Steve Satinsky has finally been indicted on charges of attempted murder.
We can only imagine, not knowing the details of the case, how this will all turn out but it is a good sign that there is some progress on the case. The Lake family deserves to know what happened to their son and why.
Euphoric Reality posted a reminder today of what it really means to support the troops. The sentiments expressed are valid, support goes way beyond a magnetic ribbon, but even if most Americans barely think of the sacrifices made by men and women in uniform and their families and communities, I can't say I feel shortchanged.
Being a part of the military community, if you embrace it, is life altering. I didn't realize that when I grew up a retiree's kid in a town full of Rambo wannabes. In those days, I only saw the down side. Too many 18 year olds with paychecks wasted on camaros and beer. I'd never marry a soldier.
When I moved home after a few years in college and 18 months abroad, I met and immediately fell in love with the most thoughtful, gentle and loving man, a new congregant at my home church. Imagine my shock when I saw him in olive drab for the first time. He'd already served for 8 years and was a young captain. He was educated, well-spoken and committed to serving. The boots and BDUs represented more to him than I could have even conceived of back then. I'll never forget the first time I called his house. His answering machine announced that he couldn't pick up because he was fighting godless hordes and making the world safe to democracy. A Sousa march played in the background. I'd entered the Twilight Zone.
As we dated, I became acquainted with another side of Army life. The kind you can only see from the inside. The loyalty, the friendship, the dedication, the sacrifice, the honor, the respect. In the years since then, and in spite of my routine complaining about long hours and deployments, I fell in love many times over, with him and with his patriotic cause.
He and his buddies laugh that no one is a more ardent supporter of the military than a soldier's wife. We keeper's of the home fires do get overzealous, I'll admit, but when the cause is just and you have so much riding on success, simpering in fear is a luxury you can ill afford.
So sit in Starbucks, read your paper, sip your coffee and feign support. It won't bother me. The dim light cast by your unappreciative American affluence will never cast the same brilliance and warmth as the mere memories of my association with dedicated men and women in uniform. When the determination to see all men free burns like a flame in your breast, you hardly notice the self-absorbed shadow dwellers even if they do benefit from the fire you helped to build.
I bumped into this gem while scanning some home school websites. Basically Illinois state educator Dave Arnold is rationalizing his paycheck by denigrating home schooling parents as "well-meaning amateurs". As someone who has worked both sides of this issue, let me be explicitly clear, teaching is not a profession. There are no special skills required to do it. Some characteristics are required to do it well, but doing it well has yet to be listed in the minimum qualifications paragraph of any state job application I've seen.
Unlike the technical jobs Mr. Arnold lists, teaching does not require the ability to do anything without a manual. Textbooks are paired with a teacher's guide that has additional notes in the margin and questions enumerated so that a state educator barely has to think, let alone prepare. Exams are included with textbooks and while most teachers make their own tests these are less an indicator of teaching expertise than a reflection of the sad truth that exams have to be dumbed down to allow for the information unabsorbed via mindless monotone.
The ability to teach is a gift - a talent I have rarely seen in state school facilities. I do have vivid memories of hearing Ms. Tomacelli yell daily at a classroom of exuberant 2nd graders. I have painful recollections of Mrs. Bailey reigning over a 400 student elementary school with the tyrannical zeal of Stalin and singling out energetic little boys for punishment in a humiliating form of playground pogroms. While there were, among the faculties, standout teachers who were dedicated to the noble cause of enlightening the next generation, their efforts were overshadowed and undermined by their "professional" cohorts. I worked in 17 schools as an itinerate teacher back in my state employee days and I was generally unimpressed with every last one of them.
The best evidence that teaching is not a profession, however, is that no education coursework is required to be a university professor. That's right. You can teach and get tenure at Harvard without so much as a single class in "education".
So if universities, the highest classrooms in the land don't require training in "education" but value content, then Arnold's argument is completely undermined by his own superiors. If, on the other hand, K-12 state educators are basing their professionalism on the ability to manage a classroom or create cute file folder games while handing out hall passes, then taxpayers need to reevaluate their pay scale and perhaps consider hiring artisans and cattle ranchers in their stead. Think of all the darling bulletin boards and the effective rustling of students from lunchroom to restroom to classroom.
If the true measure of an educator is the ability to impart knowledge and a love of learning to a child, then no one has a more vested interest than a good parent and in fact, the state education centers are run by little more than "well-meaning amateurs".
*** Note***
This response to Mr. Arnold's article is posted here because the nea website does not allow comments. (That just speaks for itself, doesn't it?)
For the last 10 days I have been wavering in my committment to home schooling. Two and a half weeks ago we took custody of a 2 year old and an infant whose parents are unable to care for them. Managing six children under 8 years old has been quite a challenge and I've been doubting my ability to teach effectively with the extra work that two more small children require. After all, what harm could it do to put the boys in public school for a year?
Enter the Burlington, New Jersey school district. The week before Easter, the schools carry out a drill to prepare for violence on campus. In the fictional scenario that provides the backstory for the drill, Christian fundamentalists storm the school. Off duty cops portrayed the right wing religious extremists as students practiced the proscribed response to such an event.
When confronted about the drill's obvious anti-Christian slant, the county school superintendent responded by saying that the schools had to run the most realistic drill possible. REALISTIC? I admit I'm drawing a blank. Can someone tell me when Christian fundamentalists stormed a school because a child wasn't allowed to pray before class?
Beslan? No. Lancaster, PA? No. SLC Mall shooting? No. Maybe the Burlington schools fear Christians from abroad? No, I don't buy that either.
In fact, all the 'Christian' right wing extremists that come to my mind are more interested in hiding in bunkers and drawing fire than storming schoolyards. Ruby Ridge. Waco. These groups suffered at the hands of an overreaching government (for all you 18 year old lefties out there, the invasive fed in these cases was being run by William Jefferson Clinton) not vice versa.
So, I'm posting here a great big THANK YOU! to the Burlington school district. You have strengthened my resolve. You have firmed my wavering faith. My children will be taught at home and somehow, even with the added challenges, I will effectively teach them and they will undoubtedly continue to surpass their state educated peers.
