For Those Who Don't Get It

I read in the paper that Germany has the fourth-largest economy, an educated and skilled work force and an export-oriented industrial base that's the envy of all.  Let me just speak to the educated and skilled work force.  One reason this is a reality is because by the 4th grade students in Germany began to be tracked into schools that suit their needs.  If German students are not ready for a certain level of learning they do not have to sit in a classroom becoming frustrated because what is being taught is over their heads.  This is not to say that they are receiving an inferior education, they are not, they are learning what they need to learn.  Now it is possible that the 4th grade is a little too early to decide who can truly do what, but at some point, students who have not "gotten it"  need to be allowed to take the classes that they need so they can learn what they need to learn to enable them to learn more.  Our system of a one-size fits all education is just not reality.  On the one hand we are told to diversify instruction and then we are handed one curriculum that ALL students must master.  How can we possibly turn out a skilled work force when our state mandated curriculum sees all students as ending up behind a corporate desk wearing a business suit?  It is not possible to teach students to love learning when what they are being asked to learn is not appropriate for them, not needed for their future dreams and goals, and not relevant to their reality.  If we truly want to get all students ready for college, then let's give them what they need to be able to get what we think they should have, down the road a bit.  Does that make sense?  Because I get all riled up about this. 

Moving on...

I mentioned the absurdity of the Barefoot Bandit having supporters in my last blog, well come to find out he has over 80,000 "fans" on Facebook who have eulogized his exploits and demanded his release, and they hail him as "a real-life 21st century outlaw!"  Don't they get it?  He is a criminal, a bad guy, not someone who deserves to be idolized! 

And finally...

Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and Red Riding Hood will all soon be updated.  There will be a twisted version of Sleeping Beauty, the true version of Snow White will be done with the thieving dwarves and fearsome dragon, a gothic Little Red will be pitted against a werewolf in a medieval town (this is all found in Entertainment Magazine),  Now I know that fairy tales were actually meant to be scary, but come on, will little children be able to see these updated versions?  I think not and that's too bad because there will be parents who will take them because they will think they are appropriate, they are fairy tales after all.  No sweet dreams for them.  The End.
Rosemary

So much to not get.

As a postscript to my Right to Bear Arms blog, the NRA has "warned" our United States Senate that if they vote for Supreme Court nominee, Elena Kagan, it will be remembered at the ballot box.  The NRA is also able to attach gun friendly legislation to bills being considered for passage in order to get enough votes in the senate or house to get the bill passed.  I don't know about anyone else, but I don't get it, and I find it damn scary.  I mean who is running this country? 

Next, the Barefoot Bandit has followers, he has supporters!  He is a criminal, has been since he was twelve, why does anyone want to make him a hero?  If there is a movie made about him I will puke. 

Kwame Kilpatrick has no money, he is broke, therefore my tax dollars will go to pay his court appointed attorney.  I don't get it because I don't believe for a minute that Kwame is broke.  His court appointed attorney, by the way, is the lawyer he had defending him in the text message scandal and has volunteered to be Kwame's court appointed attorney.  He has stated that Kwame is his friend and has been good to him.  I don't know, I don't get it, do you? 

Detroit.MomsLikeMe.com  posed this question:  How do you discipline kids in public.  Here is a posted response that some mom thinks is good discipline:  "For my son it's usually me grabbing his face so he is forced to have eye contact with me and I calmly explain through clinched teeth that if he doesn't behave there will be ... a whole lot of sitting in his room with nothing but his thoughts when we get home."  Shortly after reading this in the paper I picked up my daughter-in-law's Parenting Magazine and found out that 27% of children today are diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder therefore pediatricians are being trained to ask parents how they are coping!  If this mom thinks her form of discipline is appropriate no wonder more and more youngsters have emotional problems.  I mean, where is the love in grabbing your child's face and talking through clenched teeth?  Where there is no love, there is going to be emotional problems.

Finally, and this is the best of the I don't get its!  A school board in Helena Montana heard from angry parents who think a proposed sex education program may be going a bit to far too soon.  What has the parents so upset?  Well, the program would begin teaching 1st graders about same-gender relationships, (I'm sorry in 1st grade girls think boys are yucky anyway and little boys don't especially like little girls, so I am sure they are all for same gender relationships at this stage!).  Fifth graders would learn that sexual intercourse includes vaginal, oral, or anal penetration.  Hopefully, this lesson will happen before lunch or there will be a lot of vomit to clean up, I mean who thinks ten and eleven year olds are ready for this?  And if they are, this is far scarier than the NRA!  High school students would learn about erotic art, that will keep them coming to school, and kindergardeners would be taught the real name for their body parts - penis, vagina, breast, nipples, testicles, scrotum, and uterus.  Can you see that lesson?  Who would like to volunteer to come to the front of the room and show the class where your penis is?  No Suzy, you don't have a penis but you can show us where your vagina is, and you'll get extra credit if you can explain where your little uterus is hiding!  One trustee stated that perhaps certain components are being taught too young, (do ya think?), and is quoted as saying "I don't know that anything needs to be taken out - some of it might be age inappropriate.  We are going to have to consider how we teach it and when we teach it."  REALLY?  Oh the world we live in.  Have a great night.
Rosemary

The right to keep and bear arms

If I knew that only smart people, mature people, and people with a load of common sense would be the people owning hand guns, I would say, hey why not?  But stupid people own hand guns.  Sorry but it's true.  Immature people own hand guns, and people without a lick of common sense are walking around toting guns.  We are back in the Wild Wild West where if someone doesn't like the way you look, or has a petty arguement with you, BAM, you're dead!  Okay so the shooter gets caught goes to trial is found guilty goes to jail and guess what?  YOU'RE STILL DEAD!  Oh, and I just love, "guns don't kill people, people do."  That's right, people with guns kill people, but plenty of people think just about anyone has the right to own one.  I don't get it and I don't like it.  In today's paper I read that some idiot with a loaded gun was walking aroung the Westland fair, got into an argument with two other people and fired off some shots.  My grandbabies were there!  This idiot's stray bullets intended to KILL someone who didn't agree with the gun bearing moron very possibly could have found my family!  How dare anyone think that it is okay that just about anyone should have the "right" to own and to walk around with a loaded gun!  This is pure lunacy.  National Rifle Association, sit down and shut up, you are wrong, wrong, wrong, and the smart people, the mature people, the people with a load of common sense need to stand up and tell you that.  You want a rifle so you can go hunting?  Go get one, keep it unloaded and locked up until you can shoot up your prey.  You like just shooting at the range with your trusty old revolver?  Fine, go get one, keep it unloaded and locked up until you are at the shooting range, and then have at it.  Think that about does it, can't think of any other reason to own any kind of a gun.  What about protecting yourself, your home and your family?  You would keep it locked up and unloaded until you had to use it?  What kind of sense does that make?  Here's the real deal; guns in the hands of stupid people, kill innocent people.  This is not a political thing, at least it shouldn't be, it is a human thing.  I don't want myself or anyone I love, or anyone at all, to be killed because someone had to prove that they had the right to own a gun, walk around with it, and use it.  It has happened too often lately and it really has to stop.  We, as a collective group of people, do not have the right to own and to use guns on each other.  I can't believe anyone thinks we do.  You are free to let me know if you disagree, however, you will never change my mind.
Rosemary

Just a little history of woman FYI

In many places woman were once property, owned by fathers and then husbands.   That is why at marriage they were "given away."  Like the title to a car or the deed to a house, ownership was being transferred. 

A Woman was once pretty much their husband's domestic servant and sexual toy, she didn't have much say in what she could do by day or by night, because she really did not have an identity of her own.  Women who complained to their own mothers were told in no uncertain terms to return to the beast, they had made their bed so go lie in it.

Now of course there were many wonderful unions full of love and respect way back when, but if a woman was stuck in a brutal relationship, there was nothing that she could do, she had been "given away" and could not go back home.  She couldn't get a job, because she didn't have an education, girls didn't go to school once upon a time.

So what's my point in all this?  Just to say that to study the history of women should be fascinating and for young woman, eye opening.  Everything we can do today we couldn't always do.  The choices that we can make today were not options for our great-grandmothers, grandmothers, or even our mothers.

Being able to tell my daughter and grand daughter that they can do anything is not something women coming of age in the 1900's 1920's, 1950's  even the 1970's would hear from their mothers.  The expectation was that a woman would get married and stay at home taking care of house and family.  Today this is a viable option, today it is a choice.

If we don't study history we don't know, and to not know is a very scary thing.  We are where we are because of what came before us.  We can't escape our history, we should embrace our history, and we should learn from our history.  They say that history repeats itself, and I believe it does if you deny it.  I don't want to go back.  I don't want to be someone's property, I don't want to be considered insignificant, I don't want to not be able to choose, and I don't want to tell my daughter or grand daughter that they are limited because they are female.

Rosemary

A surprise visit

It was late and we were all just relaxing at home after a long day in the sun when WHAM!  I dropped my book, looked towards the door and uttered these words, I remember them exactly, "Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my house?"  Standing just inside my front door was a large woman covered in blood.  My husband startled awake, looked at the intruder, jumped over the couch, opened the front door and peered out.  I went over to the door and yelled, "What are you doing?  Whoever did this to her may still be out there!"  I pulled the door shut.  By this time I had taken a good look at the woman with the blood smeared all over her face and noticed her small hands, she was just a young woman and I thought she had encountered abuse.  My daughter was huddled in the corner screaming into the phone that there was a bloody lady in our house and that her mom, me, was now beginning to clean her up.  She, my daughter, suddenly screamed through her tears, "Mom, get away from her she may have a knife.  They know who she is and she cuts herself."  I continued to wipe the blood from her hands and face and could see that she had a small cut on her forehead.  It was obvious that she had somehow cut her head and then proceeded to rub the blood all over  her face.  It was also obvious as she kept stammering, "I want to go to pic, I want to go to pic." that she was cognitively impaired.  I asked her her name and she told me it was Jessica, I figured she was about twenty years old, but I had no idea where she had come from or what 'pic' was.  The officers who arrived on the scene cleared things up.  Jessica was from a group home down the street.  I did not know that there was a group home down the street.  This was not the first time that Jessica had gone visiting come to find out, so the officers were well aware of her.  I asked them what 'pic' was and was told it stood for 'psychiatric intensive care' that's where Jessica wanted to go.  "Why?" I asked. They get drugs there I was told.  I felt sorry for her.  The officers put her in the squad car and drove her just down the street to the group home where she resided.  We were assured that that was the last we would see of Jessica.  My husband and I went back inside where my youngest son was huddled in the corner of the couch, my daughter was still sobbing and needed to be held, and my oldest son was sitting on the steps instructing me to please wash my hands and throw away the rag I had used to wash off Jessica.  We had all just settled down again when we heard BAM, BAM, BAM, and we jumped out of our skin!  I ran to the door, flung it open, and there on the porch was a very naked Jessica!  I grabbed her arm and brought her inside.  My daughter was once again in the corner of the room sobbing into the phone, and this very large naked young woman was standing in my living room every bit as confused and numb as we were.  The police arrived in no time at all, I don't think they had made it back to the precinct before they were summoned to return to our house.  I hadn't had time to respond to Jessica's nakedness and when the officers walked into the room they asked if I might have a sheet to put around her.  The request jolted me from my state of disbelief, and I ran upstairs, retrieved a sheet and wrapped Jessica up in it.  The officers took her away again.  We were told that when they had taken her back the first time she was probably stripped and put in her room where the caretakers figured she would stay since she had no clothes on; but that was not going to keep Jessica from going where she wanted to go!  I guess she came back to us because we were home and we were nice to her the first time, I don't know.  This night occurred over ten years ago, the group home is still there but to my knowledge Jessica is not.  There is also a group home right next door to us.  Should there be group homes in suburbia?  This question is being posed by residents in Northville Township who are worried by recent incidents involving persons living in nearby group homes.  I don't have an answer.  What if my children had been home without us that night?  The three of them were old enough to have been home together with us just around the block where we had been that day.  What would have happened without us there?  Could Jessica have gotten violent with my children?  Would she have been hurt by any of my children protecting themselves and each other?  How had she gotten out, where were the  people who were supposed to be taking care of her the first time and the second time?  What if I had a developmentally disabled child who had grown to adulthood and needed and wanted some independence?  I would want a place where my child could blossom and feel free, and I would know what was happening.  That is what strikes me about the group homes in my neighborhood, no one comes to visit.  Where are the families of these adults who need some independence but still need care?  If the residents of these group homes are able, but developmentally disabled, why do they never get outside?  I would not have a problem knowing who they are and interacting with them.  I have a problem not knowing who they are and not being able to interact with them and those who love them.  My question about group homes is not should they be in existence, not who should the clients be, but what is the responsibility of the family?  Group homes in neighborhoods where  people are raising families should not be for the forgotten and unloved.  I remember Jessica, I still feel for Jessica, and I know that Jessica did not grow or blossom in the group home just down the street.  What do you think?
Rosemary