Just another manic Monday...

Wish it was Sunday. What ever happened to The Bangles? Hmmmm...another topic I need to research.

Two days until Tony starts school. Here is a link to his school...it is an amazing place. http://www.stjweb.org/. We have met his teacher, Mrs. Fink, who reminds me of my own mom and seems to have a great way with little ones. Tonight we are going for Back to School Night for parents only. Tony's Papa is in town so Tony will be spoiled, I am sure.

We learned an interesting thing about St. James last week. Their teachers are on one year contracts. They have to be invited back each year to continue to work there and there is no tenure. That is also true for administration personnel.

I posit this is one reason why schools, like St. James, have students who are thriving in comparison to the public school system. Teachers unions and government employee unions seem to have lost the focus that their responsibility is to educate. Instead, it seems like their focus is on pay (which is important, do not get me wrong...but why not link performance to pay? what is wrong with that?) or on complaints over expectations that our children should be able to pass reading and math skills test at the end of each school year.

My 7th grade English teacher sat at her desk, told us to read a chapter in our English book, answer the questions at the end, and then proceeded to sip from her Pepto bottle. While I am sure she could have had a really sensitive stomach issue that required that much Pepto, I imagine it is much more plausible that she was sipping a little something extra. She had tenure though, at least in terms of her union seniority and government employment, and therefore could not be fired. Honestly, I garnered nothing from that class...but I did always have my homework done before leaving school so I could concentrate on more important things, like Alan Jackson and MTV.

Even though my son is only beginning his formal education in two days (my baby is growing up!) I am already looking at colleges. I want to educate myself on what is out there so that I can advise him from a position of knowledge and understanding. I have come across this school which I find intriguing and full of possibilities (although it is in Michigan...albeit, southern Michigan.) http://www.hillsdale.edu/

Peace and long life.