My (relaxing?) weekend away

 

This is a photo I took of the Silver River last weekend. It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon and I wanted my friend, who had never been, to meet the large, alligator snapping turtle who lived on the kayak/canoe launch down the River Trail. 

I have been visiting this particular state park for 20 years or so and every time I walk down this trail and step on the launch, which is metal, this turtle sticks his head out. I am sure it is due to people feeding him, which you are not supposed to do, and I worry that some child is going to reach out for him and have their hand taken off. 

But I can't control others or their children as I found out last weekend. There were three little girls with their Moms? throwing Vienna sausage to this turtle and then laughing and screaming when the turtle dropped the food and the fish swarmed around to eat the leftovers. I then noticed one child had a stick that she was poking in the water. I told her to stop poking the turtle. Whew, then the adults began, "She wasn't poking the turtle. She was only trying to help the turtle get the food." Are you kidding me? Do you imagine that the turtle wouldn't eat if your child wasn't poking him? The ignorance is so strong. I imagine these were uneducated in any kind of science, but then, that would be judging them. 

At this point I knew I couldn't win the argument because they were going to do what they wanted to do, regardless of what was posted all over the park about not feeding things. 

It reminded me of the last trip I made and my advising an older woman who was obviously a tourist, to not let her little, white, fuzzy dog walk to the edge of the river and down in to the shallow water. I tried to tell her that alligators loved little, white, fuzzy dogs but she didn't listen because, you know, she is entitled to do what she wants. I hope she doesn't lose that dog, but it was obvious, she wasn't listening. 

The next day we went to the other side of the park for a glass bottom boat ride. I have been to many times to count but my friend was new to the park. As we were walking through the Ross Allen area, over the bridge named in his honor, (his Reptile Island used to be here), we both noticed the plastic water bottles thrown over the bridge in to the swamp and said something at about the same time. To watch people have such a horrible attitude that they believe they have the right to throw garbage in this most ecologically sensitive area continues to make me angry but I saved the best for last. 

Why, oh why are they allowing motor boats to come all the way up to the headwaters of the Silver River? Apparently, you can boat on up any springs as long as you only use wake/idle speed. I am stunned and a little bit, just a little, surprised. 

The state can scream about protecting our water but if you are going to allow people to take boats up in to the springs with no thought to the pollution, the manatees, the fish and turtles and the quality of the water, they you need to re-evaluate what your job function is. 

I know the pollution boats cause is an effect that we seem to want to gloss over and once again, the "I pay taxes and am entitled to do what I want, when I want" seems to be the norm, I wonder who in the heck is holding on to common sense and where did those people go that truly love our state and want to protect it. They obviously are keeping pretty silent at this point. 

Political emails are becoming unbearable

 "Jean, I'm falling behind" continues to clog my mailbox on an hourly basis. Does anyone else have this problem?

I have never tried to hide my political leanings. I have always tried to vote for the best candidate for the job and in almost every case, the Republican party is not my party of choice. Because of this, I do what I can during every voting cycle to make sure my candidate wins. Sometimes they do, and other times they are unsuccessful. I do not stop trying.

I am a political junkie. I have loved politics since I told my father I was going to be President after JFK was killed. I was 6 at that time. I dreamed about going to law school and when I went to college I received my degree in Political Science. I never made it to law school and there are way too many skeletons hanging in my closet to ever be involved in a political race but I follow politicians with a magnifying glass. 

On occasion, not very often, I have sent in small donations to political candidates. I can assure you they have never been more than $5 or $10  because I am a teacher, and I live pretty close to a budget. The candidates I do support are normally local or regional. I feel like the national party should have enough money to help the candidate without my small contributions. 

Every day my in box is flooded with political candidates wanting money. Over and over from Minnesota to Georgia, Virginia to Texas, candidates send me emails. I won't even mention the ones from Florida. I get so many from them, I have stopped counting. 

Do I want to defeat DeSantis? Absolutely. Do I think Little Marco and Rick Scott are two of the most useless, corrupt politicians our state has ever elected? Yep, I do. Can I afford to send just $3 or $5 every time I get an email from candidates who are running against them? Nope and them promising the world will end with every ignored email doesn't make them nearer and dearer to my heart. 

Social media, in my opinion, has ruined most normal talk and debate about political races. They do not exist any longer. We search for like minded people and never read anything that is in opposition to the way we think. When anyone tries, the anger and vitriol becomes unbearable. The left is as bad as the right and no one stops and listens to how they sound or what they are saying.

Maybe that is the reason for all the emails. Who can take the time to argue back? Who can discuss the truth or lies which lie in the printed word? Who will take the time? 

I use to read everything I could about politics. The most I see now, politicians are doing nothing but dunning me for donations. So I just send them all to the trash and go on about my day. I find that very sad. 

 

Teacher challenges have become the norm

 

Every day I read about another teacher leaving the profession due to a myriad of issues that we face on a daily basis. Many of these issues are not in our control but many teachers and administrators do not make our job any easier. 

I am not a new teacher. I have been teaching longer than three years and although there were times I wondered what the heck I had gotten myself in to, I have never regretted making teaching my second career. I have been supported by some wonderful professionals through my teaching; teachers who went out of their way to help and administrators who were so wonderful, I hated changing schools. 

I now teach at a Title I school where many of my students are either ESOL or ESE students. Many have just begun to learn English and many have learning disabilities, some to the extreme and others less noticeable. I went back and received my certification in ESE K-12 to help me better teach the students who are mainstreamed in regular classes. 

I also work in a great department (what history department isn't great) where all the teachers are supportive of what we are trying to do. Last year, I approached all the U.S. History teachers and asked them what was the most important thing I could do as a World History teacher to help pave the way for the students to succeed when they arrived in 11th grade. I took their suggestions and incorporated them in my lessons to help the students. Not one of them suggested that to be a good teacher, I should teach them U.S. History lite version while teaching World History. 

This year I have a student who has a SLD (Specific Learning Disability) and he cannot read or write. He can understand language but it must be verbal. He uses programs where he can listen to meaning and it helps him understand lessons. Although his grade is not where it could be, we are slowly working towards getting it up.

I had a teacher come to me yesterday to ask about this particular student and to get some suggestions on how to help him succeed. I offered what I knew and his response was he was receiving pressure to not teach so much of the part of his class that could benefit the student, but to concentrate more on other parts of the curriculum because then the teachers' job would be easier when the students arrived next year. 

I immediately asked him how long he had been teaching and sure enough, it was the 3 year mark. I wanted to tell him to teach HIS kids the way THEY would learn, not because next year the teachers wanted it easier. I tried but as most new teachers, he doesn't want to upset anyone or make anyone angry. He has not learned to have a voice in his students' education.

He will end up leaving the profession. I could just about bet money on it. He doesn't feel he has a voice or is worried if he uses it he will be chastised, even though he loved my ideas for this student. They won't be implemented and this student will probably fail this class. 

We are faced with challenges like these every day, on top of the pandemic, on top of parents who think we indoctrinate children or parents who can never be reached and could care less about their students' education. We have students who never come to school or students who come to school and sleep. We have paperwork and paperwork and more paperwork. Throw in evaluations and meetings to make sure we are good teachers and it is incredible they stay as for as many years as they do.

I love teaching and I am good at it. I normally form great relationships with most of my kids. They continue to stay in touch long after I have ceased being their teacher. I wish all new teachers had that. I wish the bully teachers would go away. I wish administrators would listen instead of shrugging off concerns. I do know that no matter how hard I try, I can't save all the students. I wish new teachers were as outspoken as I was. I think the students would be the beneficiaries of that.  

Can we just stop with the individual rights screaming?

 Many of you might not remember this, but way, way back in the 1980s, companies began what is now a common practise: drug testing. This was due in part because President Reagan signed an Executive Order for federal employees that they must all be tested. 

What an opportunity, which is exactly what it was, for insurance companies to make even more money. Either force your employees to sign a waiver to be tested or lose your insurance coverage. This was the excuse used by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune which was owned by the New York Times at the time. Of course, the popular line was they cared about all of us and wanted to make sure if we had a drug problem, we received the help we needed. 

I protested this with every inch of my being. Not because I am or was a druggie, but because I felt my bodily excretions belonged to me. I had never done anything to make anyone think I was doing drugs and I resented the fact that they could, at any time, send me for a drug test because I might be on drugs.

I worked for newspapers over 35 years. I have worked next to people who had a three martini lunch; a joint when they went home for dinner, doctor prescribed opiates where they were so loaded they couldn't keep their eyes open and never, ever had a problem. But now we were required because of insurance. 

Drug tests are now standard operating procedure in most companies as are legalized pot smokers in many states although using federal guidelines, it is still illegal federally. People don't even blink when asked to pee in a cup.

Insurance companies continue to make money off drug tests or at least requiring drug tests and real drug people continue to fool the tests and continue working. Nobody protests.

Enter vaccinations for Covid. Now that companies are requiring employees to get vaccinated or lose their job, which is along the same lines of the paper I had to sign agreeing to be drug tested, people are all up in arms about them having no right. No right to what? Protect the public? 

Why were signed agreements for drug testing okay and not to have a vaccination? I guarantee those agreements affected nothing but insurance costs. They didn't stop anyone from using drugs. I know. I still worked there. 

So my suggestion is to get the insurance companies involved. If employees are not vaccinated, they are fired or the company's insurance is dropped, just like they did for drug testing. 

Apparently I was the only one who protested that so I am going to assume everyone was okay with it. Easy, peasy, problem solved. Let the insurance companies make money and people won't complain any longer.

 Heck, it worked for drug testing.

Why vaccinate?

 

There is still a great debate about child vaccinations. Parents want the right to not vaccinate their children and communities (most) require children be vaccinated before they enter school.

Because of my status of Army dependent, I have every vaccine that could be given before I entered Kindergarten. The MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) was not available at that time so, as is true with most viruses, my brother, sister and I all had them. By the time Jeremy was born, a vaccine had been developed, and he had that. I had strep throat on top of the mumps, so I was kept in isolation in my brother's bedroom and missed almost a whole month of school. 

In 1955, when Jonas Salk released the vaccine for polio, you could not stop parents from making sure their children had that vaccine. It was not tried and true yet, but they sure didn't want to take any chances with their children's' lives. 

According to the CDC, the baseline 20th century annual morbidity rate was 16,316. This was the average in the 4 years before the vaccine was developed. By 1998, this number had been decreased to 0. 100% eradicated from the United States. The World Health Organization reports five out of 6 regions of the world are polio free. Polio is still endemic in three countries: Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria. 

Two other viruses have been eradicated in the United States: smallpox and diphtheria. Gone. 

One Florida senator, Manny Diaz (R) Miami, wants to review all requirements for vaccines, including polio, MMR, Whooping Cough, etc. How many children would be in danger if the state of Florida decided to stop requiring these vaccines for school children. Would polio make a comeback? Would you take that chance?

The year the mumps vaccine was released, 1968, 606 people died from mumps. By 1998, that number had decreased by 99.6%.

Last week, a high school student, 17 years old, died from Covid-19. I did not know her. I did not teach her but I know people who did. She will become another number in this political battle being waged about public health. Why?

When did parents stop worrying about their child's health because politics was the driving force behind the disinformation? What happened to science? 

When will those who are so against vaccines wake up? When will parents be able to send their children to school without exposing them to diseases which could be contained, controlled or even eradicated?

How many more kids must die?

Our students are our future

 I hear a lot these days about the state of our union when the young people rise to positions of power. I worry many nights that I am not teaching the right things or capturing the right mood for the students to realize their potential. I understand that many students do not have a good home life and their families have struggles that I cannot even begin to comprehend but in the eight years I have been teaching, my stars outshine the negativity that many people associate with students. 

One class worked at Habitat for Humanity and built an overflow storage shed which is still standing. They filled baskets with items like powder and soap, toothpaste and deodorant for a senior center and then spent the day listening to stories from the residents. (I get teary just thinking about it)

They move on and sometimes you can keep up with their lives and the feeling of pride for perhaps being a small part of their growth.

The two young women, and they are young women now, at the top of the page are two of my stars. When another hurricane, this one named Irma, caused damage to Arcadia, they were instrumental in delivering necessities to families that needed help. 145 families which meant a lot of time and effort to deliver these most needed items. The smile on my face is real. These young ladies were still in high school. That did not stop them. We had so many donations, they just kept coming. This was four years ago before this distinct, negative malaise fell over our country.

Not one time did anyone ask what their politics were. No one refused help or refused to help because of the racial makeup of the people receiving the help. It did not matter what your sex was. If you needed toiletries and they knew about it, they found a way to get it to you. My friends gave and gave and gave. 

These two young ladies, along with their parents who helped tremendously, (thanks Rachel) will continue to contribute to society. I hope they never lose their generous, giving spirit or let the naysayers make them feel that their contributions to their community don't matter. 

It is students like these that I teach every day. Please don't believe everything you read. They are our future and there are still bright stars out there, learning every day. The country and their communities are lucky to have them. Kudos!

Attendance Matters

 I listen to the education pundits every single day speaking on the problems within our schools. Most teachers have ideas about why so many of our students are failing or not living up to their potential. There can be many causes but I believe one of the most prevalent within our society today is the lack of parental push for the importance of education. One of the ways this can be measured is how often students are either allowed to miss school or are pulled from school because their kid called them to come and get them.

I think a lot of this can be attributed to lack of respect for education and the idea that it doesn't really matter if students are in school one day a week or 5, whatever the child wants is okay with the parent. 

I am not speaking about students who skip school. Those are still around and it still happens, especially when you teach high school as I do. I am speaking of students who tell their parents they just don't want to go that particular day and are allowed to stay home. It seems these teens make the rules in their households and the parents follow along because they feel what the students may learn in school takes a backseat to what their kid wants. 

It is not unusual for me to have 8 or 10 students missing from my classes every day. Out of a class of 24 or 25, that is huge. I have some students who are in my classes that I have never met. Never is the optimum word. They may be late to school every day and in my first period or they may leave every day and miss my last. I receive no email or phone call asking me about assignments, which are all posted in our online platform and if I try and contact them, I get recordings or no response at all. 

That is until the last day of the last week before report cards. Then they want to know what they can do to catch up. They couldn't help it if they missed school due to _____________. You fill in the blank. 

Where are the parents? Or parent or guardian or whomever is responsible for this child? They are normally driving the car. Or signing the excuse. Or yelling on the phone that we cannot possibly fail their child because it is their right to pull their child out of school whenever they want, for whatever they want. 

When I was a kid, we couldn't wait for Christmas break to come home to Florida and see our grandparents. I can remember Daddy picking us up from school after the last bell of the day, his thermos full of coffee and the car packed. He would never pick us up before the end of school because he held education as the most important thing he could do for us. 

I know their are reasons why students must miss school. I understand family emergencies. I also understand using family emergencies as an excuse to go out of town and take your kids. I understand doctors and dentists. I also understand that there are very few doctor visits that last the whole day. 

I know we have social workers and truancy officers and a whole plethora of experts who work on this problem but I also know whatever they are doing is not working. 

How do you get the students to come to school? I am not sure of the answer but I think it needs to begin with parents and until they take school more seriously, we can't expect our students to.