Catching up

It seems we have so few of the glorious days of Florida winter we used to have. Too many freezes and rainy overcast days. My three sweaters are all needing a wash and the drying in the sun out on the picnic table. I am proud of being able to bring fresh vegetables to the cook without fail every evening, though we are down to rutabagas and brassicas and just enough salad greens for a salad. I have my spring garden in seed sprouting flats in the house where I can find some sunny spots. The entire orchid collection is still inhabiting the kitchen, lots of blooms, but I really want it all to go back outdoors to the orchid "tree" next to the pool. Maybe in a month we'll be frost free.
Thanks to all of you who send me your comments. I am glad that I can connect. I am searching my brain to come up with a more disciplined approach, but it seems I fly off in many directions- political, environmental, grandchildren, education. This is the joy of blogging.
I am thinking sometimes that I would like to address more of the issues of being retired (and getting old!) But then I seem to become immersed in my active life here locally.
So, here is a stab at it. I like being retired in some ways. I feel it is important to have a chance to do "another thing" and let go of the years and years of a compelling work life, leave that to the younger generation. I love having a freer schedule, though this is tricky sometimes when you have to decide every day over and over what you'll do, what you have promised to do. I love some of the routines we have at our house: reading the papers on the sunny porch in the morning, taking long walks, knowing that when I go up to the main house every night there will be some great meal awaiting only my armload of salad greens. In these few years of retirement so far I have gotten to know this long term husband of mine in ways I never knew him before. We really talk, we exchange books and this is far from those days with so many kids to supervise, jobs we spent long hours on, and not much left at the end of the day but procedural conversations. ("The a/c seems to be failing", "Did you pay this or that bill", "Can you do the car pool on Thursday?") Now, the procedural conversations are just a minor part of life.
I love having some moments just to explore my surroundings, watch birds, tend the ever enlarging gardens, wonder and marvel at the big world and the intense stars on clear nights. I love having the freedom to be an artistic dilletante and explore with all my art materials. I love my new life in this community, the volunteer teaching, working on community development with inspiring people I would never have met in my old life. I love making new friends. I love the connections I have with young people. I love having my grandson visit.
What I do not like about retirement is that I have pretty much become invisible. I do not love not having an income except for the pittance of SS. I find it hard to have to be glued to a calendar dinged with odd events in various parts of the state. To make social connections, it's all up to me- none of that easy sociability that comes from work. I don't like facial wrinkles and yes, I do feel bad about my neck. I do not like having to think about and discuss our health issues. I have the horrifying vision of us as really old and fixated on our symptoms!
I think we made a good decision that we would, for the most part, try living here. We have traveled some, but not as the main thing some retirees do. You have to flop around a bit, discover what you want. Moving to a retirement community, playing golf, going on back to back cruises- that might fill a temporary void, but eventually, you have to do a certain amount of soul searching, forget the chicken neck, and get on with a pretty compelling part of life if you're lucky.
Right now, I'm going outside to spend some time observing the bat house and see if I can see some big brown bats out there. Then I will walk up to the main house and find my husband and the dog warming the bed.

The Dispiriting State of Public Education

Yes, yes, I am old and crabby and devoted to high standards of education. Our president has said that this is a 'Sputnic moment'. His children attend one of the best schools in the nation, where every classroom is vibrant with educational energy.
Our local elementary school is a lackluster affair. Most of the kids are Hispanic and get free lunch and breakfast. But! These kids can be as stellar as any at Sidwell friends in D.C. where Sacha and Malia go.
I love our local school. I volunteer there every week (in the second grade). I am appalled by the complete takeover of the FCAT materials. These are large books that tell every single teacher what to do by the minute of each week. This is the ultimate disrespect of teachers having any mind or intelligence or control about what to do. Staff meetings are all about the FCAT materials.
Are we saying that these teachers are so stupid and uneducated that they cannot be trusted to teach? Or are we saying that we have bought into the Big Education Machine of publishers of textbooks?
Everything in this local classroom and school is driven by FCAT and the big E machine. Think of what we could save by actually requiring those teachers to consider closely what they teach, come together as colleagues, hammer out a changing curriculum to meet goals they all agree on. We might be surprised to have an outcome of excited kids, excited teachers, and a bunch of kids (and teachers!)who ACTUALLY READ. They could get into math and science. There might be time to write on a daily basis.
I fear that this 'sputnic moment' will be nothing if we do not respect our teachers. We need to get those teachers on board as excited and committed leaders of the next generation. Right now, so many of them are drones, fearfully following the constrictions of the FCAT curriculum. Set them free! Get rid of the ties to the textbook industry. Reward creativity and energy and innovation of our teachers. Pay them well and respect them. And we will all be surprised with the progress of our children (who deserve the best).
Sputnik going to the stars!

Alex

Alex is one of my oldest youngest friends. I have known her since kindergarten and now she is in her third year at New College. She is worried about her resume, and what she can do about this for the upcoming summer.

I know Alex, she is a girl under my heart, she is so giving and intelligent and loving. So, this blog is for her. I have made a few suggestions about any number of things she could do, and I am sure she'll land butter side up whatever she decides.

Alex needs to know that a person of her age needn't go to Berlin to make a difference (though travel is incredibly important!) In one's own community there is much to be done, many interesting issues to address.

Today I attended the monthly community organizing meeting at the local school, Lacoochee Elementary. I always find these meetings so affirming. Here are twenty folks or so who come from local organizations, and all of us are trying to make a difference and succeeding!

Alex, you are part of the global youth, and whatever you do, think about what you can do to make this world a better place. Travel, read, write. Get fluent in a language that matters.

These young people are our future. And this is why I and those awesome others keep on doing what we do- volunteering.

Where has civility gone?

Here is my lettuce garden, even after a few frosts. It gives me strength (and lots of salads!).
The Republicans in the House are still talking about "job killing". This is so unseemly. Seems we are back to slogans with a violent twist. I would really like to see an intelligent dialog about health care. It seems to me that the Republicans in the house are not thinking clearly about the real issues. The bottom line for them is that folks who are poor, have preexisting conditions of health, or who have grown kids, should twist in the wind.
On NPR tonight I heard about one of the two persons who are in the suit to repeal this. This is a guy in S. Florida who says, "I can pay everything on my own dime, why should I pay for those others?"
How sad that this man is the litigant, the flagship for health care repeal! Is everything all about him? Does he never have a thought for the less fortunate? The reason we should all have health care insurance is that we care that all our fellow Americans have access to the care they need. This man may not have a child with expensive medical needs, he may not have young adults in his family who cannot afford health insurance, he may not have a wife with ovarian cancer. What he does have is a poverty of soul that keeps him from thinking generously of others. (he went to Harvard!)
What have we come to? Have we not been the people who give generously to anyone on the globe in need? Have we not been the people who thought not about what our country could do for us, but what we could do for our country?
While waiting for a haircut today I picked up a magazine and found that so much of it was thick with ads for prescription medicines I could barely find any content! Overactive bladder, thick toenails, and malignant flinders. Whatever it is, Big Pharma will have a cure. And it will cost you a lot. (Ask your doctor.) We have been duped, not only by the drug companies that control so much of our medicine, but by our politicians (and doctors) who stand to benefit.
I believe that Americans are practical about what works for them, generous to the less fortunate, and, finally will not tolerate spurious polemics that don't make sense.
I believe that if a collective selfishness prevails we are doomed.

Little boys!

Just finishing a long weekend with our grandson, Quincy, six years old and amazingly handsome with that shock of red hair and blue eyes. He's tall for his age, going for a size eight. We look back on so many times we have had him at the ranch, from the time he was eighteen months old, still in diapers, and we were on the tether of the intercom at night from his room to ours. Those times were hard for these grandparents, no time for us at all.

But we have come to a lovely place now. No need to worry about toilet issues or getting dressed or brushing teeth or sleeping through the night.

What's left of the darling little boy is the night time rituals when we cuddle up after his bath, on his bed in the room that once was his mom's, and read the bed time story and talk about this and that. The last thing we discuss is what to have for breakfast tomorrow. French toast or pancakes? He wants to have a light left on in the bathroom. We tell each other we love you, and then he's out for twelve hours. Just before I go to bed I go upstairs, situate the covers over this dear child, kiss him one last time.

He was so excited that this weekend we would be having guests- two boys about his age. These are the sons of good friends from New Zealand, and Quincy knows them already from his school.

Those three boys had a wonderful time, running around every moment to catch frogs and bugs, climb trees, swim in the pool, and put together a "museum" of bones they collected from the property and installed in a remote cabin on the place. They climbed trees, shouted with glee, ran up and down the compost pile. They all ate prodigious amounts of food from the garden, squeezed oranges for juice and when they were in the house they constructed miles of trains and games and interesting conversation.

It was a lot of effort. We love those people, the wonderful and talented parents of these boys. What would life be without having these young people in our lives? I was charmed by the nice manners all these kids have. They all are so affirmed by being with folks who appreciate having family be there for them. It was fun for us to see Quincy as a part of this.

The Shooting in Arizona

I think that this is an opportunity to examine our 'civility'. Yes, this guy who did violence was clearly a nut case, but it is to our credit that we Americans also are searching our souls.

I am heartened that so many of us are taking the high road. Hard to put into this equation the remarks of Rush Limbaugh, but still..Sarah Palin is not to blame. An ordinary person could make a bad judgment, and she did. So have all of us. We need to get over the finger pointing and the smarmy blaming and lies we saw so much of in the mid term elections.

We need to hug more and be less judgmental and stop characterizing what we don't like with a word or slogan. "Job killing!", "He's a jerk!" "She's an idiot!" This stuff is neither kind nor helpful in our private or public dialog. It's respectful to all to try and say what we really mean.

I am accused of being a Pollyanna and a Sally Sunshine, but so be it. And wouldn't it be grand if this moment in our time could really make a difference, though at such a price?

That little nine year old girl- she could have been my grandchild-was the iconic thing for me. How can one bear it? It's devastating.

We are a people who believe in the rule of law. Our Constitution is revered. We understand that our nature is still pretty raw and territorial, but in no way do we ever want our country to devolve into chaos as so many others around the world do. It's a hard way to go and from time to time in our history we have had to do a lot of soul searching, but we have always some how made it work.

As a people we are so crabby and disparate. This is our strength, and also the hardest thing about this amazing country. I want to live forever to see how it all turns out.

A Proposal for Public Schools

We hear this nonsense about dismantling the public schools in Florida. From the beginnings of our American society we have relied on our public schools to acculturate each new generation to be American citizens. By and large, this has worked.

And now we are invited to question this in our state because of finances and because the public school system, in many cases is not working to educate our citizens to take their places as educated and responsible people. I do not think that we should abdicate our civic responsibility on this, but we could rethink..

We could truly make a difference as we pull back financially

What if we gave to each school the amount of money per pupil we have allocated? Let's take an example - Lacoochee Elementary School in Pasco County. The school gets whatever the state mandates per pupil by how many students there are. Then the school is responsible to make this amount of money work! Of course, the school must make the mark about the state standards about testing, physical standards, health and nutrition, etc. But each school could do this however they think best, and not be afraid of the dreaded System!

The principal has to work initially with the staff he/she has. Over time, this principal can trade teachers with another school. But the idea is: each principal is on their own! This principal can take any kind of leadership that works for them in whatever community is their school. What an interesting challenge this would be!

I envision each school with a leadership that makes it possible for the staff and community of parents to have a real voice in the education of our kids. We already have some of this in place at Lacoochee Elementary School: parent/ teacher committees and the Parent University in which parents get "credit" for working in the school, leaning English, etc. It could be vastly expanded under a creative administration.

When an organization, in this case a school, must hue to a budget for his/her school you'll be surprised at how seamless it is to save money. The kids can clean their own spaces, cutting down on janitorial fees, teachers can get on board for being frugal, those unused FCAT booklets can be returned, many school supplies can be scrounged for, volunteers can do a lot. And why do we need an entire room to contain supplies that are never be used? If a school has to do its own budget, in no time at all there will be solar panels on the roof, major recycling, maybe a school garden of the scope that can truly make a positive difference in the lunch room. A lot of creativity comes from necessity.

But, really, the thing is to get every single teacher on board, and that principal will have to make this school be the very best. Every school can be a challenge! Even the weak teachers can be brought up to a high level if they see the collegial worth of it and get peer mentoring. Such a challenge for the principal! In the case of Lacoochee, every teacher must be able to operate in Spanish as well as English.

What I am advocating is that each school is autonomous (with a few reservations!) Get the community of parents and friends on board because they are your constituents. It will be hard for the principal to just strike out and do some different things without fear from HEADQUARTERS. Hey, why not break through the roofs of those terrible classrooms and get some light in? Why do classes have to be all one age? Why are there no animals in the classrooms? Why can't kids actually work in the cafeteria and learn to make nutritious food? So, there are lots of strange and wacky ideas out there, but we need to hear them and consider them. Our kids are that important, and we can't be hampered by our little fears.

I believe that our teachers are the best transmitters of our culture. They work so hard in situations of fear and stress. Often they are the targets of our social anxieties and we blame them. But our teachers are US. They have the same lacks in education and experience we all do. The difference is that those teachers get up every single day and do their best with a bunch of kids who are hard. Just think of how much more effective this cadre of educators could be if they had the sense of being in charge, not having to be on task every minute to the texts of the FCAT. What creativity we would see!

I salute all teachers.