National Standards for Education

It's been awhile, and I haven't had time to write openly about education. I thought, considering the high volume of media surrounding Arne Duncan's speech at Columbia and the race toward national standards for education deserves some attention. As a classroom teacher and a current graduate student in a curriculum and instruction program, I like to think I know a little about planning lessons for reading and writing and helping students to pass tests, like the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, which we know is highly important to the well being of our country and our children.

For those of you who are uneducated in education, I thought you might like to know a little bit about why I think national standards are a good idea. Here are my 10 reasons why I support national standards:
1. We all know students in rural Alabama need to learn the same skills for success as students in New York City. It doesn't matter if they live in Alaska or Florida, kids are kids everywhere, after all, and we should hold every American child to the same high level of academic achievement.
2. Because kids are kids everywhere, we know they all bring to school the same life experiences including preschool, good health, and a loving and supportive home, so a good teacher should be able to bring her entire classroom of 22 students to proficiency at the end of the year. Whatever that proficiency is won't matter-- the good teachers will always succeed. Especially if they're paid more.
3. We need standards so we can test every student and measure them all with the same tool. Tests are invaluable to the American public, so they are aware of the failures of the public school system.
4. Testing based on national standards will reinforce white power. We need more white power.
5. According to Duncan, "every student has a gift," and we all know it's an academic gift-- we just have to hold every American student accountable to their blessing.
6. Every American child should attend college, so they need a basic framework of knowledge to enter colleges and it should be the same for everyone. The current recession (depression) has proven that a college education equals a well-paying job with benefits like health care and a safe, stable retirement plan. You will also be able to afford a mortgage, multiple credit cards, student loans, car loans, extravagant vacations, and all the debt you can manage. Ah, the American dream.
7. Knowledge and skills can always be measured empirically, so national, measurable standards in the core subjects just makes sense. We know that reading, writing, and social studies are rarely, if ever, subjective. Science and math are entirely objective. It is reasonable and logical to set objective, measurable goals for our children.
8. All children speak English in America. And anyway, not speaking English is not an excuse for not being able to be academically proficient.
9. Testing is a noble industry. The College Board and ETS know best, and we should support their aims in providing reliable and remarkably accurate measurements of children's knowledge. By allowing representatives of The College Board, ACT, Inc., and Achieve write our core curriculum standards, we keep them in business. What good Americans we are!
10. Finally, teachers really don't know their students best. A strong core curriculum will ensure that every teacher provides exactly what their students need-- a strong set of skills and an acceptance of the knowledge needed to be a good citizen of this great country.

The weeks are lengthening, but Sundays are bright.

Just so you can understand why I am not doing a very good job of communicating with friends, this is my tentative schedule for this week.

Monday
7:30 A.M.-9:30 A.M. Awake & gym time
10:30 A.M.-3:00 P.M. Work at Harrison's
4:00 P.M. Meet in library for discussion group
4:30 P.M.-6:00 P.M. Master's Colloquium in library
6:00 P.M.-9:00 P.M. Foundations of Education Course
9:00 P.M.-Bed Finish reading/assignments for writing class

Tuesday
9:00 A.M. Awake & gym time
Noon- Campus to finish work for writing class and/or read for Thursday and/or lunch
2:45 P.M.-3:50 P.M. Supervisor meeting (ick)
4:15 P.M.-5:30 P.M. Seminar
5:45 P.M.-8:45 P.M. Writing class (yay!)
9:00 P.M.-9:45 P.M. Yoga
10:00 P.M. Ice cream at creamery with Nicole (best night of week!)

Wednesday
7:30 A.M.-9:30 A.M. Awake & gym time
11:00 A.M.-2:00 P.M. Work @ Harrison's
3:00 P.M.-8:00 P.M. Work @ Harrison's
8:00 P.M.-Bed Finish readings for Vygotsky

Thursday
7:30 A.M.-9:30 A.M. Awake & gym time
11:00 A.M.-4:00 P.M. Work @ Harrison's
6:00 P.M. - 9:00 P.M. Vygotsky

Friday
Free day!!
Checking out some awesome gym classes & doing homework.
**Assuming I do not have to travel for PSU job/will attempt to schedule school appointments for Friday.

Saturday
Homework
4:00 P.M.-10:00 P.M. Work @ Harrison's

Sunday
11:00 A.M. BLOODY MARY BAR @ ALE HOUSE!!! WOOOO!

I told you Sundays are bright! :)

Favorite Foods

I can't do my reading for class if I don't make this list. So, here goes:

Monkey bread
New York Style cheesecake served with Cabernet Sauvignon
Texas steak chili (must make your nose run!)
Pasta Carbonara
Spinach-Artichoke Pizza
Fried eggs
Tuna steak, cooked medium rare
Cheese fries (MUST have bacon & jalapenos & be served with RANCH)
Deviled eggs
Carrot cake
Mexican cornbread
Fried okra
Fruit salad
Sesame chicken
Rainbow rolls
Pineapple
Chorizo & egg breakfast tacos
Vegetable/green chile enchiladas
Squash casserole
Poached eggs over tomatoes
Roasted chicken
Homemade mac -n- cheese
Vegetable curry
Spanish omelette
Paella
Peanut butter & banana sandwiches
Dolmas
Cole slaw with apples
Brats and sauerkraut
Jambalaya
Crab cakes

Obviously, this has something to do with my refusal to go on any sort of diet! Good lord, I love food. Now I can read.

There is nothing more frightening than being alone and having to be completely honest with yourself. Especially after you've been answering the same question constantly to everyone: "Why?" and you've given a million answers, so many answers that make sense and seem logical. And then, you're alone and you look in the mirror, ask yourself, "Why?" and the only answer is:

"I don't know."

And it's the truth. I don't know.

American Idiots.

So often, I am frustrated with Americans.

I don't have the right answers. I don't think anyone-- not our politicians, doctors, researchers, government, advisers, Ph.D.s, watchdogs-- has the right answers. But what about the skills to find some appropriate solutions to our problems?

And then, someone comes up with something that might-- just might-- work, and angry, belligerent idiots shoot it down for moral issues that disregard most solutions anyway. Ugh. I'm so sick of your morals stomping around on my rights.

However-- in regards to the current crisis in health care reform, all I can think about are the kids. I don't give a rat's ass about all of the people who want to hold on to their health care. Good! Great! Please do! If I still had mine, I would-- I do NOT trust the government to provide healthcare for everyone. Look at what the government does for education. Look at what it does for the military. Priorities are in line right there.

But think about kids.

If every child, of every color, socioeconomic standing, and state of health, received superb health care, free of charge, what would it do for this country? If we provided real nutrition to children in our free breakfast and lunch programs-- not mashed up and bread-coated chicken or white bread and ham sandwiches-- think of how it would change the state of health in this nation. If we were able to provide our kids with the best in medicine, maybe they could have the tools to really figure out this whole tangle for the long term.

Maybe, just maybe, health care reform for our children is the key to improving education so that we may leave future generations with the tools to do better for themselves than we can for ourselves right now.

If you would let me advise Washington, and I don't have all the answers, just one possible path to a solution, I would tell them: provide for our children and we will be OK.

If we're living by human-made rules, we can change human-made rules. We don't have to keep playing the same game the same way.

And that's my 2 cents.

25 and A-live!

Yes, folks, I survived my 25th birthday and I am still here to write about it. Definitely a tame day, but loads of fun, even though it wasn't hot enough to go swimming-- a favorite birthday past time for this summer baby. So what did I fill my day with instead?

It being Friday, Matthew and I made our weekly trip to the downtown farmer's market. The market was hopping! We picked out tons of goodies, including: spinach, cookies, pesto, noodles, cantaloupe, plums, tomatoes, a black bell pepper, squash, carrots, potatoes, and of course, our weekly bouquet of fresh-cut flowers. I spent $7 on this bouquet-- a steal considering how much a similar bouquet would cost at a local store! And they'll last just as long. So far, I'm really pleased with the flowers.

We picked up some wine and I was introduced to Back Yard Burgers, the most delicious fast food chain of all time. I'm seriously confused. Fast food? Delicious? What? I have to give those burgers a serious high-five-- that is some damn good meat.

Matt treated me to a meat-free Indian dinner that included a dish (I cannot spell it) of potatoes, chickpeas, and spinach, an 8-vegetable curry, rice, samosas, and naan. Almost every vegetable in each dish was something that we had locally purchased and Matt had bought the curry spice in Ecuador. Ben baked a chocolate and tamarind cake. I'd never had tamarind before, but I really liked it: sweet, citrus-y, and a little richer and thicker in texture and flavor than an orange. We invited new friends, Jessica and Billy, over for dinner and wine-- it was a great night!



I've been looking forward to today ever since I arrived in Pennsylvania-- the Centre County Farm Tour! I'd been debating farms all week, and had a list narrowed down to seven farms. I was only able to visit three this year; I could have toured four if I had got a move on a little earlier in the day, but I found two farms I'm really pleased with and looking forward to visiting more often! The first farm I visited was the Tait Farm. This is the farm I bought the delicious basil pesto from at the farmer's market, and I was able to take a self-guided tour around the farm. In Vegetable, Animal, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver talks about her asparagus patch and how beautiful it is to see the asparagus grow past their cutting. The Tait Farm had a 4-year-old asparagus patch that I'm assuming will be ready for harvesting early next spring. Check out these long, willowy beauties:

Yes, that is asparagus! Really, a beautiful plant-- and I'm looking forward to early spring when I can chomp down on some fresh asparagus. It's one of my favorite foods, and I wish it was ready today!

At the next farm, Piper's Hill, there were plenty of animals to see: chickens, ducks, roosters, cows, a couple of very handsome dogs, and peacocks! Apparently, there were also goats somewhere, but I didn't see them. This was really my favorite farm of the day, and I bought a dozen eggs, a pound of ground beef, and some Honolulu beef jerky made with pineapple juice-- that jerky was so good, I already ate all of it! I also reserved my Thanksgiving turkey-- one of the cute little fellas sitting on the left-hand side here. Aren't they cute? Little do these guys know, but they will all be on Thanksgiving tables this fall. I guess it helps that they'll grow up to be a lot uglier than they are now!

AND-- it makes me feel really good to know that my turkey will be living a very happy, albeit short, life. He's free range and organic, and he gets to wander around a farm with all of his duck and chicken buddies. That's one happy stinkin' turkey (day) if you ask me.



More pictures from Piper Hill:

Happy cows are from Pennsylvania!

Ducks-- I think I scared the momma duck off her nest, and I felt bad for it!

Peacock!

In contrast to the Piper Hill Farm was the Amish farm I went to-- it wasn't on my original list, and I had never seen them at the farmer's market. I was disappointed in the general farming practices of the Amish. Your natural assumption would be that the Amish practice sustainable farming methods, not just out of respect for the earth, but also because it's more traditional. This is not at all what I observed today-- it was a conventional dairy farm, complete with very unhappy dairy cows living in their own waste, confined to fairly small quarters, and never let out to pasture. This is not the case for all of the Amish, in fact, there is an Amish farm that is a regular at the farmer's market that sells raw milk-- and you have to be a very well kept, organic, sustainable farm with grass-fed cows to be licensed to sell raw (unpasteurized) milk. But what I saw today was just... disappointing. The cheese was good (and I did buy a block-- there has to be a reason PASA supports this farm), but these cows just don't look as happy.

There was a funny moment at the Amish farm, though, when one of the cows got out of her building and went running across the road. Our young guide, Paul, and his older sister had to chase the rogue back into her building. I suspect she knew it was about time to be milked, because she was headed right toward the milking building!














What a day! I'm so thankful for living in a place now that has such a rich and abundant local food supply. There are plenty of places to get local meats, cheeses, and vegetables in Texas, but the communities to support buying locally are not quite as loud and vocal as they are here in Pennsylvania! I do want to encourage all of my friends, especially those of you in Texas, to please visit www.slowfoodusa.org or www.localharvest.org and look into local foods available in your area. It really has been more cost effective for us, and it's been one enjoyable adventure to discover what foods are currently being grown locally and how to prepare them with as few store-bought items as possible. And, when I think about it, with so many food options here, it seems awfully silly to purchase tons of food from California!

Twenty-five and alive-- and eating well to stay that way!

To sign or not to sign... the dotted line?

I have a true loathing for corporations, especially corporate restaurants. Mostly because I have the opportunity to avoid them. But that's all that has been willing to hire me here. I have about a week to back out, if other offers that fit my schedule arise.

Could be fascinating to infiltrate the corporation from a blogging/ amateur-journalist view point. You think?

I smashed the Praxis I today. ETS. I hate you, too.

In other news: I received confirmation today that I am hired as a field instructor in the Curriculum and Instruction Field Experiences office at PSU. Basically, that means I will be supervising some undergraduate pre-service teachers, and I couldn't be more satisfied. I can stay in the schools, in a role that I think will suit me well, and I can talk with other people about teaching all day. What could I possibly enjoy more? If I can get all of my hours completed by the end of the summer, then hopefully I will meet enough people to work myself into a position at a local school next year and take my thesis slowly. I want it to be well thought out.

I have bread that's about to come out of its machine. Overall, a damn good day.