I Speak of Dreams

Taking Marriage Seriously

Preamble: I believe that good parents stay married. There are few exceptions (physical abuse, sexual abuse, addiction).

The state of California has,as of 1/1/2004, added qualifications a person must satisfy before earning a license to drive. The previous modifications have lowered the teen death rate by some enormous proportion (too lazy to find the exact citations).

But there are NO education, practice, or testing required before acquiring a marriage license.

It may be that making divorce more difficult would lower the marriage rate while not changing (or increasing) the number of babies born to unmarried (or worse yet, unconnected) couples.

I don't have an answer, other than saying banning same-sex marriages ain't even in the ball park.

Friday Two Degrees of Separation

Doc Shazam's busy in the ER, but here it is again: two degrees!.

I start out with Ms. Frizzle, who lead me on to A Schoolyard Blog. She knows what needs to be done to fix American education, and she's writing about it.

The problem is that when you only put emphasis on the score, neglecting any emphasis or thought about what goes on in the lead up to the score, you can’t ask for a much different outcome. Actually the cheaters are using their problem solving skills to solve the most valued part of the problem. That is not going to change until what is valued changes. There is a massive amount of information out there on how to do that, but people read it and shrug.

Here is her About page:

I was good enough to warrant my own classroom and a more than generous supply of students. I learned that there are lots of young men out there that believe there is a letter LMNO in the alphabet.

By the way, Ms. Frizzle, who teaches in a public middle school. She is not uniformly enthusiastic about the educational validity of standardized testing.

I'm uncertain about tests. I used to be against them in my gut, and I still am, for the most part. I'm definitely against yearly testing, which I think is needless and stressful. But there are things about New York's state exams - given in 4th and 8th grade - that I think are okay. The Intermediate Level Science Exam's performance test, for example, is totally reasonable and motivates schools to make sure their kids learn to use real science equipment. I'm sure there are other ways to motivate schools in this way, but the fact is that many schools cut stuff like hands-on science any time the budget gets tight. I dislike the multiple choice section of the test, though, because I would rather teach several important and complex topics well than every single sub-topic of Science shallowly, and I think the multiple choice section flies in the face of this. There are also many questions in the multiple choice section which I know will trip up my students because of the way they are written, even though my kids know the science behind them. Same thing with some of the diagrams. I know that my kids know a lot of science when they leave my class - I know because this year they make connections to what we learned last year, and because former students have told me that what we learned is helping them in ninth grade. But I am truly afraid that this knowledge will somehow not show up on the test, especially the multiple choice part.

Early Spring is Hot Yellow

Early Spring (February) in California is colored a hot, intense yellow, at least in Northern California suburbs. The plants that provide the color are all non-natives. Some are horrible invaders, like scotch broom. Others are invaders, but less horrible.

As I was driving around, I moved backwards 300 years in my mind's eye. The wild oat grass (which is most of what provides the green) is an exotic, not a native. I believe most of the native California grasses were bunchgrasses, but I rely upon the greater wisdom of the California Native Plant Society. Now, in late fall, the hills start to green up as the wild oats sprout. The timing depends upon the rains. By Christmas, usually, open meadows are bright green. The mustard starts blooming, too, and then the acacias. 300 years ago, before Europeans brought the annual grasses, spring would have been heralded by the ceanothus, first, and then the decidious oaks, which have a subtle reddish-pinkish color as the new leaves unfurl.

What is around here is probably Acacia baileyana, which is wonderful provided

1. You aren't allergic to the pollen


2. You don't mind the enormous amount of litter (flowers, then seeds when the pods ripen)


3. You don't mind branches crashing down from time to time

Justice or Love?

I read Baraita because she always makes me think.

Have I ever mentioned why I prefer the term "tzedakah" to "charity" or "philanthropy"? It's not just the Dickensian dystopias and class warfares evoked by the latter two; it's because I know my etymology and I am trying to focus on doing something for reasons of justice, not love. Giving because you are filled with love (however spiritual) for an individual person is halfway to worship; giving because you are filled with love (however familial) for humankind is probably a sub-category of mercy. But giving because you are trying to make things right in a world that isn't -- that's justice, or at least a vision of it.

Here I am, two days into Lent, and I am struggling to articulate my own personal spiritual space. I cannot say in good faith that I am a Christian--I cannot bring myself to say that I believe that Christ died for the redemption of my sins. And I can't quite bring myself to say that I believe in the Old Testament God either. (But there is a peace that passes all understanding. And the Episcopal liturgy is....uplifting.)

So how do you go about being a good person without religion? Naomi helps me figure it out:

We are praying our vision of a just world and affirming our responsibility for working to fulfil that vision.

It is my duty to behave at all times in the manner I would like the world to become.

The Only Passion Post

I am not going to say much about Gibson's Passion. I couldn't watch it. I don't see the point of the movie. But that said, Low Culture has a very funny take.

About Jesse

Jesse Robbins is my nephew.

They Do Too Have it In For You

When you were in high school, did you ever feel like a teacher or administrator had it in for you? That somebody was trying to entrap you? You might have been right:

One Patrick Conroy, who was the assistant principal at L. C. Mohr High School (also known as South Haven High School), (600 Elkenburg St., South Haven, MI 49090 (269)637-0593) had a stash of drugs in his office. He planted some marijuana in the locker of a student he "knew" was dealing drugs, so the kid could be arrested and expelled. Unfortunately, the drug sniffing dog didn't pick up on the marijuana (maybe it was too old?). Later, he told the dog handler that he had planted the pot in the student's locker. The police responded by raiding his office.

Ants

A boy, his flashlight, and his imaginary friend Keith are having trouble with ants.

So am I.

All The Wheels Off!

Oh man, I have it easy, I have more than one car and all my cars have all their tires. Not so at House O Groove

Where do you start?

Blog Roundup

Slice o' reality here: This fella's a rancher in Montana.. He's got some other ranchers in his blogroll. Cool.

Foo on me, I always forget: via Wulfgar, who has some interesting things of his own to day. Go Montanans (but the Butte v. Billings thingy is a little obscure).