As I See It

A Response to "What Schools Need to Succeed" by Stan Archie, Kansas City Star, April 4, 2008

Urban schools, including (and perhaps especially) the Kansas City school district, are in serious need of re-vamping. It's time for parents, teachers, administrators, and school board members to be concerned about the students in the district. What are they learning, and from whom they are learning? In all of this I agree with Stan Archie.

Also, parents do need to take responsibility for their children and how they act. In this too, I agree with Archie. Parents do need to be involved with their children and their learning. As a parent, I am responsible for how my daughter acts with me and at school. I am responsible for what she sees when she is at home. In that way, I am her teacher. Or at least a teacher, to her.

Archie asserts, "Teachers are not parents, and parents are not teachers. Both jobs are unique and not interchangeable" (Archie B8, KC Star). I agree that as a teacher, I am not responsible in the same way that parents are for the students, but as a parent, I am a teacher to my daughter. I was her first teacher and will (hopefully) always be around to teach and help her along her way in life.

I think if parents thought of themselves as teachers, they would have a new outlook on parenting. Being a parents is made up of being a teacher, a doctor (at least a nurse), fan, behavior specialist, counselor, tour guide, disciplinarian, and many other things all in one.

Let's encourage all parents to take responsibility for their children's learning--don't just say that it's the teacher's job. Parents need to be involved with helping their children with their homework and making sure that they are being involved in school. Teachers are not parents to all students, but parents are teachers. Sorry, Mr. Archie.

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On a totally unrelated, but happier, note--here are some new pictures.

Maddie and Me

Maddie in a cute hat!

Playing at the park... she is really good at her "cross-eyed" look! Swinging, in MY sunglasses!
Easter Eggs!!
Easter Sunday. She totally posed for this picture... She's just a little goofy!
My adorable nephew!
Yawning... at church
I don't know who's winning... but it's a fun picture!
Anthony and his Da-da! Matching shirts... too cute!
And that's all for now. I will have more loaded on Facebook soon.

Long Overdue for an Update

This school year has been a busy one so far. Among work, work, school, and Madeline, I feel a little (okay, a lot) overwhelmed with everything. I'm working at Taco Bell only on Fridays now (thank goodness), and I'm tutoring for one-two hours the other four days.

I love the tutoring. I'm not working with the age group that I plan to teach, but that's okay. My "favorite" (only because I have worked with him the longest) is a boy that I will call "James." James has come so far already with me. He is so much fun to work with. He has already written one story for me and is writing another one how. I love his creatvity. I had forgetten how much fun kids his age (8 or so) can be. I haven't been around them for so long...

I'm working on my senior thesis this semester... an enchanting twenty page paper. Did I already tell you what I'm writing about? If I haven't told you, you're going to laugh. Go here: and here:

Those two links take you to the subject of my official senior thesis. I'm analyzing them rhetorically. In a twenty page paper. Doesn't that sound like fun? I'm excited anyway...


In actual news, our President of these United States stated the following during a press conference yesterday:

"No Child Left Behind is helping replace a culture of low expectations with a commitment to high achievement for all. And the hard work being done by principals, teachers, parents and students across our country is producing results. Last month, we learned that 4th graders earned the highest math and reading scores in the history of our Nation's Report Card -- and that's good news. I'm able to report that because we actually measure now in the schools.

There is more work to be done. So long as there is an achievement gap, we have work to do. Our goal is to have every child reading and doing math at grade level by 2014. That seems reasonable to me. Seems like a reasonable thing to ask, is to have every child reading at grade level by 2014, or being able to do math at grade level by 2014. So now is the time not to roll back the accountability or water down standards.

It's reasonable to set an important goal such as that because..."

Now, if you know anything about NCLB, you know that it has many, many great features; however, you must also know that the above statement is a problem. It is stated like a poorly worded binary question. Not "every child" can achieve at grade level. I think DW and the Diva can back me up on that as they have both worked with children with disabilities. I don't know why politicians don't know this. Ugh.

On The Election

Dear Missourians (and others who may stumble upon this):

I really don't know where to begin. My state let me down on Tuesday. I'm not even talking about democrats taking control of the house and senate. I know that those people will be held accountable by the people of this country and issues will eventually work themselves out. I am strangely okay with that.

What I am not okay with is amendment two. I'm really not. How can anyone (especially 60% of Missourians who voted) think that this is okay? Don't get me wrong, I am all for finding cures to cancer and Parkinson and all the other diseases that plague the people, but is it really worth killing embryos to get it? Did people really know that scientists would be creating embryos not with sperm and eggs, but with purchased eggs and adult stem cells? Do people really know what that means for research? Did people know that this was already legal in good ol' Missouri and that this amendment just makes sure that we can never make it illegal? This is an AMENDMENT to the CONSTITUTION of Missouri, People!! Not just some "question" that we can come back to and change later.

Did voters educate themselves on the risks of egg donors? Donors could suffer anything from kidney failure to death after donating eggs to this research. Is this something that I want to pay for as a taxpayer? Nope.

The research is bad enough, but knowing that my tax dollars could go to fund this research is outrageous. It makes me not want to pay taxes for the rest of my life, but I will.

It's so sad that we no longer link church and state, but we can pass this kind of research into our constitution. Sad.

Here's a conversation I had with a fellow sad person regarding the election on Tuesday:

KG: I cannot believe that McCaskell got elected! How can people not see through her??!!
Me: Well, I watched some of the debates, and Talent didn't look so hot himself...
KG: How watches those things anyway?
Me: [huff] I do!
KG: That's right! Informed voters! That's who! How many people do you think are uninformed voters?
Me: I don't know? 50% or 75% maybe?
KG: I'll tell you, over 60% because that's how many voted for Amendment 2!!
Me: [trying not to laugh] I see what you mean...


It's not funny, but it is. And, BTW, darn you people who voted for Amendment Two because you felt sorry for the people in the commercials. Darn you.

Sincerely,
Former Embryo, Rachel

on behalf of former embryos everywhere, including my daughter Madeline Grace