What is happening to education in America???

In a country that is considered the second richest in the world it is a shame to know that 13% of our student population never even graduates high school. Locally our public school system generated over $62.9M (2001-2002 school year) representing $5,913 per student annually.1 Nationally the average per student is approximately $6,100 so the argument that we lack funds for high education expectations would be moot. Equally disturbing is the performance of our students on the National Achievement tests. In the year 2002 eighth graders in the State of Arkansas scored below the National Average on all four test categories; Mathematics 261/274, Reading 260/263, Science 143/149, and Writing 142/152.2 The question that you may ask is “Why are we so far behind the National Average?”...the question we should be asking ourselves as parents and as a community is “How can we produce the next generation of leaders?” Even nationally according to the PISA mathematics and science literacy assessments eight countries outperformed the United States in mathematics literacy, and seven had higher average scores for science literacy. The United States had higher average scores than seven countries for mathematics literacy and seven for science literacy.3 (this is out of twenty seven nations in the OECD: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). If the nation's report card is in this much turmoil, then it is not impossible to believe that the future of out children has got to start on the local level.

You may wonder what is hindering out children’s academia. I believe it starts with the focus on extracurricular activities. The local school system only requires that our athletes (football players to cheerleaders) obtain a 2.0 GPA starting in the eighth grade.4 if a child is already only achieving this level of mediocrity one can only imagine the negative effect of additional time spent away from studies will have. It is my opinion that a student should not only be required to perform to a higher level in school, but also have one teacher and one personal recommendation to be able to participate in extracurricular activities. This would entice children to want to perform to a much higher standard to be able to be the quarterback of the football team, the head cheerleader, the forward on the basketball team or the pom squad captain. Of course, this is only one area. As parents we have got to be involved in our child’s education. If last weeks Science test is not important to you, it will not be important to your child, nor will last nights homework. As a community we have got to sponsor more education oriented community events, our children and future leaders need to know that education is important to our entire community; whether it is a book drive, volunteering as a speaker at your local school or even having a company sponsored career days. I believe another enticement to a child’s need for education is their dream of success. We as a community have a responsibility to reveal to them the opportunities that are available to them with the proper education and commitment.
Our school system does not need more funding; it needs more support from its parents, teachers, and community.


Footnotes:1 http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/districtsearch_detail.asp
2 http://nces.gov/nations reportcard/states/profile.asp
3 http://www.urban.org/
4Arkansas Activities Association / Little Rock, AR

Birth of the Elephant and the Donkey:

Oddly, two unconnected events led to the birth of the Republican Elephant.

James Gordon Bennett's New York Herald raised the cry of "Caesarism" in connection with the possibility of a third term try from President Ulysses S. Grant. The issue was taken up by the Democratic politicians in 1874, halfway thru Grant's second term and just before the mid-term elections, and helped disaffect Republican voters. While the illustrated journals were depicting Grant as wearing a crown ,the Herald involved itself in another circulation-builder in an entirely different, non-political area.

This was the Central Park Menagerie Scare of 1874, a delightful hoax perpetrated by the Herald. They ran a story, totally untrue, that the animals in the zoo had broken loose and were roaming the wilds of New York's Central Park in search of prey.Cartoonist Thomas Nast took the two examples of the Herald enterprise and put them together in a cartoon for Harper's Weekly. He showed an ass (symbolizing the Herald) wearing a lion's skin(the scary prospect of Caesarism) frightening away the animals in the forest (Central Park). The caption quoted a familiar fable:"An ass having put on a lion's skin, roamed about in the forest and amused himself by frightening all the foolish animals he met within his wanderings". One of the foolish animals in the cartoon was an elephant, representing the Republican vote, not the party, the Republican vote - which was being frightened away from it's normalties by the phony scare of Caesarism.

In a subsequent cartoon on November 21st, 1874 after the election in which the Republicans did badly, Nast followed up the idea by showing the elephant in a trap,illustrating the way the Republican vote had been decoyed from it's normal allegiance.Other cartoonists picked up the symbol, and the elephant soon ceased to be the vote and became the party itself: the jackass, now referred to as the donkey, made a natural transition from representing the Herald to representing the Democratic party that had frightened the elephant.

#4. Bad Teeth

Ewwwww!!! Trying to carry on a conversation with someone with bad teeth is so distracting! There is a gas station down the road from me that must have a qualification of really bad teeth. The women just want to talk and talk and I never have any idea what the full conversation is about because I literally cannot take my eyes off the little black hole of tic tacs pointing every which way inside... Some of them just have brown nubs sticking out of their really pink gums. Seriously, I know that not everyone can afford the dentist, but a toothbrush is cheap! And how can you go about a day without brushing your teeth?

Several years ago I worked in an office with several other women. One day the girl over the cubicle wall says to her cube mate "I forgot to brush my teeth today, do you have any gum?"
All I could think was "gross", "gross", "gross"..... How do you forget your teeth?? And believe me, she should have had no problem with that because every time I spoke to her she had things stuck in her teeth. I have no idea what they were, I have no care as to what they were.

Ok--- just yuk.

Isnt my dog so cute? I got her from a friend.... It is so weird because I don't really like pets ( I just can't take the committment) but I have two dogs! I got Sugar about 2 1/2 years ago from the pound. She is a chocolate Lab and soooo sooo sweet. Thus the name Sugar. I was travelling quite a bit summer '06 and my boyfriend has a male Chocolate Lab, Hampton. Both of them are fixed so I left her with him for a bit.... well, by the end of the summer, she and Hampton had fallen in LOVE. Needless to say, she lives with him in sin at my boyfriends. Now, I got "Itchy" (the redhead in the pic-- the dauschund!) from a friend who could not care for her any more... She is a great dog, too! So sweet and so calm. No shedding... eats very little...Only problem is my 18year old daughter has decided that when she moves out in June, she and her boyfriend are taking my dog! They are in love love love with Itchy...

Guess I will have to take on another animal. Maybe I should get a fish??