"Common" Core

Seriously, the name alone should offend.  When did it become popular to aspire to be "common"?  I don't want my children to be "common".  I want them to be as unique as their fingerprints, as stripes on a zebra as...well...something else that is unique.

 

 

This is Travis Alexander.  He does take unique to an art form.  He is nearly 14 (which quite frankly blows my mind).  He has been homeschooled, like his siblings, for a total of 6 out of his 7 years of "schooling" to date.  He chose to go back to public school this year.  Mostly to see what the fuss was all about.  I love the fact that he is very introspective about his experience, but even when Travis is introspective, he is chatty.  Travis is NEVER non chatty...I mean NEVER.  But, that is my cross to bear...moving on.

 

So Travis is a bright kid.  I don't credit myself or homeschooling...he is just a bright kid.  So he is doing very well in school.  He pulled up his grades on Power School last night and was talking them over with his dad.  Now Kevin (his dad for the one of you who may stumble upon this and not know us) is a type A "achiever" kind of guy.  It took him awhile to embrace homeschooling for our kids and even then he had trouble sometimes with the attitude that "grades don't matter" (because they just don't! REALLY).  So, when our older kids eventually went back to school he had finally acclimated more and was okay with A's and B's as long as they were learning and "doing their best".  But, Travis is kind of a LOT like his dad.  If he is going to bother to do something he might as well be the best, or at least his best.  So, Kevin sees him as his "great white hope".  He sees him as his "high GPA guy" and he, not so secretly, is excited by this prospect.  I know it is not just the label he is excited about.  After putting three daughters through several years of college and anticipating our fourth college tuition next year, I have learned the value of a high GPA, grades still don't matter...to me...but they do to some and so we will jump through their hoops.  So, back to Power School. Travis has two A-'s.  The rest are A's.  But, I sat a few seats away, last night, listening to Kevin ask Travis "why the minuses"?  In Digital Portfolio it is because he doesn't type well (my bad, that is actually a valuable life skill which I can confirm because Kevin doesn't know his home keys and he does use typing in his day to day job and we often pity the keyboard he has to use because he beats on it with his two index fingers.  Of course, last night I saw him pick up his new Ipad and do some voice recognized notes so, seriously, in the world we are advancing towards how important will typing be?  But, I digress)

The other A- was in Language Arts.  Why?  Because Travis doesn't really understand diagramming sentences.  Now I will ask you, with a show of virtual hands, how many of you have diagrammed a sentence in your life post schooling?  Granted, I am "just a housewife" but I can't come up with a career path that will require diagramming a sentence.  (Other than a homeschool mom...so there is that irony).  Let me just tell you that Travis writes well, not physically mind you.  His handwriting is an abomination.  But, he is creative and his writing flows and makes perfect sense.  And boy does he love to read.  I have seen him get as passionate about a book he is devouring as he gets when he takes the ball away from a charging forward on the soccer field.  He uses words appropriately and in context.  So why, why, why, is he diagraming sentences? Or failing at it I guess I should ask?  I blame me, of course, I didn't focus on it in the past few years when I had him home.  Why would I want that to be what we did with our time together?  It just didn't seem important...because. it. isn't.

 

I have read the history of public schools.  I know why they were created. I encourage you all to do the same.  It is quite the eye opener.  I am blessed beyond belief that I don't have to rely on them for my childrens' education.  I am not a school basher.  There are many things professional teachers are far more qualified to teach my children than I am.  I support and respect the profession of teaching, administrating, lunch lady-ing.  All the people that put their time and effort into being there each day and trying to shape a young life.  I just don't understand why our government aspires to make this generation "common". 

 Where is the glory in that?

 



Holy Skewed Reality Batman!

Or should I say "Batgender-race neutral".  I mean seriously people.

Our two youngest boys watch a lot of television shows that probably most parents wouldn't consider "appropriate" for kids their age (13 and 10).  Sometimes people find out and say, "oh, I don't let my kids watch that show" or "really? aren't they a little young?". Or they silently judge me and silence is often the loudest.  I used to care but I got over it when I noticed that my kids were pretty darn cool in spite of the "inappropriate content" they had been exposed to.  So yeah, I let my kids watch Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother and Modern Family.  But you know what I would NEVER encourage them to watch...the evening news.  With television shows it is easy to say, "that is done for humor or that's not real".  And you might think here that I'm going to say that the world is just too ugly and dangerous so I don't want them to see it...but you'd be wrong...don't fret, I used to be wrong a lot too but I stopped and became AWESOME instead (HIMYM:-))!!  My kids are strong enough to handle the actual news...it's the stuff the media passes off as "news" that I don't want them exposed to.

My cool friend and African missionary Janette Miller and I were chatting last week.  She pointed out the discrepancy in news coverage between two tragedies that happened in the same week.  The Boston Marathon bombings and the explosion at the fertilizer factory in Texas.  In the first four people died, in the second upwards of 14 people died.  The first was sensationalized the second was barely covered.  Both were tragic, both were horrible, in both cases families lost loved ones.  But the media decided that the bombing was more news worthy and nobody seemed to care.

This week the news has been all over an NBA basketball player "coming out" and he is called a hero. My attitude and feelings have evolved over the years towards homosexuality...I'm not going to lie here...it gives me the heebie jeebies...but I don't believe love is a sin and I also don't believe it is mine to judge.  I don't care whom you chose to love as long as I don't have to watch the physical stuff and I presume you would feel the same about me...intimacy is actually NOT very pretty which is why I believe we should all have locks on our bedroom doors!!! and our bedroom mouths for that matter!

So anyway, back to my point.  I don't think Jason Collins is a hero.  I think anyone who is "real" in this world of make believe is brave, but it doesn't make them a hero.  I also don't think it is Jason Collin's fault that he is being called a hero.  The media took a story, knew it would be controversial (NOT newsworthy, just controversial) and they blew it up.

So yes, my kids watch "inappropriate television" but not the news...never the "news" and don't even get me started on "reality" television!

muzzles and shock collars

I have decided that youth sports (specifically soccer the "full contact-non contact" sport) would be so much more enjoyable if parents weren't allowed to attend...but then I remembered, I am a parent, and I love to watch my kids participate so I went back to the drawing board. I was thinking muzzles...all parents must wear muzzles, but, 99.9% of the time what I shout is positive and thoughtful (we don't need to discuss the other .1 percent...I am human and I carried and gave birth to that little human running around on that sports field and if some post pubescent neandrathal with a stupid little goatee runs him over I will likely voice my displeasure). So, if ALL parents were muzzled I would not be able to shout "be majestic Bob" to my little boys or "you're pretty" to my girls (sometimes I get the two mixed up, the girls are confused and the boys get downright huffy) so, mandatory muzzles are not the answer. That led me to wonder about the shock collar that delivers just a little volt to our dog if it wanders too near the wire fence buried deep in our yard. And that is just what it is my friends...knowing when you have gone over board is sometimes hard, especially when you see you're sons and daughters out on the field going head to head (shoulder to shoulder as the case were) in the heat of battle. Those are our babies out there and we want to protect and defend even when we are only supposed to spectate. But, we need to try harder to remember that the other guy...even the post pubescent neandrathal with the goatee...is somebody's baby too. Maybe not as cute and cuddly as ours, but still, their baby. So, I have settled on the shock collar...just a little zing when our comments go from positive to negative, towards building up instead of crushing down. And, I honestly believe the ONLY time a parent should say anything about an opposing team member is if they are congratulating them on a well played moment. You do yours, I'll do mine. Trust me, I know my kid can get ugly sometimes, rarely thank goodness, but if he does, his coach or his father and I will handle it. We've managed to get them this far without your help and we will carry on.

The saddest thing I think, is that most won't even recognize themselves as the ones who need the shock collars. I might have been there once...when my girls were little I thought winning and being the best would make them feel better about themselves, better than I felt about myself growing up, but you know what? We are on the other side of sports with them now and truth is...it just didn't matter...winning didn't make them feel better, losing didn't make them feel worse, in the long run anyway. So, as my experience grows so does my understanding. It's just a game, whether its a "friendly" in soccer or the district finals in baseball....I want them to perform well and yes I want them to win, because winning tends to be more fun than losing. But I want them to win with integrity and I want them to lose with the confidence that it doesn't change who they are. I want them to perform with the knowledge that if they give it their all, yet they err, no blow hard stranger, or worse a teammates parent, is going to yell from the stands and question their right to be where they are.

I could spend time proof reading and editing this piece. I know it is jumpy and I have spelled neandrathal wrong...but stream of consciousness stuff is rarely well edited...it is just mental vomit in my opinion...but, as we all know when we have that upset stomach there is that underlying feeling, "if I can just get this out, I know I'll feel better". So there, I have compared my writing to vomit...have a good day.