Buenos Dias
I dropped Cici at school at 6:30 this morning and she won't be ready to return home until 2:30 tomorrow morning. She is going with the band to support their football team at a game in Dallas this evening. It makes for a rather long day, and because she studied until after midnight last night she is already sleepy.
In the newspaper this morning there is an article about how schools are going to pay students and parents more than $1,000 just to give the students an incentive to study and make better scores in math, and to give the parents an incentive to help their children. Now wait a minute, I thought. Where is our money, and what kind of message does this send to students who are performing at or above grade level? No one paid Cici to learn how to count to 100 in Spanish last night so she would be ready for a test today, then stay up to the wee hours of the morning studying for pre-calculus and history exams.
Cici was concerned about her pronunciation of Spanish words but I was amazed at how quickly she learned and how well she pronounced the words. She was still concerned so I found a video on line and had her watch it. It was a native Spanish speaking teacher who was teaching students how to count to 100 in Spanish. Cici listened to him as he spoke each number slowly and clearly and she repeated the words back to the screen to practice and perfect her Spanish.
Ping has been using her soy milk making machine to make different kinds of soup. She made a black sesame seed soup and a mung bean soup and has been serving them to me for breakfast and dinner. In a different pot she made a Chinese cabbage soup last night, using the broth from a pot of winter melon soup that she had made with small bits of pork ribs in it for added flavor. When Chinese people eat ribs, they have the butcher cut the ribs with a saw so that each rib is only about an inch long. Then they typically cook the ribs in water so that the meat comes off the bone and is very tender.
I don't know why but today has a feeling of fall to me. Maybe it is because for the past two nights the temperature dropped below 80 degrees and the day time temperatures are only in the mid-90's with lower humidity than usual. Traffic this morning also seems lighter than usual as I watch the cars on the highway near our office. We must be getting close to labor day.
In the newspaper this morning there is an article about how schools are going to pay students and parents more than $1,000 just to give the students an incentive to study and make better scores in math, and to give the parents an incentive to help their children. Now wait a minute, I thought. Where is our money, and what kind of message does this send to students who are performing at or above grade level? No one paid Cici to learn how to count to 100 in Spanish last night so she would be ready for a test today, then stay up to the wee hours of the morning studying for pre-calculus and history exams.
Cici was concerned about her pronunciation of Spanish words but I was amazed at how quickly she learned and how well she pronounced the words. She was still concerned so I found a video on line and had her watch it. It was a native Spanish speaking teacher who was teaching students how to count to 100 in Spanish. Cici listened to him as he spoke each number slowly and clearly and she repeated the words back to the screen to practice and perfect her Spanish.
Ping has been using her soy milk making machine to make different kinds of soup. She made a black sesame seed soup and a mung bean soup and has been serving them to me for breakfast and dinner. In a different pot she made a Chinese cabbage soup last night, using the broth from a pot of winter melon soup that she had made with small bits of pork ribs in it for added flavor. When Chinese people eat ribs, they have the butcher cut the ribs with a saw so that each rib is only about an inch long. Then they typically cook the ribs in water so that the meat comes off the bone and is very tender.
I don't know why but today has a feeling of fall to me. Maybe it is because for the past two nights the temperature dropped below 80 degrees and the day time temperatures are only in the mid-90's with lower humidity than usual. Traffic this morning also seems lighter than usual as I watch the cars on the highway near our office. We must be getting close to labor day.
Paying students to study...
I wish they had done that when I was in school. Silly school districts just kept telling us that our education prepared us for our future. Now if they did like my parents did when I was a kid, and gave the kids the money and then put it in a college fund, then I could almost agree with that.
I guess it's like the financial bailouts. Rewarding people for screwing things up is the new way.
Makes me wanna get some property out in boonies and live my way. Maybe even start a commune of fascists like me! LOL!
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What's this?
Oh, now I remember what a comment is.
I believe I recall correctly that you once talked about the privileges of living in a Republic, Smitty, so no communes allowed.
Good to see you back.
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Any time!
However, I don't recall reading that one of the benefits of living in a Republic is being given money for going to school.
I never said my commune would be in the US. How about calling it a kibbutz? It would be super popular because of the 'z' right?
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Well, since I have to pay taxes to support the public schools whether or not I use them (I think this is where your comment about it being part of living in a republic came in previously, Smitty), and even when the one we are zoned for isn't fit to attend so I must pay for private school tuition to obtain a decent education for my children, I guess thousand dollar contributions to the parents and students who don't care enough about education to open a book and learn without a bribe should be acceptable to me. What am I complaining about anyway?
At one time the high school near us was one of the best high schools in Houston. It was attended by students from middle and upper middle class families. Those same affluent neighborhoods are still near the school, but the students from those neighborhoods don't attend the high school any longer. The school is run down in appearance, the attendance rate and drop out rates are appalling, it has no sports programs any longer, no school newspaper, no band or music program, no school spirit, no parent/teacher association. The school has been graded as unacceptable for years. Fifty different languages are spoken by students who attend the school, though all classes are taught in English.
But there might be hope for the future. A new principal arrived this year and change is afoot. A third of the teachers have been replaced, as well as some members of the administration. A football program (junior varsity for now) has been started. A new strict dress code has been instituted. Affluent alumni who remember the school from its golden days have gotten involved, contributing dollars and time to help the school make a come back. Magnet programs have been implemented to draw students from across the metropolitan area. Soon they might even be able to spell kibbutz, and might know what a commune is, or write a sentence that doesn't end in a preposition.
Welcome back, Kotter.
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Yes, that was my point over the principles of living in a Republic. Assuming that we even do these days.
I sure hope that the new principal can get things going for that school. That they were able to fire some of the teachers shows that something must be going on there.
I was lucky, and my mother worked hard to be able to afford to live in the city I grew up in, just so I could go to school there. Most of the teachers were more than interesting, and took some sort of interest in teaching their students. My education came more from osmosis, than from hard work on my part. When I went to college, I was luck, for the most part, to have teachers that wanted the students to do well. I was very lucky to have some old school teachers who were also very innovative in their classes. Of course I actually enjoyed school, well about as well as any slacker kid could, so it just seems foreign when I hear kids complain about their course work, or their teachers. Can I have gone to the only good public school in the country?
To this end it makes me sad that some students have to be bribed to do what they should be doing. If they don't they only hurt their own chances for their future. Plus the overall lesson that they learn is the wrong one.
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