And then there are many teachers who are against testing because it is a drain on their classroom time, discourages innovation in teaching and is also used as an unfair measure of a teacher’s effectiveness.

All those folks are correct. But there is a powerful movement of administrators, educators and government officials countering the arguments of the anti-testers. They have experts and pseudo-scientific studies that back up the “need” for federally mandated, corporately designed testing. As always, when we look at some big move to push a program into something as large as the educational system, we need to wonder who is benefiting financially. What entity or which people will profit the most? After some rather casual research it looks to me like computer manufacturers, software manufacturers, a select group of consultants and experts, and a growing bureaucracy of record keeping and analyst types will make a ton of money.

With absolutely no real research or hard evidence I’ll also go out on a limb and say that some way, somewhere a bunch of politicians are finding ways to line their pockets as a reward for pushing these programs through the legislative process. I might be wrong about that, but in my cynical old age, I believe there’s a good chance this is happening.

Of course some progressive idealists think it’s a fine idea that federally centralized control of education should come to pass. They think all those smart folks in Washington would be much better at running the schools, setting curriculum requirements, administering everything from building maintenance to the distribution of high school diplomas. Me, I’m not so convinced.

Personally I’m all for testing. If a kid takes a class in English or Math or basket-weaving he or she should take a test to see if anything stuck in his or her brain. If enough material was retained then the kid passes the class. But I happen to believe that all of that could (and should) be handled by local districts, perhaps under the aegis of a loosely structured state educational agency. Some districts would prove to be effective, some less so. If a district consistently produced a low grade of graduates, too high a drop-out rate or too many grade failures then the school boards would be compelled to change administrators and bring in the state watchdogs to evaluate teachers and programs. I suppose that is simplistic thinking, but it might work.

Another measure of a district’s performance would be the college acceptance rate of graduates. How many are getting into college, and into which colleges. This could be measured fairly easily on a local level. But again, this is kind of a simplistic approach.

So friends, I just want to voice my support for those anti-testing folks, whatever their motivations might be. I’d especially like to voice support for those who believe that parents should have a substantial say in how their kids are educated, including those who decide to “opt-out” their kids from standardized big government, common core testing. They’re being brave as they stand up for their children. And bravery will be much needed in the years ahead.

Have a fine day.

Retirement 101

Picture this. The long, grey hair of the poet is gently ruffled by breezes moving up the river valley as he sits with his portable keyboard in the screen house. A chipmunk is raiding the bird feeders. Small birds complain as they swoop in for a quick snack. Down in the river a heron poses in its regal way.

Yes that’s the scene up here on the Deer River on this Thursday afternoon in August. The poet’s wife is inside the house reading. She’s resting, recovering from her morning of bossing the poet around. Clean the shed, she said. Replace the blade on the lawn mower, she ordered. Why didn’t you finish whacking those weeds along the driveway, she asks, in a wheedling way. Retirement. Only six days into it and she’s found the rhythm of boss-dom. But it’s okay. This poet can take a little structure, a little direction. After all his wife

has included time in the schedule for writing, reading and research. At least there’s time

if all the chores are finished.

I’ve been retired for a little over eight years. My wife would go to work and I’d do many of the housekeeping duties. I handled the laundry. I planned and prepared almost all the meals. Bed making, minor cleaning, grocery shopping – I did it all. And during those years I was able to write a bunch of poetry and other stuff. I also read several books a week and attended weekly and monthly writing group sessions. Now I’m not worried about the changes that may be coming with my wife’s retirement. I’m sure she’ll lose the urge to be somebody’s boss pretty soon. If not, she might find a certain poet is harder to tame than the average “work study” young adult. And she might find that same poet out in the screen house writing some seditious little blog entries.

For now, I’m just going to enjoy the sound of the river and the antics of the birds and chipmunks. So you all have a really fine day.

Aunt Helen: A Remembrance

My dear old Aunt Helen died yesterday morning. She hadn’t been herself for some time and I’m sure she was happy to move on to an easier existence. So now relatives and friends are remembering her fondly using words like kind, funny, full of faith and generous. And of course those are all appropriate words for Helen. But I’m thinking about some other words that might not be mentioned at all. Those words include – tough, determined and even stubborn.

Aunt Helen was tough. She was born in hard times in a pretty hard place. She grew up in an era when women were defined by who, and how well, they married. But she never found a man who could meet her standards and I often think she really didn’t care about that. She was an independent person. She went to work and made her way as a single woman, not all that common in the decades during and after World War II. Helen worked in retail for a time and then moved on up to a job at the college in Plattsburgh. She worked in the print shop doing a job that was both physically and mentally difficult. But there was no complaining from her and she made a good solid living that allowed her to be independent.

And while we all remember Aunt Helen as a caring person, willingly being nurse and caregiver to her father, mother and later to her sister Margaret, we forget the toughness that is required to fill that role. When caring for her parents she was still working. So she would drive home to Standish do her nursing and housekeeping chores then get up the next morning and do it all again. That kind of work takes a toughness that many, if not most, of us don’t have.

One other side of toughness that I recall in Aunt Helen was displayed as she interacted with her three brothers. Those fellows, Francis – Leo – Arthur, were sometimes quite sarcastic with Helen. Though they loved her and appreciated her, they also teased her unmercifully. But she could handle it and the edge on her humorous knife was every bit as sharp as theirs. She had a great sense of humor but it too could be tough.

Determination was something that Aunt Helen brought to every part of her life. She was determined to make a good living. She was determined to be the best woman of faith that she could be. She was determined to stay living on her own, independently for as long as she possibly could. That inner strength and determination helped her achieve all of those goals. The last time I saw Aunt Helen, the time she still had good awareness of what was happening to her, she was determined to get back home. I’m sure her spirit has also achieved that goal.

Now stubbornness can be a bad trait. But it can also be a different shading of determination. And Aunt Helen could surely be stubborn in both ways. If she wasn’t stubborn she might have ended up in an unhappy marriage. If she wasn’t stubborn she could have stayed in Standish and pretty much done nothing. But she didn’t do that. She traveled. She had an active social life. She had good and long lasting friendships. And she was also very stubborn about the importance of her family. She maintained contact with more relatives than most of us ever do. She remembered birthdays, anniversaries and more. She was stubborn about those things. And we should look to her as an example of good and productive stubbornness.

So over time I’ll remember Aunt Helen. I’ll smile at memories of good times, think about her sense of humor, her kindness, her loving generosity. But I’ll also remember a tough lady who was determined to make her way on her own and stubborn enough to stick to her own path.

Rest in peace Aunt Helen.

Raised Hackles

Well friends and neighbors, my hackles are up again. Does anyone know what hackles means? It's the hairs (or feathers if you’re a bird) on the back of your neck. In my case it’s the feeling I get when my red-neck self gets fired up about some bureaucratic stupidity. Today’s stupidity is the move in our public schools to start indoctrinating grade school kids into thinking that every last one of them is entitled to a college education.

I just got calmed down about the move to disallow parents the right to opt their children out of the insipidly foolish and dangerous standardized testing business. And today I learn that my youngest grandson needs to complete a crazy “packet” of tasks designed to teach him that a college education is very important and absolutely necessary to a successful life. He’s in third freaking grade. Who is making the decision that this is an appropriate educational requirement for a third grade kid? What insane bureaucracy decided that all children must go to college? When did the state abrogate the responsibility of parents in making these decisions?

Do you understand that I’m pissed off here? I respect a good college education. Both of my children have degrees. I want my grand-kids to have the opportunity to go to college. I want all kids to have the opportunity to go to college if they have the aptitude and ability to do the course work. I respect young people who go to technical colleges as much as I respect those who go to Harvard or Yale. Education is a wonderful thing. But, contrary to government propaganda, college is not for everyone. College is not for the youngster who doesn't want to be there. College is not for the kid who did a crap job through twelve years of school and who is completely unprepared for the necessary intellectual discipline that college courses should require. And colleges should not be extensions of high school where the first three semesters are spent trying to get a student up somewhere close to the necessary level needed for that course work.

Two year “degrees” should not take three or three and half years to complete. Four year degrees should not take five or six years to complete. The push to make college a requisite for life is a mistake. We are losing people who would be a valuable part of the workforce doing jobs in all kinds of trades because the propaganda tells them that those jobs are less important than the ones requiring a college education. How did this aberrant idea take hold?

But that’s not my focus here and it’s only part of why I’m angry. I’m angry because little kids, from the ages of five through eleven or twelve are being propagandized into believing that college is a thing they need to think about right now. I’m angry because those “educational” packets about college are wasting time that these children could be using to learn math or history or English. Or they could be using that time doing some other useful childhood activity like playing outdoors or reading a book or drawing pictures. What has gotten into our educational system? Where have we gone wrong? And most importantly, can we fix it?

I know that I’m not a highly educated person. I passed up my opportunity to go to college. I never thought about higher education until I was in seventh or eighth grade. There are folks with PhD s who have done all kinds of research, served on panels making recommendations to educational departments in state and federal governments. These folks always assume that they know more about what is good for kids than parents and local school systems. They advise the people who control the money that is pulled out of the pockets of citizens. Perhaps if the money supply got interrupted these bureaucrats would learn where their paychecks really come from. Maybe then they would listen to a little common sense advice provided by parents and teachers who know what is truly important. And telling third graders that they need to worry about college now is not truly important. It is truly foolish.

Now have a fine day. 

Yes, Another Dang Plug For The Gibson Brothers

Yesterday a link came up on my Facebook page to the Prairie Home Companion website that had another link to the new album by the Gibson Brothers. That album is called “Brotherhood” and it is being released by Rounder Records on February 24^th. Bluegrass radio stations already have the album and they’ve been playing cuts for a few weeks now. The Gibson’s appeared recently on the PHC program and it seems that Mr. Keillor was impressed enough with the new album that he arranged for this preview link with the record company.

Prairie Home Companion has long been a showcase for Bluegrass, Americana, old time Jazz and other genres of fine music. Sometimes it seems like a liberal Grand Old Opry. And that’s a good thing. Whenever I get the chance I tune in for the music, the humor and the nostalgic feel of classic radio. The production values are high, the writing is excellent and Mr. Keillor does the nation a valuable service by keeping the art-form alive.

So now you know that this old, curmudgeonly conservative guy likes a PBS mainstay. But my real point here is to tell you about Eric and Leigh Gibson’s new recording. This collection of “brother duets” is not just another bunch of high quality songs put together by an extremely talented band. It certainly fits that description but there’s much more to this album. This one, taken in the context of the current state of Bluegrass and country music, should be considered as a new standard of musical excellence. The Gibson Brothers, by carefully choosing from the vast catalog of old brother duets and then by adopting them (and adapting them) into their own very distinct sound and style, have shown that old material can be respected, renewed, re-presented in a thoroughly modern way.

They have made old time songs timeless. They have reclaimed and re-worked harmonies and made them natural and real. What might have been considered American “parlor songs” have been converted to concert pieces that will satisfy really big audiences as thoroughly as they were enjoyed in country home “musicales” of decades past. This is American country music at its finest.

I’m not here to review the album. There are songs that were originally done by well-known artists like the Everly Brothers, the Monroe Brothers and the Louvin Brothers. But there are also songs by groups that most of us have never heard of like the York Brothers. Every track is a gem. The clarity of the recording is beautiful. The musicianship of Jesse Brock on mandolin, Clayton Campbell on fiddle and Mike Barber on bass is solid, supportive, and often nothing short of astounding. Guest musicians like the McCoury brothers (and others that I can’t name because I don’t have my own copy yet) add complementing features that truly enhance some of the songs.

But the real joy of this record is the vocal purity of Leigh and Eric Gibson. Each of the brothers has a distinctive voice. But when they blend, or do counterpoint, or make jumps into pure high tenor synchronicity they become something else again. I recall years ago hearing a very young Alison Kraus do vocal work that made goose-bumps jump up on my arms. Several tracks on this album by the Gibson Brothers created that same physical reaction every time I listened. It’s that fine a work of Art.

So order a copy from Rounder or from Amazon. Better yet find the Gibson Brothers when they appear near you and go to the show. You’ll be glad you did. And I expect you to thank me for the suggestion. Now go look up the link at Prairie Home Companion. It’s posted on my Facebook page. And have yourself a fine day.

Another Christmas Message

It is Christmas time, friends and neighbors, and that means you get a real treat. Not here of course. No, the treat will come from your family or friends or Santa Claus or the government. I’m just going to tell you some of the junk that’s on my mind.

First of all, I want you to know that I don’t really care if Whoopi and Rosie had a big argument about whatever it was they argued about. Those people are only as real as you care to make them and I choose to pretend that they are just as real as the Geico lizard. Maybe even less real. I also don’t care about anyone named Kardashian, Duggar, Robertson or whatever last name those “royal” folks are going by these days. Windsor, Hanover? Don’t know, don’t care. I am very disappointed in Mr. Cosby, if indeed he did all those evil things we've been hearing about incessantly. But those feelings of disappointment are somewhat abstract since I never really knew him or any of his victims.

Wow, that was a hard-nosed paragraph. You all must think I’m a real Grinch. But I’m not. I still care about lots of stuff. I don’t care about any TV shows because I don’t watch them, unless I’m stuck in a motel room during a long trip. Even then I’m more inclined to read the Gideon book, or the Mormon one if the motel is a multi-holy book kind of place. And I don’t care much about new movies because I can’t see spending more than twenty bucks for the generally unpleasant experience we get in modern multiplexes. And pop music loses me pretty quickly. The appeal of Broadway shows are a mystery to me. I’m culturally bereft, I guess. Another paragraph is done and I still haven’t found something positive to say. This is turning into a depressing Christmas message.

How about the advances in our government? Haven’t all the folks we've put in office set aside their greed and quests for personal gain to truly do what’s right for the country? Haven’t they quit their lying, cheating ways and turned to openness and honesty? Rats. This paragraph has less hope than the last two. I’m getting out of this one.

Well maybe this will work. I care about family, about my daughters and their husbands, about my grandchildren now numbering four, about my brothers and sister and mother, nieces, nephews, cousins and aunts, and in-laws. I care about my friends and poetry colleagues all around the world. They’re all real people with real lives and problems and joys. I care about their problems and joys. I care about you, the real person reading this thing. I care about the sadness that afflicts our World every damn day; the horrible things happening to children, the constant wars and the constant tension that leads to those wars, the sad decisions that people make to hate other people for so many foolish reasons. It’s true that I can’t do too much about all that sadness. I hope that by being kind to people, by being a decent family man, by showing as much love as I can, the world might be a bit brighter. But that’s a long shot.

Trying to help by being a good citizen is something most of the people I know work at on a regular basis. I try to follow their good example. Maybe someday that will bring positive results.

That’s probably another long shot. We can hope.

I care about the Christmas season. And I’m happy to acknowledge all the other ways folks from different cultures celebrate their holy days, even the one made up back in the late sixties. I actually met one of the people responsible for creating that holiday this past year. His intentions were honorable and he was a nice man. Another peaceful holiday can’t be a bad thing in these times. So in spite of my grouchy old man ranting I do have a little hope left. And Christmas time is all about the possibilities of fresh hope. The Christian tradition of Christmas is honorable. The Jewish tradition of Hanukkah is honorable. The Muslim tradition of Ramadan is honorable. Even Kwanzaa is honorable. All of these traditions offer a positive and hopeful message which can be understood and assimilated into our real lives. Even those non-believing humanist folks who want to do good for the sake of all people can be appreciated in this season of hope. So join me in latching on to one or two of these traditions. It could do us all some good.

Crap. I wrote a sermon and a pretty poor and generic one at that. Oh well. If you don’t like it just hit the delete button and pretend you didn't read all the way down to this paragraph where I say -

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you good people. Now go have a fine day.

Say What?

I know I just posted an article a couple days ago. And we all know that too much of a good thing can be bad for us. In fact too much of a bad thing is bad for us as well. Can’t win. But friends, I saw an article on the front page of the Delaware State News that has me baffled. Maybe you all can help me figure this one out.

First a couple of mighty important disclaimers are in order. My first disclaimer is this; I am not against food stamps or other programs that help to feed needy folks. Do you have that? People that need help with putting food on the table should be helped. Okay. I am not, in principle, against other kinds of financial aid, be it welfare or unemployment insurance or other worthy programs. It would be better, in my opinion, if folks could work and earn their own money but it doesn’t always work out that way and we need to help those that truly need help. There you have it. I had to put those disclaimers in because you need to know that I’m not some programmed right wing robot person spouting off about every liberal program that comes down from Washington or our state capitals.

Now here’s the information that was in the article I mentioned in the first paragraph. In Delaware the public assistance folks sent out checks for $20.01 to about 11,000 as a supplement for heating costs aid. They sent these checks out, not because they wanted to help with heating costs, but because they wanted to circumvent some rules and reinstate some potential cuts in food stamps for those folks that got the checks. By putting these 11,000 people into a higher heating aid program they qualified them for more food stamp money. The article goes on to say that by spending some $300,000 dollars the state is able to pick up something like $6,000,000 in federal food stamp aid. The money for the heating aid checks came out of a three quarters of million dollar surplus in that particular account. And how did that surplus happen, by the way?

If all the information in that last paragraph makes sense to you then maybe you can explain it to me. The cuts in food stamp money were an Obama administration initiative not something the other guys cooked up. But, and here’s another little known bit of information, the School Nutrition Program was jacked up so that qualifying underprivileged districts can now provide breakfast and lunch to all the kids in their schools, five days a week. The families of those kids don’t need to be on food stamps or other government assistance. They just need to show up at school. It would seem that if the kids are getting ten meals a week at school then the grocery bills of families on assistance would go down by a considerable percentage, thus negating the small cut in food stamps that has been enacted. Or am I wrong on that bit of logical thinking?

Now I could go into a big old rant about the empirical evidence I’ve gathered in various grocery stores, regale you with many stories of folks who were using food stamps and yet were buying hundreds of dollars’ worth of cigarettes, beer, pet foods, and soft drinks, cakes from the bakery and on and on. But I won’t. That would seem like knee jerk right wing ranting and I’m trying to avoid that. I just can’t understand how the people in government can arbitrarily use loopholes (they call this one the “heat and eat” tactic) to get around properly enacted legislation.

That front page article said that as many as twelve other states were using this loophole to avoid some cutting of food stamp monies. It didn’t say if the lawmakers in Washington were aware of this glitch in the law. My guess is that they were aware and that just solidifies my opinion of those folks as lying, cheating, and duplicitous thieves. But that’s just an opinion and once again it borders on knee jerk right wing conservatism.

So friends if you can help me to understand this one little government thing I’ll be mighty grateful. And then both you and I can have a fine day.