Pope Thoughts

I was raised as a Catholic and having received all the available sacraments less the Holy Orders and Last Rites, I am the textbook example of a non-practicing Catholic.  My reasons for not belonging to the Roman Catholic Church as an adult are many.  The most obvious being the imperfect hierarchy that doesn’t allow for married priests and continues to minimize women. The fact that they have totally botched the handling the sex abuse cases and the prohibition of contraception (which only exacerbates the poverty they claim to be so invested in eliminating) rounds out the reasons I cant be part of that club.  There are a lot of people that feel the same ways about the problems of the church but the magic of the mass and the sacraments mitigates the political failings of the church.  I guess I never bought into the magic.

But I have to say that despite being only a cultural Catholic at this point in my life, I was more than a little bit intrigued by the Pope Election 2013.  I listen to a lot of radio as I am in my car A LOT.  Whether it was BBC, MSNBC or the aptly named program “Holy Smoke” on the Catholic Channel, the wall to wall news coverage of the conclave was odd to me.  The selecting of the pope really only directly affects 17% of the world but it was monopolizing the air waves in a serious way and I kind of was digging it. The selection was violence and suffering free, unlike much of the recent headlines.  It was all very mysterious and we could only speculate what was going on behind close doors.  So while intriguing, there wasn’t any real news to report, there was no real information to base a story on so the news was mostly Pope fun facts and trivia.  The most interesting thing I learned this week was that the chemical smoke canisters that are added to the paper ballots and notes for the fire after the voting are made by a chemistry inclined nerdy Cardinal from Italy.

Things got more interesting and even more mysterious when it was announced that Cardinal Bergolio of Buenos Aires was chosen as Francis I (badass name, totally approve).  But the dude is 76 years old and has one lung…I dont think this is the reformer, or the charismatic communicator that was going to clean up and  grow the church.  As cool as his name may be, I dont think the Cardinals were investing in the future.  Pope Francis seems more like a placeholder, until they  figure out how the church is going to inevitably change for the future.

As to the new Pope, there is something endearing about his simplicity and his uncomfortableness with all the pomp and circumstance.  I am willing to give him a pass on whatever complicity he may have had in the horrors of the Dirty War.  The truth seems to indicate he was having to give the military something in order to save others..es muy complicado..as they say in Buenos Aires.  I guess my biggest beef with the dude is that he doesn’t appear to know how to smile!

Good luck Pope Francis, I would love to be surprised.

Quisp and Quake

When I was a kid my mom never bought good cereal.  We never had Captain Crunch, Fruity Pebbles, Count Chocula , Fruit Loops or Lucky Charms.  Instead my mom made huge batches of healthy granola chock full of nuts and dried fruit.

I did managed to tried all the above at someone elses house, or even trade a handmade baked good for a individual size box of Sugar Pops (my fav) that you could make a bowl out of the box and pour the milk right into the wax lining.  And while they were tasty, once I had my own money and was buying groceries, the hefty price never seemed worth it.

Fast forward 40 years and I am my mother except I dont handmake copious amounts of granola, that would seem silly given all the handmade granola options at the store.  I do stick to the healthy or boring cereal for my family, Raisin Brand, Cherrios (plain), Special K and Rice Krispies.  Much to my kids disappointment I wont buy them crappy sugar laden cereal either.  Although, they are a resourceful bunch and are able replicate any chocolate cereal by floating the boring cereal in chocolate milk.

I did given in recently however when I saw this box of Quisp of cereal in our local grocery.  I loved the retro box  and  the non-sensical comic on the back  for a little light reading with breakfast.  I also appreciated it didn’t even try to claim to be full of vitamins and minerals making it an integral part of my daily nutrition but it would give me “energy”.  It was unapologetically full of sugar.  I did have a bite, and am afraid my adult taste buds couldn’t appreciate its simple goodness. I bought two boxes.  They didnt last long with my 4 kids (the 14 and 16 could have eaten an entire box, no probs).  They thought it was yummy and that these commercials were HIGHlarious.

 

Happy Mom’s Day

It’s 10:53 and I am still in bed. Cal made me coffee, Owen delivered me the Sunday Times. I will be preparing a Sunday Brunch for everyone then I back off the clock for the rest of the day. I think I will plant my herb garden and read. It’s a beautiful day.

Our Lady of MargaritaVILLE

Not Enough Learning, the Epilogue

This is an update that relates to the post  Not Enough Learning.

lifted from http://interacc.typepad.com/synthesis/2009/06/standards-schmandards.html

I dont know if I should feel pride or feel shame.  Is it Pride that my son is a satirist in the making or am I ashamed that I have exposed my kids to my distain for the school’s  singular focus on tests?  Have I poisioned my kids and undermined the schools administrators?

We are in the middle of testing lock down.  All the kids are taking Connecticut’s Mastery tests this and next week.  The testing schedule has totally wreaked havoc with my mornings. I am  up at 6:15 to get Georgie out of bed and Cal doesnt leave the house until 9:30.  Thats 3 hours and 15 minutes to get the kids off to school, a task that normally takes an hour and a half…Makes for a long morning.

Well the above is neither here or there, back to my child’s creative writing.  Earlier this week I asked Owen after school how the testing had going.  He had had a prompted writing test.  He was laughing to himself as he told me the prompt was something to this paraphrased effect: “Write a letter to your principal and tell her who (fictional or real-life.)should be invited  to your school to make it even a better school”.  So my son creates a character named Lucas Cantakeatest.  Lucas has superhuman powers when it comes to influencing average test scores and he can singlehandedly improve a school’s ranking to the point of  guaranteeing the continued status of  ”American’s Blue Ribbon School”.  Good one O.

Ashamed but laughing.

Bat Shit Crazy Elephants

lifted from Barkersandrubes.wordpress.com

Not sure where to start on this one.  I think as I eluded to in the fall with some HIGHlarious videos (here and here) of Republicans saying stupid shit, I was amused by how the GOP’s primaries were shaping up.  I am still amused and not at all disappointed.  Although I have to say some of what is said by these dopes about social issues like birth control makes me uncomfortable.  I would expect some radical pro-life rhetoric but the fact that they are talking about simple access to contraception is frightening.

Not sure who I am rooting for.  My guess Santorum would be the best case scenario opponent.  Most radical, least fundraising potential and will look the least impressive against Obama in a debate (Mittens is close second and Gringrich isn’t far behind cause he can sound insane although he can think and talk at the same time.)

Mittens is a lightweight.  He cant talk off the cuff.  And while that doesn’t mean he is a dope or cant run a business, its sumpin to look for in a president.  There is nothing to indicate from anything I have heard him say that indicates any meaningful understanding of the world or interest in it (sounds like W to me and we know how that ended).  If the slow slog sideways trajectory of his campaign is any indication he has not surrounded himself with the brightest or most capable people.  Smart people can mitigate a less than engaged candidate but it cant save a seriously lacking one.  He and his people seem weak.  Not impressed at all.

Rick Santorum has the most compelling personal story but totally underwhelms on the professional side.  He was not an effective politician.  He rode in to the Senate in 1995  and then proceeded  to piss everyone off by being partisan, a bully, mean spirited and an over all jerk.  He lost/was thrown out  by a 18% margin in 2006.  Then he started his thinly veiled presidential campaign as a FOX News correspondent.  While he appears to be the most principled of the bunch and who’s family’s experience makes an compelling pro-life argument he is a hypocrite.  He was for both of the 911 wars and is pro-death penalty.  The road he has gone down on birth control in general has been unsettling.  Why is this even up for debate?  Good news, he will never be elected.  Woman would vote in droves to make sure of that.

Newt.  He is entertaining but is mean and preys on people’s fears.  I suppose I will give him intelligence.  I wish he could use it differently.  He is sharp and can think on his feet and when on the defense can be effective in a debate, I guess.  I only hear condescending smug, other people hear a feisty bulldog.   I think he is soulless as a politician.  What he has been Catholic for like a week and he becomes the Catholic church’s biggest defender:  “our countries biggest threat is the Obama Administration’s war against the Catholic Church and religion”.  You would think it has to make him cringe to say these things out loud.  But I highly doubt it. Newt scares me on foreign policy.  I don’t think he understands diplomacy. The fact that to date he is the pocket of a man who demands Israel expand the settlements and move the capital to Jerusalem should concern all Americans.  Seems insane for a rich casino owner in America to have all the cookies in the tenuous balance that has been negotiated for the last 40 years.

SO that’s why I am not voting for any of them.  You don’t have to even look at their individual stands on policy, or begin the defense Obama’s record at the helm. They are just a bunch of losers.

Not enough learning

I loathe the fact that our public school system puts so much emphasis on the standardized test.  I realize that almost every state mandates a series of achievement test administered periodically in a student’s primary and secondary academic career.  State and local school systems can glean all sorts of information from them.  I understand there is value in them.  I think its fine for kids to take them.

I don’t however think that the schools should teach to the test or that there be rigorous preparation for the test.  In most private schools, such as the one my kids went to in Argentina, there is annual standardized testing in 3-9 grades.  It happens once a year and perhaps an hour or two is spent familiarizing the kids with how questions might be presented to them along with some handy dandy tips on how to manage their time.  As a parent you receive notice saying these are the days the test will be administered,  try to have your kid well rested and fortified with a good breakfast.  I never heard anything more about it until I received my child’s test scores in a report card.

The results are pretty self-explanatory, but if you have any questions you schedule a conference with the school counselor.  I am mildly interested in my kid’s results.  The tests are consistant in telling me one of my kids is horrible at taking standardized tests, one is pretty talented at the test taking, I only wish it translated into good grades, one is a hard working test taker who excels and one is clearly confounded by maths.  Nothing I could not have told you before.  So I will assume that there was some value in it for the school.

Forward to my new school district.  Apparently one of the best, if not the best in the state I hear, them say.  One of the best according to a glossy local magazine that annually puts out a ranking of the state’s towns and schools.   To be the best at something you have to show an extraordinary result.  So this “best” is basically a function of quantifiable criteria.  While teacher student ratios and college graduation rates play a part of the equation its the numerous standardized tests that weigh the heaviest.

Why are these scores so important?   Teachers, administrators and parents all talk about these tests.  A LOT.   I get the teachers and administrator part.  This is feedback on how they are doing their jobs.  What they do with the information is another story.  Are they incented by these scores?  I have been told the higher the scores the more federal or state money they get.  Sorry, seems counter intuitive to me.  Shouldn’t the money go where the need is? Our high school’s astro-turfed football field/stadium has an entrance gate that looks like the train depot at Disney’s Main Street USA.  I would argue we don’t need the money, especially to pay for salaries for more high level administrators of these tests.

The part that pisses me off is that parents buy in to the importance of these tests.  In my community they have seemed to drunk the Kool-aid.  Why else would everyone so passively let the academic curriculum be high-jacked by these tests.  I was at my 4^th grader’s Open House in September when twice in a 30 minute presentation we discussed these March mastery tests.  First, it was gleefully announced that they had found a extra hour in their weekly schedule to focus on some of the material and methodology of these tests .  We were also suppose to share the teacher’s enthusiasm for the fact a 5^th grade teacher would beginning to work on some science curriculum with them this year so that they would be prepared for the science portion of the testing they would be taking NEXT year.  Most parents just shrug when I ask if they think this is a little bit insane.  In the minority of taking issue with it, one girlfriend said this was one of a few reasons they move their kids into private school for middle school and beyond.

Approximately a week later the frantic obsessive test taking reared its ugly head for a second time when my 6^th grader came home with an untouched lunchbox.  When asked why he had not eaten it, he told me that because he was new to the school they wanted him to practice taking a test (ERB,something that’s isn’t mandated by the state but our school district swears by it).  These kids have been taking this test since first or second grade.  This practice session was being administered during his micro moment for lunch (20 minutes).  My sixth grader was new to school and is a good kid and did what the teacher asked, despite the fact that this is when he did what little socializing he could and he is a type one diabetic and needs to EAT!  I was livid.  It only emphasized to me how out of control their focus was.  Test results were paramount to a happy and healthy kid.  I gave myself several days to simmer down and they wrote a very pointed email to the dean of my childs section.

…I am writing on behalf of my husband and myself.  Recently an episode at school upset me so much that it took me a while to calm down enough to  write thoughtfully to you.  On Tuesday September 20, ____ was instructed by his English teacher (I think she is a substitute) to ” at lunch break come to my classroom to practice for a test which will be taken tomorrow”. I only discovered this because when he came home that day his lunch was untouched. I asked him about it, and he gave me the details.  This was disturbing on several levels.  One, ____is a diabetic and is administered insulin through a pump that is programed using assumptions that he is going to eat a certain amount of food at a certain time.  He should not miss a meal.  Second, lunch and any free time are key components of his transition from a small international school to _________.  And thirdly, as parents, we don’t care how ____ does on standardized  tests as long as he is learning and advancing intellectually and  emotionally.  We understand that the _____ school system puts a huge emphasis on these tests for reasons that have yet to be articulated clearly or justifiably to us.  We certainly do not accept that practice testing for tests whose value is completely unclear should interfere with our son’s health and social well-being.    In a nutshell, my son’s health and social well-being are paramount to  any importance the school district has put on the results of these tests.  I have explained to ___ the importance of him having a normal  lunch break and I hope you understand our priorities…. 

A few days later she got me on the phone and wanted to “clarify” a few things to me.  First thing she did was to punt my kid under the bus, stating he needed to be a better advocate for himself (he’s eleven, and isn’t that your job) and should have told the teacher he needed time to eat.  Then she tried to sell me on the importance of the tests.  At which point I mentioned again (see email)  I don’t really care how he does on the tests.  He is a good student and I don’t worry about him.  “Well if he is a good student he will want to do well on the tests because the kids talk about their scores, they are so proud of them, its really “neat””…….Well clearly she wasn’t getting the point that they weren’t important to me.  While I could see value to the school, I didn’t see why anyone should be proud the results of a test which doesn’t indicate hard work or achievement but preparation and an aptitude for multiple choice tests.  WHOPEE, you get a gold star!

Clearly she hadn’t run into a parent like me that felt so strongly as to tell her I could not have cared less about these results the school was working so hard to achieve.   I do blame parents who don’t see the wasted energy and resources in letting the schools teach to the test and put so much focus the preparation and results.  Its good to work for something but for a test that indicates what?

I live in a community where people are successful.  Parent I know all have  college plus educations and want to give their kids all sorts of opportunities that will begat other opportunities (a prestigious college is at the top of the list).  Kids in third grade know their test scores and friends tell me their kids test scores (high on my list of pet peeves).

Maybe I have four fucking geniuses in my house.  I don’t, but I wouldn’t tell you if I did.  My kids are not trophies that reside in a certain percentile or are numbers to improve on.  My kids may or may not be able to take a test.  What I want for my kids to is to learn how to think, critic, analyze, articulate and communicate ideas.   All my kids are talented in their own weird way and they will become “successful” adults (to me that means happy and taking care of themselves) despite of how well they did on these tests.  If you want to see how you are doing school system, go to it, quickly and with out screwing with my kids real education.