Home For Now

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / Leave a comment

I just got home last night from 4 amazingly exhausting and intellectually stimulating days at Harvard talking about charter schools.  I learned more than I thought possible and made some amazing connections in this really small community that is charter schools.  My brain is still buzzing with so much information that I can’t wait to begin to be able to process some of it.  I know that will take a few days.

It was so great to see my kids and husband when I arrived.   I missed them so much.  I am glad that I don’t travel a lot for work.  When I write that statement, I’m conflicted.  Not about how I feel, but about the statement itself.  Because in reality, I do travel quite a bit for work.  I will continue to travel more for work.  I leave again in 3 weeks for a 3 day trip for work.  I will travel at least 6 days a month with my new job–two night away every other week (more than likely).  I love it, because it keeps my job interesting.  I hate it, because I miss my family and we are such a unit that it is hard when one of us is gone.

But I am home now and my to do list is quickly filling up.  Quickly.

 

Friendship

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 1 Comment

These two are buds

These two have been buds since Day 1 in pre-school.

Friends are so important.  I am so happy that my kids have already started to create special bonds with kids who will be in their life for a long time.  I am lucky to have a handful of amazing friends that have been my friends for over half of my life.  We don’t always stay in touch as often as we’d like, but we are still an important part of each others’ lives.

I try to create opportunities for my kids to spend time with their friends–sometimes I am better at it than others.  I recognize the importance of friends and appreciate the time spent with them.  I love that my kids are starting to get that too.

Creating Socialists

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / Leave a comment

We were driving home the other day from school and Noah said something about candy and I told him he could have one piece if he wanted but that was all. I asked him and Zoë why I would only let them have a little bit of candy.

“Because it’s not healfy” said Zoë.

“That’s right Zoë.  Candy isn’t healthy and we shouldn’t eat it all the time.”

“But mom, why do they sell candy then if it isn’t healthy” Noah asked.

“That is a great question Noah.  Why do you think companies that make candy sell it?  What do they want?”

Noah was quiet as he thought about it for a few minutes…”MONEY” he nearly screamed.

“Yep.  The companies who make the candy sell it to make money.  Companies make and sell things to make money.”

“But they shouldn’t be able to sell bad things.” Noah insisted

“That’s not nice.” Zoë chimed in (she has to talk and must add her opinion after her Brother’s.  Every. Time.)

“But companies do.”

“Cigarettes are bad.  They make people sick.  Companies shouldn’t sell things that can make people die.  That is mean.” Oh to have five-year-olds run the country might be a good thing.  The simple innocence.

“Companies are in business and sell things that people buy.  So, if we want companies to stop selling bad things we should not buy them.” I am trying to make it simple.

“Companies should care about people and not about money.  People are important.”

My work here is done.

We talked a bit more about making choices and thinking about what we spend our money on and how it’s important to have beliefs and live up to them.  I love that he can make these connections and can see the wrong in creating and selling things that can harm people.

The future is bright.

We Are Losing Focus Here

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 1 Comment

What Jerry Sandusky did was/is heinous.  There is no excuse and no way to ignore the atrocities that he inflicted on those young boys.  I cannot even comprehend for any fraction of a second how ANY ONE can think this is ok.  But that is a topic for another post.

There is something clearly wrong with Mr. Sandusky.  This is not said to excuse his actions in anyway.  But to make a point.  He has issues and big issues.  What sickens me even more is that other adults knew about this.  And. Did. Nothing.  NOTHING.  This is more disturbing to me.  There is no excuse to stand by and 1-watch a rape of anyone–let alone a 10-year-old boy and walk away; and 2–to pass the buck.  That is what Paterno did.  He will die knowing that is what he did.  He will watch his legacy fade because he walked away.  Is that the message he wants to send to the generations he has coached?  To the boys he has coached into manhood?

Lest you think I judge without experience–you are wrong.  During my first year of teaching there were rumors about one of our administrators at our school.  Rumors that he had improper relationships with male students.  Relationships that were not consensual but predatory.  I was outraged.  I was sick.  While I learned that these had been rumors for a few years, I was even more sick.  No one had done any investigating or pushed the envelope.  This was someone who was around children in a position of power every day.  I could not and would not sit idly by if these rumors were true.

I didn’t go to my principal right away.  I did some good old investigative work and found out that this man had been removed from his previous teaching job a few years early for attempting to get a student to meet him at a hotel in exchange for an A.  It still make me sick to think about it. It also turned out that his teaching certificate in the neighboring state had been revoked and he was ordered to never work with children again.  So what the fuck was he doing working as the disciplinarian at a high school?  Well turns out when background checks are run–they are only run to see if someone committed a crime in that state–not a different state (scary huh?)

As soon as I found this information out, I went to my administration.  I had no choice.  This man was around children everyday.  My administration immediately (the very next day) put him on leave while they investigated.  Two days later he was fired.  This is what it looks like when we put kids first and not our own jobs/careers/images.

I could not have lived with myself if I didn’t say anything and he tried to attack/molest another young student.  I don’t know how Paterno has lived with it?

We must hold our leaders accountable.  There is no excuse for what has transpired.  There is no excuse.  There should be no support for those who turned a blind eye.  I respect the job Paterno did as a coach–I am sickened by the job he did as an advocate for kids and as a man.  A CNN headline claims that Paterno will never escape Sandusky tragedy but he was about so much more.  Yeah maybe–but in the scale of justice–being a winning football coach loses out every time to covering up for the rape of children.  EVERY TIME.