Jennifer Shafer Wood, Senator Richard Blumenthal, Rusa D'Alessandro
Stay tuned for International Women's Day 2016!
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Homework, the race to nowhere...
Homework is a major stress in my family’s life. It is intrusive as well as counter productive. There is no research to back up the claim that homework is good for children, makes smarter students, or makes kids more ready for college, and the challenges of the world. In fact, homework stresses children out. I am a mom to four children and I can tell you first hand it creates a lot turmoil in my children's lives. My oldest daughter, who is now in high school, was up late into the night for most of 8th grade doing hours of homework. One night she was rocking on the floor pulling her hair and crying! It just so happens 8th grade is a big year for students taking standardized tests. We approached the middle school principal and got basically nowhere. His attitude was that stress is a part of student life. So we signed our daughter up for homework club at his suggestion. And my daughter refused to go. Instead, she sucked it up and did the homework. She complained less, afraid that we would send her to homework club if she mentioned a word about homework.
To keep up with all her work she told me she wanted to drink energy shots. Energy shots are those little bottles of caffeine and who knows what, that are sold in convenience stores. I was not too happy by her request and took it as an opportunity to explain to her how bad those energy shots and Monster drinks are for her growing body. She explained to me that some of her friends drink them to keep up with school work. That is a problem. Are we pushing our children over the edge, to the point of using “drugs” (caffeine is an addictive drug)?
My daughter wanted to use a concoction of caffeine and high doses of sugar and chemicals, that are harmful to her body, in the race for good grades. At the end of the day, when we take a step back and look at life, grades are a blip in the whole of the experience, of what learning is all about. I am thankful that she can’t easily buy energy drinks, we live too far away for any convenience stores, but quite honestly, those energy drinks shouldn’t be be sold to minors in the first place! And homework and good grades should not encourage kids to use “drugs”, (Caffeine is an addictive drug, especially when formulated in high doses and used for the effect of caffeine.)
On many a weekend my daughter was up in her room doing hours of homework. She was cranky, tired, and did school work almost around the clock. Fortunately her freshman year of high school has been much easier so far. Not surprising though, since the next big test year is not until the 10th grade. I am sure her homework will increase then. Did I mention we live in a district with two schools that are proud Blue Ribbon schools? Incase you’re not aware of what a National Blue Ribbon School Program is:
“The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program recognizes public and private elementary, middle, and high schools based on their overall academic excellence or their progress in closing achievement gaps among student subgroups. Every year the U. S. Department of Education seeks out and celebrates great American schools, schools demonstrating that all students can achieve to high levels. More than 7,500 of schools across the country have been presented with this coveted award.” http://www2.ed.gov/programs/nclbbrs/index.html
Originally The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program was designed to close the achievement gap in schools where at least 40% of the student population was at a disadvantage. In 2003 as part of, No Child Left Behind, The National Blue Ribbon School Program changed, “In 2003, the program was restructured to bring it in line with the No Child Left Behind Law, placing a stronger emphasis on state assessment data and requiring schools to demonstrate high academic success.” School were able to nominate themselves in the beginning. Now schools earn the titled based on these criteria, “Nominated schools submit applications describing school operations such as the use of assessments and assessment data, curricula, professional development, leadership, and community and family involvement. A total of 417 schools may be nominated in any year; state quotas are determined by numbers of students and schools. The Blue Ribbon award is considered the highest honor an American school can achieve.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Blue_Ribbon_Schools_Program
So what does this mean for the student? On paper it means better schools, but in reality it means more work, more stress, and greater emphasis on testing data, which brings us to why I am writing this, homework and stress. What does homework have to do with testing and stress? Everything! Ask any parent and they will tell you homework is lots of textbooks, workbooks, worksheets, computer work, and lots of busy rote memorization. Standardized testing relies a lot on this type of learning. My daughter’s backpack weighs over 10lbs! One night my stepdaughter was doing math homework on the computer for three hours. She had to answer 10 math questions, if she got even one wrong, she had to answer 10 new questions. It was unbelievable. I am sorry my children have to spend countless hours doing this kind of work.
Have you tried to read a textbook since you were in school? I love history, but the American Revolution is as boring as my daughter claims it is when you read about it from a textbook, which by the way is manufactured by a small group of companies, http://www.wired.com/2012/01/why-education-publishing-is-big-business/. The largest textbook publisher is Pearson, Pearson is also the producer of the controversial Smarter Balance Assessment Consortium aka SBAC. Pearson collects private data from school districts throughout the USA. Actually, the amount of private data collected about our children in schools these days is alarming! Last spring, Pearson was caught spying on students in NJ, “The spying–or “monitoring,” to use Pearson’s word–was confirmed at one school district–the Watching Hills Regional High School district in Warren by its superintendent, Elizabeth Jewett.”http://www.bobbraunsledger.com/breaking-pearson-nj-spying-on-social-media-of-students-taking-parcc-tests/.
Some may argue that to keep the test “secure”, spying on children is okay if it stops cheating. Cheating is never good, but Pearson really doesn't care about cheating, they care about protecting their private intellectual property. “Currently, Pearson has partnered with 18 states in the U.S., as well as Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, to produce pricey testing materials. For a five-year contract, Pearson was paid $32 million to produce standardized tests for New York. Its contract in Texas was worth $500 million. Pearson also owns Connections Academy, a company that runs for-profit, virtual charter schools. It also owns the GED program, although competitors have been creating alternatives in order to combat Pearson’s expensive tests. By and large, the massive corporation has far-reaching control over the education industry.” http://www.alternet.org/education/corporations-profit-standardized-tests
The question that begs to be asked, why are we relying on giant corporations to produce the textbooks and the tests that our children learn from? Pearson is basically designing American public school curriculum. The greatest irony I find with Pearson is that Pearson is an English company, creating textbooks, and spying on our children. I know the American Revolution was a long time ago and England and the USA are allies, but why is an English company producing American textbooks? Why aren't local school districts producing local textbooks? Some may argue that we need oversight. Why can’t we have a basic outline, and each state determines a core of what children should learn i.e. history, science, math, and reading? How each district achieves those goals should be based on their own assessments and not a giant corporation making billions in profits, while homogenizing our country. Diversity is a good thing and makes a stronger country. Unfortunately, It’s all about money, not education. Local school districts are beholden to the Federal Government’s money. The Federal government is beholden to the policymakers, and the policymakers are beholden to the people who fund their campaigns. It’s quite the vicious circle. Local schools get money from the Feds by complying with federal mandates like No Child Left Behind, and Race To The Top, which gave us Common Core and the SBAC and all this awful homework. Honestly, I don’t care about Blue Ribbon Schools and test scores, I care about diversity in education, I care about deep learning, not something a textbook teaches, and most of all I care about my children's health.
My younger children who are twins, have it just as hard as their older sisters. 5th grade is preparing them for loads, and loads of intense schoolwork in middle school. Again, I met with my 5th grader’s principal, she was nice, and suggested I time my children. When they reach the national education homework standard of 10 minutes per grade, per night, they could be done. Not as simple as it seems when a teacher doesn't cooperate with that rule, and it's still a lot for a kid to do! To help my children keep up with the demands of homework we signed them up for homework club. I was reluctant, 7 hours all day in school is long enough, but, we are giving it a try. So far, I got a pink slip home because my daughter didn’t finish her homework even after spending an hour after school! So I wrote the teacher and told him it was too much, again, I got nowhere other than, I totally disagree with the amount of work he assigns. At least he knows my position and we haven’t gotten a pink slip lately, so maybe my complaining is having an impact?
Life in our home since the school year began has been met with a lot of belly aching about homework, tests, and stress. It’s really not very fun and not a good way to instill a love of learning that’s for sure. The worst part is when my younger fifth grade twins wakeup in the middle of the night crying about school, a test, not finishing homework, or not studying enough. Both my 5th graders have done this. My daughter couldn’t sleep one night and when I asked what was wrong she was crying about a test, that she was afraid and couldn’t sleep, because she was afraid that she would fail. My son woke up screaming in the night because of school related stress. He’s not himself somedays, and that makes me sad. I picked him up from school early twice already this year due to stomach issues, basically stress. When I brought him home he was fine. He cries about school. He has a really hard time with sitting in a chair, at a desk, for the majority of his day. If he doesn’t compete his homework he could be subjected to this: “He/she may be asked to stay in during recess to complete the work.” http://www.portlandctschools.org/brownstone-handbook.html. Children only get gym a few times a week and 25 minutes of recess daily. Studies have shown that children do better when they have more time to move their bodies. Hours and hours of sitting and doing school work is unhealthy. My pediatrician told me that my oldest daughter has small bruises on her spine from sitting in a chair at school all day. It’s too much sitting! We're making progress though, recently Connecticut adopted a law making it illegal to deny a child recess,
“public act 13-173 b) Not later than October 1, 2013, each local and regional board of education shall adopt a policy, as the board deems appropriate, concerning the issue regarding any school employee being involved in preventing a student from participating in the entire time devoted to physical exercise in the regular school day, pursuant to subsection (a) of this section, as a form of discipline. For purposes of this section, "school employee" means (1) a teacher, substitute teacher, school administrator, school superintendent, guidance counselor, psychologist, social worker, nurse, physician, school paraprofessional or coach employed by a local or regional board of education or working in a public elementary, middle or high school; or (2) any other individual who, in the performance of his or her duties, has regular contact with students and who provides services to or on behalf of students enrolled in a public elementary, middle or high school, pursuant to a contract with the local or regional board of education.” https://www.cga.ct.gov/2013/act/pa/pdf/2013PA-00173-R00HB-06525-PA.pdf
Seems someone is not doing their homework at our school and is in violation of CT law.
Having time with your family, pursuing other activities outside of school, time to read what you want, to stare at the sky if that’s what you want to do, does not interfere with learning, it enhances it. Deep learning, the kind that stays with you for life is not about rote memorization. When a child learns to read, it’s like riding a bike, you don’t forget how to read. By the way, all children learn to read at different paces, but that’s a whole other article that I need to write! Here is a list of some articles and websites that I have found on my journey to leave school at school and restore personal time for my children and family.
“If we step back from the heated debates about homework and look at how homework is used around the world, we find the highest homework loads are associated with countries that have lower incomes and higher social inequality.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/09/02/homework-could-have-an-effect-on-kids-health-should-schools-ban-it/
“What parents and teachers need is support from administrators who are
willing to challenge the conventional wisdom. They need principals who
question the slogans that pass for arguments: that homework creates a link between school and family (as if there weren’t more constructive ways to make that connection!), or that it “reinforces” what students were taught in class (a word that denotes the repetition of rote behaviors, not the development of understanding), or that it teaches children self-discipline and responsibility (a claim for which absolutely no evidence exists).
Above all, principals need to help their faculties see that the most important criterion for judging decisions about homework (or other policies, for that matter) is the impact they’re likely to have on students’ attitudes about what they’re doing. “Most of what homework is doing is driving kids away from learning,” says education professor Harvey Daniels. Let’s face it: Most children dread homework, or at best see it as something to be gotten through. Thus, even if it did provide other benefits, they would have to be weighed against its likely effect on kids’ love of learning.” http://www.alfiekohn.org/article/rethinking-homework/
“The 2013 American Psychological Association survey, for example, found that 45 percent of U.S. schoolchildren were stressed-out by school - and homework was the leading cause.”
“We tend to think of homework as a necessary part of learning, a practice that teaches children discipline and keeps them from idleness. Yet a growing body of research reveals an astonishing truth: homework has little to no benefit in enhancing learning or performance in elementary and middle school, and only minor benefits, usually in math, in high school. This conclusion comes courtesy of a review of all major homework studies recently highlighted the Washington Post, including an update to a 2001 review conducted by the leading U.S. researcher on homework, Harris Cooper of Duke University.” http://www.alternet.org/education/why-more-and-more-parents-are-opting-their-kids-out-homework
Friday, May 15, 2015
The 8th Annual Thank The Lake Day
Joseph FireCrow
Thank The Lake Day is an annual event that takes place at Sears Park in EastHampton every third Sunday in May to give thanks to Lake Pocotopaug. “It’s about raising awareness, we need to pay attention to our planet,” explained Priscilla Connors producer and founder of Thank The Lake Day. Connors is a dynamic and creative women. She is owner of Positively Clean, a unique cleaning service company out of East Hampton, who offers nontoxic organic cleaners and sacred space clearings. Sacred space clearing is a way of using energy to clear a home, building, or natural landscape of negative energies. With a variety of techniques Priscilla clears the land’s energy, and then cleans the home or business with organic nontoxic supplies that she makes with pure essential oils. “If you know about Reiki, this is the easiest way to explain it. It’s Reiki for the land, using symbols and co-creating, by working with the land and the earth’s magnetic grids to bring your property to it’s highest frequency and vibration,” explained Priscilla. Encouraged by her husband to write down her cleaning recipes and sacred space clearing techniques she wrote a book, The Field Guide To Vibrational Cleaning. “Positively Clean addresses the self, the home, the community, and our sacred Earth.” PositivelyClean.com
When Priscilla and her family brought a home on Lake Pocotopaug she fell in love with the lake and it’s natural beauty. Lake Pocotopaug whose name was derived from the Pequot Indians is a 512 acre natural lake. Back in the early part of the 20th century Lake Pocotopaug was a resort community that attracted hundreds of tourists during the summer season. Unfortunately the lake has seen better days. Each year there are large algae blooms. According to Wikipedia,“In recent years the lake has become a place of ecological study due to the large scale algae blooms that resulted in 2000. Tests have shown that longstanding shoreline development and fertilizer use are causing increasing issues.” In the early spring and summer the lake is clear. From the beginning of July to the end of the season the lake is green with algae, “ The algae blooms because of the phosphor. It’s like a green infection,” explained Connors. The phosphor comes from water runoff. Lake Pocotopaug is in a watershed and whenever people use toxic chemicals there is runoff into the lake. Gas powered motor boats add to the problem as well. The algae was so bad one year that there was a large fish die off. In an effort to help clean the lake and educate the community, Priscilla put her space clearing techniques to work and produced Thank The Lake Day, now in it’s 8th consecutive year. The first year of Thank the Lake Day Priscilla did a sacred space clearing of Sears Park. The following year Sears Park was awarded a large grant to improve the park. “Ever since then, every year, there’s always something a little bit more done to the park to improve it. That’s what happens with sacred space clearing, it may happen right away, or it may take a few years, but there’s always positive change.”
When the idea to produce Thank The Lake Day came to Priscilla, she reached out to Joseph FireCrow. FireCrow is a renowned Native American flute player, he won a Grammy as guest artist on David Darling’s “Prayer For Compassion”, as well as seven Native American Music Awards. Connors met FireCrow while attending various Native American Pow Wows. A Pow Wow is a gathering of North America’s Native people. Priscilla explained, “When I got the idea for Thank The Lake Day, Joseph FireCrow immediately came to my mind. I contacted him and I said, our lake is in peril, we need to bring awareness to the people about it, and educate them on the watershed and better ways to maintain it organically, and he said, “Absolutely!” Now eight years later Joseph FireCrow still comes to share his flute, drum and stories to raise awareness about the importance of the planet’s health. For FireCrow, caring for our community goes beyond our backyard, and this caring is essential for our environment today. So many people are detached from the earth. Using his flute and drum Joseph shares stories and songs from his ancestors. “The Flutes that I play evoke strong emotions and thought.” He went on to describe how music can be a means to open people up, to connect them to each other, and the planet. “ The drum represents the heartbeat of grandmother earth. The heart beat of our people. When we drum we are the earth,” he said. Since the first Thank the Lake Day eight years ago Joseph and Priscilla have seen the water change on Lake Pocotopaug, the return of wildlife, and more people coming each year. “ I would not imagine it would be where it is today. The involvement from the community all the artists and artisans that want to be there to share in our humanity, and how we connect with our grandmother earth, and with all the animals. I am simply amazed!”
Festivities begin at 1PM with local music, yoga, and vendors. There will be food for sale by Higher Grounds. Stop and Shop donates flower petals to spread on the lake. Also, Positively Clean will be hosting a soap drive to benefit East Hampton’s Food Bank. For more information visit Thank The Lake Day on FB, or visit positivelyclean.com
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Parenting In The Age Of Social Media
All social media apps come with terms of usage. Before allowing your child to download any app it is wise to go over the terms of usage with them. This teaches them to be aware of what the rules are, and what they are signing onto. and it keeps you as the parent abreast of what they are doing. Instagram's first term states,"You must be 13 years or older to use this site." Then why do some parents knowingly allow their underage child to download the app and violate the terms? I have seen underage children online act dangerously foolish via social media. I have seen underage children post inappropriate photos, use bad language, bully others, and in some extreme cases met predators in person. Children must be mature enough to use social media. Would you drop your child off in a city alone without supervision? Any sane parent would say, No Way! Then why allow a young child to have social networking apps before they are ready?
When a child does reach 13, and you allow them to use social media, it is your responsibility to check on them and know what they are up to. You won't know everything, but keep a pulse on your kids, and teach them to be Internet smart. With the Internet comes responsibility for both teens and parents. There is a reason for terms of usage. If you give your child access online too soon you are opening Pandora's box. Let a child be a child. Educate yourself and follow your child's activity. Don't fall into the nagging and begging... So and so has it. You as the parent must be strong. You purchased that smart phone, so be smart and teach your child to be Internet safe! http://www.netsmartz.org/InternetSafety
Kids Are Not Standard
Common Core
is the demise of education. Standardization is what it sounds like, standard,
but children don't come standardized. When you peel the layers away from
standardized testing and see it for what is, you realize education has become a
commodity. Standardized testing is a billion dollar industry that operates in
private. As a parent you can't even see the test your child is taking. Why?
Because the test is PRIVATE INTELECTUAL PROPERTY!
Gone are the
days of creative freedom in the classroom. Gone are the days of just plain PE
in grammar school. Now PE is health too and you take a test about playing
basketball instead of actually playing basketball. Gone are lunch periods where
children can eat. What, you say? They still have lunch period, right? They have
about 15 minutes to eat! My children often bring home half their lunch because
they did not have time to eat! Gone are the days of hands on art projects,
creative thinking, reading for fun, games, poetry, and music. Yes, you'll see
buzzwords about these subjects around school, and your kids may have art, and
they may bring home a project here and there, but the focus is the test! Test,
test, test!
Chew on this
for one brief moment. Wealthy students in private schools are not tested like
this! The policymakers who signed the deal with the McGraw Hill et el to
produce the PRIVATE SBAC tests have kids in private schools! Yes, money buys
education in more ways than one. Public education has become a new market for
money and our kids are for sale. Did you know your children's data is mined via
the school to corporations? Did you know your Blue Ribbon School is not about
merit per say, it's about business! The business of testing, and lots of money
is being made!
There is a
price on our children's heads and advertisers have a direct link into their
young minds via school. This is not what public education is suppose to be.
What happened? What happened to local towns controlling what students learn?
Parental input, teacher creativity. Test proponents will argue standardized
testing ensures everyone is learning the same thing. How about this,
homogenized people don't make for strong and active communities. We're not
robots!
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Torture and The NDAA
What shocks me most about the release of the CIA torture report
is how accepting the American public is in regards to it. Where's the outrage?
Instead a lot of people seem okay with torture. That truly surprises me. Holding
officials accountable for crimes against humanity in no way supports acts of
terror. You can punish terrorists with law. What happened to liberty and
justice for all? We have bombed Iraq, Afghanistan, killed Saddam and Osama; our
drones kill daily on foreign soil. Our bombs kill innocent people in our war on
terror all over the world. There has got to be a better way! Since when do two
wrongs make a right? Isn't that what we teach our children? Isn't that why we
have a court of law? Isn't that what makes us a great country, the blind eyes
of justice, a fair trial? Law does not act based on emotions or retaliation.
Law acts on the facts. Our system is not perfect. But isn't brutality worse? How is torture ever justified? An
eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." Mahatma Gandhi,
Here is something to ponder. When we allow for this egregious
abuse of power, for crimes of terror and torture to be committed in secrecy by
public officials, behind closed doors, we are no longer the democratic society we claim to be. We
have become the culture of see something say something, fear and paranoia. I
see something, and I am saying something. Torture is wrong. I see a democracy headed to ruin, to
be ruled by a violent oligarch. Are you aware of the National Defense
Association Act aka the NDAA? Do you know what secret policies mean for democracy, the rules of law,
and our fundamental rights as a free and civilized society? The NDAA strips
all Americans of their constitutional rights protected under law, Habeas Corpus, due
process, Miranda rights, and privacy.
Here's the part where you should be really concerned. I know you
have nothing to hide you're not a terrorist. You feel good knowing the
government's got your back. Well think again. Terror is loosely defined in the
NDAA and suspicion alone is cause to strip you of your rights. Just being in the wrong place, at the wrong time, could send you away.
You could be online researching terror and inadvertently raise a red flag to
one of the Internet spies, or you and could just be accused by someone who
doesn't like you, or maybe you're a reporter covering a controversial story and
your interviewee is a suspected terrorist. You no longer have rights under the NDAA, they have been
stripped as though we had no Constitution or Bill of Rights. Not only that, the
NDAA can claim any land or property it wants. You could be scooped up and NO
ONE in your immediate circle will know what happened to you. Under the NDAA you
have no right to a phone call, a lawyer, NOTHING! You could be shipped to a
secret prison overseas. Left to languish in a cell... I know you’re
not a terrorist, so why should you care? Because we have a Constitution, a Bill of Rights, and
laws to combat terror. We do not need a government who uses torture as a
means to justice with the right to lock us up indefinitely while committing crimes against humanity behind closed doors to have this kind of power!!! Please see
articles bellow. And remember, if we turn a blind eye to the persecution of
others thinking they deserve it for whatever reason and that torture trumps
law, we have slumped into the darkest of ages.
Here's link to an article http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/national-defense-authorization-act/
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/itemchris_hedges_responds_to_ndaa_defeat_20130717
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