Six Months Later

What do you post when life turns inside out and upside down? In my case, you don't. I watched as we lost so much in regards to our jobs, Bailee's future, and such - and there was little to say that wasn't sheer rage and frustration. So, I chose not to post.

Now, we're out of school. I guess. I brought home a great deal of work to do over the summer regarding curriculum, the new national common core standards, and the mandated math initiative class. I hope that the summer break is long enough to accomplish it all.

Bailee, through nothing short of a miracle, is participating in the three week ballet summer intensive program at Brindusa-Moore Ballet Academy in Pocatello. She was placed in the advanced class this year, so is dancing from 11 to 6 every day. She feels a little out of her depth, but it is good for her to stretch her talents and skills. She is working with Sir Florin Brindusa from Romania (and the former ballet master of the Korean Ballet), so this is an amazing opportunity for her.

Bailee and her studio performed "The Three Little Pigs" (the traditional story and the wolf's version) at area schools in May. It was a cute program, and Bailee enjoyed being the nerdy pig.

Our weather here continues to be atrocious. I am very sick of high winds and low temperatures. I still don't have our garden in, so I am really worried. This has been a rough year everywhere, hasn't it? Weather is absolutely off the wall.

Our summer plans are pretty simple: ballet, garden, yardwork, housework, and school work. Hopefully we will be able to fit in some fun as well. I'd really like to take a trip to Yellowstone, Jackson, and maybe Salt Lake this summer. Only time will tell if we can manage that.

Time Does Get Away From Us

The highlight of this month for Bailee was the late Christmas gift she received from one of her dance buddies, Mary. Mary took some of the girls to a local nail salon for gel nails. They also went shopping in the mall and took in the movie Tangled. She had a great day! Her teens are coming at us like a runaway locomotive. Sure hope we are ready for this!

This month has been busy, hectic, stressful, and crazy for the adults of the house. Mostly crazy. Diana and I are both dealing with lots of challenges at our schools, and our durned fool of a State Superintendent of Public Instruction has complicated our lives beyond measure with his plan to totally overhaul the education system (basically union busting and disenfranchising teachers in the process). If all this goes through, we will be little more than serfs.

Some of the items on the table include -

• firing 770 teachers and increasing class sizes (my class sizes are 27 and 41 right now)


• issue laptops to every 9th grader in the state every year (the issues inherent there boggle the mind)


• require students to take 2 classes a year online (yup, today's kids need MORE time in front of a screen)


• eliminate all Master Agreements between teachers and schools (this would eliminate safe working conditions, sick days, personal leave, etc. etc. etc.)


• go to a merit pay system (there's no mention regarding how this would be funded in a recession OR how teachers would be evaluated - not very well thought out)


• change the focus to parents and children as consumers (with the customer always being right)


• eliminate tenure from this point forward (why would ANYONE want to come here to teach?)


• restrict collective bargaining (hello serfdom)


• focus on technology, technology, technology (with no mention of practicality, implementation in aging schools with inadequate wiring, issues regarding sustainability etc.)


• restructure the current retirement plan (even though our PERSI has been named as one of the most successful retirement systems in the country - if it ain't broke...)

There is much more, all of which is upsetting. Seems that the bottom line is to ultimately deliver all public education via the Internet. The bottom line for me is that none of this seems to have been thought through. There are objectives, but no plans to back them up. I also question the fiscal implications since we are in a recession. Who is going to be responsible for sustaining these programs? Idaho usually shoved unfunded mandates off on local districts. I especially want to now about the upkeep, repair, and cost of dealing with viruses and hacking. Will local districts have to bear that burden?

School just gets more and more demanding. We are expected to cram more and more into our limited day. This month we were told to add a new grammar program (we were given one teacher's guide to share among 5 teachers, and we scanned the 800 pages for use on our Smart Boards). The school board told us to cover all the material in what remained of the year, so we're craming an intensive nine month program into four months (since state testing begins at the end of April). Somehow, challenging just doesn't seem an adequate word.

This month has also seen a marathon of testing for the school board and the federal government. We do monthly writing assessments for the board (which they now want in cursive), plus we have now added the grammar assessments (the last one I gave took two hours because the kiddos have to copy everything from a test bookletcopies we made of the test. We don't have enough $ to allow them to write on the paper like they're supposed to.) Add this to our math, science, reading, and history assessments; and it seems like all we do is test.

The feds demand that we assess our entire class three times a year in comprehension, fluency, and vocabulary. Individually testing 27 kids was certainly time consuming. I'll tell you, sometimes I feel more like a proctor than a teacher.

Like I said, this is a rough time for us. I, personally, am counting the minutes until retirement. I love my kids, I love teaching ... but I despise the state of Idaho and how it treats educators.

Realities

I don't like realities. I find them rather cold and harsh most of the time. People say "Face reality!" and I want to cry out "WHY?" Does reality kill dreams? Sometimes I think it does. If facing reality limits our ability or willingness to dream, then I find it destructive to the human soul. That said, now how do I deal with the cruel realities of my life and the dreams that give life to my soul?

At this stage of my life, my own dreams do not seem to matter as much as the dreams of my child. Today, one of Bailee's dance friends contacted us about going to Salt Lake to audition for Ballet West's summer intensive program. She's so excited. This is something she's wanted to do for some time. This is the first year that Bailee is old enough to qualify for attendance as well, and I know that she was hoping to share this experience with her "little dance buddy."

My heart swelled with joy and hope for Aleks, but it aches as I saw hope and excitement rise in Bailee's eyes, only to quickly die. She's a smart girl, and she knows how things are. Financial problems stemming from state cuts to education have made even participation in the summer intensive at Brindusa-Moore Ballet Academy down in Pocatello doubtful. Ballet West could cost 10x as much.

Bailee is a talented ballerina. Her teachers have all told us that she has great potential. She's young yet, and unsure as to whether or not she wants to dance professionally. However, she is happiest when she's dancing. Nothing else she does lights her up on the inside like dance. Her soul ignites, even when she is doing mundane weekly classes. She comes out of exhausting classes blazing like a star - happy, energized, and joyful. She is passionate about dance - and she always wants to dance. I don't want the cold facts of reality to steal away her dreams. Some how, some day, I hope that dreams will trump reality and we will find a way.

Helping Bailee follow her dreams is important to me. I'm dedicating 2011 to finding a way to help her to chase her dreams. She may or may not achieve them, but there is much to be said for having the chance, for taking the chance, and the journey along the way.

Happy New Year

It's the first day of the new year! The sky is blue, there's snow all around, and it's 2 degrees outside. Considering the fact that our temps were like -16 last night, so that is a big improvement. The house feels much warmer! This is a very good thing. We're about to stat a fire in our gel-alcohol fireplace. It helps, but I sure would like the real thing. In the next house maybe. =)

Bailee made pancakes for everyone this morning. Such a little chef. It was a nice treat to start the new year.

Hope that all of our friends and family have a wonderful new year. We certainly all deserve one after the nightmare of 2010. I don't know about you, but it was rough in our household. Diana was tallying up the things that went wrong, appliances (stove, fridge, hot water heater, t.v., computer ...) that gave up the ghost, doctor and dentist expenses, car trouble, etc. and it was quite depressing. I hope that everything can hold together this year.

Happy new year to you all!