Pony up, Folks, the Iraq war sucks it out of us...

Who pays for this war? Are you feeling it yet? Is it pinching? If the pictures don't make it real enough for you yet-how about losing your home? Your job?

Are those utility bills nudging you into the small loan category yet? Are reeling from the cost of groceries? Gas?

Is your car payment getting closer to the payment you make for rent or your home?

Are you finding yourself choosing not to pay for repairs, or dental work, forgoing medical care?

Who pays for this war, folks? Some ubiquitous "someone out there"-some nebulous "other"???

Denial isn't working, friends. It just ain't working..Let's stop this-start yelling..

If there is one thing I know about the American people it's that they don't like to suffer or make sacrifices-other people do that..not us...

Are you starting to feel the burn yet?

The Classroom as Disneyworld........

It's crunch time for teachers. School starts Monday and the walls and floors of the school buildings are full of "learning tools"
Bulletin Boards are fierce competitions to see who can place the most elaborate eye catching phrases and images, most times not related in any way to the achievement of students, out for your viewing pleasure.

We have pirates and ducks, chili peppers and dragons, transformers, frogs, jungle trees with monkeys-whatever plays this year is on the wall.

Wall space in classrooms must be graded by how much JUNK can be pasted on the walls. The amount of stimulation via posters, pictures, rules, quotes, and various pop culture garbage is so overwhelming it is a wonder there is no smell to the amount of clutter.

If that doesn't totally distract the students the classroom clutter of rocking chairs, bean bags, pillows, games, videos, rugs, boxes, bags and various paraphernalia kids will wade through to get to their desks will plunge them asunder, boggling their minds and send them reeling as if they had too much sugar.

Welcome to the new generation of teachers. More is better. Feed the kids rather than teach them how to eat. Slide and slurp.

Disneyland classrooms. Keeping minds so overwhelmed and busy, the art of quiet reflection and time to think is lost in the myriad of buzzes like some kind of laser show to the brain.

I recently read something I thought critically important to learning.

It is the spaces around us that have meaning, not the objects in the way.

Learning is much like that.
We need the spaces in our brain, those pathways to neurons to be available to us in order to construct new meaning , store it and retrieve it.

As much criticism as I have with Kid Nation's approach to leaving kids unattended I have to say the crucial component of the show is this-kids had to use their brains-they had to problem solve without the Disneyland approach-they had to construct meaning-they had to work together in groups and they had to use those spaces and learn from them.

If you are impressed by the glitz and glamour of all that stuff on the walls and floors, think again-student learning, inquiry based student learning-which sticks inside the brain and clamps down in awe and wonder does not come from spoon fed videos and big, flashy posters on the walls.
In fact kids will struggle with the distractions all year long -struggle to focus-struggle to think-struggle to develop some sense of structure, as their little minds try and focus.

We have lost the art of quiet reflection, clearing our brains of stimulation and relishing quiet solitude.

Those days of lying on the grass, alone, watching clouds pass, without an agenda -those moments of noticing what is around us -that belongs around us -those are the pathways to the brain that we teachers need, desperately need-to foster learning and understanding.

Don't be impressed by Disneyland classrooms. Be more impressed by open spaces, room to wander and think and great lessons.
Ask to see those-the rest is smoke and mirrors.

Shootings on the Las Vegas strip..

The miracle mile ain't too safe this summer.

Las Vegas likes to hide their dirty little secrets and have successfully, until this summer...

Three shootings have occurred this summer which made national headlines. The Las Vegas Police like to tell you the strip is pretty safe and this is the work of a Las Vegas street gang, which they have a handle on...

You don't see the reports about the tourists who jump from the casino parking garages or commit suicide inside the hotel rooms. Those aren't the kind of events that get noticed.

But these shootings-these aren't same-old-same-old. These are news-

One man walks into a casino on the strip and starts shooting at people randomly. Last night another shooting at a strip casino when two guys bumped into one another-and one at the beginning of the summer-when a man was beaten by a group of men in a parking garage.

Then there was also the car bombing in one of the casino garages on the strip this summer.

Money is tight. People get ugly when money gets tight and the casinos are pulling in the cash and not much is going out.

I'd give it a rest if I were a tourist coming out here any time soon.

It's not a pretty place to be.

Ahhh Magical Mermaids

My daughter, at age two, was convinced she was really a mermaid. More than once I had to walk down and take her out of the water when we lived in Florida.

She was convinced she had to go and find her "real family"

Today she is fifteen. She still believes she has some past life as a mermaid. She also believes she is a Paris Hilton clone, was once one of the Spice Girls and lately, she believes she is a kin to some 1940's pin up girl.

I love her imagination...

E-Harmony-is that the only six couples....??

Did you ever notice the ad for E-Harmony hasn't changed since it came out??

The same six couples ooze bliss and compatability!

Just makes me want to gush all over the tv.

All that money-and that's it?? Six couples..

I'm tired of their tired faces.. Tired tired tired

Bush staff and Jed Clampett Leave Washington..

I'm tellin ya-those Texans don't waste much time-told to stay until the end or leave now, they jus' packed up them vittles and high tailed it outta there...

Leavin no dust on them cowboy boots, they all said the honorable thing-"I'm a missin the family-ma wife is doin poorly and it's done time to head for them hills...

Only prollin is leavin their kin behind to face all them hootin-hollerin-mad as possum varmits-

all hot in the hat because they dang drub took them expensive hifalutin carpets and wall scones with them.. Ok, so y'all a little sore about that there oil-well, we texans know all bout oil-in our veins to tell ya-and that's where it will stay-we been pokin holes for that stuff longer 'n y'all been playin that wall street game-suckahs!!!

The ladies just love that flea market stuff...and hey-finders keeper-losers weepers in this ad-min-u-stra-t-u--a-n...

Bye, Now-

Y'all come back now , hear??

Quality- Just another Buzzword??

Historically, two words represented American enterprise-quality and service.

Remember "Look for the Union Label" -?

Do any of you wonder if much can be trusted anymore? I look at the space shuttle and the engineers telling the world it is safe, after the same problems repeatedly occur and deaths result and I ask myself, "If I were up there would I take their word that I was safe to bring the shuttle home?"

Baby toys? Bibs? As parents, in a culture that sells Baby Einstein products and upscale baby products, we trust that our most vulnerable are protected as we buy products and services.

Can we trust that assumption anymore?

I've already written about our infrastructure, water quality, legal system -political protections-Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts-

Don't you ask yourself, "What are we doing here?" With our abundance of technology, our breakthroughs and sophisticated studies, our country of wealth, opportunties and inventive spirits-have we made a decision to work to the lowest common factor rather than the highest ?

What happens when we begin to see our country's government, our businesses. our services as suspect?

When profit takes precedence over safety and effectiveness , dishonesty over disclosure-cynicism instead of faith-what happens for us?

What was the turning point in our nation -when we saw opportunism instead of opportunity as our desired goal?

I don't know how you see this but I can't stop this growing queasy feeling inside telling me that

human life is only a cost factor in the risk catagory of profit.

Once we become less than whatever else is out there-(one of the mainstream), (less than the rich) human beings, become anonymous, what becomes of us?