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Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus

March 10, 2010 – 6:19 pm

Mamacita says:  At the risk of exposing my Harry Potter obsession to the world – and it’s no doubt far too late to worry about that – I have been looking at the series with my teacher-eyes lately and have noticed some pretty awesome things.

At age eleven,  children were expected to know the basic skills and were plunged directly into applying them to the real world.

There’s nothing in any of the books about the students studying grammar or spelling, but there’s PLENTY about writing essays, and a lot of hints that these essays were read carefully and graded strictly.

Reading wasn’t a class; it was what the students used in EVERY CLASS.

I saw no mention of math class, but I noticed  LOT of references to USING math to do other things.

There were no biology or chemistry classes, per se, but there was plenty of scientific application.  Students were told to measure, count, plant, prune, mix, and transfer things from one container to another.  Test tubes, flasks, stoppered bottles. . . . students were expected to handle these and more, plus their contents.

I also noticed that most classes were either lecture or hands-on, and that the hands-on classes usually followed a lecture, and featured a lot of low talking, groupwork, and expectation that anything mentioned in the lecture would be necessary in order to do the groupwork.

Oh, and there was HOMEWORK.  Lots and lots and lots of homework, which was expected to be done.

And the SARCASM!  Nasty sarcasm, from Snape, for example, is never nice, but a little sarcasm can be quite productive and do a lot of good.  At Hogwarts, the professors AND the students both knew how to appreciate sarcasm for its intrinsic value as a “prodder,” and also to learn by experience the difference between hurtful sarcasm and helpful sarcasm.  In other words, the students learned all about context by experiencing everything in its proper – and improper- context.

There was only once course that seemed to be sniffed at, by both teachers, administration, and students, and even that proved extremely useful in the end.  coughcoughcoughdivinationcoughcough

Students had free time.  Apparently unsupervised free time.  The professors assumed that the students had what it takes to handle themselves, whether the kids were roaming freely on the grounds or walking to the nearest town to spend the day as they wished.  And, since the kids were expected to be able to handle this, they did.

Peer pressure was rather encouraged, although not the bad kind.  The suggestion that a student who did poorly gave the entire House a bad name was enough to make the slackers buck up.  And the attitude of the other students toward a student who lost the House some points was enough to make the wrong-doer think twice about doing it again.

Students were often ashamed of themselves for failing, wrongdoing, or otherwise letting themselves or others down.  In our culture, personal shame is stifled, because people can’t help it, or were driven to it, or “made a mistake.”  Perhaps this lack of shame is why our public school students continue to do things a Hogwarts student would have far too much respect for himself and for others to do.

At Hogwarts, self esteem was only for those who earned it.  This is also as it should be.

I guess my question is, if Harry and his friends could do it, why can’t our kids?

Even in the upper grades, and even at the COLLEGE LEVEL, schools are still focusing on basic skills that Hogwarts expected of children when they were eleven years old.  Every textbook I’ve ever used taught and re-taught the same stuff, over and over.  Those students who “got it” at age nine are sitting in class with students who still haven’t “got it” at age seventeen, but nobody seems to care much about the students who KNOW this stuff ALREADY.  Why don’t we have accommodations for these kids?  Why do we require them to sit and endure the same stuff over and over again, when they’ve already proven mastery?  Why don’t we rejoice in their mastery and allow them to soar higher and higher, learning NEW things and applying them to the universe?  The sad fact that some kids can’t do it and never will should have nothing whatsoever to do with allowing those kids who CAN do it and are capable of even MORE to move onward and upward.

I’m thinking that perhaps Hogwarts policies weren’t just about magic; I’m thinking that Hogwarts policies were wise, practical, and enabled students to fly higher than any Quidditch player could possibly soar on a broomstick.

At Hogwarts, students were treated like soon-to-be-adults, expected to fulfill obligations, meet deadlines, and pass difficult, detailed exit exams.  Disruptions were almost non-existent, and students who just couldn’t get it were not allowed to enter the upper level classes.  It is insinuated that such students would end up as clerks, service sector workers, etc.  There is nothing wrong with this.

Only the best students were allowed to go on, to soar, to learn, and apply.  They all started out at the same level, but nobody was held back because someone else in the class wasn’t ready or wouldn’t ever be ready.  It is hinted that the lower level students – those who just didn’t have the smarts or talents to soar – would be taught to run, or at least walk without tripping over every single thing, at least.  But in separate classes, not the advanced classes.  Which is AS IT SHOULD BE.

I think our own education systems might have a lot to learn from a fictional series about British schoolkids, in a school that seemed to really, really understand how to deal with them.  And it has nothing whatsoever to do with magic, unless we are speaking of the fact that education, done properly, is , indeed, a magical thing that will transport sincere learners into realms heretofore undreamed of. . . .

Hogwarts policies applied to areas other than “academics,” too.  It’s too bad our actual schools don’t have  policies such as this one:  “. . . be warned: Thieving is not tolerated at Hogwarts.”

Because in so many of our public schools, thieving is just something kids do because their self-esteem requires constant puffing up by the acquisition of property, and if the property is someone’s else’s, well, let’s chat with the thief about honesty, tap him on the wrist, and turn him loose again. As for the true owner of the stolen property, well, life isn’t always fair, you know.

To sum up:  Hogwarts policies rocked all the way, and most real public school policies can’t even keep time to the music.

Bonus points if you can translate the title and tell me why I used it.

Jane Goodwin | Education, English, Jane Goodwin, JaneG, Mamacita, Mamacita Jane, Mamacita Says, MamacitaG, Political Correctness, Scheiss Weekly, Things Nice People Already Know, children, etiquette, fools, schools, teenagers | Comments (8)

Signing Off, Signing On, Test Patterns, and the Peacock

March 7, 2010 – 12:38 am

Mamacita says:  Most of you have never seen this picture before. Most of you have never known a time when television wasn’t a 24-hour marathon of programming.  This is a test pattern.  If you turned on your television after midnight, this is all you saw.

The fact is, things used to have down time. Stores closed. Television and radio stations “signed off,” and each station often had its own unique signoff ritual. After midnight, people went to bed; they didn’t stay up for hours and watch because there was nothing to watch. When people said, “There’s nothing on TV,” it wasn’t just an expression.  Radio stations signed off, too.

Sometimes I think it was better the old way. After midnight, people generally went to bed. People didn’t watch show after show just because something was on, because something WASN’T on. Just blackness, static, or a test pattern.

I can remember turning on the TV on Saturday morning, seeing nothing but the test pattern, and waiting patiently until 6:00 a.m. or so for the station to “sign on.”

When my cousin C and I were kids, and would stay at our grandmother’s house every weekend we could manage it, the sign-off for Indianapolis’ WTTV channel 4 was a few minutes of Mahalia Jackson singing.  I can’t remember what she sang, specifically, because C and I usually watched our grandmother when Mahalia sang.  It was one of the few times we saw Mamaw laugh out loud.  Mahalia’s kind of singing just wasn’t heard much in southern Indiana, and the shock value of it set Mamaw off every Saturday night.

Most sign-off rituals were religious in nature, and patriotic as well.  A local clergyman would speak a few words, the National Anthem would play, and the sign-off words were spoken, along with a promise to sign-on again in the morning.  It was kind of cool.  It was also a signal that everybody still up ought to go to bed, as well.

Maybe that’s one reason people stay up so late these days.  They’re glued to the TV, and there’s nobody now to tell them it’s time to sign off and go to bed.  As long as there’s SOMETHING on TV, some people will watch it.  I’ve never understood the mentality.

This picture, now, is the NBC peacock, telling us that the next program would be in living color. Those of you who thought In Living Color was nothing but a funny television show have a lesson to learn here. And now you know why the title of that show was funny in more ways than one!

Seeing that NBC peacock flexing its tailfeathers was the signal that Bonanza was about to start. A lot of the old 50’s sitcoms had been filmed in color but never seen in color, and eventually those started to be shown as was intended, too.

Here’s your laugh of the day. I didn’t know The Wizard of Oz was partly in color until I was in my teens. It made the expression “a horse of a different color” understandable, for the first time.

I’m not really QUITE that old, but my family just waited that long to get a color TV.

Jane Goodwin | Indiana, Jane Goodwin, JaneG, Mamacita, Mamacita Jane, Mamacita Says, MamacitaG, Night owl, Scheiss Weekly, memories, religion, southern Indiana | Comments (8)

Quotation Saturday: Randominities

March 6, 2010 – 9:33 pm

quotationsaturdayMamacita says: There’s no actual theme for this week’s Quotation Saturday; it’s full of random wordbytes of wisdom.  Oh, and if you don’t see any wisdom, you’re not looking closely enough.

Oh, and you know what “they” say. . .that’s the omnipotent antecedentless “they” of the ages. . .if you are offended by a quotation, you probably need to evaluate your own belief system, paying special attention to values, norms, and what you REALLY do all day.

1.  Nations have recently been led to borrow billions for war; no nation has ever borrowed largely for education.  Probably, no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization.  We must make our choice; we cannot have both.  — Abraham Flexner

2.  The problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.  –Albert Einstein

3.  The door of a bigoted mind opens outwards so that the only result of the pressure of facts upon it is to close it more snugly.  –Ogden Nash

4.  A belief which leaves no place for doubt is not a blief; it is a superstition  –Jose Bergamin

5.  If you hold a cat by the tail, you learn things that cannot be learned in any other way.  –Mark Twain

6.  Words, like eyeglasses, obscure everything they do not make clear.  –Joseph Joubert

7.  Be yourself.  Everyone else is already taken.  — James Joyce

8.  The propagandist’s purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human.  — Aldous Huxley

9.  What a distressing contrast there is between the radiant intelligence of the child and the feeble mentality of the average adult.  — Sigmund Freud

10.  Do not condemn the judgment of another because it differs from your own.  You may both be wrong.  — Dandamis

11.  I have lived in this world just long enough to look carefully the second time into things that I am most certain of the first time.  –Josh Billings

12.  Your greatness is measured by your kindness; your education and intellect by your modesty; your ignorance is betrayed by your suspicions and prejudices, and your real caliber is measured by the consideration and tolerance you have for others.  — William J. H. Boetcker

13.  Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake.  Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.   — Martin Luther King Jr.

14.  Do you wish to rise?  Begin by descending.  YOu plan a tower that will pierce the clouds?  Lay first the foundation of humility.  — St. Augustine

15.  People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are.  I don’t believe in circumstances.  The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, they make them.  — George Bernard Shaw

16.  My father didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.  — Clarance B. Kelland

17.  If a man would register all his opinions upon love, politics, religion, learning, etc., beginning from his youth and so go on to old age, what a bundle of inconsistencies and contradictions would appear at last!  — Jonathan Swift

18.  Evil is like a shadow – it has no real substance of its own, it is simply a lack of light.  You cannot cause a shadow to disappear by trying to fight it, stamp on it, by railing against it, or any other form of emotional or physical resistance.  IN order to cause a shadow to disappear, you must shine light on it.  — Shakti Gawain

19.  Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.  — H.L. Mencken

20.  Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog – few people are interested, and the frog dies.  — E.B. White

21.  Everybody is a potential murderer.  I’ve never killed anyone, but I frequently get satisfaction reading the obituary notices.  — Clarance Darrow

22.  Any child can tell you that the sole purpose of a middle name is so he can tell when he’s in trouble.  — Dennis Fakes

23.  Puritan:  Someone who is afraid that, somewhere, someone else is having a good time.  — H.L. Mencken

24.  Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought. — John F. Kennedy

25.  The most pathetic man in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision.  — Helen Keller

26.  Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.  — George Bernard Shaw

27.  A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them.  — P.J. O’Rourke

28.  A lot of disappointed people have been left standing on the street corner waiting for the bus marked Perfection.  — Donald Kennedy

29.  To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary.  To one without faith, no explanation is possible.  — St. Thomas Aquinas

30.The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows. — Sydney J. Harris

31. You can get all A’s and still flunk life. — Walker Percy

32. Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth. — FDR

33. I’m glad I am a woman who once danced naked in the Mediterranean Sea at midnight. — Mercedes McCambridge

34. Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie. — Jim Davis

35. Sex is good, but not as good as fresh, sweet corn. — Garrison Keillor

36. It’s bizarre that the produce manager is more important to my children’s health than the pediatrician. — Meryl Streep

37. We are living in a world today where lemonade is made from artificial flavors and furniture polish is made from real lemons. — Alfred E. Newman

38. In the presence of eternity, the mountains are as transient as the clouds. — Robert Green Ingersoll,

39. If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed. — Albert Einstein

40. It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument. — William G. McAdoo

41. The world in which you were born is just one model of reality. Other cultures are not failed attempts at being you; they are unique manifestations of the human spirit. –Wade Davis

42. Finding the right answer is only the beginning. There are other right answers if one can change one’s perspective. –Judy Wellington

43. Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square hole. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do. — Apple Computer Inc

44. We all live in suspense, from day to day, from hour to hour; in other words, we are the hero of our own story. — Mary McCarthy

45. It’s the friends you can call up at 4 am that matter. — Marlene Dietrich

46. Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself. — Eleanor Roosevelt

47. I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. — Albert Einstein

48. How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant with the weak and wrong…because sometime in your life you will have been all of these. — George Washington Carver

49. The only thing I regret about my past is the length of it. If I had to live my life again, I’d make the same mistakes, only sooner. — Tallulah Bankhead

50. The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. — Gandhi

51. No one in the world needs a mink coat but a mink. — Murray Banks

52. Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

53. You can stand tall without standing on someone. You can be a victor without having victims. — Harriet Woods

54. If you look at what you do not have in life; you don’t have anything. If you look at what you have in life; you have everything. — Unknown

55. Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you’re right. — Henry Ford

56. Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else. — Judy Garland

57. Never think you are too small to make a difference…ever been to bed with a mosquito — ” Ita Buttrose

58. A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch. –James Beard

59. As for butter versus margarine, I trust cows more than chemists. — Joan Gussow

60. The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. — Elie Wiesel

P.S.  Yes, I realize I’ve used many of these before, but the fact that you noticed makes me really, really happy.  Thank you!

Jane Goodwin | Jane Goodwin, JaneG, Linguistics, Literature, Mamacita, Mamacita Jane, Mamacita Says, MamacitaG, Quotation Saturday, Scheiss Weekly, Things Nice People Already Know, quotes, writing | Comments (0)

“This child was born of parents who can read and write. To me, this is a great miracle.”

March 5, 2010 – 12:05 am

Mamacita says:  This topic has been on my mind lately (as usual), so I’m re-running this post from March of 2008.

Oh please, society, let us learn from the past, just a little bit?

“Francie thought it was the most beautiful church in Brooklyn. It was made of old gray stone and had twin spires that rose cleanly into the sky, high above the tallest tenements. Inside, the high vaulted ceilings, narrow deepset stained-glass windows and elaborately carved altars made it a miniature cathedral.”

Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1943) p 390.

This is Most Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn. Betty Smith used it in her novel and had her heroine, Francie Nolan, in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, love to look at it, and love knowing that her grandfather had carved the altar as part of his tithe. He had no money, so he donated his considerable talent. Francie’s grandfather was a horrible abusive man, but he honored his commitment to God.

Francie’s grandmother and all but two of her daughters were illiterate, but revered literacy. The grandmother did not at first understand that education was free to all in America, so her two older daughters didn’t go to school. Her two younger daughters, however, were sent to school and kept there as long as possible, until family circumstances required them to go to work. Such was life, back then. Formal education was honored above most other things, but it was also one of the first things to go when times got harder.

Two of my favorite books are A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith, and Everything But Money, by Sam Levinson. They are a great deal alike in that they are both about immigrant parents, the value of education, and the sacrifices that good parents make so their children can have better lives.

Our immigrant ancestors came to this country pretty much knowing that there was no chance of them, personally, fulfilling very many of their own dreams and aspirations: all of their hopes and dreams and aspirations were for their children.

Our immigrant ancestors didn’t really move to this country for themselves; they were adults, and the time was long past for them to develop and use their talents in any official or professional capacity, especially in a new land that had customs and language that were both unfamiliar in every possible way . There were exceptions, of course, but the truth is, most of our immigrant ancestors put their own hopes and dreams and ambitions on the back burner so they could concentrate on the hopes and dreams and ambitions they held for their children.

Tenement houses were filled with mothers, grandmothers, maiden aunts, and shirttail relatives, singing in the kitchen that their children might some day sing in Carnegie Hall. Factories and stores were filled with fathers, grandfathers, uncles, and more shirttail relatives, singing at the assembly lines and behind the counters and down in the mines that their children might some day sing in synogogues and cathedrals. People with artistic talent displayed their art with beautiful pies, cakes that were a picture, carved altars in the church, rich embroidery on simple pillow slips, and tailoring that was a work of art. Ancestors who, today, might have organized businesses and found success on the stock market used their skills to make something out of nothing, that their children might have something to make something more out of when it was their turn.

Their children were being educated, and that was enough. Our ancestors looked ahead to the future; they had no time or energy or money to do much for themselves. It was all for the children, and for the future.

Parents too weary from sweatshops and never-ending domestic drudgery didn’t have much time to “play” any more. These parents loved their children far too much to stop and indulge themselves; every nap meant pennies not earned. Parents were there for discipline and meals and clothing and love that was demonstrated by the laying aside of their own desires to focus entirely on the future of their children. NOW was never as important as TOMORROW. This forced their children to be inventive, creative, organized, resourceful, problem-solving, appreciative of things that today’s kids throw away, and hungry enough every night to eat whatever Mother put on the table. A child who asked for something else would have been laughed at.

Adults gave each other blessings that relied on the behavior of the children. “May your children bring you happiness,” “May your children make you proud,” “May your find joy in your children,” etc. Children who misbehaved in school or in public or right there in the house brought shame to their parents and disgrace to the family name. His siblings recoiled from a misbehaving kid, and his mother cried. Families used “shame” to help shape a character that knew what it meant and therefore stayed as far away from it as possible.

Adults have changed. A large percentage of adults put their own desires and urges and feelings and wants before the needs and wants of their children. Kids today don’t care if they bring shame and disgrace to their parents. It’s never their fault anyway; it’s that heartless teacher who doesn’t understand Buddy or Muffy and doesn’t appreciate the cute way he stomps his foot when he’s mad or the adorable way she twists and chews her hair when she’s deciding who to invite to her latest party. Adults get home from work far earlier (usually) than their great-grandparents did, yet adults today are too tired to go to PTA meetings or choir concerts or spelling bees, things their ancestors viewed with such honor (they were not available to peasants in the old country) that they wept and trembled with emotion as they bathed and put on their best clothing in order to show respect to the school and the teacher, and to watch their children represent the family in a scholarly event. (Surprisingly, many adults are not too tired to go to an athletic event.)

Many immigrants came here in the first place so their children could take advantage of the free public education. Illiterate parents pointed with pride to the row of schoolbooks on the kitchen shelf, and boasted that their children could READ THEM! They weren’t worried about new ideas; they encouraged the learning of new things. They did not worry that the new ideas would usurp the old ideas; they just honored all learning and assumed their kids were wise enough to blend the old and the new together and come out with a new “new.”  Sam Levinson writes most eloquently and beautifully about his father’s pride in his many sons’ books and accomplishments, even those the old man knew nothing about and knew he never would.

A poorly behaved child brought great sadness and shame to his parents; usually, the sight of his father and mother’s grief, brought on by the child’s poor choices, was enough to straighten the kid out. If not, our ancestors weren’t afraid to use other means to demonstrate to child that certain behaviors brought certain consequences. Shockingly, this didn’t result in a child quivering with sadness and with no ego or esteem left in his system; it usually resulted in a child who knew better than to try THAT again, by golly.

Note:  I am NOT referring to people who beat their children or broke their spirits or desired to turn them into shrinking nonentities la the Pearls.  I am referring to people who loved their children too much to allow them to ruin their futures.

Modern parents are often so worried about causing their children emotional pain that they ignore or neglect all kinds of opportunities to demonstrate to their children that nice people are a lot more welcome in society than people who feel they have a right to do their own thing regardless of where they are or what the mean old rules might be. A child who is taught in no uncertain terms that one sits quietly at the table, be it at home or elsewhere, eats whatever might be on his plate – or at least tries to eat it – without complaining, and who knows, because he was taught, that one does not get up from the table without permission, and that “please,” “thank you,” and “excuse me” really are magic words. . . well, let us be euphemistic, even though I loathe euphemisms, and just say that nice people of all ages are more welcome and appreciated than are people whose manners and whose tolerance for poor manners need some adjustment.  Think of the mall.  Think of restaurants.

Our ancestors would be appalled at some of the attitudes and behaviors of their descendants. I know I am.

The title? I’ve used this quotation many times before. Do you know which novel it’s from, and who said it?

P.S.   Self esteem must be EARNED.  It’s not a given.  Nobody has a RIGHT to it.  We’re not born with it.  It can’t be presented as a gift.  And kids know the difference even if some adults don’t.  We have to deserve it.  Otherwise, it’s all just a big joke, and the joke’s on the adults.


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It Might Be INSIDE the Classroom, But It’s Still BULLYING!!!

March 2, 2010 – 8:13 pm

whyMamacita says:  So many of the teachers I’ve spoken to lately are frustrated almost beyond words by their schools’ insistence that they keep disruptive, non-participatory, and often violent students in their classrooms, to the severe detriment of the other children.

All students have a right to be educated in their least restrictive environment.  How can this be possible if there are students in the classroom whose sole purpose in life seems to be to prevent other students from possibly learning something?

When a child goes home at the end of almost every day scratched, bruised, pinched, frustrated, and crying because once again “that same kid” tormented him/her, swiped the pencils, broke the scissors, yelled out, distracted, pulled the hair, marked on the paper, constantly poked, stole the lunch, chased, teased, and in any other way prevented a child from having a relaxed-yet-exciting, unimpeded, nurturing, SAFE environment in which he/she might learn and excel and advance upward and onward, and nothing is ever done to the perpetrator, who is allowed to pretty much rule the school with such behaviors, I call it bullying and I refuse to accept any other label for it.

Administrators who require teachers to put up with these behaviors and give teachers no support when these kids become insistently uncooperative (that’s a euphemism, by the way), teachers who fail to protect their students from these behaviors, parents who expect the school to deal with their child’s behaviors in such a way that their child is never responsible, and the child himself/herself who continues to torture other children or in any way put up an obstacle to their success. . . these are all bullies, too.  And our good, p0lite, hard-working, creative kids who WANT to learn and advance have to sit there and wait, and be pinched, etc., and wait some more, most often never getting to advance because they’re still waiting on the other kids. . . .

Bullying isn’t only on the playground or the internet.  Any time Susie can’t learn, advance, concentrate, or sit in peace and be allowed to work because of Billy’s behavior,  Billy is a bully and Susie is a victim and the adult in the room is the enabler and the administration is Dolores Umbridge.  Why, then, is Billy soothed, placated, rewarded, and continued to be allowed to sit near Susie and torment her?  And why is nobody outraged that Susie is being held back, harassed, and hindered from learning?

I’m outraged.  You should be, too.

But nobody does anything about it because Billy is apparently more important than Susie.

And Dolores Umbridge doesn’t WANT our children to learn, advance, and soar because that makes them more difficult to bully, herself.

Bah.

When are we going to grow a pair and demand that our schools become once again what they were intended to be: places where those who wish to learn might learn?  At the rate we’re going these days, the answer is “never.”

Shame on us.  Shame on anyone and everyone responsible.

Jane Goodwin | Education, Family, It's Outrageous!, Jane Goodwin, JaneG, Mamacita, Mamacita Jane, Mamacita Says, MamacitaG, Not the imitation Mamacita, Political Correctness, Scheiss Weekly, The real Mamacita, Things Nice People Already Know, children, etiquette, parenting, schools | Comments (2)

Sunday Songlist, Territory, and the. . . . RED PEN

February 28, 2010 – 5:20 pm

SundaySonglistMamacita says:  the weekend is almost over – indeed, on Sunday afternoon, the weekend is as good as over because that’s when the depression starts, although it’s not as bad as it used to be.  More than anything else, it’s the “have to get up in the morning as normal people always do” that hits me more than depression about going back to work on Monday.  The happy fact is, I LOVE my job.  Or, rather, jobs.    “Find a job you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life,”  said Jim Fox’s dad, and this has come true for me at last.  I have several jobs now and I absolutely love all of them.  No exaggeration. Besides, I keep working at all of them but one on weekends and vacations anyway.  Not because I have to; I do it because I want to.

The only part of any of my jobs that I don’t like is grading essays.  I have too much respect for my students NOT to tell them when something needs to be changed in some way.  To give every essay a big red A+ without reading it properly and letting them know when they’ve done something improperly is to do students a grave disservice.  Self esteem is one thing, but letting a serious student think that a piece of writing is perfect just because he/she wrote it is to play a dirty trick on the student.  Future employers won’t appreciate it, either.

And yes, I fully believe in the use of the RED PEN.  Red is the color of attention.  Pay attention to the red and you won’t get a traffic ticket, cause an accident, or fail to pay careful attention when you see it.  I like a nice red gel pen, so the color jumps right into the face.

So, what am I doing this afternoon?  The music is still cranked up to eleven; the player is set on “random,” and I’m as usual doing about ten things at once.  When my husband gets home from CA tonight, he’ll find his side of the dresser cleaned and put in order.  (N0thing was thrown away; I would not throw anything away that belongs to someone else.  How would I know what’s important to someone else?)  But it’s organized now.  And yes, I am so territorial that our dresser top is divided into “his” and “mine,” and if you know what’s good for you, you won’t touch mine unless you ask first.

And yes, there is a dividing line on our dresser top.  I keep my side tidy and bare, which makes him crazy because everyone in his family, it seems, views a cleared-off space as an invitation to put something of THEIRS on it.

Shut up.   If everyone kept his/her hands off anything that doesn’t belong to them, there would be world peace.  Besides, I’m sure I’m not the only one who labels things in the refrigerator so that when you finish yours you can’t easily help yourself to mine.  When the kids were home, this was a very handy system indeed.  (You drank yours already and she has some left, and you can have hers only if she gives you permission to touch it. If you take it without permission from the owner, you’ve stolen it.) And how did we keep track of who still had Cokes and who had drunk his/hers?  I labeled them, that’s how.  Because it’s not fair when two people each have a 12-pack of Coke that has to last for a week or more, and one person drinks up all of his/hers and then tries to help himself/herself to someone else’s. . . .  They knew not to ask me to make exceptions, either.  The Cokes weren’t mine any more and only the owner of something has the authority to give permissions.  Forced sharing only creates resentment and destroys trust.  Yes, I am a weird Mom.

Oh, I need to stop or I’ll start delving into my childhood again.

The ironic thing is, I will gladly share and even give you pretty much anything I have.  All you have to do is ask me nicely beforehand.  How hard is that to grasp?  My kids and sisters will tell you that I’ve been known to practically hound people to take my things if I suspect someone might need them.  I will not, however, give you permission to touch or use something that doesn’t belong to me.  I might even take it away from you until the owner gives you permission.  But you’ve all heard this little quirk about me before, and giggled discretely behind my back.  Or in my face, if you’re family.  Sigh.  It’s all right.  We all have our little quirks and mine at least doesn’t give me lung cancer, VD, or a hangover.

Oh, and if you think I am doing all this work in a creepy silent cave, you can think again.  Music up to eleven, remember, and on random?

So far these past few hours, I’ve cleaned, written, arranged, rearranged, washed, dried, folded, and surfed to the following:

1.  All the Pretty Little Horses – Shawn Colvin

2.  White Room – Cream

3.  Girls With Guitars – Dave Matheson

4.  Don’t Turn Around – Ace of Base

5.  I’ve Been Everywhere – Mike Ford

6.  A Summer Place – The Lettermen

7.  Forgive Me Love – Alanis Morrisette

8.  I Am the Highway – Audioslave

9.  Norwegian Wood – Beatles

10. Piano Man – Billy Joel

11.  Rivers of Babylon – Boney M

12.  If I Threw My Guitar – Cake

13.  Dream Police – Cheap Trick

14.  Creep – Damian Rice

15.  Coke – Flickerstick

16.  Bring Him Home – Gary Morris

17.  Wuthering Heights – Hayley Westenra

18.  Funk #49 – James Gang

19.  Across the Universe – Rufus Wainwright

20.  Dancing in the Street – Mick Jagger and David Bowie

21.  Time Is Running Out – Muse

22.  Let It Be – Nick Cave

23.  Santeria – Sublime

24.  Zard Snodgrass – Moxy Fruvous

25.  Bittersweet Symphony – The Verve

Now playing:  Mars – Holst

I love the contrasts of a random song setting.  And look at all those Beatles covers!

Snack time.

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Quotation Saturday: The Weekend

February 27, 2010 – 3:18 am

quotationsaturdayMamacita says:  This weekend is unlike any I’ve ever experienced, ever.  I can’t remember it ever happening, anyway.  If you are a pervert, burglar, murderer, or one of my stalkers, please cover your eyes as other people read the following:  I’m alone in the house, ie, nobody’s home but me.

And since it’s temporary, it’s bloody awesome.  It’s after 3  in the morning and I’ve got the music cranked up to eleven.  I’m wearing flannel pants with skulls on them.  (I was going to post a picture but maybe your imagination is better, here.)  I’m eating pecans and caramel dip.  With a spoon.  Out of the container.  Diabetes, hold thy tongue, because I’m going to make popcorn in a few minutes.  With extra butter.  I’ll blame any weight gain on my stupid former gym that moved the treadmills upstairs where I can’t access them. The dryer keeps beeping but I’m ignoring it, because it’s full of towels and I’m not folding them today.  I’m surfing the net and commenting and writing articles and daydreaming about sleeping in.  I’ve been reading and petting the cats and answering emails and doing pretty much everything except housework and grading essays.  I haven’t worn shoes since Thursday night class.  Really, the only normal thing I’ve done all day is shower, because even when I’m alone, you know, pew and stuff?

So what better topic for this weekend’s Quotation Saturday than The Weekend itself?  Maybe, even, some odd quotes about The Weekend?

1. Living up to ideals is like doing everyday work with your Sunday clothes on. –Ed Howe

2. Every man has a right to a Saturday night bath. — Lyndon B. Johnson  (If you know the history behind this quote, it’s even better.)

3. Only Robinson Crusoe had everything done by Friday. — Author Unknown

4. Weekends don’t count unless you spend them doing something completely pointless. — Bill Watterson

5. If I do not return to the pulpit this weekend, millions of people will go to hell. — Jimmy Swaggart (My apologies for including this one, but I can’t help laughing at anything he ever said.)

6. Every Friday I used to have about fifty, sixty kids who would wait for me on Sunset Boulevard and I’d take them all to dinner. All runaways. — Al Lewis

7. There is nothing, I think, more unfortunate than to have soft, chubby, fat-looking children who go to watch their school play basketball every Saturday and regard that as their week’s exercise. — John Fitzgerald Kennedy

8. I don’t know what your childhood was like, but we didn’t have much money. We’d go to a movie on a Saturday night, then on Wednesday night my parents would walk us over to the library. It was such a big deal, to go in and get my own book. — Robert Redford

9. The dog doesn’t know the difference between Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, so I have to walk the dog early those days too. — Donna Shalala

10. On a lazy Saturday morning when you’re lying in bed, drifting in and out of sleep, there is a space where fantasy and reality become one. Are you awake, or are you dreaming? You see people and things; some are familiar; some are strange. You talk, you feel, but you move without walking; you fly without wings. Your mind and your body exist, but on separate planes. Time stands still. For me, this is the feeling I have when ideas come. — Lynn Johnston

11. Poetry is truth in its Sunday clothes. — Joseph Roux

12. What is to be done with people who can’t read a Sunday paper without messing it all up?… Show me a Sunday paper which has been left in a condition fit only for kite flying, and I will show you an antisocial and dangerous character who has left it that way. — Robert Benchley

13. Do not let Sunday be taken from you.  If your soul has no Sunday, it becomes an orphan. — Albert Schweitzer

14. Measure not men by Sundays, without regarding what they do all the week after. — Thomas Fuller

15. I don’t like to be gone all weekend and at night too. Because for 20 years, I’ve had children who are in school. — Meryl Streep

16. I much prefer working with kids whose life could be completely upended by a reading of a book over a weekend. You give them a book to read – they go home and come back a changed person. And that is so much more interesting and exciting. — Russell Banks

17. If all the cars in the United States were placed end to end, it would probably be Labor Day Weekend. — Doug Larson

18. “- “I’ve been thinking Hobbes –”
- “On a weekend?”
- “Well, it wasn’t on purpose…” — Bill Watterson.

19. The rhythm of the weekend, with its birth, its planned gaieties, and its announced end, followed the rhythm of life and was a substitute for it. — F. Scott Fitzgerald

20. Can’t anything be done about calling these guys student athletes? That’s like referring to Attila the Hun’s cavalry as “weekend warriors.” — Russell Baker

21. I used to get a haircut every Saturday so I would never miss any of the comic books. I had practically no hair when I was a kid! — R. L. Stine

22. Later, in the early teens, I used to ride my bike every Saturday morning to the nearest airport, ten miles away, push airplanes in and out of the hangars, and clean up the hangars. — Alan Shepard

23. Middle age is when you’re sitting at home on a Saturday night and the telephone rings and you hope it isn’t for you. — Ogden Nash

24. The worst thing about Saturday Night Live now is that, in the last 10 to 15 years, they’ve grown to some 40 writers. We had seven. And seven actors. — Chevy Chase

25. Everybody’s working for the weekend. –Loverboy

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Sometimes the Pearls ARE Swine.

February 24, 2010 – 12:23 am

Mamacita says:  These particular scum-sucking spawn “humanoids” are once again being discussed in the Blogosphere, so I’m re-running my own take on them.  I refer to Michael and Debi Pearl.

I beg of you all, do not buy any books by these people. (link removed on advice from much smarter person than me.) I have seen other blogposts and articles that expose these people for what they really are, but I think this is the first time I’ve posted my opinion here.  (I call them “people” only because of my innate good breeding.  I do not consider the authors of this book “people” at all.  They are monsters.)

Michael and Debi Pearl. They are the Child Abuse Gurus of the uneducated and ignorant masses.

Follow their advice and you can murder your children in the name of blatant stupidity love. Beware of stupid people with masters and weapons.   Kool-aid, anyone?  Thrust your babies into the fire that YOU might enter paradise?

Show your deep and abiding love for your innocent little infant by hitting him with a stick and drawing blood. Be sure you lower the blinds first, because you know how those nosy neighbors like to call CPS on you. Choose your weapon carefully; you don’t want nosy daycare workers to see any welts. PVC plumbing pipes are good for hitting. Pull his hair out. Pinch him till it bleeds. Bite him. THAT’LL teach him to go to sleep when you tell him to; he’s four months old already and it’s time he’s aware of who’s in charge. It’s all about control, and showing your kids who’s the boss. And when your kids are too young to understand words, you can be sure they’ll understand pain. Train them like the dogs they are.

Dear Lord. Do not let these people get any more followers. They are evil, and they prey upon the ignorant. Their book is nothing more than a handbook for sadists and child abusers, with lines of scripture thrown in here and there to fool those who are easily fooled by such tactics. It’s the same tactic used by the KKK in their brochures. They are banking on you not being smart enough to understand what they are really saying.

I am not saying that we should let our children be the bosses. No way. I think by now you all know my opinion of brats. But I am saying that an adult who can be the boss only by inflicting pain on a child, or an INFANT, is a mighty poor excuse for a human being. And a supposed authority figure who not only encourages it, but TEACHES PEOPLE HOW, is evil personified.

Please, all you supposedly good and reputable websites who are allowing these people to advertise on your site: No more. Their presence on your website is bringing you down and reducing your credibility to the lower depths. Surely their money doesn’t mean THAT much to you? Although, if the ads remain, I guess it does, huh.

I know that there are people who claim they can take ’some’ of these people’s advice and ignore the rest. No, you can’t. The mere presence of this book in your home is creepy. Heck, we can find good advice here and there in anything. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

Let’s love our children, and teach them by example. Let’s discipline them gently. Let’s not draw blood and raise welts and end each day with a handful of soft child’s hair in our hands, and a little toddler’s blood in our teeth.

Just thinking of these people makes me cry. And thinking of these people also makes me furious, at them, and at anyone who follows their violent and sadistic methods.

Let’s go home and hug our children. That’s “hug” them, not beat them.  Unlike the Pearls, I do not believe in disciplining little children with whips, chains, and blood-letting.

I hope there is a Hell that will give this couple, and all who follow them, exactly what they deserve.  EXACTLY.  Let them spend eternity being treated as they treated their own children and advised the ignorant to treat theirs.

As for the ignorant who follow their example, I do not feel sorry for you, either.  I hope you end up in the next cell beside the Pearls.  It’s one thing to be ignorant and hurt only yourselves, but when you are ignorant and hurt little children on purpose, you deserve precisely the same treatment.

Bah.  These people make me sick.


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Quotation Saturday: Snow

February 21, 2010 – 12:32 am

quotationsaturdayMamacita says:  Since southern Indiana has been covered with snow for two weeks now, I thought I’d use that same idea for Quotation Saturday.  The forecast for tomorrow night, indeed, is for more snow, but unless the “feel” of the air changes between now and then, I would put my money – if I had any – on torrential rain.   The thing is, I love snow, as long as I don’t have to go somewhere in it.  I also worry about my students, who are driving in from every direction, the good ones concerned about missing class.  When they call or email me about unplowed roads and sheets of ice, I tell them to stay home, with full attendance points.  Those who stay home without contacting me are no doubt doing the right thing, but without the attendance points.

1. Getting an inch of snow is like winning 10 cents in the lottery. — Bill Watterson

2. Snow and adolescence are the only problems that disappear if you ignore them long enough. — Earl Wilson

3. Cats are smarter than dogs. You can’t get eight cats to pull a sled through snow. — Jeff Valdez

4. Nature has no mercy at all. Nature says, “I’m going to snow. If you have on a bikini and no snowshoes, that’s tough. I am going to snow anyway. — Maya Angelou

5. The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found? -–J.B. Priestley

6. In any man who dies there dies with him, his first snow and kiss and fight. Not people die but worlds die in them. — Yevgeny Yevtushenko

7. Advice is like snow; the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into, the mind. — Samuel Taylor Coleridge

8. The future lies before you, like paths of pure white snow. Be careful how you tread it, for every step will show. — Unknown

9. The Eskimos had fifty-two names for snow because it was important to them: there ought to be as many for love. — Margaret Atwood

10. The snow doesn’t give a soft white damn whom it touches. — e.e. cummings  images

11. A snowflake is one of God’s most fragile creations, but look what they can do when they stick together! –Author Unknown

12. Resting on your laurels is as dangerous as resting when you are walking in the snow. You doze off and die in your sleep. — Ludwig Wittgenstein

13. Few things are as democratic as a snowstorm. — Bern Williams

14. The aging process has you firmly in its grasp if you never get the urge to throw a snowball. — Doug Larson

15. Each snowflake in an avalanche pleads not guilty. –Voltaire

16. They say that every snowflake is different. If that were true, how could the world go on? How could we ever get up off our knees? How could we ever recover from the wonder of it? — Jeanette Winterson

17. You are not a beautiful, unique snowflake… This is your life, and it’s ending one minute at a time.
-– Chuck Palahniuk

18. It’s a pity one can’t imagine what one can’t compare to anything. Genius is an African who dreams up snow. — Vladimir Nabokov

19. I seemed to vow to myself that some day I would go to the region of ice and snow and go on and on till I came to one of the poles of the earth, the end of the axis upon which this great round ball turns. — Ernest Shackleton

20. When I no longer thrill to the first snow of the season, I’ll know I’m growing old. — Lady Bird Johnson

21. Sunshine cannot bleach the snow, Nor time unmake what poets know. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

22. The snow falls, each flake in its appropriate place. — Zen saying

23. Silently, like thoughts that come and go, the snowflakes fall, each one a gem. — William Hamilton Gibson

24. A little snow, tumbled about, anon becomes a mountain. — William Shakespeare

25. I think we are bound to, and by, nature. We may want to deny this connection and try to believe we control the external world, but every time there’s a snowstorm or drought, we know our fate is tied to the world around us. — Alice Hoffman

26. “It’s snowing still,” said Eeyore gloomily. “So it is.” “And freezing.” “Is it?” “Yes,” said Eeyore. “However,” he said, brightening up a little, “we haven’t had an earthquake lately.” –A.A. Milne

27. When you live in Texas, every single time you see snow it’s magical. — Pamela Ribon

28. Winter must be cold for those with no warm memories. –From the movie An Affair to Remember

29. Everything is equal in the snow: all trees, all lawns, all streets, all rooftops, all cars. Everything is white, white, white, as far as you can see. Covered by snow, the well-kept and neglected lawns look the same. The snow hides the shiny newness of a just-bought car as effectively as it does the rust and dents of a ten-year-old one. Everything looks clean and fresh and unmarred by time or use. Snow, like the silent death it counterfeits, is a great leveler. — Adrienne Ivey

30. Let every man shovel out his own snow and the whole city will be passable. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

31. This dirty puddle used to be pure snow. I walk by it with respect. – Stanislaw Jerzy Lec

32. Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face. – Victor Hugo

33. Surely as cometh the Winter, I know
There are Spring violets under the snow. — R. H. Newell

34. Winter is nature’s way of saying, “Up yours.” — Robert Byrne

35. February, when the days of winter seem endless and no amount of wistful recollecting can bring back any air of summer. — Shirley Jackson

36. There seems to be so much more winter than we need this year. — Kathleen Norris

37. Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand-and melting like a snowflake… — Francis Bacon

38. Snowflakes, like people, are all different and beautiful, but they can be a nuisance when they lose their identity in a mob. — Unknown

39. Lives are snowflakes – forming patterns we have seen before, as like one another as peas in a pod (and have you ever looked at peas in a pod? I mean, really looked at them? There’s not a chance you’d mistake one for another, after a minute’s close in. . . . — Neil Gaiman

40. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand … and melting like a snowflake. Let us use it before it is too late. — Marie Beynon Ray

41. Patty: “Try to catch snowflakes on your tongue. It’s fun.”
Linus Van Pelt: “Mmm. Needs sugar.”
Lucy Van Pelt: “It’s too early. I never eat December snowflakes. I always wait until January.”
Linus Van Pelt: “They sure look ripe to me.” –from A Charlie Brown Christmas

42. Frosty’s not gone for good. You see, he was made out of Christmas snow and Christmas snow can never disappear completely. It sometimes goes away for almost a year at a time and takes the form of spring and summer rain. But you can bet your boots that when a good, jolly December wind kisses it, it will turn into Christmas snow all over again. — from Frosty the Snowman

43. What’s this? There’s white things in the air! What’s this? I can’t believe my eyes, I must be dreaming. . . from Nightmare Before Christmas

44. We are not powerless specks of dust drifting around in the wind, blown by random destiny. We are, each of us, like beautiful snowflakes unique, and born for a specific reason and purpose. — Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

45. I love you because no two snowflakes are alike, and it is possible, if you stand tippy-toe, to walk between the raindrops. — Nikki Giovanni

46. Snowflakes, leaves, humans, plants, raindrops, stars, molecules, microscopic entities all come in communities. The singular cannot in reality exist. — – Paula Gunn

47. A snowdrift is a beautiful thing – if it doesn’t lie across the path you have to shovel or block the road that leads to your destination — Hal Borland

48. Nothing sets a person up more than having something turn out just the way it’s supposed to be, like falling into a Swiss snowdrift and seeing a big dog come up with a little cask of brandy round its neck. — Claud Cockburn

49. We build statues out of snow, and weep to see them melt. — Sir Walter Scott

50. He had read somewhere that the Eskimos had over two hundred words for snow, without which their conversation would probably have got very monotonous. So they would distinguish between thin snow and thick snow, light snow and heavy snow, sludgy snow, brittle snow, snow that came in flurries, snow that came in drifts, snow that came in on the bottom of your neighbour’s boots all over your nice clean igloo floor, the snows of winter, the snows of spring, the snows you remember from your childhood that were so much better than any of your modern snow, fine snow, feathery snow, hill snow, valley snow, snow that falls in the morning, snow that falls at night, snow that falls all of a sudden just when you were going out fishing, and snow that despite all your efforts to train them, the huskies have pissed on. — Douglas Adams

51. Over the roar of the wind she heard a crackle and snap behind her. She hugged the ground tighter and turned her head. It was one of the posts around the haystack that the wind had snapped off where it went into the ground. The wires were still attached to it, but the wind whipped it high in the murky air, held it there playfully though it quivered like a live thing, and then slapped it back toward the ground. Yes, and the wind would have been just as impervious if it had been a live thing it tossed up and down in the air. . . . that was the bone-chilling thing – the uncaringness of the elements. To the brutal wind Stacy Belford was nothing more than the fence post it had snapped in two. She was at the mercy of a faceless enemy, incapable of mercy. ” . . .”The wind didn’t know or care about me, not any more than a haystack – or the fence post. . .” “I know, I know. I remember when I first felt that way about a blizzard – that it would just as soon freeze me stiff as a board as it would a sack of potatoes.” . . . “And the stars kept right on shining up in the sky. . . I always thought stars were friendly. . . .” — Lenora Mattingly Weber

And so I wait for the last of this snow to melt, and I listen to the rain, beating the snow into shoe-sucking-deep mud, and I think, wow, it’s going to be idling-room only at the car wash. Not that I darken the car wash doors very often, because I own a hose and a sponge, and I have no money.

Come on, snow. SNOW. It’s winter, and it’s your time to shine. You don’t want to miss your cue and end up on stage in April, do you? Well, no offense, but I really don’t want to see you then. I want to see you NOW. Up the air just a few degrees, and come on down.

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Leave That Sleeping Teen Alone!!!!!

February 19, 2010 – 6:45 pm

I posted part of this a couple of years ago, but it’s the weekend and I think it bears posting again because when I think of all those exhausted teens being dragged from their beds because some adult thinks that because he’s up, everyone should be up, I get really angry on behalf of the teens.

Mamacita says:   I remember being so tired it wasn’t humanly possible to turn OVER, let alone get up.  But I got up anyway, because I had responsibilities.  I sleep-walked across campus many times, to take a test.  I took tests with migraines so severe there were sparks shooting out of my head and I could barely read the questions.  I took tests that I’d pulled two or three all-nighters in a row to prepare for, and I really believed I was prepared!  I have fallen asleep with my head resting on my completed test.   I never once cut class on a test day, even though there were plenty of times when I wanted to.  (Are you listening, students dear?) (Because midterms aren’t all that far away, you know.)

I think a great way of telling whether a person is an adult or still a kid is watching him/her to see if he/she is, on a regular basis, dragging the ol’ carcass out of bed to do something because he/she signed up to do it, promised people he/she would be there to do it, paid money to do it or is being paid money to do it, and by golly he/she is just SUPPOSED to be there to do it.  No excuses. If it’s an obligation that requires a timeline with an established start and finish point, get up.

That being said:

Unless there is a legitimate reason for a teen to get up on a Saturday or any vacation day, the kid should be allowed to stay in bed all DAY if that’s what he/she wants.  Item:  the possible fact that Mom and/or Dad are up is NOT a legitimate reason to make others get up.

Teenagers really do need far more sleep than even a baby, and they seldom get it.  Many adults don’t understand this, and they insist that a teen GET UP on a Saturday morning or a vacation, because YOU’RE WASTING HALF THE DAY! COME ON, GET UP, THERE ARE CHORES TO BE DONE, ETC ETC ETC and these things can’t be done at nighttime, apparently. . . .  Plus, there’s the absolutely ridiculous early-morning start of high school, which most experts agree is detrimental to most teens’ body clock and yet school systems insist on it, mostly for the convenience of the bus drivers and families who rely on their older kids to babysit the younger kids after school.

Doesn’t anybody care about our sleepy teens?  An average teenager’s body requires ten to fourteen hours of sleep sometimes!  Why won’t some parents let the kid sleep?  Just, you know, leave the kid alone and let him SLEEP?  Wasting the day?  Some people are night owls, plain and simple, and sleeping when they’re the most tired is just logical.  Not everybody loves the early morning.  I don’t.  I hate it, in fact.  “Are you ever going to get out of that bed?  Do you intend to sleep your life away?  Jane, you’re wasting half of your Saturday!”  No, I wasn’t.  My Saturday was divided differently than certain other people, that’s all.  And at nine or ten p.m., when those people were curled up in bed, I was just beginning to be at my mental-alertness peak. I’m still that way.

Teens are wasting good daylight hours when they could be DOING something?  No, they’re not.  Teenagers desperately need that sleep, so leave them alone on their days off and let them sleep. It doesn’t do any good to insist that a kid go to bed earlier, either.  Most of the time, a kid just isn’t sleepy enough to go to bed earlier.  Mother Nature is a wily old thing and wired us all differently, sleep-needs-wise.

So who’s right and who’s wrong?  Nobody and everybody, of course.  But far too many adults can’t fathom a kid who wants to sleep so much.  Nay, a kid who MUST sleep so much.  I understand it completely.  I sympathize. I’m all for leaving the kid alone and letting him sleep.  He needs that sleep.  He needs hours and hours and hours of blissful uninterrupted sleep, far more than adults need.  Leave the kid alone and let him sleep!

Unless, of course, the kid, of his own free will, signed up for a job, or a degree, in which case, the kid needs to be there, #2 pencil in hand, or spiffy uniform donned and ready to fry, right smack when he/she contracted to be there, or else.  Part of becoming an adult is forcing oneself to do things one really doesn’t want to do, simply because it’s the right thing to do.  Many forty-year-olds still haven’t learned this.

HOWEVER, if that’s the case, these kids should have signed up for the midafternoon or evening class, not the morning class.  And since they did sign up for it, they need to honor their commitment. Most of my students have jobs.  That’s good.  All teens should pay for their own car insurance, dates, and fast food with the pals.  But if a kid can get up for fast food with the pals, the kid can get up for class.

Parents, please leave your teens alone on vacation mornings.  Do you really think he/she would have set the iPod and cell phone down and turned his/her back on them unless there was a very, very, very good reason?  Your kids are genuinely tired.  They desperately NEED that sleep.  It’s not laziness.  It’s biology.

Just be grateful it’s the kind of in-bed biology that you don’t have to lose your own sleep over.

So, old people, get up at the asscrack break of dawn if you are wired that way (bizarre) but leave other people alone. It’s a funny thing, but early-rising people always seem to love that time of day so much, they can’t conceive of anyone not being grateful to be awakened to share it.

News flash, morning people: If you don’t get out of here right now and leave me alone, I’m going to have to hurt you. I’m not kidding. The only good sunrise is the one you watch before you hit the sheets.

And I was even worse as a teen.

Sincerely,
–Dracula’s daughter

P.S. If the teen has a real commitment, such as a job or a class, he/she needs a good LOUD alarm clock and some serious consequences falling on his/her head – not from you but from the college or employer – if there’s a question about whether or not to get up to meet that obligation. If you just want the car washed, you can bloody well wait until late afternoon. Sheesh. Go watch the sun rise and eat “breakfast” if it’s that important to you. Leave everybody else alone. LEAVE THEM ALONE. You are not like them, and they are not like you. They’re normal, and you’re a bloody freak.

Well, I feel better now.

Jane Goodwin | Education, Family, Humor, Jane Goodwin, Mamacita, Mamacita Jane, Mamacita Says, MamacitaG, Night owl, Not the imitation Mamacita, Oh No She Dinnit, Scheiss Weekly, The Things We Do For Love, The real Mamacita, children, love, parenting, schools, teenagers | Comments (6)