Everything I ever needed to know I learned from my Kindergartener --or something like that... 

SCENE:  Present day Suburbia, Phoenix, AZ, elementary school gate, parked full of parents picking up five year olds.  

3:12 PM- Piles of parents awaiting their children strategize, comparing notes. The school is very popular. Families full of high expectations, hyper-aware of what EXCELLING SCHOOL means: each has a mom and dad talking like a statistician of school readiness. The topic of the day is class size, learning, and what’s afoot with the school-based strategic, site management, district shuffle-o-staff. Praise rings for the principal, deservedly as far as I am concerned, and I uncharacteristically don’t say much. One school has 26 kids per class, some have an aide, others none, another top district had 30 or more to a teacher, and our school, our lil ones are at 27 kids to a teacher with modified aide time, currently half day. Will we get more aide time? Will we see a new teacher, making it four? All of a sudden, it dawns on me-- I don’t care.

No, I DO care, but really I don’t worry about the change. I know that some classes can have 30 kids and be calm, whereas another can have 19 children,  and be wild. I know the mix of kids, the support of help, the teacher, the supplies, the temperature outside, and the phase of the moon--all can change the game plan.  As a teacher, I know that the days are only as good as me being on top of my plans. I also know that if there’s pizza at lunch, it rains during recess, or even if a dog walks onto campus, we can all be a bit more wound up. Life is just a box of chocolates Forrest- ya never know what yer gonna get..

Everything I ever needed to know…

3:17PM - I see him—my son—so sweet, all smiles—yet looking a bit intense. The group follows along as some are exiting at The Gate, others are going to the car line, while one bunch are bus riders. I smile at my Gabe, he beams, waves—it’s so well managed but, chaos is the natural order of any group of kids. All of a sudden, Gabe trails on with the crew, I am behind the Iron Curtain of the gated parent side, and I ask the Gatekeeper as to where they are going:

 “Oh, those are the bus riders,” the Gatekeeper exclaims.

“ Um, not all of ‘em, my son is with the teacher, and I am here, “ I say. 

“Mine went with them too I think; I don’t see him!” Another scared mom blurts.

3:20PM- I ask to get through as I see Gabriel walking with the teacher, and he’s about to get on a bus. The bus does not go to our house; none do. We live out of the area. I picked the school because I know the principal- worked with her long ago.  I am well- apprized of the statistics; I put him on the list to attend this school over nine months ago. I picked this school specifically because it is one of the best around.   But I also know that I cannot run much faster and it’s 106 degrees in the shade. 

“GABRIEL!!!!!!!” I am screaming like a crazy person. Luckily he hears and most others don’t as the sound dies out in the desert expanse. I’m just glad I didn’t have to see an instant replay of my Crazy Mom Moment.

The teacher- a nice, energetic, and giving lady—immediately says she tried to call—nobody answered, Gabe said he was riding ( as did two others), and had been very convincing. He had a play date—the teacher was apologetic as so many kids are switching pick ups and it’s only the first week of school. .. I try to say it’s okay, and I am not mad. Because, it was in that moment, that I looked at my five year old; he was starting to get veclempt.

Instantly it hits me as pieces fall into place. I look sternly and say:

 “ You know you don’t ride the bus?!”

It’s in the instant I know- Gabe wants to ride the bus, he’s been talking about it, even his tag for being a car rider was ripped off of his backpack this morning and I didn’t really think about it. After a moment of sweaty hugs and a few tears. I got the scoop—Gabe told me:

“ Wull, I asked if I could go to Zachary’s and we decided to ride the bus, and then I told Ben to come with us.”

“ But Gabriel YOU SAW ME over there and waved!!   You know I was here.”

Gabe continued that he didn’t want to go with me but on the bus and he knew that if he got on without a mom at the stop they’d have to bring him back to school. He heard them say that on the first day. He said he knew I’d be at school waiting for him. He also enlightened me that he had taken off his destination tag that morning as to make sure he could be on the bus instead.  Then he stated , now with anger as his best laid plan had now gone bust, that he knew I’d NEVER answer my cell phone because I am too old to hear it in my big, dumb purse.”

A premeditated bus rider coup—and taking two others along… it’s only the fifth day of school – he’s five… 

There is no way I can accommodate every nuance and believe me,  I can put any mom to task for trying to micro-manage my kid.   Look up Control Freak, Type A personality and you’ll see my mug.   No teacher can know every thought of a five year old--only having met him a few days prior.  This boy--my boy-- had a plan and nobody was gonna stop him.

Today, everything I needed to know I learned from my Kindergartener—I learned that he’s determined, bold, smart, cunning---beyond what even I suspected possible. I learned that I cannot control it all. I need to trust the process. I also thought about getting a GPS chip zapped into his rear--- I am aging right now as I think about it all. 

Détente refers to the loosening of tensions between political entities; it’s most often used in reference to the Iron Curtain of the Cold War. But today it’s just Kindergarten Detente for me. It’s time to loosen the controls as I need to let this bird fly a bit more. Otherwise, he’ll rattle  and crow, escaping the cage anyway.

 I also see that  the nuances of class make-up, number of pencils, or amount of circle time are not really relevant to good learning. Teachers teach children not subjects, and all people, especially the little ones,  need to belong with a sense of value. Nothing else really is as important.

We can’t sweat the small stuff when everything is melting down anyway.  I have to believe in the process of life and know that change is going happen no matter which side of The Gate I am on.   

Ceteris Paribus: 'All other things being equal'

There's a time in life when we are all presented the field of play. Some walk forward- a bit green, fresh, albeit fragile- awaiting a beating, while dreaming of glory.  Others walk out, onto the front lines,with rough-edged experience and tactical knowledge.  Either way, we each choose to play. 

It's in the moment of choice that we can just chuck it all and sideline the life before us.  It may just be a game, or maybe it's a crossroad with many paths of living present.  We cannot know it all, and the trade offs present dilemmas.  For some, it's the torment of what could be. The analysis of the options can turn a man to stone.  Hardened to the play, he can forget why he's even standing there.  But life isn't a metaphor and we can't hold all else constant.

One of my Economics professors beat into our empty college heads how analysis is only as good as the conditions.  He talked of this Latin phrase, and how scientific theory requires the observer to hold constant potentially mitigating factors as they might cloud the pure study. Ceteris paribus makes perfect sense in a controlled study, but as my professor noted, equalizing the playing field denies the unpredictability of real life. 

James Gleick, world renowned writer and theorist, talks of Chaos Theory: Scientists coming to understand that there is undeniable randomness, and yet patterns in the random events.  Quantum Physics brings to light the reality that the tiniest particles of life do not function in any manner like we do. Quanta, or the invisible units of energy, are not predictable.  Quantum Physics presents this simple point of how observation makes its own reality:

We can only know a man, a candidate, by his ventures and his actions on the field of play.  We observe him and see who he is. The men we see today running for President are only significant if we observe them and make our witness to the play known.  Who is JohnMcCain and what has he done?  Do we see his record and have we witnessed his life experiences?  What of BarackObama?  Do we have a record of seeing this man in play?  We cannot judge a man unless we see him perform and keep records of his efforts.  We can only judge the man by his observable choices, associations, and critical tactical decisions.  We can see if he has a record of error, but we can also reference how he handled mistakes and hurdles. 

Intellectuals like to see themselves as of scientific mind.  Egg heads run control groups and look at crunched numbers.  But, in truth, the college brains holding everything else constant make the Ceteris Paribus Assumption Fallacy- they assume that everything they deem unrelated is also equally unimportant.  Egg heading liberals are affirming a win, putting Obama on the U.S. Presidential-like seal, and acting as if all criticisms of Obama are of equal weight.  They think they can run this campaign like a scientific experiment of days gone by. This isn't Chem 101, and scientific control group theory is a dinosaur.

We see the McCain camp presenting what is observable about their opponent. Whether the Democrats like it or not, there is a valid analysis in McCain's funny and timely advertisements.  Paris Hilton is famous for being famous and quite a few Americans get the comparison to Mr.Obama. Chaos ensued, and Obama is miffed.  The reality of judgment, and the result of the conservative collective prospective, are messing up the game.

So the odds of Obama hitting the three pointer while play B-ball with the troops, or the likelihood that a Western Wall prayer gets plucked and printed while still in Israel, or the hot microphones of 'insight caught' every other day- which act is random and what ones are examples of an underlying pattern?

Barack Obama is only real when being observed and We the People all bear witness.  John McCain has a longer history of being and doing.  He can be remembered and referenced.  His mistakes are well-documented and his own voice can be heard to say he's changed his mind on issues.  He has a past and can name his place in history. While his future is to be determined, he has a record of choosing to get in the game.  He's not known for his free throws and he's not Ivy League anything. McCain is really here and we can recall his valiant efforts while in a real fight.  McCain is battered and played out as a warrior. His now is as the great coach who can see the plays possible and knows the difference between theory and reality of playing with the big boys.

Barack Obama is like a Quanta of energy. A true paradox: Obama is a duality of particle and wave.  He moves according to the observer; sometimes he is a solid being and other times he's a wave of emotion.  Either way, he is only real when observed.

One of the strangest definitions or explanations of the Paradox of Quantum Theory is  Schrodinger's Cat- 

'Schrödinger's Cat: A cat, along with a flask containing a poison, is placed in a sealed box shielded against environmentally induced quantum decoherence. If a Geiger counter detects radiation then the flask is shattered, releasing the poison which kills the cat. Quantum mechanics suggests that after a while the cat is simultaneously alive and dead, in a quantum superposition of coexisting alive and dead states. Yet when we look in the box we expect to see the cat either alive or dead, not a mixture of alive and dead."(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger%27s_Cat)

So, if Schrodinger's Cat of Quantum can be alive or dead, can he be both at once?  Or, is he just an illusion created only by the desire to see him?

-Gayle Plato-Besley

No Child was Left Behind, but bipartisan debate was thrown under the bus. On June 26,  Republican representative, Rich Crandall of Mesa, shoved in AIMS legislation, HB2011, during the education budget voting. Maybe the children aren’t left behind but they are shoved to the side as the state representatives play hide and go seek.

Democrat Governor JanetNapolitano has clearly stated she’d like AIMS to go away, and seemed fine with signing the budget bill quickly.  It’s questionable at best to put forth changes to state educational standards while the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, TomHorne,was pointedly left out of the discussion.

 Arizona’s Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS) is a test designed specifically to assess how well students are mastering specific skills defined for each grade by the state of Arizona. Personally, as an educator and former testing coordinator for elementary and middle schools, I find AIMS tedious.

 Standardized subjectivity defines the writing sample and grading of it. The original design was a heap of political posturing, and to please everybody, it became a DPA (Dual Purpose Assessment). Simply put, it means the following:

A) Standardized portion-bubble sheet multiple choice with results given in   normed, percentile results.

B) Criterion-referenced portion- teacher designed writing samples graded by teachers with a rubric (checklist of standards met).

This test soup creates individual assessment results for the parents, and school or state-wide comparison results. So your child’s school might be excelling according to the formula. It sounds good, but it’s hard to prove validity with the DPA combo meal of tests.

Validity and reliability are critical with any test implying standardized data. But then, transparency and inclusive discussion are vital components of representative government.   I don’t know if AIMS is the right thing, and I am tired of the task forcing of all related spending issues. Get to the point and open the debate. I am thoroughly tired of legislators and our governor being hypocritical, political tools. Do not push your pseudo-altruism, your desire to help the people, when you pointedly leave out state elected officials and critical experts.

The test is a problem, but the cost of throwing it out is also in play. Bureaucrats create problems to keep them in office. If one spins and kicks up dust, there is a need to hire a team to clean up the aftermath. Let’s not spin in the first place as this dust storm is one heck of a haboob.

I’ve seen a few films of late and forgot them all. But, yesterday changed everything. The Dark Knight is a masterpiece in so many ways. You know the Batman story, the tragedy around this film and Heath Ledger, but did you know that it is a revolution of Hollywood’s acknowledgement of conservatism?   Christopher Nolan, director and co-screenwriter of The Dark Knight, created a masterpiece of time and place. It will be noted for the great effects, Ledger’s near channeling of Marlon Brando in an incredible performance, but it’s the message every Republican, and Conservative must see.

National Security beats away as a drum solo every day. Each political candidate whether for POTUS or local sheriff must pick up the sticks and pound home a message. Yet, the reality is that to protect and serve, we all must face the EVIL lurking, waiting to blow us all to Hell. The Joker is the archetypical Terrorist. He is Osama bin Laden meets Hannibal Lecter, with the Insane Clown Posse and Johnny Rotten as his musical directors. Batman is forced to meet him at his level and in the end must sacrifice his standing, popularity, most of his freedom, and ultimately his control in order to chase down the Devil. As The Dark Knight  storyline clearly points out, the most EVIL soul doesn’t care about the money or the rules, he is in it just to watch the horror and feel the chaos in play.

I see a clear analogy between Batman and the President of the United States. The Dark Knight is the just executive who must do things, under cloak, and behind the scenes teetering on the edge of right and ethical, in order to capture the villain. The Dark Knight sacrifices nearly everything in the process as the Joker slips away. The story is real and the players are much more relevant that a DC Comic base can project. 

George W. Bush swooped in after 9/11, with heart, resolve, and a clear shining clarity, more an  eagle than a bat, to avenge the day. Everyone rallied around him, and he was the answer. President Bush spoke and a riveted audience listened, agreed, and understood that to take down the terrorists who want us all to die, who want to wipe out any remnant of us or future path for our families, who want our time sucked into a black hole that is Muslim extremism, we must go to them. We are in it for the long haul.

 click below

Cultural tastes also group us into demographic ploppings of people. Our friends quote a line from  Caddyshack, or The Godfather, and we can finish it together.  Ahh-- it's a brotherhood.  Love grows from moments as such, and good times become frightenly nostalgic. But then, what is better than realizing you belong, and those people over there are weird!  So much for teaching of tolerance and singing Kumbaya; this is the happy hour of our life and today either tastes great or is less filling.

In the scope of political correctness comes the reality check that we are not supposed to tolerate everyone or everything.  We do not think alike and even our closest friends line up either with us or against us. I talked about deep things of religion and values before, but it's the personal tastes that REALLY matter :-)

Mockery?  Maybe. But there is a real need to bond based on personal valuations. It's who we are and how we find out who is going to be there for us. It is how we play nicely with others.  If we keep denying that factions happen, we truly begin to think that there is only one right way.  Diversity is rooted in the reality check that differences are only recognizable as a result of cultural bias and personal judgment. We are free to choose for ourselves.

 As a certified teacher and counselor, with many clock hours from oodles of vapid workshops about equality, self-efficacy, social platitudes, moral edification, and homogenization of all learning, I can tell you that we are all one mission statement and action plan away from a major cheese moving reality:  NO ONE will have an opinion about anything without obtaining tolerance screening.  

But enough of all of that: back to the lists.  I polarized with friends over a few favorites and I throw down the gauntlet for you.  It's a strong man or woman though who stands up and defends one's LIST.  Get ready as the debate will be fierce!!!

Favorites of  My Modern Culture

Note: My picks are top five in each, but no real order as they change.  I could add ten more to each and that is why the debate is so fun.  These are a few choices  that made an impression, I revisit regularly, or evoke feelings such that I cannot deny the formative quality of each for me. For this debate I had with friends, it wasn't about the best piece of work in terms of society, but the best in terms of individual influence.  I see a trend too as the sense of a free spirit is so relevant for me I guess :-)

Film

(With links about each)

http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/5994/Blade-Runner/overview

PeterGabriel

New Year’s Day

U2

Kiss From a Rose

Seal

More Than This

Roxy Music

Burn For You

INXS

Book

by Aldous Huxley 

 

Why: It's hard to believe this book is from 1932 as it's commentary of life is just as relevant today. While it's a piece of science fiction, it too offers prophetic looks at future events-- some now coming true.  I read this in high school and found I was walking around the halls thinking about it like a haunting dream.  

 

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

by Richard Bach

Why: I was in fifth or sixth grade and my mom had read the book, recommending it.  I felt so connected and moved by this strange tale.  I remember getting up in front of my English class, giving and oral book report.  The teacher truly seemed moved by my feeling conveyed.  She said I would be a great teacher.  I wish I could remember her name and thank her for that kind statement as it changed my life.

 

TV SHOWS

 Twilight Zone

(Classic Only)

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twilight_Zone

Why: Do I really need to explain this one either?  Maybe you caught the marathon this weekend, but if not, the shows were so well written-- many by the great and unique Rod Serling, I mean--- no one can copy that opening schtick either.

 

 

Battlestar Galactica

(new version only)

 

http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/

Why: It is the best show currently on television--period. Groundbreaking cinematography, with scifi shot like a documentary.  The Cylons are beyond great with the Hybrid like the Oracle of Delphi.  I am going to need therapy when it all finally ends... if they ever get to the second set of this final season!  OH AND FOR FANS-- I predict LEE ADAMA as the final Cylon!
 

The Waltons

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Waltons

 

Why: Maybe I wanted my family to be more like them, I dunno.  My mom and I would watch together and I like that memory too.

 

 SouthPark

http://www.southparkstudios.com/

 Why: I know, it doesn't fit.  But it secretly does!  I find I agree with these guys too much and I love how awful it is.  This is not for kids and that is important to get.  It's satire to the nth degree with truly vile, horrid, disgusting banality.  What can I say,while a middle-aged, conservative mom literally driving to soccer by day. I become, well mentally I guess, a South Park Conservative with the potty humor of an upper adolescent idiot man-child.  Really, I am embarrassed to admit it, but I must defend my LIST at all costs.    South Park: I don't like it...I LOVE IT! 

 

The Friendly Giant

 

Why: This was a popular children's show piped in to Detroit from Canadian TV. It was sweet, fascinating to me, and the simple rituals kids need so much, I miss it !!! 

 

http://www.avtrust.ca/masterworks/2005/en_television_2.htm

 

I discovered one thing: I believed in God and saw that love of him and his son were fundamental to me. It was not an intellectual experience but a visceral and emotional hold. With this knowing came the realization that I am a being of God. Yet while on the Earth plane, I am a human with limits and values. I serve at the pleasure of God and all else comes in second. I cannot, in good conscience, support the denial of God by saying I am him.