Relentlessly Positive

I have a bit of an experiment going on in my Facebook world (and publicly, with other parents).  I'm *trying* to be more positive -- "relentlessly so" -- for a whole month.  I've told people I'll explain the experiment (and the results) in four weeks.

But I've already flubbed up my data with my status line this morning, where I complain that I've had to stand in line at my daughter's high school in order to get her into the *right* math class.  Since I did not say that my blog was included in my "relentlessly positive" experiment, I'm complaining here.

She took Algebra last year, in eighth grade, and passed with an A-.

Does it make sense to make her re-take a class that she did so well in?

If you answer "NO" you then understand logic.

If you answer "Well, it depends" then you must design the system these kids suffer through.

When I picked up her freshman schedule yesterday and saw the error in her math assignment, I immediately did two things.  I called her middle school and left a message that there was an error and that I'd like to know if somehow the middle school had given the high school the wrong information.  I then wrote an email to last year's math teacher and this year's high school guidance counselor and asked if they would please fix the situation.

I didn't hear back from the school, the math teacher or the guidance counselor.

Off I went this morning to change my kid's schedule, although the note on the bottom of the schedule itself, all in caps, made me worry:

WE WILL ONLY BE MAKING ELECTIVE CLASS CHANGES/ADDITIONS.  THERE WILL NOT BE ANY LANGUAGE ARTS, SOCIAL STUDIES, MATH, SCIENCE OR WORLD LANGUAGE CHANGES UNLESS YOU ARE DROPING THE CLASS IF DROPING A CORE CLASS PLEASE BRING NOTE FROM PARENT APPROVING THE DROP.  (All misspellings of "dropping" in original.)

I waited in a LONG line for 40 minutes, during which time I chatted with other students about their scheduling problems:  NO math class, or only a half-term of Geometry instead of two, or missing a foreign language, or wrong literature class, or TWO free periods in the middle of the day, or --- my favorite -- only three classes, one of which was "basketball".

I do not remember this degree of system failure when I was in high school.  Perhaps it was because my high school had fewer specialized programs -- everybody just went to SCHOOL, basically 8-3, with the smarter kids taking slightly harder versions of the classes everyone else was taking.  In this school, there are three programs:  "regular" "honors" and IHS (my daughter's program).  Three programs plus over enrollment equals crowded classrooms and classes being "not available," even to students who are eligible to take them.

This all feels like college.

It shouldn't.  This is high school.  She's 14, for God's sake.

While standing in line, I *did* manage to get last year's math teacher on the phone.  She informed me that my daughter had not taken two of the 16 required concept tests last year, and that that was why, despite her excellent grade (and great scores on other standardized state tests) that she was not allowed to go on to Geometry.

WHAT?!

Why didn't I hear about this *last May at the latest*?

Why, last year, did my daughter go into school on more than one occasion to make up tests?  Wasn't it, in fact, *those very tests* that she was making up?

Wasn't my daughter told last year that she had completed everything she needed to complete and would go on to take geometry?  (I swear I saw that on some form that came home, but of course now I cannot find it.)

"I've graded everything I have and I don't have those tests from her."

This is the same teacher who also told my daughter that she had not turned in assignments (she had) and that she had to re-do them (she did), only to be told a few days later that "I'm so sorry, but I did find your original assignments".

When I challenged this teacher that perhaps she has misplaced my daughter's tests, she only repeated the "I've graded everything" excuse and then said that my daughter (who, like teens everywhere, hasn't done math all summer) would retake the tests in order to qualify to go on to take Geometry.

HELL. NO.

I got in to see the scheduler, who told me that although it "made sense" that a kid who passed Algebra with an A- should be allowed to take Geometry, he (the scheduler) couldn't change a core class without permission from the Principal or the Counselor.

Off I went to the Principal's office, only to be told that both he and the Counselor were in a meeting.  But I could wait for 40 minutes and then "corner one or the other" to ask to get the permission to put my kid in the class she belongs in.

I cornered said overworked guidance counselor, only to be told the state won't let the high school give a kid credit  for a course taken in middle school *regardless of the grade in said course* unless they have passed all 16 concept tests.  He said we're "on his radar" but he has "500 of you" to deal with today.

I sympathize.

But I still want my kid not to have to retake a course she got an "A" in.

Welcome to the world of overtesting kids and lack of logic.  The way the system works, if a kid passed all 16 Algebra concept tests (with a 70) and got a "C" in Algebra, he or she could take Geometry.  But if a kid passed 14 of 16 tests (in reality, I strongly suspect 16 of 16), AND gets an "A", she must retake Algebra.



I've now written to the Principal, the Guidance Counselor, this year's math teacher, last year's math teacher, and last year's Vice Principal.  They're all doing research.  But there is no promise that my daughter can take Geometry.

My poor kid is so mad (about lost assignments and lost tests and the potential requirement to re-take tests that she took months ago, just to get into a class that, as I recall, has little to do with Algebra in the first place) that she's practically spitting nails.

Welcome to high school.

Should I mention that Newsweek declared this high school the second best public high school in all of Oregon?

I would hate to see the worst.

But I'll end on a positive note:  Algebra is her first class of the day, so at least tomorrow when she starts high school (with her schedule still "wrong"), she'll get that class out of the way first.

An "Oops!" at CBS News

This morning, I logged onto cbsnews.com, as I nearly always do, to see what was up.  Pictures of a bomb blast in Nigeria caught my eye.  The first picture was of three men carrying an injured woman away from the building.  I looked closer.

Was I seeing what I thought I was?

Had CBS *really* posted a picture of a woman, sans underwear, such that one could see her genitals?

Yep.

The picture has since been edited -- it is an up-close shot now of her face and the men around her, and is now fourth in the gallery, rather than first --  but I cannot help but wonder if the original picture would have *ever* been posted by a major news network had the woman been white.

Somebody would have said, 'Gosh, I don't think we can post that picture'.

A friend in the business told me that that kind of picture is NEVER posted, regardless of race, that it was an "oops" and that surely some editor would see it and take it down.  (Which appears to be pretty much what happened.)

But, really -- race and gender seem to be at play here.  When is the last time you saw a picture of a white woman's naked crotch posted by a major news network?  Or a picture of a penis (of any race)?  Seriously.  CBS isn't TMZ.

I get that mistakes happen and that I probably cannot possibly understand how stressful it is to get the news out and be first.

But honestly, had I been in that newsroom, I would have said something.

I could post the cached version of the picture, but I won't, for the same reason it shouldn't have been posted in the first place.

Dignity.

Sticks Can Fix A Car

The relatives were visiting last week from Boston.  So, we decided to take them over to dusty Central Oregon, since the desert there is scenic with reliably summer-like weather (unlike the rest of Oregon) and *totally* different from their usual city-and-suburb environs.



They wanted to go on a hike.  Lots of options -- mountains, streams, rivers, desert itself, lava flows, even a big Obsidian flow.  Thinking that it would be much too boring to take them on a hike (Benham Falls) we actually were familiar with (and knew how to get to), we consulted a book and found a few options near Sisters, OR which claimed that they were 1) scenic, 2) easy and 3) relatively easy to get to.

(The hike we didn't go on -- picture of part of Benham Falls, taken summer 2010.)

We piled into our two cars -- six people in the minivan; three in the Corolla.

We drove and drove and drove.  Kids started to complain.  Husband who brilliantly planned this adventure decided to make a last-minute change and seek a hike that was (according to the book he was still consulting) even easier and closer.  We did a U-turn to find said location.

We ended up on a gravel road.

A LONG gravel road.  Driving the considerably smaller car (and neither of our cars designed for off-roading), I mentioned to my husband that perhaps it would be wiser to abandon this brilliant plan.  I had just taken both cars in to be fixed and didn't relish the idea of having repairs to do again.

Husband said I was overreacting.

It'll be fine.

Don't worry.

Sure.

Gravel road becomes a nearly impassable ROCK road.  We are now driving about five miles per hour.  Suddenly I hear a huge CLONK and then a disheartening BRRRRR.  I stop the car and look at the kids in the back seat.

My son has burst into tears and is screaming frantically "I WANT TO GO HOME!"  My niece's eyes are like saucers.  Feeling absolutely NOT confident, I say to them, "It's OK!  Let's get out and see what's wrong."

(I may or may not have said a few more colorful phrases as well; I may have even screamed at the husband.)

The entire exhaust system was disconnected from the engine and hanging down, nearly touching the so-called "road".  Though the car would drive, it was even more perilous than before to drive it, as the clearance under the car was now even smaller than previously.

Husband valiantly scoots himself under the car to examine the damage.

Like a tenured, chaired professor of political science has so much knowledge about the car in the first place.

"What do we have to fix it?"

NOTHING.  Not even a piece of rope (not that it would have been safe to tie rope to the underside of the car anyway).

"Do the cell phones work?"

NEGATIVE.  Lost cell phone connection about 10 miles back.

Husband says "We're nearly there; let's just park and go on the hike and deal with the cars later."

Well, since it is promised  to be such a "spectacular" hike, complete with a marvelous waterfall, that does sound like a wise idea.

Off we go.  Trudging uphill for a LONG time, seeing a bit of a racing stream and some admittedly pretty views of the mountains.

(Mountain lilly.)

But WHERE IS THE WATERFALL?

We never found it.

(The tired and exasperated children.)

"I shouldn't criticize the hiking book," my sister-in-law quipped.  "It's a GREAT book!  It's a work of PURE FICTION!"

The kids were tired and cranky and it was obvious that the idea of this hike taking only half a day was going to take the whole day.

We had to find a way to drive the car, at least until we could park it and use our cell phones to call a tow truck.

My brother-in-law found two sticks of Ponderosa pine, rolled himself under the car and reattached the exhaust system.

(The brother in law and the sister in law.)

Oh, that'll work.

It did.  We drove as slowly as before, stopping about every half mile to check on the car.  We drove it 25 miles (to Bend), until we found a garage and some extremely friendly, generous souls who fixed it for free.

(The husband who planned the trip.)

In case you ever need emergency car repair in Central Oregon, The "Good Guys" in Bend should be renamed the "Great Guys".

(Not at all from the hike, but I decided to share this all with you -- from earlier this summer -- me and the kids.)