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What did you learn in school today?

5/10/2012

I need to thank the administration and the school board members of my small rural school district for being so resolutely resistant to change.

Thank you.

Thank you for letting me become a stronger and more confident woman.
Thank you.

Thank you for letting me learn that small minds when banded together have unwieldy powers.

Thank you.

Thank you for letting me find an inner strength that allows me to get out of my car each morning and carry a picket sign up and down the sidewalk, and truly enjoy that time each morning.

Thank you.

Thank you for letting me realize that common sense and common courtesy are not as important to some
as they are to me.

Thank you.

Thank you to the school board chair person for trying to barter one of 3 changes I requested for "letting IT go." Nope no deal. No thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for allowing me to learn that I have no need to be liked by you.
That is a wonderful gift indeed.

The superintendent called my sign disingenuous tonight and I told him it was not disingenuous, it was correct.
Geez.
Then the old, "Well the recruiters did not actually show up 18 times...."

Followed by my -"Well, if they did, they would have been welcomed."
That went right over the
their heads.
Geez.
Just make a standard policy.
One size DOES fit all.

There is ONE thinking person on the school board.
And to THAT person, I say
"Thank you."

That's what I learned in school today.

1 Comment

Get your ducks in a row.

5/10/2012

0 Comments

There is a school board meeting tonight and I have been informed that it is OK if I present the last 3 remaining items that I would like the school board to address:

Set a policy to limit all recruiters from any individual organization to 2 on- campus visits per year. This would allow the Navy 2 visits, the Marines 2 visits, Harvard 2 visits, Intel 2 visits, etc.
Create a policy that prohibits on-campus recruiters from soliciting contact information from students.
Amend the current opt-out form that parents sign to restrict the school district from giving out student's personal contact information to include ALL students in the secondary school, not just the 11th and 12th graders.

I do not consider any of these to be any more than plain and simple common sense changes in the best interest of the children who attend school in this small rural school district.

The No Child Left Behind Act specifically states that the military recruiters are allowed the same access to students as other post-secondary educational opportunities.

That would be colleges and employers. By setting a limit for each type of recruiter, it allows equal access, which is to the letter of the law.

This same law allows the military recruiters to ask for contact information for children in secondary schools.

By law they have this right.

The law also states that a parent can sign an opt-out form and the school is then - by law- NOT required to give out this personal information.

At this district, the secondary school is grades 7-12. The current opt out form does not protect the parental rights of the students in grade 7-10.

It is all in the details.

Times can change.

Kids grow and move on.

Administrations at school districts change.

World politics change.

Wars come and go.

With good policies in place,

children are protected.

And, isn't that what it is supposed to be all about?
Children.

0 Comments

I am the crazy dancing man.

5/3/2012

7 Comments

I will pick some flowers this morning and take them to the administrative assistant who raised her voice at me.

She is the one who answers the phone when people call about me and my protest sign.

She is the one who has to face people who walk in to talk about me and my protest sign.

She is the one who thought up the idea to change the reader board to show "facts" about the military/college numbers that turned out to be non-factual.

She has no power to change the school policy so she is stuck.

No matter how she feels about me or the military or politics or the weather - she is the sitting duck.

That must be miserable.

I will offer her a sincere apology because I raised my voice at
her this week.
That was wrong of me.
I am a better person than that.

This video shows how I feel each day when I protest in front of the the small rural school district.

I am happy to be there every morning.

Especially today.

I feel great today.

I know that a second person will show up and dance with me.
I just know it.
And then, how fun that will be, eh?
So until then, I am the happy sign-toting, smiling waving mom.

Hey hey hey
I am unstoppable.
Hey hey hey.

7 Comments

Two sided

5/1/2012

5 Comments

I drove by the school last night to see if the "Factual" sign had been correct to show the, well, uh, the "Facts."
I saw this.
Good.
One day's notice for this meeting is not much - as the "non-factual" sign had been displayed for almost 4 days.

I was OK with this sign.

This side faces the street.

I did not know that this was a
two-sided sign.
Until I looked.
Sigh....
Look at that sign that was indeed, not "Factual" at whatever time it was changed yesterday.
Someone made the effort to take the non-factual "4" off the reader board and replaced it with a non-factual, "3."
In fact, yesterday, it should have been "2" colleges.
I thought I had made that point clear in email and in person.
So.....
I sent an email last night to see why it had been changed to reflect another non-factual number.

I will not go into the details of when I went in person to ask why the factual sign was not correct yesterday.
That may be a story another time.

Ok - I forgot to update the number in a more professional manner last night. Tomorrow it will be better.
I strive to be totally factual.

Me and my shadow protesting this morning....

5 Comments

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What did you learn in school today?

Get your ducks in a row.

I am the crazy dancing man.

Two sided

Me and my shadow protesting this morning....

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