A Sad Afternoon

My grandmother, Norma Lindberg, passed away this afternoon. I'll put up a full post later, but for now, please offer up some prayers, both of gratitude that Grandma isn't suffering any more and of healing for my grandfather, mother, and family, when you have a minute.

April Shower (of Snow)

April Shower (of Snow)
Originally uploaded by Prairie Brown

Here's the scene outside our building at this very moment. How bizarre is that?!

Who Turned off the Spring?

This afternoon, my colleague in Lynwood called me to chat about the upcoming conference. As we were talking, she mentioned that it had been snowing all afternoon in Lynwood. I looked out my window (I'm about 50 miles south of Lynwood when I'm at work). The sun was shining. Sure, there were a few clouds over the water, and yes, they looked very black, but overall it wasn't an unpleasant day outside.

I hopped into my car at about 5:00 and headed north. I was about halfway back to Seattle when something thumped against my windshield. I figured it was a bug. Then I noticed the wet splotch. Something else splatted against the windshield. Then something else. It was starting to hail! As I drove further north, it hailed harder and harder. Small piles of it began to build up on the sides of my windshield. Traffic going into downtown slowed, then stopped, then began creeping northward again at a snail's pace. The sides of the road began to collect piles of hail. Then the road itself started to look a little bit white and slushy. I passed a sign that estimated the commute from that point to Lynwood: 58 minutes to travel what on a good day would be a 15 minute drive.

I got off the freeway at the next exit, watching the cars still on the freeway beginning to slip and slide a bit as the road got worse. I took the back roads the rest of the way home. By the time I got home, the hail had stopped. It was actively SNOWING! As I type this, it's starting to stick to the streets. Cars and trees in the parking lot outside the building are thoroughly coated.

You heard me--it's snowing in Seattle in the middle of April! Clearly, whoever is in control of the weather missed the memo about it being spring!

Some More Books

This morning, I dropped Michael off at work and made it to the book sale in time to join the line at the door. The building where the sale is held (a former airplane hangar) is huge--and the line stretched around three sides of it! Today is half-price day, so all the paperbacks that were 50 cents yesterday are a whole quarter today. The dollar hardbacks are 50 cents today.

This morning, my mission was to browse the historical fiction room. They allow only 50 people into this room at a time, so it was important that I be one of the first people to get there, or I would have to wait in line after waiting in line. I was number 25 into the room. I was worried for a few minutes that I wouldn't make it in time. I got stuck behind a really slow old lady who would wander one way, then just before I could squeeze past her, she'd cut the other way. Finally, she paused to look at something for long enough for me to dart past her.

I found a stack of books, ranging from novels about British kings and queens to Mexican rebels. I even grabbed a few romances--not bodice rippers (never been my thing), but more along the lines of Bridget Jones (romantic comedies). Now I just need summer vacation, a swimming pool, a cold drink, and a nice hot afternoon (we're back to clouds and drizzle today).

More Books!

Today is the first day of the annual Seattle Public Library book sale, one of the few events I know of during which people stand in line to buy books. I thought I was getting there nice and early this morning (it opened at 9:00 and I got there at 9:30), but when I went to my usual parking lot, it was completely full--people were double parked! After nearly being hit a couple times by other people searching for spots, I decided I would go for a walk. I drove to a parking lot about half a mile away, on the waterfront, and walked back to the sale by going up the Kite Hill and through the Sports Meadow. I figured it's healthy to walk, and besides--it's the first warm spring day we've had this year.

As I walked toward the sale, I ran into Hope and Peter walking their dogs. They'd just come over the hill from the sale, and were shaking their heads at the craziness of it. Peter said he'd seen people camping outside the doors last night to make sure they were the first ones in!

In spite of this rather ominous warning, I continued on my walk, savoring the warm air and enjoying the site of bunches of kids playing what I think is some sort of competitive frisbee game--they were organized into teams, had team uniforms, and were throwing frisbees in some sort of keep-away game. Coaches were yelling from the sidelines and parents were cheering. It was all very festive. As I walked away from the Sports Meadow, several lacrosse teams were just arriving.

I made my way through the crowded parking lot and into the book sale building. It was insanely crowded, as usual, but since I've been to several of these by now, I knew where to go. Thank goodness they always organize them the same way! I headed to the reference book section first, because I wanted some books for my office. I found a great ESL dictionary, a wonderful book of American quotations, a terrific little grammar book, and a few others that I'm sure students will appreciate.

Then I made my way to the tables full of mystery books. Before I left the house this morning, I'd made a list of all the Agatha Christies and Mary Higgins Clarks (etc.) we already have. I browsed the tables until I'd filled my bag with books that aren't already in our collection, even finding a Stephen King we didn't have--the screenplay for Storm of the Century. Since I had all I could reasonably expect to carry for half a mile, I didn't browse the literature tables. I figure there will be plenty left on those tomorrow.

I walked back to my car, enjoying the sunshine, and stopping for a few minutes to watch the lacrosse games--it looks like a fun sport. By the time I got back to my car (lugging 40 pounds or so of books), my shoulders were aching a little bit, but it was worth it. We'll have plenty of books for summer reading. Especially after I go back tomorrow to browse the literature tables!

A Math Problem

As I've been reflecting on my previous post, in which I claimed poverty, not flawed teachers, is the primary problem affecting the U.S. educational system, a math problem kept popping into my head:

8.07 X 40 X 52 X 18 = 302,140.80

(Minimum wage in Washington) times (40 hours per week) times (52 weeks in a year) times (18 years of responsibility for a child)

The current price of raising a child from birth to the age of eighteen, according to the U.S. government, is $204,060. Now, let's imagine a single parent home. In this home, there are three children and one mother. The mother hasn't graduated from high school. She holds a minimum wage job as a checker at a local convenience store. Even if she works full time, without ever taking a vacation or a sick day, for the next eighteen years, she will never meet the monetary requirement of raising one child at what the government considers an average standard. She has three children. Washington's minimum wage is the highest in the country. If she lived in Kansas, she'd be making $2.65 an hour. In Arkansas, $6.25. In Nebraska, $5.85 (the federal minimum wage). You heard me--the federal government believes the minimum amount of money one would have to make would be $5.85 an hour ($219,024 for 18 years of work).

We could compound her children's struggles by adding some of the other problems those in poverty often face. Perhaps she drinks or uses drugs to ease the pain of her poverty or to escape the stress she feels. Maybe she is frequently fired or laid off from the minimum wage jobs she is qualified to do. It's possible that she could have medical problems that cause the bills to build up. Heaven forbid one of the children should become seriously ill. Any number of unexpected events could put a strain on the family's already tight finances. The car could break down. The landlord could evict them. A relative could die leaving nothing but a funeral expense.

Are schools really to blame for the education crisis the country is facing? Do we really need more rigid standards? Will standardized testing really solve all our problems? Is it the schools we need to reform?

Will a child who comes to school hungry, who wears clothing (patched and torn) passed down through two older siblings, who's never been read a bedtime story, who is teased and humiliated when she arrives at school, and who has already witnessed her mother overdose on meth be likely to be prepared when the time comes to take a standardized test? Or will her priority be figuring out how to survive another day?

One Point Two Million Left Behind

I've really had enough of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). It simply doesn't live up to its name. Of course, how many people are going to be willing to stand up and say that? Who wants to be the one to say, "That's a stupid idea!" and run the risk of being accused of not wanting to help kids? (Ignore the fact that the law really isn't helping kids. It's hurting those who need the most help.)

This morning, graduation rates were announced. Nationally, around 70 percent of high school students can expect to graduate. In Seattle, 67.6 percent of students will graduate. Seattle schools, and schools across the country, will be punished for not graduating 100 percent of their students (the unrealistic goal set by no child left behind). They will receive less federal money, and that money they do receive will have to be spent on new, government mandated programs rather than community outreach, parenting classes, drug treatment programs, English as a second language classes, and any number of other things that might be beneficial. Teachers will be fired or demoted because their students didn't perform to NCLB standards.

One more thing was announced today: 1.2 million kids will drop out of school entirely this year. They won't finish high school. They won't get diplomas. They will be doomed to lives below the poverty level, scraping a living at minimum wage or working higher paying but dangerous manual labor types of jobs.

Here's a profile of the kids in Seattle who won't be graduating this year: They will be poor. All of them. They will come from primarily single parent homes in which that single parent likely does not have a high school diploma. Most of them will have been going to school without breakfast and an adequate winter coat since they were small children. (Notice that nationally, the schools with the lowest graduation rates are in cities where poverty runs rampant: Detroit, with a 24.9 percent graduation rate, Cleveland, with a 30.5 percent graduation rate.) Many of them will be African American. Many of them will be drug addicted. Many of them will have been abused. Many of them will have a learning disability. Many of them will not speak English. (According to Seattle's primary ESL school, not a single one of their students has ever passed the WASL--Washington's NCLB test--and they don't expect any of them to pass in the future. The standard of being able to pass it after one year of English instruction is simply too unreasonable. Students who grew up speaking English still can't pass the test! Even though they are legal immigrants, they will be punished for not being born here.) Many of them have children themselves, although they're teenagers (thanks abstinence education). Many of them will have already spent time living on the streets. Many of them will have already been involved in prostitution. Many of them will have already done jail time. And yet these kids are included in the 100 percent compliance goal the NCLB has set. NCLB is intentionally weeding out the so-called "undesirable" kids under the premise that it is encouraging an equal chance for all children. NCLB does not leave a single door open for these kids. If they are incapable of meeting its standards, they are turned onto the street. Period. But as long as they don't come from homes with money, who cares, right? No one is going to protest. (Until someone steals their BMWs--and then the protest won't be about lack of a diploma.)

I should point out that NCLB has no suggestions and gives no leeway for students who cannot meet its standards. The GED isn't an option: it's not considered an acceptable outcome under NCLB. Only a high school diploma will suffice, so school districts desperately trying to keep federal funding are doing all that they can to eliminate GED programs and encourage kids who will never pass the WASL (or other state tests) to stay in school. Career Link, the program I for which I taught, severed ties with Seattle Public Schools last year. On the surface, this was because of funding issues, but the reality of the situation is that they were fearful of losing money if all the kids in the district didn't take the WASL. Career Link just learned it will be forced to close in June of this year.

Remember all those kids in Seattle who will not earn high school diplomas (over 30 percent)? After June (when they don't graduate with their classes and Career Link is forced to shut its doors), they will have one less place to turn. They will actually have been left behind.