Merry Christmas for our family to yours.
Author: Dawn Kasal-Finley
When Reality Sets In
I have a real job. A. REAL. JOB. It’s been forever since I have had a real job. I have certainly had my fair share of jobs and decent/fun jobs in my lifetime, but this one is different. Different than anything I have ever done before. Different, Overwhelming, Amazing, Intellectual, Creative, Stressful, Scary…I think you get that idea. This is a 9-5 (well 8-4 in my case) job with limited vacation time and a to do list that might rival Santa’s.
I am planning out what I am responsible for and I will be doing a lot of traveling–only across my state–but it is still travel and will take me away from home on some weekends and at least one night every other week.
I am adjusting to this new work world. It is very different than work at the university where my schedule was my own and my time off–was somewhat limitless. I was also super bored and not at all intellectually stimulated or motivated for that job anymore. I am motivated for this one–but the work is constant and so much of it. I have had to force myself to separate from the work–because my list doesn’t seem to get any smaller. I finish one thing and two more things have popped up. My work is a bit like a gremlin.
I know how fortunate I am to have an amazing job that pays me well in an arena that I am passionate about.
I now have a greater understanding of what life was like for my husband for the past like forever. It is taking some adjusting to go from work where it has been non-stop working and thinking to home where my little bundles of endless energy clamor for attention and it takes everything in me to not just explode for the want of some solitude and calmness. My husband laughs. Sometimes I just want to punch him.
But tonight my boss is taking us all out for a holiday dinner and he decided to close our office on Thursday and Friday this week–which is really nice of him. I couldn’t ask for a better boss or better co-workers. I couldn’t be happier with where I have landed in the grand scheme of things. I am just looking forward to having some things in place and being able to do all that I want. I’m ready for greatness–if only all this other crap wasn’t in my way .
It Really Takes All Of Us Coming Together
Today’s post #1001 is a bit anti-climatic after my 1000th post yesterday.
If a two years ago someone had told me I’d be sitting in the same room with someone from the Walton Family Foundation and working with them to create better educational options, I would have laughed. I would have thought that our causes were so totally separate. That sentiment would have been clouded by our vastly different political views. I would not have not been able to see past our political differences to see that we want so many of the same things.
Before I started working with charter schools, I have to admit I was anti-charter school. Part of that is that I didn’t know enough to form an informed opinion–but I did anyway. As most of us do about things that we think we understand. There are just somethings that you have to investigate and really examine before you can make a decision about the movement. There is something we could all learn from this movement. This is a movement that transcends political lines. It transcends socioeconomic status, even though many of us working towards reform are middle and upper-middle class. It is a movement that highlights the dissatisfaction with our current educational system. It is not a movement that privatizes education. Are there private donors in the game? Yes. Part of that is because charter schools are not given the same funds as traditional public schools. In some state they are given about 50% as much money as the traditional public system. The only way to make up that gap is to seek funding from these big philanthropic organizations.
Many of my ideas about education reform have changed. Much of that once I had kids and that was even compounded by the fact that my kids are black kids. I began looking at the disparities in our education system with a different lens–that of a parent. I am fortunate that I can afford (with major scrimping and sacrifice) to send my kids to a great private school. Would I like a great public option? YES. Would I like a tax credit to offset some of the cost because I live in a school district that doesn’t have high or even moderately performing public options? YES.
What I really want is an educational system that serves everyone equally and provides choice. Public school options should be similar to private school options. I should be able to pick the school that is best for my kid. I should be able to pick the school that works best for our family and provides the education I want for my kids. Each school should be different. Each school should be able to define for itself and its community what type of school it is going to be. This is why I have moved over to the pro-charter camp. I want choice. I believe all parents should have choice and not just parents who can afford private schools. All parents should have choice.
So I will continue to sit in the room with those who I once thought couldn’t be more different than me. But we are all working towards the same goal–what is best for kids. Giving kids and parents the choice that is rightfully theirs.
Making My Job As A Parent Harder (My 1000th Post)
Seems fitting that my 1000th post is a topic that is central to this blog–parenting.
So, Kelly pointed the article “If I Was a Poor Black Kid” out on Facebook yesterday and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it and the ridiculous premise that technology will fix all that ails children who are poor (because there are even more white ones who are) and children of color. Maybe I am summarizes the article a bit too much.
While my kids are not poor, they are black. And even though they are not poor, we live in a city where most people assume that any black kid/family is poor. This is certainly not the case, but this article brought home for me the general assumption that they are. And it came at an interesting time, because I just had to bite my tongue at an even the other day when an upper middle class mom and I were talking about her son’s new school. Her son and Noah had been in the same class for preschool and for kindergarten they decided to try their local public school district because the district was the reason they bought their house, etc. I asked how it was going and she was talking about how amazed she was at how fast the curriculum went and she felt that he couldn’t miss even a few days at school. She went onto explain “well about 20% of the kids in the school and in his class are bussed in from the city and you know inner city kids they don’t come with the foundation for school so they have to work extra hard to catch up and I think the teachers have to make sure the inner city kids get caught up…..” and I stopped listening because I wanted to really challenge her on her racist/privileged outlook.
I simply pointed out it wasn’t to catch up inner city kids but to make sure that those kids are ready for the standardized testing that is coming their way.
But my point is that it is these exact beliefs that keep me from putting my kids in public school (all long with all the focus on testing and lack of focus on the whole child). We live in a city and surrounding county where we have a desegregation program–where black kids from the city can be transferred to schools in the county who participate in the program. I couldn’t put my kids in a school where they would be seen and assumed to be “poor” kids from the city because I know the expectations that teachers have for those kids. I just couldn’t have that for my kids. What is ironic is it my own privilege that allows me to know what these teacher often think of these “poor” kids from the city who spend over 2 hours a day on a bus in an attempt to level the playing field–when in reality they are often not allowed to play the same game. In this same way, my kids become privileged. Yet I have to be hyper aware of the messages they receive as they move in my world of privilege because there are plenty of people who won’t see past their skin color.
Ahead of Schedule
Can’t believe I already have our Christmas Card done–and I managed to get the calendars designed and ordered while still on sale.
Got the tree up tonight and putting lights up tomorrow. And there is snow in the forecast. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas and most of my shopping is done 🙂
Oh–and this is my 999th post. I can’t believe it. Who knows when I’ll get the 1000th post up–feels like it should be something special.
Embracing Imperfection 