The Old and The Poor

James 1:27- Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world (TNIV).



For the past two weeks when I log onto my Facebook for iphone, I see all the status updates on the national health care plan. Both sides have taken a stand which seems to me that a compromise will not be reached. Both sides have used religion to defend their cause as well. My feelings are very much in the middle of the issue and of course are longer than the 140 characters Twitter allows.



Currently, I am working at an inner city school in Oklahoma City. 95% of the students or more receive a free or reduced breakfast and lunch. School supplies are not mandated because most families could not afford it. I guess that a majority of the students probably wear the same uniform all week. I see the working poor everyday. I know that a national system of health care would greatly benefit this population the most. The little boy who ran out of his asthma medication wouldn’t have to wait until mom found another job to pay for it. The little girl who cannot get the glasses she needs to see the board because her father who is working three part-time jobs yet doesn’t have money or insurance for the eye doctor. The twin boys with rotting teeth cannot go to the dentist because they come from a family of six. These are cases in which having some kind of national health care would help. America would be treating others the way all want to be treated. I could be behind something like this.



However, I have concerns. These concerns rise up out of a sense of obligation for others. For me, part of it comes from my religious background and from the idea of social justice.



My first concern is for the elderly. In the verse I posted above, “widows in their distress” calls me to look after the elderly. It can be tough in American being over 65. Imagine your weekly salary gone and now having to rely on social security and Medicare. As a country, due to the baby boomer population we are now faced with the fact that for the first time we will have a large population of elderly. During the passing of the stimulus bill, Tom Daschle’s feelings on the elderly were made known. Daschle expects the elderly to realize that they have health concerns due to the aging process. Ok, I can accept that. Baby boomers put down the botox and stop sucking the fat away from your bodies. It happens, accept it. What concerns me is this quote:

“Daschle says health-care reform “will not be pain free.” Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them.”[1]



What does this mean? If my aunt, who is currently on social security and Medicare, was now placed on a national health care plan, fell, hurt her hip, went to the doctor, and then was told her hip injury wasn’t bad enough to warrant a hip replacement, how long would she have to wait? Would she be told that the hip would be need to degenerate more to qualify for surgery? Or is this a condition of old age and she should accept it and not treat it? It terrifies me where we are going with a sense of duty and compassion towards the elderly in our society. I already feel that we don’t respect them enough to begin with and now we are going to reduce their health care plan to one that basically will for many a "hurry up and die plan.”



Second, I want to know what is put into place so that there will not be abuses to the plan. Many people who are considered poor often do things in a fraudulent manner to obtain more money. Last year, I had the unfortunate incident of overhearing a parent tell a child to fail the IQ test at the doctor. I knew as the child’s teacher that it was because they were trying to have the child qualify to have social security money sent to the family for care. There was nothing about this child where they would qualify. Due to the parental coaching, this child stopped working in class and went from high Cs to ridiculously low F’s. This is a blatant example of people using the system, which should help people, for their own gains. President Obama and Ms. Sebelius, what are you putting into place so that health care is not abused like all our other government progressive programs? Please do tell. I am concerned that my students may be misused for other reasons.



Finally, I am concerned about the fact the government wants to allow abortions on the health care plan. Personally, I don’t agree with abortion as I feel it is taking another human life. In spite of this, that is not why I am against the government paying for abortions. What concerns me is that while President Obama and others have all along claimed they want to make the United States a more equal country, this has overtones of ‘Survival of the Elite Classism.’ Who are the people that will probably end up on the national health care plan? That is right, not the people who can afford their health insurance premiums and have the ability to pay for pregnancy preventive items. The people that would end up on the health care plan will do so because it their most affordable option. Again, I think about some of the families I know at my school. Imagine a single mother with three kids. She is a member of the working poor, only making $12,000 per year. She finally has gotten all three kids into school full time so she doesn’t have to pay as much for day care and sitters. However, she just found herself pregnant. Her national insurance plan covers abortions and she makes the decision to go ahead and have one because she just cannot afford another child. What does this mean for our country? Oh good, we got rid of another poor person. They probably would have grown up to fill a jail cell. The thinking behind allowing abortions may not be as diabolical, but you have to admit, it does sound like the United States may become one giant upper class in the future.



Overall, I am concerned about the national health care plan. What once was a cause of social justice for me now has me concerned about the true morality in our country. If we do want to provide health care for all do not penalize a person based on age or financial status. Make sure that the system cannot be abused by anyone. Don’t have the loopholes that are in other programs, such as social security and welfare. Provide the elderly with the kind of care you want to have as a future senior citizen. I know that all of us would find it inhumane to ask someone to wait for the care because the condition wasn’t serious enough or it is a cause of the normal aging process. Instead of covering abortions, maybe the health care plan could cover the cost of pregnancy preventive items. Often that is why pregnancy occurs in this day and age- people either don’t have the knowledge or money to pay for the items. If those changes could be made, then I would be 100% behind the national health care plan.


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[1] “Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan: Betsy McCaughey,” February 9, 2009, www.bloomberg.org

My life according to ... Feist

Using only songs from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Try not to repeat a song title. It's a lot harder than you think!

1. Pick Your Artist: Feist
2. Are you male or female: When I Was a Young Girl
3. Describe yourself: I Feel It All
4. How do you feel? So Sorry
5. Describe where you currently live: Leisure Suite
6. If you could go anywhere, where would you go? The Water
7. Your favorite form of transportation: Tout Doucement
8. Your best friend is: Sea Lion Woman
9. Your favorite color is: Honey, Honey
10. What is the weather like? Mushaboom
11. Favorite time of day: One Evening
12. If your life was a T.V. show, what would it be called? Past In Present
13. What is life to you? Inside and Out
14. Your relationships: Secret Heart
15. Your fear: Lonely, Lonely
16. What is the best advice you have to give? Limit to Your Love
17. If you could change your name, you would change it to: Brandy Alexander
18. Thought for the day: Intuition
19. How I would like to die: Let It Die
20. My soul's present condition: Now At Last
21. My Motto: 1, 2, 3, 4

My Stephanie Plum Movie Poster

I enjoy reading the Stephanie Plum series by Janet_Evanovich. While finishing number 15, I was surfing the web to see if there was any news on the movie. Evanovich has sold the rights to a studio and originally wanted Sandra Bullock to play the lead. I happened to stumble upon another fan's movie poster here, which then prompted me to create my own. (I like that my Ranger is actually Cuban American. :-) ) I read on one site that Reese Witherspoon was in talks to play the title role. Even if it isn't true, I liked her the best for the role. Here is my amateur handiwork:

The Cast:

Stephanie Plum..................................................Reese Witherspoon

Joe Morelli............................................................Gilles Marini

Ranger.................................................................Enrique Murciano

Lula......................................................................Sherri Shepherd

Grandma Mazur................................................Cloris Leachman

Vinnie Plum........................................................Steve Buscemi

Connie Rossoli ..................................................................Molly Shannon

Ellen Plum............................................................Allison Janney

Frank Plum.............................................................John Ratzenberger

Benito Ramirez .........................................................Tyrese Gibson

Joyce Barnhardt ..................................................Jennifer Esposito

Who would you want to be in "One for the Money?"

ABC...it is not easy as 123...

I guess I am in a ranting mood. Or perhaps it is because topics come up that are near to heart, from reality TV to education.

Last night, while watching "So You Think You Can Dance," a teaser for the news on Fox came on that two large districts in Oklahoma were going to be on accreditation probation. I could easily guess that the district I work in, OKC Public Schools was one. However, I didn't watch the news and ending up finding out the results in the paper. Yes, I guessed right. Both OKC and TULSA are on accreditation probation.

First, what does accreditation probation mean? According to the testing results from the district, the students are not making proficient progress each year. The students are stagnate which results in lower and lower scores each year. To be put on accreditation probation is a serious matter because it takes two years of significant progress to be taken off the list. If not, the district could lose the accreditation.

Now to the matter at hand. I am an employee in OKC at the lowest performing school in my district's region. I know for a fact that our school is definitely on the "needs improvement" list. We had several faculty meetings about it last year. Karl Springer, our superintendent has created some kind of partnership with a group called America's Choice. Whatever that is. I have a feeling that it is not going to address some of the real issues:

1. Let's pay our debts off! Last year, do you know how many times I heard that OKC Public schools could not allot money for the teachers to use in their classroom because of various debts? Whether or not this is true, teachers need to be able to buy the supplies they need to create opportunities for learning. Yes, my school used title I money to purchase some items. Yes, our school provided us with some basic items. However, I would love to know that I could request items from various vendors like Mardel or Lakeshore and use some money from my employer instead of mine. What if I wanted to show the life cycle of butterflies to my class? The kit would come out of my own money.
2. Let's give our teachers adequate resources! First, I ended up teaching the entire year without all my teacher's manuals and curriculum. I probably only had 1/3 of what I actually was supposed to have to teach. It is a wonder we made it. Also, when I opened my teacher's manual last year to get ready to create my lesson on subtraction with regrouping, imagine my surprise when it was only covered in twelve lessons. Most of the student pages were filled with colored cartoons and less than fifteen problems. How are they supposed to properly learn a concept when the curriculum doesn't allow for sufficient practice? I ended up supplementing with outside resources, which had to be copied on copy paper that I was rationing. (I was allowed one case for the year. Hard to copy material to provide extra practice with 1500 sheets.) A test should see what you know, not how well you know the test information. If we don't have proper curriculum, students are only learning for the test and not for life. When you learn for life, you have a better chance at remembering what you need for the test.
3. Let's make tenure harder to get! Since I am alternatively certified, I am not going to be an education snob and say that all teachers should hold degrees in education to show that they are properly trained. I don't think training is the problem. What I find is that once a teacher hits tenure, especially in a district that is needing teachers, it is impossible to fire them. I think that tenure should be offered after teaching for at least 10 years. After you reach the 10 year mark, you should have to apply and go through a process similar to a first year teacher. If you passed, you should be re-evaluated every three to five years. I think that would take care of those teachers who show up and do nothing all day. Having these people teaching is what holds our students back.
4. Let's provide our teachers some relief in the classroom! Where I work, sometimes I feel like I am running a Bebe's Kids daycare. There were times I could not even teach because of the behavior problems. Not to mention I think that a class of over twenty in early elementary is too large. Make our class sizes smaller so we can discipline and teach or provide us with classroom aides. That way if a student decided to act out of control, I could have the aide help pick up where I was teaching for a moment so I could deal with the student. "The Class Must Go On..."
5. Let's attract and hire some younger teachers! My school is not for the faint of heart or for the jaded heart either. I would say that the average age for a teacher at my school would be somewhere in the forties. Now I value the experience and expertise of these teachers, especially during my first year last year. It was a great help. However, where is the district going to be in 10-15 years when the more experienced teachers retire? We need people to be interested in OKC public schools and decide to dedicate some time here. Most new grads I know ended up in the surrounding areas. Not that this is a negative thing. However, I am sure many are put off by the reputation OKC public school has developed. We need new and energetic teachers to create enthusiasm in the students.

Well, that is my rant for now. I have another issue with extending the school hours in order to progress on testing, but I will save it for another day.

I love this show too much!

After watching the results of "So You Think You Can Dance!" tonight, I felt that I needed to blog about the results. Because for me, it was quite shocking. (If you haven't seen the top 8 show and kick-off show, there are some spoilers ahead.)

I am a dance nut. Having grown up in ballet, tap, and jazz, it will always be one of my loves. Thus, I totally enjoy and appreciate all the hard work in each routine. Because of this love, I have been known to re-watch some of the routines and/or episodes. I totally agreed with Nigel that last night's show was lackluster in the first hour. Even on the second viewing, I really was still bored. However, the bottom four results were shocking to me: Janette and Kayla for the girls, and Brandon and Jason for the guys.

Janette? Are you kidding me? Um, where has everyone been when she dances? Although she is only formally trained as a salsa dancer, this girl has a gift. She excelled at every routine, including a Wade Robson one (my personal fave!). You cannot tell me that she deserves the bottom four, especially when she "rumbaed" Evan.

Kayla- Well, I am not a huge fan. In last few weeks she has grown on me a lot. She is trying to get into the character more, and like Nigel suggested, it has made a difference that she pulled her hair back. You have to see the expression on the face of the dancer, it helps to make the character. Plus, I loved that zombie dance. I could take her or leave her at this point.

Brandon- A super strong dancer since the beginning. I have been impressed when he gets out there and does his task for the night at hand. He was awesome in Battlefield last night. My thing against him is that when he dances for his life, he always has to throw a few flips in there. I guess I am too much of a purist.

Jason- I was feeling indifferent about him for a long time. It wasn't until he lost his original partner and danced with Janene that I had to give him props as a dancer. I enjoyed him in both the Broadway and hip hop number.

Now for my feelings on the results. Janette? Are you kidding me? Really it should have been Kayla and Melissa. I know, some of you are shocked because I am rooting against the ballerina. But here is the deal- She is too much of a ballerina. Personally, I don't think she has adapted as smoothly to the other styles of dance. You can see the classical ballet in all that she does, including her turnout, which is great for ballet but not Latin ballroom. Plus, when she dances for her life, I can think of a lot more exciting and interesting ballet moves to do. She was better this week, but I want to see some awesome foutee turns. Brandon? Hmmm. I really thought the bottom two would be Evan and Ade. Honestly, I haven't seen anything awesome from Ade except for his Napoleon and Tabitha hip-hop routine with Janette. (Which had a lot to do with Janette...I'm just saying...) The only reason Melissa and Ade were saved was because they lucked out with the breast cancer dance. While it was very full of artistry and expression, I think people voted because of sympathy. If America was truly voting on Melissa and Ade's performance overall, it would have been about a 50%, while the rest of the couples I felt did a better job.

Carrie Ann Inaba? Can you please get Janette a job on Dancing with the Stars like Lacey Schiwmmer? Please?

"Just like a tattoo, I’ll always have you, I’ll always have you."

Tattoos are everywhere today. From John Mayer to Barbie, the hot trend is to sport some ink. Personally, I believe that if you are an adult, you can decide whether you want to immortalize something on your body that will last your entire earthly lifetime. No judgments here from me. For a brief time during my blue, pink, and purple hair phase, I wanted a pretty butterfly. (Glad I was talked out of that one. I would have totally regretted it.) However, while at my grandmother’s, I found a copy of Women’s Day and ended up reading this interesting article about adults and our tattoo culture. Basically, one woman was trying to raise her daughters while staying true to her conservative beliefs. (The author was against tattoos.) She pointed out that tattoos have become so acceptable that there are even children’s books written about the concept. While pondering all of this on a long car ride, here are some observations about getting a tattoo I have come up with:

1. While working at a day camp last summer, I overheard two little boys arguing about their moms. I figured it was a typical your momma argument. After I wandered over, I realized they were discussing which mom had the cooler tattoo. Even if you do not have children now, at least give them something they can argue about. Saying “my mom has a dolphin on her back” is going to win over “my mom has some guy’s name on her wrist.”

2. As a teacher, I meet all kinds of people. The most interesting people are usually the parents because they are never quite what you pictured a particular student having. Despite my open mind, sometimes I still automatically judge others. Be careful how big and the location of your tattoo is. Even if you are a member of the Stepford Soccer Mom or Dad’s club, and you have some giant ink on you,( i.e. a name, a glass of brandy, a scantily clad woman, to name a few things) and I can clearly see it (i.e. arms, neck, collarbone) , I may be left wondering what kind of home my student lives in. Is it a punk rock free for all? Or did mom or dad make an unwise choice in their youth?

3. Make sure that you know what you are getting into. Don’t get tribal art or Chinese if you cannot understand it. How do you know that it stands for peace? It could mean piece, thus creating another set of problems.

4. Make sure your tattoo artist can read. Especially if you are having something witty in a different language place on your body. See Hayden Panettiere.

5. And finally, ask at least three different people, people who will tell you their honest opinion, about what you want and where you want it.

So, how many books should I order for future baby showers? :-)

More Cat-like than Dog-like..

LORELAI: Two days of total mind-numbing pampering. Massages, facials, aromatherapy.
EMILY: My goodness, you make it sound like heaven.
LORELAI: It’s as close as you’ll ever come to being a dog.
EMILY: I beg your pardon?
LORELAI: You know, a whole life of nothing but eating, sleeping, lying on your back and getting rubbed.
EMILY: I’d love the comparison to stop there.

Last week, on my New Mexico Adventure, I received my first facial at La Bella Spa in Albuquerque. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to get because I wasn’t too keen on a massage…..I think I would rather be closer to being a cat. You know, you only let certain people touch you and then you can saunter away from the rest of the world. Anyway, after much debate, I decided to get the organic facial. In the description, it outlined some stress relieving yoga moves. I like organic products. I like yoga. Couldn’t be that stressful right?
First, I laid down on this table while soothing nature sounds played in a darkened room. If I would have been left alone, I probably could have fallen into a Rip Van Winkle nap. The esthetician came in with a calm voice and then started to massage and move my shoulders and arms into the yoga positions. CRACK! My neck and shoulders proceeded to pop very loudly. However, they finally felt good, having all that school stressed manipulated out. Next she put some delicious smelling creams on my face and then a steam mist. I think I am liking this facial business.

ACK! Suddenly a bright light was shining on my face! The esthetician apologized and I settled into her digging out all the pores on my face, including ones that I didn’t know existed. All that relaxing stuff? Out the window. Finally the light went off and she put some more yummy cream on my face and slapped the required two cucumbers on my face. At this point, and it could be because I was relaxed, I wanted to burst out laughing and pull a Lorelai and ask if this was my afternoon snack.

While I was trying not to chuckle, I hear her making a potion. I thought, Oh good, a great mask to finish things off with. Then the smell happened. A very stinky smell. One that brought visions of cat vomit to my mind. I hoped that it was not going on my face and as soon as the though went through my mind, she was glopping the mask on my face. Not only did it smell like cat vomit but also it felt like cold cat vomit (I only know this from cleaning up cat vomit, FYI)! After the mask, the esthetician rubbed some lotion on my face and I was finished with my first facial. The lotion took forever to settle in, but I tell you, in spite of the craziness, my face felt like a baby’s face the next day.

Overall, I might consider a spa day in the future. However, I maintain, that I am more cat than dog.