Thoughts about First Paper

            Deciding on a topic, organizing my inner thoughts and then putting said ‘thoughts’ onto paper is as natural, to me, as breathing. I love to write, I always have.

             I find the experience of putting pen to paper, in my efforts to convey my thoughts, to be rewarding. However, I don’t think I ever gave it much thought as to ‘How’ I worked through the process and now that I am trying to put my thoughts into words regarding my ‘process’ I am experiencing a phenomena known as ‘Writers Block.’ Therefore, with this obstacle in front of me, I have decided to meditate and in my trance like state, I came up with a possible ‘process’ that seems to make some sense as to “How I write.”

I live in an unorganized organized world. I am the mother of two very active teenage daughters so it should ‘go without saying’ that I multi-task with high levels of behind the scenes success. What that means to me is this: I ‘calculate’ and ‘execute’ at the same time and I don’t seek out counsel or accolades during the ‘process’ of undertaking whatever task is in front of me. I just ‘get it done.’  Same holds true when I write. I have a lot of behind the scenes thoughts and rather then taking up precious time to draw a web of thoughts on paper, (planning and organizing) I ‘free-write’ and write a draft and then I read what I wrote out loud. Hearing my vocal voice say aloud the words my internal voice whispered assists me in determining if my I ‘thought’ are cohesive and organized in a favorable fashion. As I hear my words, I tweak and reorganize (my drafting and re-writing process) and by the time I am finished reading aloud, I have, what I presume to be, a well thought out and organized paper.

Applying "How I learned" priciples. Oct 1, 2012

    

     I wish I could get into this assignment, but I am having a hard time concentrating, focusing and even grasping ‘how to’ in regards to the particulars. I read the assigned reading and took from it the importance of ‘practicing’ in the efforts of perfecting a skill or talent, but I am not following how this ‘free writing’ or‘blogging’ thing works.

     I am struggling with the concept of writing down my thoughts and ‘posting’ them for people to read. It is one thing to have an instructor critique my writing, but something entirely different when peers and / or strangers offer their opinion about my ability to formulate a cognoscente thought into legible and descriptive words that mean something to someone other then myself.

     Set that aside and take into consideration the fact that I don’t understand googleblogger and you might begin to understand that I feel extremely inadequate, with not just the younger people in my class, but with myself. As self indulgent as this may come across, I used to be very confident in my ability to ‘keep up’ with technology and its ever-changing advances. But somewhere along the way, I seem to have lost the ability to improvise and now feel as though I am drowning in a sea of ‘on-line tools’ that have been created and developed by the ‘barely legal’ adult who’s greatest worry in life is whether or not they should buy the ‘new Lg4’ from Verizon.

     The only thing I can take away from this assignment right now is this… I will continue to plug away at Googleblogger in an honest effort of expanding my working knowledge of this on-line tool and I will work harder at opening myself up to the criticisms of others in regards to my writing abilities.

     Below is a picture of my motivation - Kelsey and Kyla -

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Education in America

     With the slogan "No Child Left Behind" coined by former President George W. Bush, one would think that the U.S. Government invested and exhausted every available penny into the education of the youth throughout the United States of America, but, as many will tell you, such is not the case.
     The statistics web site http://broadeducation.org state that, currently, the "US ranks 27th in Math and 21st in Science compared to students in 30 industrialized countries" and that "by the end of the 8th grade, U.S. students are two years behind in the math being studies by peers in other countries." To make this scarier, the statistic's go on to tell us that "70 percent of 8th graders can not read at their grade level and most will never catch up."
     This startling information has many concerned for, not just the children "being left behind' but also, our country as a whole. With the production of advanced students in foreign countries, we leave ourselves vulnerable to a wide variety of hostel situations that could result in disastrous outcomes for our independent nation. For example, with the defiant North Korean government tirelessly working on nuclear weapons of mass destruction, it is necessary that our current and future generations work on both the counter attack proposal as well as the 'clean-up' care package should such an attack on the United States com einto fruition. Such efforts will require people who are skilled in engineering, physics, medicine as well as those who are trained in dealing with the effects of a post apocalyptic event that could have the potential to devastate our known world.With statistics showing that we are hovering just above the bottom of the 30 countries reviewed, it is safe to assume that we are not only failing in the preparation of the future, but we are failing in our countries ability to 'bounce back' from a devastating and brutish attack should one occur.
     This, then, has me pondering the ever so elusive question as to 'WHY." Why are we so far behind in the advancement of education? Why are we 'passing the buck' to another generation in hopes that they 'fix' the problems of our students 'not getting it" and lastly, why are we oblivious to the fact that, statistically, we are a nation of independence, yet we don't exercise our independent right to ensure the future of this country is cemented in the fundamental workings of our nation?
     The logical and safe assumption in an attempt to answer the imposing question is simply put: MONEY. With the post 9/11 economic downturn, state revenues fell dramatically and many states contributed the bare minimum legally required by Amendment 23. The money that should / could be used in academia is now mandated in its division among such necessities as power for buildings, gas for transportation and benefits for educators and support staff. Gone are the extracurricular classes, extra materials or supplies needed for a 'well rounded' education and in its place are the over-stressed teachers who must teach to state mandated tests and not to the 'well being' of the student.
     That said, the money not being readily or prospectively available aside, where do we find adequate funding for a countrywide solution to an under-educated epidemic our nation is facing? The oxy-moron solution is to pay a panel of experts an exuberant amount of money to state the obvious: We are "Leaving the behind." Whereas, the logical solution is as simple as the problem itself, funnel said moneys into an account that actually applies to the child in the classroom, the education in America and "Leaving no Child Behind."