Let me just preface this by saying–if you are religious and take your faith so seriously that you do not enjoy looking at the other side’s view stop reading now and check back later for a lighter post.

Okay, don’t say I didn’t warn you. I was raised Catholic. I still consider myself Catholic albeit a nonpracticing Catholic which will all change soon as I plan to raise my son Catholic as I have fond memories of my religion. I am just not a big proponent of orgainzed doctrine for many reasons. There are many policies and beliefs that come with Catholicism that I don’t subscribe to. Do I believe in Jesus–yeah there is historical evidence to his exisitence. Do I believe that he is the son of God–I believe and accept that there are people who believe that he was not a mere mortal–I cannot say that I am sold on that.

Last Night we saw The DaVinci Code–I really loved the book–I love any book that challenges people to think about the origins of the “word of God” and to look critically at an entity whose main goal is self-preservation and dominance. Dan Brown weaves a great fictional story smattered with historical fact that he turns into suppostition and theory while telling a great story. How can we take it so seriously. I am Catholic and was not at all offended by the portrayl of the Catholic Church. Why not you ask? Well because the Catholic Church has much to be ashamed of. Just because things are done in the name of God and Jesus does not excuse blood shed and decpetion. The Catholic Church and many other religions are about control–controlling what we do, influencing what we think, and molding how we behave. Is this all bad? No. We need that to a degree. Where my problem lies is deeper than just the organized religion. The Bible is a huge problem for me. Not the Bible itself per se but the emphasis put on it as though God sat down and wrote it himself.

I am fascinated by the history of the bible–I own 12 different versions some of them being extremly old–I have a copy of the very first bible ever written in English that was translated from the original hebrew and not the traditional latin. I am well read in the history of the bible and its evolution. I also own a copy of the gnostic gospels as well as the lost gospels of the bible (meaning those rejected by the Church as acceptable for the new testament). I know a little about what I am saying. I wish I knew more. I wish there was time to know more. If only. The Bible is a great piece of fiction and to think of it as anything else is difficult for me and many others. Most of these stories have been changed over time and have morphed into something they were not retelling after retelling after retelling. I am in no way saying that the Bible isn’t beneficial, it offers great lessons in the nature of man and is a great tool for teaching what is virtious behavior and what isn’t. But the Bible is still just a great story–it is not in any way the whole truth–please if you are still reading and are Christian and offended do not flame me for my view–as I did warn you.

The Bible is so often misued and misued to perpetuate hate for others and to control behaviors that are interpreted as “bad” based on one person or one groups reading of the text. I should mention that I am also an English major–BA in English and working on an MA in English. There are many interpretations of the text and many views. You can make a text mean just about anything you want it to with no shortage of evidence to support your thought or to refute someone elses so don’t start pulling out bible verses that say one thing when you clearly ignoring other verses that say something to the contrary. Religion is used to manipulte and control the masses–and I am not saying this is bad but it can be. It has the potential to be deadly as we see within the extreme muslim factions who claim to be doing Allah’s work. As we saw from Hitler in WWII. Many wars have been fought over and over in the name of Religion.

I am lucky that I can see all sides. The good, the bad and the ugly of orgainized religions. There are issues with all. I could go on and on and I think it is important to know the history of something that controls so much of world and of people’s lives. It is importanto to know and accept that religions change things to suit thier needs–Jesus was not born on December 25th–historical evidence leads us to believe that he was born earlier in the year but the Pagans–who Chritianity were trying to win over and convert –had a huge winter holiday (the solistice) that feel at this time so Chritianty hijacked the holiday and made it a celebration of Christ’s birth–the Christmas tree is leftover from the pagan holiday. It is important to understand that Mary was not a virgin–there is ample historical evidence that Jesus had brothers and sisters, but how could the child of God be born in the normal way? Jesus was just a man with a message, it wasn’t until after his death that he was deemed the son of God. The Catholic Church eats fish on Friday’s during lent instead of meat because traditional feasting for 40 days during lent meant no eating of meat only grain and vegetables but the fisherman in Italy suffered greatly for this as fish only stays good for a certain amount of time so that inorder to keep the fisherman from suffering too much financial strain the pope at the time said Fish could/must be eaten on Friday’s. Catholic priests takes vows of celibacy because of the early nepotism in the Catholic Church not because it makes them closer to God.

Okay…I will stop now as I am sure that I have offended and angered much of my readership. I am an acadmeic first and a Catholic second. I have a thirst for knowledge and a resentment for being fed false truths with the expectation that I will not question and seek out the knowledge for myself. That is all I ask anyone todo. Believe what you will, but know (research) what you believe. Fact and Fiction are easlily confused as what is not written cannot be preserved and it is easy to erase entire events from history through careful editing…

Seems as though the state of our school is on everyones mind.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/06/27/dobbs.june28/index.html

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5498897&ft=1&f=1013

From the CNN story
There’s no question the economic fallout of these astonishing dropout rates will be devastating. High school dropouts have much higher rates of poverty, imprisonment and welfare enrollment. Even if these dropouts can get a GED and a job in our increasingly credentialed workforce, today’s high school dropouts will make at least 35 percent less than high school dropouts of a generation ago. Worse, of those who are fortunate enough to graduate, too many lack the skills to enter college….
Those numbers indicate the critical need to mount a national attack on the crisis that is far worse than administrators and educators have reported. Whether schools and their administrators are lying or cheating, or they’re simply incompetent, matters little. Without independent educational studies, we would have no idea as to the depth of the crisis that faces our public school students in this country.

I am a public school teacher. I believe in our public education. It has been on my mind so much these past years as I see the system fail our kids. When our country turns a blind eye to the over 30% who chose not to continue in school–a 30% that we ignore and allow them to chose a path that will lead them nowhere (I know there are exceptions)–as though we don’t care. Well every child we allow to drop out and we chose not to service is a burden the next generation must bear. I worry about the state of our country because of our apathy towards those who do not function well in our school system. The system itself is outdated and this has to be addressed. It cannot be fixed by passing a law that we have to educate each child–HELLO that is why many of us become teachers to educate. I don’t think any of us come to work on a daily basis thinking “I am only going to teach Johnny and Sally…” It irks me that the government only looks at the obvious solutions–get better teachers–How about get better schools. Get a new design. We spend more on education than any other developed nation, yet we are at the bottom half in terms of skills and abilities. Money will not fix the problem. Forcing teachers to take more classes and be more “qualified” is not going to solve the problem.

We need more teachers and we need teachers who want to be teachers. To get quality teachers you have to pay a quality salary. I take home about $2000 (after taxes)a month as a fourth year teacher. I couldn’t support a family on that. If I was working in the private sector I could certainly make much much more with all my education. It isn’t going to be fixed with bonuses for teachers if their students do well–it will ecourage teachers to teach to the test that will be used to evaluate them. That is just what happens when you attach a reward to a behavior that should be driven intrinsiclly.

What will it take for our government to understand that the problem cannot be fixed by legislation, more money, and rewards to teachers for doing what they should already be doing anyway. Until our schools change and our children begin to value the “free” education they are guarenteed then it doesn’t matter what we do–the status quo will continue to rule. As states and schools are threatened with punitive actions, schools become less concerned with educating childern and more concerned with covering thier own assess. It needs to change. We need to change it.

I don’t know why, but recently I have noticed and been really bothered to the media’s emphasis on “adopted” children. Angelina has an “adopted” son and an “adopted” daughter, etc. I notice this everywhere now. I am sure I am just now noticing it, as I am in the process of adopting a child. When do our children stop being the “adopted” child and become just our child? Why do we have to separate the children? They are all our children regardless as to how they came into our family. Does the media not see that there are actual people connected with these labels and that by classifying them as “adopted” or “biological” they are stressing the differences. I just don’t understand the media’s need to label the children. I just wish….I don’t know what I wish, but it really bothers me and upsets me that the media and much of the world–here in America anyway–see the label as more important than the child and family. It’s a sad world sometimes.

On another note. Another group was formed at our agency today–that means that another group of cases was filed in court and another group of kids are one step closer to being home. I have not heard that we are in the new group–so I am assuming that we aren’t. I am pretty hopeful that we will be in group S. I can wait to hear but I hope that some of my referral friends get their group assingments today. Good luck to those of you still waiting.

Okay I don’t have a picture to post, let me paint the picture will words. I am currently covered in drywall dust from about 1 hour of sanding the final mudding of the drywall in the nursery, while hubby is napping after his very strenous golf outing and before his very strenous bachelor party outing this evening, while I am covered in drywall dust and still need to replace a floor tile and re-grout the one tile and possibly put the final coat of venetian plaster on the walls in the kitchen? I will very likely also fold the laundry that is waiting to be folded–hubby had to move it to nap.

UMMM…I would complain more, but I still have more sanding to do…

It refers to our antiquated educational system. They was a small piece in the New York Times on Wednesday talking about graduation rates, etc. The statistics show that over 30% of high school dropouts never go beyond the 9th grade. We are losing them before we ever really have a chance at educating them. An educational research study showed that only 39% of New York Cities students graduated–other figures say 50%. Nationwide only 73.9%–which has been the norm since the 70’s. And we wonder why we are losing our jobs and our place as a global powerhouse in terms of technology, etc. We can’t even get our kids to stay in school and receive just a basic education. Why do we accept that there is going to be attrition at the level that is acceptable. Why does our government think it is okay and accepts the fact that out of my 100 students last year, on average only 74 of them will make it to graduation? How is that okay? How can we accept that? Why haven’t we changed anything. Why don’t we admit that as a country we are failing our children and look at what other countries are doing and try to change our system.

We are so steeped in our ideas of equality and fairness that we are failing everyone. Because tracking in schools has become illegal–I don’t know about in all states but in mine it has–we have classes that are filled with high achievers, middle achievers and low achievers. We have to then teach to the lowest usually or to the middle, but either way 2/3 of the students aren’t getting what they need. There is a reason that 36% of all incoming college freshman have to take remedial course work before they are ready for English 101, etc. We are blaming teachers, parents and kids, when we should be blaming the system itself. It is no longer a functional system. It doesn’t suit our needs as a nation anymore. Why can’t we see that it needs to be changed. No Child Left Behind is a farce because all the children are being left behind. Vocational programs are no longer offered in the majority of schools and districts. We force students to sit in classrooms for upwards of 90 minutes in some cases we make them sit in desks etc and we try not to overstimulate them if possible. We make them get up at ungodly hours while the rest of the world sleeps–my high school starts at 7:30. Most jobs don’t ask workers to be there that early.

Why don’t we understand that we are shooting ourselves in the foot with the educational system we have? Why do we not realize that we are outsourcing jobs, etc because other countries are more efficient then we are. Our workers need to make more money because we are greedy–that is a whole different issue. The fair market is killing us and we are sabotaging our society by not educating the next generation and giving them skills to be successful. Why don’t we realize that we could give them a skill set to leave school with. Only 20% of all jobs require a college education, while 70% of jobs require only a high school diploma. Let’s get our kids out of high school who are not going to go to college with skills, something that they can use. None of my not going to college students are going to be better served in their job because they can write a paper about Shakespeare.

We need to rise up and change the way our country views education. College is not the saving grace–college will not solve all the problems of the unemployed. Let’s prepare our children for the real world and admit and accept as okay that not all kids must go to college. It just isn’t true and we are doing them a disservice by telling them that they should and educating all of them as if they are. Let’s respect the diversity of humans and the choices and the abilities of each other.