YOUNG ROLE MODELS

My sister, Jeanine, has submitted this article about young people. It seems to tie into Caleb's article about caring and passion for life and causes. Jeanine would have made a great coach. She sees the good in people and tends to inspire them. Since her story is about young people, I thought I would share a picture of her and me in that role. She is the little one in the picture from 1963. I am the stud in the middle. We are joined by two other sisters. Enjoy!

YOUNG ROLE MODELS

by Jeanine Suazo

The young were MY role models today. Although most adults would not want to return to the uncertainty and lack of control of our lives that we experienced when we were young, there are some things the young do that are possibly worth recapturing:

*smile!
*live with passion
*look with fresh eyes
*have faith
*be spontaneous
*trust
*hold hands
*play
*pray
*laugh
*cry
*scream (the joyful way, not the angry way)
*dream
*wish
*create fun
*BE fun
*sing
*whisper
*dance
*dawdle
*share
*be satisfied for this moment
*hope big
*did I mention SMILE?

Two very different events affected my life today.

First of all, my 7 year old received her First Holy Communion! After 5 months of preparation, today was the big day! It was wonderful! She looked beautiful - if I do say so myself - and she was very happy. There were 11 young people stepping out in faith and 11 families bursting with joy!

Secondly, I took 2 of my daughters to the Hannah Montana concert movie. Even with encouragement and permission from the theatre staff, the well behaved attendees were slow to discard proper movie manners, which actually really pleased me. Eventually though, the young (primarily girls) were on their feet dancing and participating as if they were really at the concert.

I love the intensity, enthusiasm, excitement, and innocence of the young. What happens to adults? We do sometimes become so serious that we let our dreams die, or maybe we just get on automatic pilot and forget that we can change the direction of our lives. The responsibilities, pain, and suffering that come our way can rob us of our very lives. This is no dress rehearsal! We must claim our lives back and begin immediately to participate in life! There is a saying that all men (women, too) need 3 things: someone to love, something to do, and something to look forward to. A satisfying life can be had, but we can't just react to what comes our way. Just like when we were young, we must be PROactive and drive our lives! Look at those things that the young can teach us........the list, which is easy for a young person can be intimidating to an adult! How preposterous for me to mention such crazy things! Dream? Trust? Play? Smile? Have fun? DAWDLE???? Maybe we can't give in to every selfish whim, but maybe, just maybe our lives would be richer and the lives we touch would be richer if we remembered to try to seek happiness and joy......

Well done, sister. Today i get to be with your granddaughters. i plan on taking your advice.

Thank you.

Air Supply:

Caleb is a long-time neighbor, who grew up and rasied a fine family of his own. He is an interesting fellow becasue he always has an opinion. I am glad he has agreed to share one of them with us. He says society has a problem. See if you agree.

Air Supply
by Caleb Wilson

In early 1980 an Australian band by the name of Air Supply got their first sappy love song “lost in love” to a man named Clive Davis who put them in a contract with Arista records and skyrocketed them to fame in only a couple of months and after only seven short months they had two top singles. I don’t personally care for Air supply’s particular brand of music but then I was not a fan of much of the music of the 80’s anyway. I heard their name on the radio the other day and it got me thinking. To state that you have a supply of something indicates that there is a limited amount it and at some point, you will run out. In the case of air, that seemed kind of silly to me. I had however been thinking about something else in America that seems to have run out. While I was contemplating our depleting sources in America, Air Supply came on the radio and my brain waves must have crossed signals because the words that formed in my head were “care supply.”

I got to those words because I was wondering, for the 1000th time, what happened to the people of this once great country, I am talking of course about those proud, sophisticated people who called themselves Americans. Then Air Supply rudely interrupted and I got care supply. I was wondering what happened to all the people, possibly even my parents own generation, who believed so strongly, in so much that there was always a “radical” movement. Which lead me to the thought that perhaps there was a “care supply” for this country that got used up by the generations just before mine? You know those Americans I speak of the ones who fought a second world war, the ones who rounded up communists in America, the ones who protested Vietnam and believed in the right to get stoned and “make love not war.” There were several generations before mine who were so active in the community, it had to get a tetanus booster and decided to get a sexual diseases test just to be on the safe side. Apparently after that the community changed its identity and went in to hiding because after about 1975 not much else has happened in it that was positive. Back for the moment to these men and women who had an opinion and felt they could affect change if they worked together to express that opinion. They had an abundant amount of care supply or did they?

Flash forward to today. I look around at a country where it seems the care supply is all used up. I am inevitably reminded of one of my most favorite science fiction inventions ever. You guessed it (more likely you did not) the SEP field, invented by Douglas Adams and introduced in the “Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy.” The premise of the SEP field was that, when used properly, it rendered just about anything, no matter how ridiculous, invisible. Best stated, an SEP is something we can't see, or don't see, or our brain doesn't let us see, because we think that it's somebody else's problem. The brain just edits it out; it's like a blind spot. If you look at it directly you won't see it unless you know precisely what it is. Your only hope is to catch it by surprise out of the corner of your eye. The technology required to actually make something invisible is so complex and unreliable that it isn't worth the bother. The "Somebody Else's Problem field" is much simpler and more effective, and "can be run for over a hundred years on a single torch battery." This is because it relies on people's natural predisposition not to see anything they don't want to, weren't expecting, or can't explain. In this case, the Starship Bistromath ("a small upended Italian bistro" with "guidance fins, rocket engines and escape hatches") has been hidden from the crowd watching a Cricket match at Lord's by an SEP field. People may see it, but they take absolutely no notice of it. As I look at the climate in America today and all the myriad problems facing this once great nation, I can’t help but feel someone turned SEP fields on. It just seems to me that people do not care the way they used to. Now more than ever we need a replenished “care supply.” So I challenge you the reader, to ask yourself if your “care supply” is up to date and ready to be used. There are enough problems in this country that something effects you every day, even if it’s only a little nag in the back of your mind, try something new and try to gather like minded friends and affect change. As Oscar Wilde so aptly stated, “Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation.”

ABC’S…EASY AS ONE BILLION DOLLARS

Greetings, I have been posting articles written by various friends lately. Heather was inspired by an issue regarding the school system, and I think you will feel her passion. So here she is.

ABC’S…EASY AS ONE BILLION DOLLARS
by: Heather Rhode

My husband and I started thinking about kindergarten for our daughter before we even conceived her. Yes we are planners! We thought about it during those early sleepless nights with her. I envisioned how I would drop her off with a hug and a kiss each morning and spend my day wondering about all of the fantastic new things she’s learning.

Now that Abigail is four, and is entering her second full year of pre-school, my husband and I have been looking very seriously into kindergarten and our options. My reaction has been very different from what I had imagined: I am not blissful or happy…I am annoyed.

I’m not perturbed with her or the school we are looking at enrolling her into, but rather the entire system. I had originally planned to enroll her in full-day classes. I feel that those children have all the benefits of extended learning designed to further their young minds both creatively and academically. Also since our particular school system requires that the child be 5 on or before October 1st to qualify for kindergarten in that specific year, Abbie will have to wait until next year to attend school. She will be nearly six years old when she is attending her first kindergarten class. I feel that a six year old should attend school full time. However the full day kindergarten classes in our school system charge a tuition of $300 per month. This is for the public school and charter schools alike.

Initially I thought that we could swing $300 per month. Things would be tight, sure, but we can manage. But then the recession hit and the financial fall-out ensued. Due to some changes in our real estate financing, we are struggling with justifying the extra cost incurred with full-day kindergarten, along with paying for our son’s preschool, along with the au pair that we will still need.



Our situation frustrates me. Why, in what is professed to be the public school system, are we paying for these services? In 2008, Jefferson County, the largest school district in Colorado, collected $670,507,400 in taxes for the schools. There are five other funds which together with the General Fund (property and other taxes) make up the school district’s annual budget of $959,134,000. That is almost one BILLION dollars. Where is this money going I ask you? Why am I paying $2,700 per year for kindergarten? What exactly do I get for my $2,700? I still have to pay for school supplies and snacks for the students in my daughter’s classroom. And don’t remind me of all of the fees we’ll be forced to pay as our children advance in the school system, specifically in high school.

I took a look at the 2009 Jefferson County Public Schools budget proposal and they do have a breakdown of where they spend their money, but it is so vague. They spent half a billion dollars in “direct instruction” in 2008 - little more than half of their annual budget. What exactly is included in “direct instruction?” Is that paying for teacher’s salaries, retirement funds, food for the students, supplies…what? It is certainly unclear to me and I scoured the 2009 budget proposal, but not once in the 100 + page document do they expound upon what is included in “direct instruction.” I feel that as a taxpayer and mother of a future Jefferson County student, I’m entitled to know that information.

Emphasis has been placed on preschool and there are fantastic programs such as the Colorado Preschool Program to supplement families who cannot afford it. There are no such programs for kindergarten in Jefferson County. A failed has left the district with more than $30 million they need to cut over the next three years and kindergarten is one of the casualties. I was actually one of the ones who voted against the mill levy as I feel that the county can and should do a better job with what they have. I know it’s a large school system with 158 schools (including the option, charter and laboratory schools), but one billion dollars is a lot of money to work with. Had the mill levy passed, I guarantee to you that I’d still be writing this blog complaining that I have to pay tuition for kindergarten. I’m certain they would have spent the additional mill levy dollars on something like “direct instruction.”

So, if preschool is important, how much more exponentially imperative is kindergarten? I was surprised to learn kindergarten is not even mandatory in the state of Colorado. My point is there are so many more measures and programs in place for preschool than kindergarten and that just seems backward to me.

Many teachers and parents attest there is a large gap in first grade between those who do full-day kindergarten vs. those who do not. Kindergarten is much different than the carefree days I spent in Mrs. Campbell’s classroom in the early 1980’s. Many children these days have already had two years of preschool. They’re already starting to write and read. They’re ready to learn.

Since we likely cannot afford $300 per month for full day kindergarten, my daughter will receive a mere 2.5 hours in the classroom a day for half day kindergarten, juxtaposed against her peers who will get 6 hours. Add in breaks or a recess and she will be lucky to spend 2 hours in the classroom. Now, I’m not a math wiz but exactly how this constitutes a “half day” is beyond me. This is less than most preschools where half-day ranges from 3 to 4 hours. Across the country, the majority of kindergartens are a minimum of 3 hours.

The Early Childhood Education Department at Jeffco claims the 2.5 hours was dictated by the school’s principal. The principal says it was Jeffco’s directive.

Either way, the result is the same: some children are losing out. Jeffco mom Larkin Harmon eloquently summed up this kindergarten gap by saying, “The sad truth is that it shouldn’t be called, ‘no child left behind,’ it really should be called, ‘no child gets ahead.’”

What is your opinion? Should more or less emphasis be placed on kindergarten? Should it be mandatory (mandatory does not mean requisite full-day) and what would that mean for state funding? Should all children in a school district be enrolled in either full or half day across the board? Do you feel that the school systems nationwide should be held more accountable in their budget practices?