It's NOT the Teachers

I heard on the radio that someone is pushing for a bar exam for educators. My first thought was, "Where does that guy live that he can turn away so many willing people for that job?" Then I thought, "Start paying teachers like lawyers and you'll have a much different type of person trying for the job."

The problem is that we already have really good teachers who are hamstrung by one thing after another.  A really good teacher can respond to what is happening in the classroom and adapt to it, but teachers, for the most part, lack this latitude. Our system has gotten so concerned with WHAT children are being taught that any kind of HOW is lost. Our system has come to rely more and more on individual, isolated bits of data leaving our learners without any sort of framework to set these pinpricks of information into.

Think about what you remember about the Civil War, for example, and which pieces of it stick with you in your daily life. Is it particular dates? A particular battle? The political climate of the time? Personally, I'm not sure which of these is most important, but what I hope my own children remember about the Civil War is that it was approximately a century before the Civil Rights movement, that Dickens had not been dead long, that people had been suffering the pangs of industrialization, that Europe had been in tumult for at least ten years, and that it happened in the United States. I hope they are still curious enough as adults to find out more about the Civil War and that they know how to find that information.

I have the latitude to focus on the minutiae that capture the attention of a particular child. If one of them is most concerned with period costumes, we can look at how clothes changed through time and why people were able to dress particular ways and how different classes managed to be clothed. Later, what that child might remember is how Napoleon dressed and how that differed from or influenced the attire of the Southern gentry. That is a framework that facts about the Civil War can then be worked into. It also means that child might fail a generalized tests on the dates of that war.

That's one plank of my soapbox about the failures of the institutional school system. I have not even touched on the social elements that cripple a teacher's classroom "performance". Go ahead- make it even harder to become a teacher. Set this elite cadre of bar examined "professionals" into the real world of the classroom without paying them a decent salary. Tell them what to teach, for how many minutes, on what day. Make sure they know that their pittance of a salary is dependent on a test that they have no part in writing. Let them know that what they actually see in their real classrooms has no bearing whatsoever on the material the children will be tested on. Then, people those desks with real children from a real area with the wide spectrum of needs, deficiencies, and gifts. Somehow, I do not think even the most tested teachers will show any better than the current batch, who are for the most part doing all they can with what they've got.

Land Management

When I walk through pines or hemlocks, I notice a serious lack of undergrowth. Pines drop such a profusion of needles that almost anything that might try to grow underneath is choked out or left with too little sun. Hemlocks seem to kill what's underneath- maybe with too much shade or maybe through their rhizosphere. So, in places where I want grass to grow or where I would like to encourage any sort of understory to help fight erosion, I am eliminating pines and hemlocks and pretty much any evergreen.

A friend recently questioned this line of reasoning with the argument that trees themselves fight erosion. I cannot argue against that. However, there are places, like here-

where I see other problems. Snow did not collect here so the ground did not get that gentle blanket. Water did not even penetrate the needles that collected here. We had many good reasons for cutting down these trees, but a benefit I did not predict was this. It has taken two summers for grass to establish, but this winter, the snow collects here as well as anywhere. And that little drop off is definitely eroding less as daisies, grass, briars, daylilies, etc. grow on it.

This hill also had no grass and an abundance of pine and fir. The yard above was slowly working its way downhill. Again, we cut down the trees and stayed off the hill. Grass grew. Now, the dirt stays put even in thaws like we're having now because there's grass to catch snow and no dense foliage to keep it from collecting. Come spring, when everything really thaws, the roots of the grass will also keep the thawing mud in place.

Cutting down trees can certainly lead to erosion, but sometimes, it's actually a better choice.

Tattler Lids

You probably know by now that the regular Ball brand canning lids have BPA in that coating on the underside of the lid. I try to avoid BPA which led me to trying out Tattler lids.

I read reviews and I knew people had a few issues that they felt were resolved by their being more attentive to screwing the lids down just so before the jars went into the canner. I read the instructions carefully. My first batch of canning summer before last showed a surprising failure rate. By this I mean that I owned 24 Tattler lids that were applied to 24 jars of tomatoes or jam and of those 24, I had failed seals or mold within that season in at least 10 of those jars. I attributed this to my perhaps not being careful enough.

So this past summer I gave it another go; I even bought another dozen of these lids at the local coop.

This is the fifth jar of tomatoes I've found like this:

I found at least four others early in the season with their lids just not sealed that I also threw out.

When you find this in your pantry, you doubt everything in there. I made a point of doing only mixed batches of Tattler and BPA lids. None of the regular metal toxic lids have failed. None. I did 90 quarts of tomatoes, 36 of those were canned with Tattler lids. I was extremely careful about the tightening and not tightening and ring and lid placement. I figure whatever that black mold is, it's probably worse for my family than the BPA in the metal lids.

Don't waste your money on these lids. It's not worth the risk.

Sewing Pattern Recommendation

I have had very good luck with Oliver & S patterns and this one was no exception-


I also tried out a pattern from a new source, Marie and Madeline, and I am also quite pleased.

And for myself, I am trying out Colette patterns- also a pleasure.

A Series post- What We Teach

This isn't to say "You should teach this." It is instead to reflect on what we actually are communicating and I invite you to comment and share what you think you're actually teaching, as well. So, before I start, I want to humbly acknowledge that I am teaching and failing to teach many things that I just do not see.

Today, Sylvie's math took more than TWO HOURS! We had a day like that last week, too. She is quite mathematically minded and has zero trouble understanding her math concepts. Today, she really needs to resist me. I mostly think you are not learning math in second grade when you spend two hours hammering away at it with your mother, but you're probably learning something just as important.

She learned, not for the first time, that I stick with things that are important and I expect her to do the same thing. She learned that I flat out will not believe that she cannot do math. She learned that sometimes a nice long hug in the middle of something challenging can help firm a person's resolve. She learned that baby talk and throwing herself on the floor will not save her from something I consider important. She learned that skipping work one day does not mean that the work goes away. And she got to feel that giddy feeling of finishing something she started.

Hey Cowboy!

Happy Birthday!

At his thirteenth birthday. You've come a long way Cowboy from that itty bitty bundle.

What Christmas Looked Like Here

We take off 4 to 6 weeks around Christmas, and we'll be starting back on Monday. But here's a quick look at what Christmas 2012 looked like.

We finally had snow that stayed. The children began their reindeer games with bury the easiest victim in the snow. It's much better than leaves for hiding someone.

The guilty culprits.

 Making candy to send and gift to various friends and family. The caramels and chocolates were by far our favorite. We hope you got to sample some.

 Preparing the meat for the tamales. We made two beef tongues- thanks Gusto and Chappy! We also made a pork shoulder to be sure there was enough meat. Then Christmas Eve, we crammed 37 people into our house. It was amazing, crowded and fun.

I spent a lot of time knitting and finishing projects that I wanted to do.