Read to your kids

For various reasons, I have been slacking lately, but today, thanks to the Carnival of Education at The Education Wonks, I ran across a most excellent post on the role of parents in their children's literacy. No groundbreaking new research; nothing like that. The writer, Brett, expresses so clearly what I and many others have always felt. Children, from a very young age, must be surrounded by books, and read to from those books. Income is no barrier; public libraries abound. Parents who do not do this are not doing their job, and are risking their child's future.

The Allure of Buttons

I keep a small box of buttons on our bookcase. The box is one of those decorative types, with a picture of an apple on it, that a student gave me once upon a time. It is where I stash all of those extra buttons that clothing manufacturers so kindly give you. I'm not sure why I bother to keep them, because I never actually sew a button on if I can help it. Perhaps it's the nice rattly sound the box makes when you shake it. This morning S. looks up, and requests the box. I, being no fool, tell her no, that it's not for little girls. She, thinking to help her cause, explains what she is going to do with the buttons: eat them!

Stupid Fashion Buyers

What is up with the clothing purchasers for retail stores? Don't they know that lots of children grow unexpectedly in the middle or end of the winter? My little one has grown recently. It is still cold outside. Actually it is kind of cold in the house too, due to my unwillingness to pay $300 a month for natural gas. So I want to buy her a few long-sleeved shirts to tide her over til warm weather comes. No can do. All of the lousy stores in my area have switched to summer fashions. I even went to Penney's Saturday hoping for some winter leftovers on the clearance rack. Absolutely nothing. Apparently other parents already beat me to it. So she only has like two shirts that fit her, which makes the laundry situation difficult to say the least.

My other pet peeve has to do with toddler pajamas. She has also outgrown those. Of course, there are no more winter pjs left either, but I think I can keep jamming her in her current ones for a while, as long as she sucks in her tummy when I zip her up (once I zipped a smidge of belly skin - she screamed - I felt terrible). But I did want to get her some pjs that are made of a normal material (not the ever-popular fleece) for when the weather warms a little. The stores are full of spring/summer pjs. Tons of choice, and they all looks so fetching. Problem is that they all have short sleeves. Come on, people! You cannot get a 17 month old to keep her arms covered at night. Plus in the summer, we use the A/C, and I suspect many other Americans do. So the little tikes need long sleeve pajamas made out of a thin material. So I think to myself: I could just put her in a long-sleeved shirt for bed. No one will care if it's a shirt and not really pajamas. Oh, wait! She doesn't have enough long-sleeved shirts that fit! Arrgghh.

Word to the wise: Buy toddlers nightgowns at your own risk. They look so deliciously adorable, but they make it awfully easy for the little urchin to get her diaper off. You know what happens next.

Gardening

Last week we had one of those false spring episodes when the weather suddenly warms, you pull out your short sleeves and sandals, and you get the garden going. Now, of course, we're back in the midst of blustery cold weather, but the garden is still planted with the early spring crops, and some have sprouted. So far I can see carrots, lettuce (a ten-variety mix!), spinach, and onions. We also put in some peas, and for the first time, leeks. I'm not sure how well they will do - apparently they take about 5 months to grow. For anyone not familiar with them, go buy a few at the store, and make some potato/leek soup (poireaux et pommes de terre). It's a French favorite, and delicious.

No fuss recipe:
Wash leeks very carefully. You have to partially slit them open to get out the dirt.
Chop leeks. Chop potatoes.
Put in pot and cover with water.
Simmer until potatoes are as soft as you like.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Add a little cream or milk to taste.

Enjoy!

They are not terribly cheap at the store, and I like to use them often, and in other recipes, so I'm hoping to have a good crop. They can be pulled whenever you need them, so I shouldn't be faced with 47 leeks all at once.

Where have all the flags gone?

Remember after 9/11 when nearly everyone had those magnetic U. S. flags on their cars? Gradually, they disappeared. I was reminded of that brief period of fervent patriotism today when I saw an elderly lady driving by with one afixed to her vehicle. Other than rare exceptions like that, the rest have gone. I am curious as to what went through each individual's mind as he took the flag off of his car. Did some people make a conscious decision that they did not feel patriotic enough to display the flag? I realize that the national mood has changed greatly for some since those post 9/11 days when patriotism was cool, but I know many who are still proud to be American. Or did we just feel that the period of national mourning had gone on long enough? Or did some people simply remove them because they did not want to be the only person on the block with one left on? I ask, because, I am embarrassed to say, that I had never bought one (extremely tight budget at the time), and so never made the decision to remove one or keep one on my car.

First Amendment Ignorance

I've obviously taken a break from blogging lately, but these disturbing survey results have dragged me back to the keyboard. Only one person out of a thousand surveyed could identify all of the rights that are included in the first amendment. How sad that we are such an ignorant group of people!

Some will be quick to blame schools and teachers. If teachers are indeed to blame, I would be one of the guilty party, for I majored in history, and taught government/civics to eighth graders one year. I remember spending a lot of time on the Constitution and the all of the Amendments. Rather than just make the kids memorize the list, I worked to teach them what they all meant. If you had given my students the survey within one week of that unit, I am confident that many of them would have answered correctly, even though I had extremely unmotivated and disruptive students. Now, several years later, I honestly wonder how many of them have retained that knowledge. I can picture a few faces of kids that probably have, but the rest probably haven't. Why not? As I already stated they were extremely unmotivated and disruptive. Is that my fault? Many people would say yes. When I was in college, full of idealism, I would also have blamed myself. Now, I answer firmly, no. I know that I tried my best to teach effectively, and my "best" was indeed good.

Until we, as a nation, change our culture and values to truly appreciate learning and education, we will continue to see these sort of dismal survey results.

Tolerance Toward Intolerance

In this jihad over humor, tolerance is disdained by people who demand it of others. The authoritarian governments that claim to speak on behalf of Europe's supposedly oppressed Muslim minorities practice systematic repression against their own religious minorities. They have radicalized what was at first a difficult question. Now they are asking not for respect but for submission. They want non-Muslims in Europe to live by Muslim rules.

Marvelously put by Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff of the German paper Die Zeit. Read the rest here.

One other Muslim rule that leaps to mind is the wearing of the headscarf by women. It will be a cold day down below before I and many other women do submit to that, but I wonder how long it will take before it enters the realm of serious discussion. We're already heard about a few cases of Western women (remember the riots in Australia, where the press somehow made the Australians out to be the intolerant ones?)being assaulted/raped by Muslims, with their lack of covering given as the excuse. From the point of view of the fanatics: they see a lot more women with hair showing in the streets of Europe than they do cartoons of Muhammed. If they are rioting over cartoons that are easily avoided, what's it going to be like when they decide to riot over women's hair? Currently that battle is not winnable, so they aren't going to start it. Yet.

Danish Iman

Want to learn more about how and when the cartoon outrages began? There's an informative article on the Danish iman behind it all at the National Review Online. If you were not aware that the cartoons were first published months ago, this is a must-read.

Danish cartoons

I’ve been thinking about the Danish cartoons of Muhammad, and trying to decide where I stand on the issue. On the one hand, I feel like the outraged Muslims are being very unreasonable about what they perceived as a blasphemous attack. On the other hand, as a religious person myself, I am sensitive to the need to be respectful to others’ beliefs. How would I feel if Christ were held up as an object of ridicule and portrayed in a negative light? Oh wait, that happens all the time, even in my own country which has a majority of Christians. So what do I do if I am offended by something? A recent example would be the NBC show The Book of Daniel. Unlike some, I don’t worry too much about the pastor’s crazy family. However, I do find the portrayal of Jesus as a hip, cool, sort of guy next door irreverent and offensive. My solution is to not watch the show. I am not going to take any NBC employees hostage, or kill anyone. Does this just mean that Christianity, unlike Islam, does not produce strong fervor and zeal in its adherents? Hardly so. History is replete with contrary examples (not all of them good). I have a fair amount of fervor and zeal for my beliefs, but it does not extend to violence, or insisting that others act precisely as I do.

So back to the cartoon brouhaha. They were published in a nation where Islam is a minority. Sometimes it’s kind of stinky to be the minority (and yes, I have been a minority). If you don’t like being the minority, work to change things peaceably, or move to where you are no longer the minority. I find it very unreasonable that Muslims in nations other than Denmark are trying to control what happens there. That is clearly a lack of respect for national sovereignty. I also suspect that much of this is just an excuse to incite violence and anger against the West. Take note those of you who seek to apologize for the extremists: they hate us. When I was in Belgium and France in the early 1990s, I was astounded at the hatred that North African immigrants had for Americans. Just walking down the street, it was not uncommon for “youths” to shout vulgarities and other venomous remarks at myself, and any other Americans I might happen to be with. I quickly learned to avoid all Arab and North African men. This hatred is not just a phenomena created by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s been around for a long time, and will not be ended by us changing our mid-East policies.

Update: Oops. My husband informed me that The Book of Daniel has been off the air for several weeks now. My boycott was more influential than I had thought!

No more State of the Union for me

I used to feel guilty if I didn’t listen to the State of the Union address, as if I were failing to be informed about politics and our nation.  No longer do I feel that way.  The annual speech is merely unbearable theatrics – worse than even pure politics, although that’s bad enough.  The applause, the camera shots of approving, disapproving, and famous faces, and the after-show analysis all disgust me.  How many times will TV audiences get to see Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama?  Plenty, I bet.  Worst of all is the actual speech.  I can hardly bear the tone, cadence, and content of most politicians’ speeches, and the State of the Union is no exception.  It will be all positive spin, and new programs and “initiatives” that will rarely be implemented.  I’m fine with Bush as a president, but even so, I don’t enjoy hearing that kind of talk.  Some people must, but why do the speechwriters feel that they have to cater to the lowest common denominator in America?  The day that a president speaks honestly, clearly, in a normal tone of voice, and without pausing for applause, is the day that I will enjoy listening to the address.