come together... right now... over me!

...and our children

I have long been an advocate of teachers

i have long been an advocate of students

i have long been a proponent of the current educational system

the trouble that i have is that if i want to make the system better, then sacrifices will have to be made.

when it comes to battles of improving education, someone always has to be right and someone always has to be wrong. is that really necessary? to that, i say no.

i truly believe that it is not the idea of "my idea is more right" but the idea of "lets see if we can get it all together and do better for the education of our children".

SYNERGY goes a long way. i learned in a college level Afro-Caribbean dance class that in order to make a dance speak, you had to combine many elements. my son goes to a public charter school and i will say in all his 6 years of public, private, parochial, and other charter schools, he is getting the best offering for advancement.

guess what??????
his teachers are not union members.
i am a full supporter of unions that work, but i think the way teachers are treated is deplorable and the trickle down is uneducated children who will do society no good in the next 20 years.
we have to pay teachers what they are worth, reward them for what they do, and offer consequences for those who don't meet the requirements of the future of America.
hiding behind a union who will hold you up in the system even if you should NEVER be teaching children or tenure because you did your time is disappointing to me.

will we lose people in the fray? absolutely.

but there must be sacrifices for growth to happen. think about these things:

1. dendrite pruning

2. rose bushes

3. young peach trees

Goddess

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Goddess Rambles about Charter Schools

i do see some successes in the charter schools in my area. there are populations that have been painfully under-served. in my case, Black students... yes i know there are many other students who fall into this niche, but i will only talk about what i know. the goal in the school was to give everyone a chance at a quality college-prep educational opportunity. the downside is the proposal was fought like it was the plague. we had a school, the school was empty. we were not shuffling kids about, we just wanted a place for OUR kids... and we take everyone but hear me out. We had to go grassroots to lift enrollment. we pushed in our churches and through our families and we now have to turn children away. our schools are some of the highest in the state of CA at least if not in the nation for charter schools. now that the schools are doing well, other want to sign up. i was on the waiting list for at least 3 years before my son was admitted. if we could open another school, we would be able to increase enrollment. our high and middle school are on a campus that has the ability to house roughly 2000 students, we have half that. it is almost as if we are being set up to fail because we are successful. there are other schools that have closed down. why not take them over? some points that frighten people. 1. non-union teachers 2. unconventional methods used to educate (sure they don't fit the norm, but they work for certain students and we have studies to back that up) 3. makes other schools in the district look bad (my solution to that is for the regular public schools to step up and make the changes necessary for success for ALL of their students) because a great deal of this is from the perspective of a parent of a gifted child in a public school where there was no GATE program, no instinct from teachers so overwhelmed with extremely high student numbers and lack of funding to manage their classrooms effectively (i rarely fault the educators and i don't fault them in this case either) , I felt i had no choice but to step out of the neighborhood school to help my child succeed. His teacher suggested in the 4th grade that i pull him and try to get him in charter. it is a tough call for administrators, educators, parents, and in many cases even the students. i truly believe that charter schools can be the catalyst for change in the educational system of America.
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Ceeelooooooooooo Whyyyyy? do y'all think he's "Crazy" now?

my initial reaction on NYE… cee-lo green messed up some lyrics. the world may actually end tomorrow. maybe he did an Xtina moment and flubbed the lyrics. anthems sometimes draw so much charged energy that you can’t help but flub the lyrics. this is a guy who, at some point in his recent resurgence as a pop icon, stood on a stage dressed as a star wars cast member singing about how we think his ass is crazy! all i could believe was that he made a mistake. i was sitting at my SIL’s that night when he came on and what she said stuck with me…

“I hope he practiced”

well… cee-lo changed a word in the Lennon song “Imagine” and i can only believe that Yoko rolled over in her sarcophagus on new year’s eve. folks are mad because what was deduced versus what he actually meant to say didn’t mesh. He meant no harm. ahem, and i quote,

“Yo I meant no disrespect by changing the lyric guys!”

i was married to a devout Lennon worshiper (and i am not saying that lightly), and i couldn’t even think of a joke about the man without the fear of having to scrape my soul off the floor after the tongue lashing i would have received. i still believe that sometimes you have to change the culture to change the Culture (emphasis added. dissertation to be submitted later). the huge idea of religion being a little something for everyone is what might lead one to believe that we need no organized religion at all. i would like to believe that is what mr. lennon meant. if we all had a perfect religion, we would have billions of little churches set up. * cee-lo decided that a slight grammatical change might change the Culture. gotta start small man. next time, baby steps although i know what you meant. rodney kind got a load of crap and people still tease about his simple statement too…

“can’t we all just get along?”

Can the Lennon’s legions be accepting? probably not in this lifetime, but i think my man Cee-Lo is gonna be just fine. Goddess *this is all my own opinion, so it may be true or not. similar to how religion might work better for all as truth on an individual level. Watch it for yourself
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the military drawdown. will we sit and wallow or be called to action ourselves?

there are many provisions made for members of the guard. in the instance of this particular serviceman, he did not have a job that valued him enough to allow him extended leave. that should be a given for anyone who hires a protector of our country. they should allow them to come back to the job they held while protecting our nation. I do not blame the Obama administration for this specifically. this is the case always when we have military drawdowns. if we look at the situation with the funding cuts to our nations education system, the same turmoil has been created... dilapidated buildings low funding for key programs low test scores. what is worse for our schools is that we cannot start a war or join a conflict to raise the bar on the bottom of the heap educations our children receive in public schools; hence, charter, private and home schooled children are becoming the norm. war is easier to assemble for than to disassemble from. everything looked fine when the nation was at war. we have so much more to focus on within our own borders. we wanted them home... they are coming home... WE AS A PEOPLE have to make sure they are taken care of and honored for their service. unfortunately, GI (government issue) means that the government owns you and can toss you about as it pleases. it is a form of servitude, still voluntary, with the perks looking no less for wear as when young men were drafted for Vietnam in the mid '60s where does the way out of this begin? perhaps the way out begins in the minds and hearts of our nation’s people, young and old. we have a duty to support not only our military personnel, but also the future of our children, and the elders who have raised us. there is so much for us to do. so much more... Goddess
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Shut the Hell Up! It's Christmas Dammit!

There are a great many things i would like to clear out this Christmas season.... Nitpicky Grammar Nazis Jealous Lovers Whining Children Weak Drinks Want for Necessities can we put all that mess in a brown paper bag and set it afire for Christmas? the kids will be thrilled to see FIRE and the adults will be too busy putting marshmallows on sticks for the kids to roast to talk about anything but Christmas cheer. it's too damned close to Christmas to act like fools, be cheap, be without, and run around correcting folks grammar....Now if anyone wants to send a gift my way, i am sure to find some unfortunate folks in my side of the world to make happy during this holiday season of spending TIME and not necessarily MONEY on family members. Goddess
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going back to school

Oh the horror of considering going back to school and being disappointed by what you think are your failures.
I have not failed. I have triumphed. I have managed to leave a destructive relationship, found a love of myself that I still battle with, but am growing more comfortable with day by day. I am proud of myself for taking a risk and coming here today. I sit in a room filled with many people who are noticably younger than me but I cannot let that bother me. I will press through and continue to make strides toward the future that I want for my son and I.
I feel like I have wasted my time in junior college because I have what feels like nothing to show for my hard work. I had to take a break and call my Auntie Terrie for a kick in the ass. Necessary? Hell yeah. I am sick of my job at ATT. It is time to go. It is time to not be at a place in my life where I want to run but have nowhere to go. I want a place to run, so I will be able to take refuge in a place of solace.
So I have had my good cry... I have taken my time to fall apart. I have been through a fire drill and I am set.

This is MY choice. This is MY life. This is MY change. This is MY future.

Stay tuned...

Goddess




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What you can do as an angry consumer...

There is no reason for the credit card companies to make us pay twice to keep them profitable. We bail them out and then they raise our fees on our credit cards.

Do you smell poo?
I do!

It is time for the American Public to stop bitching and complaining about what is going on and take action.

Close the accounts at those institutions that have taken a bailout and screwed you twice by raising your fees.
They need to know that we will move our business elsewhere if we are not treated fairly.

Pay your minimum balances only because now is not the time to worry about paying off your credit cards if you do not have AT LEAST 8 months of living expenses in the bank.

If you lose your job and you cannot afford your credit card payments then you will be screwed if you don't have an ability to pay your bills in the bank (or under your mattress, depending on your level of trust with the banks).

If you are so over your head in debt don't feel bad about talking to a lawyer about filing for bankruptcy.
In no way do I see anything that resembles a CONSUMER BAILOUT coming down the pipe in the near future so it is time to take our finances into our own hands and recover along with the banks.

We have already paid them once in the bailout, there is no reason why we should have to pay them again because they are being greedy like spoiled children.

Take charge,

Goddess