Travel Broadens the Mind, But . . .

The Arkansas Board of Education voted last week to take over the Little Rock School District because six of its schools are "in distress" (the measurements of which are a little fluky). As you may know, Little Rock schools have been on double secret probation for years now, for various reasons, even though it has good test scores overall, and numerous National Merit Finalists. I'm not exactly in favor of this plan -- it appears to be simply a different set of bureaucrats that just swooshed in and disenfranchised Little Rock voters who just seated a new school board last fall. The Superintendent will be retained and there has been no plan announced to address the distressed schools' issues.

A local (satirical) website, The Rock City Times (subtitled "Arkansas' 2d most unreliable news source"), however, announced a plan earlier this week. Let's see if it will copy and paste:

Little Rock to Begin Bussing Students to Northwest Arkansas Following School Board Takeover

Greg Henderson — January 29, 2015

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Following yesterday’s State Board of Education’s decision to takeover the Little Rock School District, the board now says that beginning in fall students will be bussed from Little Rock to various higher performing schools around Northwest Arkansas.

The Board of Education’s 5-4 decision came after six of the district’s schools were labeled “academically distressed”.  The move to Northwest Arkansas would introduce Little Rock’s 25,000 students to some of the highest performing schools in the state.

“The problem is these schools are underperforming and students are not receiving the quality education that they deserve,” School board spokesperson Roger Waters tells us. “We certainly could fire all the teachers, pump millions of dollars into education for Little Rock, but we feel that would be too dramatic and a possible waste of resources. Especially when we have one of the country’s top performing education regions a little over three hours away.”

Under the plan students would be bussed daily from Little Rock to a selection of schools across Bentonville, Fayetteville, Rogers, Springdale, and Siloam Springs. Parents will be required to have their children ready for bus pickup at 4 a.m. each morning so that students will arrive by the 8:00 start time. Students are expected to return home by 7:30 each night. Tutoring will be available free of charge during the afternoon commutes.

Most of the existing Little Rock School buildings will be converted into satellite campuses for the upcoming technology park. Meanwhile Central High School is expected to change to a Robert E Lee museum and Forest Park elementary will be the new home of a food truck culinary school.

The board says that it does plan to retain former LRSD superintendent Dexter Suggs along with various faculty members from Little Rock Schools.

“Due to the dramatic increase in bus drivers needed, we have extended driving positions to Dr. Suggs and other principals and faculty at high performing schools,” Waters says. “We believe it represents a unique opportunity for all involved to help grant kids the advanced kids the advanced education opportunities we blindly think they deserve.”

In addition to the schools opening their doors to Little Rock students, the Duggar family has offered to expand their home schooling to accommodate 200 homosexual curious children in need of re-indoctrination.

The Duggars.  Heh.

And the misspellings of "busing" and "bused" make me grit my teeth, but all-in-all this is pretty clever. Unfortunately, I can't rule out something as improbable as this coming from the State. 

Poor kids.

Pity the Children

No, not those children, these children:

I would sooooo hate to be a child in this day and age. Not only do they have to be on the constant lookout for perverted strangers and go to school forever and ever, now they are also forbidden tasty treats within the ivy-covered walls of public schools. The USDA has promulgated school breakfast, lunch, and snack regulations under the watchful eye of the First Witch Lady.

The preface on the USDA School Meals webpage tells us:

Through the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act championed by the First Lady and signed by President Obama, USDA made the first major changes in school meals in 15 years, which will help us raise a healthier generation of children.

The new standards align school meals with the latest nutrition science and the real world circumstances of America’s schools. These responsible reforms do what’s right for children’s health in a way that’s achievable in schools across the Nation.

The Act became effective July 1 of this year, leaving schools and Boards of Education scrambling to get around its enabling regulations.

Schools are forbidden to offer "competitive snacks" and "competitive beverages" (food and drink that "compete" with the Agriculture Department's school meal program) that are sugary or fatty, or, apparently, desirable. These competitive foodstuffs are often sold as a means of fundraising for the school through vending machines, school stores, and bake sales.

Wait. BAKE SALES?!?!

Yes. Bake sales.

Even though the regs were modified last spring a bit in response to a tidal wave of complaints, homebaked goodies and fun food are still a no-no in most places. Illinois is tightening its rules about food-centric fundraisers, but many other states are establishing safe havens for them, guaranteeing up to 30 per year per campus. Thank God for common sense.

["Cottage Food Laws" have been promulgated in a majority of the states that allow the sale of certain food items that were prepared in a non-commercial, unlicensed kitchen. Bake sale donations arguably fall within their purview, even if the laws were originally designed primarily for farmers' market vendors. (Arkansas' Cottage Law is in that category, but I'll bet one could argue that it applies to bake sales, too).]

"Doing what's right for children's health." Egad. We may be getting ready to witness a mass exercise in civil disobedience the likes of which have never been seen.

Do you suppose the kids still get to read Thoreau?

They can have my brownie when they pry it out of my cold, dead hands.

Your Botany Lesson of the Day

Someone who really knew what  they were doing landscaped Moogie's Manor.  There is always something flashing color, no matter the season.  Right now we have scads of bright red holly berries showing off next to the deep green leaves.  And there is always visual interest.  My gosh, Autumn was fabulous!! There was so much color you could almost hear it.

One of my favorite plants is pictured above -- it's a Harry Lauder's Walking Stick.  The leaves are very soft -- almost fuzzy.  Ours is just outside the front door, and you look right at it from the office windows.  See it on the left?

It's a member of the Filbert family, but doesn't usually produce.  This is what it looks like today, wearing a "dusting" of snow (Yep, the weatherfolk predicted a "dusting" of snow last night.  Cars were crashing into one another all night out there in the dust storm. We got over 3" of dust.):

And a closer-up, after the ice storm on Sunday:

I mean, how cool is that ?!?!

The literature says it flowers in the spring before leafing out.  I can't wait!

Class dismissed.

And He Even Used a Hammer That Resembles the One on the Soviet Flag!

UPDATE!  Linked at IMAO, with High Praise!

Back in 2010, a 26 year-old middle school assistant football coach wrote a country song, critical of the Young President.  It's actually quite good! 

I researched the song today, along with its ensuing kerfuffle, and found Michelle Malkin's report, published contemporaneously with what transpired.

The young coach sent a video of his song via email to everyone in his personal address book, which included several parents of students in his school. Enough of them complained to the school that the head coach was compelled to fire the aspiring songwriter for engaging in politically incorrect conduct, or some other such trumped-up personnel manual violation.  I somehow missed it when the video first hit cyberspace, but, having received it today in my in-box, I'm joining the cause to make it viral again.  Here's another spot to see it, and here's the -- appropriately titled -- "When You're Holding a Hammer (Everything Looks Like a Nail"):



I like it!  Can't you just envision the Line Dance?  Maybe Michelle could wear her "skinny jeans" and dance to it at a fundraiser in Nashville!

You'll probably see this again closer to November.

Ya Gotta Love a Principal Who Sticks to her Guns. Um, Principles. She Doesn't Carry, I'm Pretty Sure.

I'm sitting here listening to the intercom (yes, they broadcast over their intercom to the entire neighborhood, but we always know what's going on!) at Sophie B. Wright Institute for Academic Excellence (Whew! That's a mouthful, even when you type it!) down the street, and I've just experienced yet another refreshing note of what's happening in that school.

The Principal's irritated voice (yes, I recognize her voice by now) summoned three students by name and directed them to board the bus at once:  "Get on the bus now.  You're holding up the entire bus and the entire route.  Get aboard your bus immediately, and I mean NOW! Do NOT make me go looking for you!"

How cool is that -- a principal who takes no guff and suffers no fools.  Way to walk the walk, Ms. Clark!  Happy Homecoming Week!

The World Does, Indeed, Change

There's something about Pepper's high school reunions that is so fascinating. Several of his classmates, particularly a few of the ladies, never seem to age. I've accused them on more than one occasion of possessing portraits of themselves in their attics that are beginning to resemble withered old crones.

Pepper's is the Class of '66 -- Vietnam era, the Beach Blanket Bingo generation. Mine is the Class of '72 -- second year of high school integration, last year of the Draft lottery.

Every single one of Pepper's classmates is white. Every single one. Most of the men served in the military for at least a few years; few in my class either wore, or respected, the uniform. Pepper's class learned of Kennedy's assassination in their high school classrooms where they could grasp some of the more dire consequences of that loss; I heard it over the intercom in my fourth grade room and wasn't quite sure why we would have no school for the remainder of the week.

I never really thought about the considerable differences in our high school experiences until last night while listening to them reminisce. Some of those differences, especially some of the "more innocent days," made me a little envious.

I guess one never really gets over being star-struck by the big kids.

Back to School: an Upgrade

Now that school has been back in session for several weeks, some of you may be puzzled why I haven't posted a rant about the Sophie Wright Academy school buses that served as the bane of my existence for the last couple of years with their vrooming and squealing and beep-beep-backing-upping.

It seems that some changes have been made!

There is a fleet of brand-new buses sporting the Sophie Wright name parked in the lot, and their engines and OSHA-mandated back-up beepers must be a whole lot quieter, cause I hardly notice them at all.  There is also apparently a whole fleet of brand new bus drivers who are skilled enough to negotiate the turn onto our side-street without having to do a 2- or 3-point maneuver.  Not as many buses are running down our side-street this year either -- they seem to be going down the thoroughfare adjacent to Sophie Wright.

So, YAY!!!!

The most interesting change I've noted, though, is the demise of the name, Sophie B. Wright Academy.  All those new buses now announce that they're carrying the students of "Sophie B. Wright Institute for Academic Excellence." 

If you call it academic excellence, will academic excellence follow? 

Sounds a little too PC to me, but, if it means the buses are better behaved, I'll call the school Massachusetts Institute of Technology if that's what they want.

Go, Warriors!

The Death Knell of the Educational System

I can't find it now so I can link to it, so they must have pulled the original version of the story.  At least that's to their credit (and some sharp-eyed editor's.)

Earlier today, I was perusing news snippets on the Associated Press app on the iPad and came across a piece about the flooding along the Mississippi.  The "journalist" described the source of the flood waters as the Mississippi River "and the smaller rivers that spring from it."  That concept was so bizarre that I re-read it several times to be sure that's what it really said.

That's what it really said.

To borrow Andy's favorite epithet, Crud. 

The passage referred to flood waters north of the Morganza spillway, so the "journalist" could not have been thinking about the southernmost delta where the river just kinda dissolves into a bunch of fingers and swamps.  So now America's educational institutions are teaching today's "learners" (seriously -- I've seen students referred to as "learners" in some recent literature) that the Mighty Muddy spawns smaller rivers. 

Crud.

Lemonade Day 2011: Entrepreneurship Training or Cookie Cutter Thinking?

I've been seeing cryptic, mass-produced signs around town announcing "Lemonade Day," but I didn't really know what that meant and had little incentive to investigate.  Today I received an email from Citizens For 1 Greater New Orleans, and it seems that New Orleans will emulate Houston and hold its first "Lemonade Day" on May 7th.  It's an exercise in organized entrepreneurship for children.  Here's the website banner:

The "How it Works" page says:

Lemonade Day is Saturday, May 7, 2011. In March and April kids all over South Louisiana will learn how to start, own and operate their own business – a lemonade stand. Each kid who registers will receive a bright yellow backpack -inside is everything you need to prepare for Lemonade Day. Get a backpack, make a plan and get started making some money! Here’s how:

1. Pair Up: You must have a “caring adult” with you when you register - that could be a parent, grandparent, older sibling, teacher, scout leader or other responsible adult. You must have an adult say that it is OK for you to do Lemonade Day and operate a lemonade stand.

2. Register

Sign Up at http://southlouisiana.lemonadeday.org (After completing the online registration, you will receive an email instructing you to print out the reply and bring it with you to any Pick-Up Location to verify registration. Don’t forget this part!)

The children will pick up a "backpack" at a participating sponsor's place of business (Raising Cane's Chicken, among others, in southeast Louisiana -- and that's some mighty fine chicken and sauce and lemonade, I'm here to tell you!).  Each backpack will contain business plan materials, including an Entrepreneur Workbook and Caring Adult Guide.  There are also online "games"  the kids can play that teach them basic econ, logistics, marketing, and management.  The kids are even give pre-produced "posters."  This short video describes the program in a nutshell:



This sounds like something I would have done with my children had the program been around when they were little.  Whose children didn't have at least one lemonade (or Kool-Ade) card-table-set-up-at-the-curb-stand, mixing up concoctions that were always, "interesting?"  And I'm certainly a fan of encouraging entrepreneurship, but, I must be getting geezerish and cranky and . . . jaded. 

The big thing that stuck out for me in that video?  How very involved the "caring adults" were.  They seemed to be turning the operation into an organized-little-league-baseball operation instead of a Hey!-let's-do-a lemonade-stand-after-the-sandlot-baseball-game operation.

If done properly, this could indeed be a wonderful family opportunity that teaches kids something while they're having fun.  But, I have my doubts that most of the "caring adults" will be willing to kick back and let the kids do it (picture "perfect" Science Fair projects or Soapbox Derbies).  Or let them have much fun. 

I see competition among the "caring adults," not among the budding entrepreneurs -- and not necessarily healthy competition.

And, I wish they'd waited to do the project until the kids were out of school and bored.

I hope I'm wrong, though, and I wish all of Lemonade Day's participants a wonderful experience in commerce -- and lots of fun!

What do you think?  Am I onto something, or just growling at someone to get off my lawn?

Moogie Gets Reflective -- and More Smarter

Now that life seems to be returning to normal around Moogie's Mansion (whatever that may be!), I'd like to share a few ruminations that have been rattling around in my head.

First off, our precious granddaughter, Princess Lizzy, turned 3 on January 14th!  Oddly enough, this odd blog also turned 2 on that very same day.  So Happy Birth-iversary to us, Lizzy Lou!!!

I looked back at last year's Blogiversary post, and found it pretty tame and standard.  It was, however, absolutely true in its simplicity.

Nonetheless, I've learned a lot about life, and the blogosphere, since last year. 

Life is mainly about relationships.  It's odd how the human psyche craves relationships.  We may have the best friends and families on the face of the Earth that fulfill us to no end, yet we still yearn for more contact.  We "adopt" pets, we cultivate plants, we name our automobiles.  Even the Cast Away dude made a friend of Wilson, the basketball, and grieved its loss at sea.

Today, we spend hours in cyberspace, both in Social Media and the blogosphere, trading yarns, opinions, and barbs with people we've never laid eyes upon in person, yet feel as comfortable around as the chums we made in elementary school.  That's the spot where I find myself today. 

That's also where I didn't find myself in late December - early January when my routine was discombobulated by the holidays, merriment, serious footballage, and the onset of Carnival.  And I have since learned that the discombobulance made a difference to, and had an effect on, me on several levels.

First off, I missed you guys!  I missed having the opportunity to visit your spots a couple of times a day to catch up on what you were doing and to leave a snarky (or supportive) comment.  I missed having the time to post the fruits of my brilliant discourse and analysis, prodding some of you to leave snarky (or supportive) comments here.  I may not ever say it, but I truly do appreciate your comments.  As many of you have already admitted, I now openly acknowledge that it really does mean a lot for people to take the time to think about what I've come up with and type a reaction or two.  That's a connection that is very, very real, regardless of tactility. 

And there.  That word, tactility.  I wouldn't have come up with that word last week.  I wouldn't have come up with that word because of the Second  Lesson I've learned about this blogging thing.

Bloggers are among the best informed folks around; they're the best researchers, the cleverest wits, unafraid to express their true opinions and duel with those whose opinions differ.  Becoming that type of folk requires a great deal of intellectual work.  And that was another thing I missed during the holiday hiatus -- the intellectual work.  I physically worked my derriere into near exhaustion with important, yet mundane things, like hostessing and housework and feast-making, but I finally recognize that I need more than that to keep my brain on its toes. Use it or lose it is a very real concept.  Probably more so as we age.  It hit me square in the noggin last week when I had to ask Pepper while we were watching a movie what the name of that town is -- you know, the capital of Norway.  Not the capital of Sweden; the capital of Norway.

Today, after just a few days of regular research and blogging, I'd never have to Google Oslo. 

That's pretty much of a major relief in the Alzheimer's fear sphere.

So.  To keep me properly befriended and on my mental toes, I vow not to let my research and blogging slip as much in the future.  Watching non-stop movies in the company of family, and sharing drinks with corporeal friends are important, but the ol' brain needs its daily recommended dose of gritty stimulation, too.

(It probably didn't hurt the mental mush, either, that Congress was in recess and I could shove them into a drawer in my head and ignore them for a few weeks.  Congress is definitely a stimulus, both to lucidity and to the blood pressure.)

Again, so.  Here's to another year rattling around the blogosphere, and to my friends and families, both physical and virtual!!!  Good health, good times, and bon mots!!!!!

Love, MoogieP.

They're Ba-a-a-ck!

A movie company is filming in our neighborhood.  You might find that exciting, but it happens around here quite a bit and I just can't get too excited this time around.

There are trailers and caterers and buses and cherrypickers everywhere messing with traffic.  And the folks who work at Sophie Wright school parking spots have been displaced again.  Guess where they're parking?  Yep.  On our sidestreet, too close to the intersection.  And that leads to -- say it with me, now:

BLEEPIN' BEEPIN' BUS BACKING-UPPING.

I was in the yard with the dogs yesterday when the football players were heading back to school from practice and caught this moment on video to share with you --

Pleasant, huh?

No, no.  Don't thank me!  I'm an inclusive kind of gal -- don't want anyone to feel left out.

OSHA's Now Officially on Moogie's Hit List

The bleepin' beepin' buses have returned.  And, this time they have an all-new and even more annoying routine.

Don't get me wrong -- I'm a big fan of child safety.  Even big-child safety.  I put my girls on school buses for years, so I appreciate the need for school-bus safety procedures and the importance of not running over school children inadvertently.  (I'll admit that I watched apprehensively at times as the buses sped off or screeched to a halt, but onto those buses they went anyway!).  But this bus situation is getting to be just a little ridiculous.

On their morning run (which seems to begin at 0-dark-thirty minus 1), the buses vroom down the side street right past our bedroom windows, squeal to a stop at the stop sign, roar across the busy thoroughfare, and drop off the students safely past the schoolyard fence opening previously reserved for vehicles one block over.  There's really no big problem there, except for the squealing and vrooming parts.

Then, they circle the block and come roaring back down our sidestreet heading back toward the schoolyard where they park until field trips or the afternoon runs.  They park in the schoolyard.  Facing out, ready to go.

And, all this maneuvering requires lots and lots of beeping in reverse, courtesy of OSHA.

First, they usually have to reverse to make the turn onto the sidestreet because faculty and staff who previously parked in the schoolyard have been displaced and now battle each other over open spots on the sidestreets and wind up parking, illegally, too close to the intersections, causing the buses to have to do three- or four-point turns to get properly aimed to vroom down the street without wiping out a number of faculty or staff vehicles.  Beep!  Beep!  Beep!  Beep!  Vroom!  Squeal.  Vroom.

Then, once they have vroomed across the busy thoroughfare again, they have to do more three- or four- point reverses to back into the schoolyard.  This move produces endless interludes of beep-fests.

Sometimes one or two buses have to jimmy around to make room for another bus, so they just leave the freakin' machines in reverse -- beeping all the while -- until they know for sure whether they'll have to re-position.  BEEP!  BEEP!  BEEPITY, BLEEPIN' BEEP!!!   Put it in neutral, for cryin' out loud!!!

This goes on for several hours in the morning because Sophie Wright is a charter "academy" that, as of this year, houses students in 5th through 12th grades. 

They arrive in shifts.  All morning.

Have I ever mentioned that Moogie is not a morning person?

The whole shebang starts over for the afternoon runs, minus one round of beeping because the students are already at the school.  But, there is this new factor -- Sophie Wright now has high school football!  And basketball!  And girls' volleyball!  And they all practice and have games (elsewhere) fairly late!

So, several nights a week we are treated to the enter-the-schoolyard-for-overnight-parking maneuvers at 8:00 or 9:00, sometimes 10:00 or later!

Have I ever mentioned that Pepper is not a night owl?

I'm trying.  I'm really trying to be a good neighbor, but sheesh!  I could use a good dose of patience -- and I want it right now!!!

A Progressive's View of National Security

This has to be the ultimate in progressive suck-uppiness.

Michelle O has proclaimed that Lunch Ladies are now purveyors of national security!

While preparing and serving food to students is a valuable and honest job, I hardly think Lunch Ladies qualify as our first line of defense against America's enemies.

Egad.

Socialism 101

I received this email today, and the simplicity of its application just screamed to be shared. And, I couldn't resist adding a photo of "Old Main" on the campus of my old Alma Mater, the University of Arkansas:

As the late Adrian Rogers said, "you cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had once failed an entire class.

That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan". All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.

As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little. The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

Could not be any simpler than that. (Please pass this on)

And, remember, there is a mid-term election in 2010!