I missed last week, I understand your anger, but I am slowly getting back into the habit of getting these updates done as I get better at ballancing my time between making up a curriculum, keeping my family fed, and keeping you all informed. As always I'll start with the pictures of the Boy and leave my commentary about current world events and my love affair with a woman named Betty for the space after the break.
Owen loves superheroes - it doesn't matter who it is, whether they are a good guy or a bad guy, what their power is, he loves them. He was coloring one day when he suddenly morphed into...
Shaw Man!!
Why did he name himself "Shaw Man" and what exactly does that mean? I don't have a damn clue, but he was very insistent that he was "Shaw Man"
Getting ready to cast a spell at mommy...
Take that vile temptress!!!
The best part of "Shaw Man" is the lovely multi-colored residue that is left on his fingers when he transforms back into mild mannered Owen...
Our next door neighbor Nan had a friend move in from Ohio, and so we went over to help them unload the truck. While we were taking stuff out and putting other stuff in to take to storage, the boy noticed a small trampoline sitting in the pile to go to storage. He finally got up the courage to ask Nan if he could bounce on it, and so while we worked, he bounced. As we were finishing up the time came to put the trampoline on the truck, and Owen was kind of sad, but he got off so it could be loaded. Sensing his new found love for the trampoline, Nan asked Owen if he wanted to have it. As excited as he was about the proposition, Owen had to be sure of the terms, "For free" he asked? (Can you tell that money has been tight around our house?)
The best part about the trampoline is that now the boy doesn't jump on the couch any more!
Most of his playing now involves his little circle of joy. (He is sitting on it playing with his cars as I type this.)
As you can see we have also been working on our catching, which I am hoping that if he can catch while bouncing, he'll be able to catch when stationary.
The boy gets homework assignments from school and this particular night it was to skate around the floor. I think that they had intended that you use paper plates and skate around on the kitchen floor, but Owen heard skate and went and found his skates.
He skates on the rug because the tile floor in the kitchen is a bit too fast for him.
Skating by itself can be boring, so let's liven it up with Balloons!
This past Friday was a Furlough day at work for me, and a day off of school for the boy. I still had some things to do in my classroom, so I brought the boy's DvD's and we had movie day in my classroom.
"Papa! This is just like the movie theater." Yes, it would be if I charged you $10 to get in, made you sit in a soda soaked seat, and charged you ridiculous prices for bad food.
After our "Movie Day" at my school, we went to the University to have some ice cream at a social activity with Mommy. We have turned our son into an Ice Cream Snob, (I'll explain below) and so he wasn't that interested in the sub-quality product being offered, but he was very interested in the stair railing.
What could make mommy crack up like this?
Why some good old fashioned Monkey Swinging of course - complete with sound effects!
They went to find a drinking fountain, and I found it humorous how you can see that they have differing opinions as to the location of the drinking fountain. (I think the boy was right.)
Sadly for the boy, he has come down with a bit of a cold, which makes everyone's life a bit miserable around here. He is generally in good spirits during the day, it is evening and night time that he is the most miserable. One thing that always makes him happy is his collection of cars, which is growing:
He also has Mater, Ramone, and Flo, but they aren't included in this picture because they aren't race cars. (In case you are wondering, in this picture we have Shifty, The King, Lightning, Octane, Leak Less, and Chick Hicks.)
The weather is starting to get warmer, which hopefully means that we can start playing more outside (which also means that I can get back to taming the back yard, a monumental task in its own right.) Beki's exams are coming up in another month, so the stress levels around here will continue to grow, but I am sure that we will all cope. If you care to read below the break I will be discussing my love affair with Betty, how we turned our son into an Ice Cream Snob, and why the public hates teachers.
My Love Affair with Betty
So of course the Betty that I am referring to is Betty Crocker. 
My wife and I have a pretty sweet deal worked out at home, I make dinner, and she does the dishes. This is particularly nice for me because I like being creative (and of course tasting) and I really dislike cleaning up messes. Beki, I think it is safe to say, like having dinner when she gets home, and puts up with doing the dishes. As most people today, I have become very dependent on the Internet for any question that I have - so much so that in our house we refer to the internet as "The Oracle." The problem is that if you are looking for a recipe for meatballs on the internet, you will get 687,000 possibilities. This is what I was forced to deal with one night a couple of weeks ago when the boy announced that he wanted Spaghetti and Meatballs for dinner. (In case you are wondering, No, I don't always give in to the boy's requests for dinner, but in this case, it sounded reasonable.) As I sat looking at 687,000 possible recipes I thought, someone should just organize the best recipes in one location so that you don't have to sort through the weirdos who feel that you should put squirrel meat in your meatballs.
And then I remembered back to the days of my youth there were these books that you would use while cooking...they called them cookbooks. I remembered that at my mother's house they were always kept in the cabinet above the stove, so I checked above our stove, and lo and behold, we also had a cookbook. (Where do they come from?/ Do they just spontaneously spawn in the cabinet over the stove?) Instead of 687,000 recipes for meatballs, there was one, and it was divine! Once I got the meatballs in the oven I went to get started on the Spaghetti and I discovered that we had no sauce. So I checked with my new friend Betty, and wouldn't you know it, in 20 minutes I had made my own sauce from scratch! I almost can't wait for dinner time to come around now because I am so excited to try something new!
In case you are wondering, I have come clean to my wife about my love affair with Ms. Crocker, and she says that she is fine with this polygamist relationship!
Ice Cream Snobbery
Beki and I met while working at the BYU Creamery, so Ice Cream is rather special in our family. And since we don't drink or smoke, I would probably classify Ice Cream as my guilty pleasure. I prefer my ice cream with "stuff" in it (especially peanut-butter cups, marshmallows, or Oreos) but about a year ago I was introduced to Costco's Vanilla Ice Cream. I had seen it at the store, but as I prefer my ice cream with stuff in it, I had always passed in the plain vanilla. After tasting the smoothness of the texture of Costco's Ice Cream, it is all I buy now. We purchase toppings to put on top of the Ice Cream because there is no other product that can match Costco's Vanila Ice Cream. (And no, I am not getting paid to say that, it is simply the truth and must be known.)
We probably have ice cream once or twice a week at our house, and so the boy has developed quite a taste for the good stuff. This only becomes a problem when we go to other people's houses and they serve us ice cream, because Owen won't eat it. He is excited to have ice cream, but then takes one bite and looks at you like, "What in the Hell is this cheap crap?" And while I will eat Ice Cream of any quality (just like how an alcoholic prefers the good stuff, but can't say no to any booze) the boy is an ice cream snob, and turns his nose up at it.
Why America Hates Teachers
So the thing in Wisconsin is still going on two weeks later, and now more states are having budget issues. Now, my opinions here are much different than you will get from most teachers, because I understand why the public in general is pissed off at Government Employees. However, as a teacher, I can also see how we feel unloved and picked on by the very society whose children we are supposed to be educating.
I understand why the public is upset. Let's take my mother as an example. (Sorry mom, I guess I could use Karen and Terry, but you'll garner more sympathy.) My mother is a small business owner who is flirting with the poverty line and already has to pay self employment tax in addition to income tax. Then she has to pay for her own insurance, and if there is anything left over she can think about maybe putting some away for retirement. Now, after my mom is done paying for 100% of her own medical insurance - which I am sure is the most basic coverage she can get - and 100% of her own retirement - which for her will probably be what she'll call it when she dies - she then has to pay for 94% of my medical coverage - which includes medical, prescription, vision and dental - and 95% of my pension, which I can collect as soon as I hit 30 years in the district when I am 54.
And this isn't just for teachers, it is this same way for every Government Employee. What they are trying to do in Wisconsin is make it so Government Employees are paying a little more of their own way, and - the sticking point - remove Unions ability to bargain for benefits. Instead, benefits will be determined by the legislature. Now, not to go too much into Unions, but the Union people claim that taking away collective bargaining is just an attempt at breaking up Unions, and they howl that Unions have been so instrumental in setting up work conditions in this country how can you do this blah blah blah. It is true that Unions played an important role in the early 20th century, but those Unions were in private business, where they protected their Union members from the interests of the Private Business owners. (Did you know that only 6% of private workers are in Unions?) Who exactly are the Public Union's protecting their members from? Why the interests of the Public of course! I still believe what the Unions are really afraid of in Wisconsin is not the loss of Collective Bargaining power, but the creation of a Right to Work state that would make it illegal for Unions to collect fees from non-union workers. ("Wait," you ask,"Unions can collect money from you regardless of whether you even want to be in their stupid club?" In most states they can. Whether I want to be a Union member or not here in Maryland, I still have to pay a "Union Rep Fee.")
But I also get where Teachers are coming from. The unfortunate thing for teachers is that we have been lumped in with the rest of the Government Employees. If you noticed in the coverage from Wisconsin all of the signs were about protecting teachers. I did not see one sign saying, "Protect our DMV workers!" or "Business Inspectors have Rights Too!" That is because people in Government Jobs who are not teachers are holding their breath knowing that they are the people that the public is upset with. But if the teachers are involved, then Government Unions have a chance of gaining public support.
The reason why America hates teachers is because to justify the actions against Government Unions, the public has to villainize teachers. This is why you get people saying things like, "Teachers are just Babysitters," or "Those who can't, teach." But this turn on teachers has been happening for a lot longer than just these past few weeks. Since we have moved our focus in Education towards Quantifiable Empirical data in the form of test scores, more and more pressure has been placed on teachers to get the test scores up, and when the students do not score well enough, the teachers are to blame.
We'll get back to test scores in a moment, but I want to address the idea that I am just a babysitter. Actually, I am going to let you keep thinking that for now if you want to, but if that is what you want to think of me, I will gladly be paid as a babysitter. Parents can pay me $3 per hour for the 5.5 hours that I am actually "babysitting" your kids. That is $16.50 per day please. Oh, and I watch them 181 days per year, so that will be $2986.50. Oh, and I average 32 students per class, so that would be $95,586 per year please. I make $57,000 a year - shut up about the babysitting thing, you pay your babysitter better than you pay me.
"Those who can't, teach." People always dismiss the teaching profession by saying that anyone could do it. Then why is the average career of a teacher 3 years? If anyone can do it, than why haven't you? (I get this same line from guys when I ref church basketball and they are pissed at my officiating. "I could ref better than you," they say, yet they never volunteer to do it.) The fact is that teaching is hard because you are trying to prepare students for life, and tests, and they don't give a shit. (But we'll come back to them.) The fact is that teaching is hard, the hours are long (ask my wife how often I am up grading papers and lesson planning past midnight), and the pay sucks. Why then do people become teachers?
This leads us back to where we started, with benefits. Most teachers teach because that is what they love to do, some unfortunately fit the mold that they couldn't do anything else, but regardless of our motivation, one of the things that helped us choose this profession was the knowledge that we might get payed like crap, but we would have a retirement plan and health benefits. President after President call for more teachers, specifically in Math and Science. If you were a brilliant math mind who could go to work for a private company and make six figures, why would you ever choose to become a teacher? This is why we are short teachers, it is not a practical choice. Cutting benefits will save money, but it will just increase the shortage of teachers, leading to less qualified individuals ending up in the profession, which just continues the path that we are on. The problem is that you just can't pay teachers more because that money has to come from somewhere, and there is not money to be had. So that means either something else needs to be cut, or taxes have to go up, neither which the public is willing to do. So instead they complain about the crappy conditions of the schools and the easy life of teachers.
Now, before I am done ranting I am going to take a final shot at the people who I think have more to do with the conditions at schools than anyone else, but who always get off the hook. Parents, if you are unhappy with the environment at your local school do you know who you should blame? YOUR DAMN KIDS! In every training and publication it is always how the teachers need to do this better, and the teachers need to engage the students more. How about putting some responsibility on the student to learn? The fact is that 80% of the students I see don't give a shit about anything! They don't see the purpose behind school other than a place to see their friends. If your local school is not safe it isn't because of the teachers, it because Students are beating up Students. When was the last time a teacher bullied a student, or took their lunch money, or called them a fag, or spread rumors behind their back, or brought a weapon in to school? (Yes, I know that these things have happened with a teacher, but rarely.) Students today don't understand the purpose of school because their role models are not in any field that takes an education to achieve. All of the students at my school are either going to be Professional Athletes or the next Rap artist...all 2,600. (Ok, maybe 200 of them have figured out that that will never happen.) No one grows up wanting to be the next Neil Armstrong or Albert Einstein because that is not who they see on MTV Cribs. (By the way, no one is going to grow up wanting to be an astronaut any more because our fearless leader cut the shuttle program, but DAMN IT WE NEED MORE SCIENCE TEACHERS!!)
Anyway, in the end I think we should let Wisconsin cut collective bargaining (and become a Right to Work State) so the rest of the country can see what happens. If it doesn't work, well at least it was only Wisconsin! If it does work, then the rest of us will know.
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