Summer's Half-Way Point

The 4th of July is my birthday. In my younger years, the 4th was always a family get-together. The event started at the home of my mother’s cousin who had a home on 2 acres and attracted from 50 to 60 relatives. Most of those people are dead now and as my mother’s cousin became ill the event broke up into several smaller parties. My uncle took over about 25 years ago; the attendance becoming my grandmother and her 5 children, 20 grandchildren, and 12 great grandchildren. Twelve years ago we stopped getting together on the 4th and replaced it with a family reunion later in July. This is run by my two uncles on my mother’s side, and will eventually fall to their sons when they leave us. Only 3 of my grandmother’s 5 children are still with us, my mother and one of her sisters having passed away. Since the death of my older cousin in a car accident 30 years ago I have been the oldest of the grandchildren. This reunion is literally the only time I see some of my cousins because they live out of town and don’t come in for Christmas. We get together again this year on July 25th and I am looking forward to it.

Most teachers at my school consider the 4th of July holiday the half-way point in the summer vacation. We just received information about picture day, July 23rd. Every summer, on the last day of summer school, the school schedules new ID pictures for all students. The students come in and have a new photo taken; the photo is used to generate a new student ID for next school year and doubles as their yearbook photo. At the same time, students pick up their new schedule for September, and find out who their teachers will be for the next school year. Students who have a problem with their schedule, or just want to change it have an opportunity to speak with the registrar. Needless to say, the line outside her office is 20 deep for hours.

The next several weeks after ID day I will field numerous calls to have students moved from one level of Biology to another. Usually, the parent wants her son or daughter moved into Honors Biology. The reason given for the placement request is that the feel that their student belongs in a higher level. In reality, it is because they have found that their son or daughter has been placed in a particular teacher’s class and, because they have heard bad things about this teacher, they want them moved to another. The registrar will not move students because of a request like this--only the principal has the authority to change teachers within a level, so the parent contacts me (department chairman) to request the level change; which would result in the teacher change they wanted in the first place. We are aware of this ploy, and I turn their names over to the Honors Biology teacher who makes the final decision--which is almost always no.

I usually volunteer to help supervise the picture line on this day; giving me a chance to visit with former students as they line up to have their photo taken as well as catching up with colleagues I don’t have contact with during the summer. Teachers are required to “volunteer” for two activities every school year, and since we all have to come in to have our ID photo’s taken anyway, my attendance takes care of one of these. I also hope to meet with the new Physics/Chemistry teacher on this day and get her up to date with the Chemistry syllabus. She has already meet with the Physics teacher and been brought up to speed with him. If things go well I will be home by noon.

$6.26

For those of you who are pay attention to those things; this is my 100th post.

The beginning of the summer has been very productive so far. I have completed several minor projects, began my summer riding program, and arranged a short vacation for my wife and myself.

The school community suffered a tragic loss when a sophomore girl was killed in a car accident on Memorial Day. She was not one of my students, but everyone tells me that she was a wonderful young lady. The wake was so crowded that people waited in line for almost an hour to view the body and speak with the family. The accident occurred during a thunderstorm, her boyfriend losing control of the car on the wet pavement. He was not hurt badly, but she received significant head injuries. Reportedly she never came out of the coma. I can’t imagine the pain her parents must be going through.

My yearly physical resulted in my doctor recommending that I began taking insulin for my type II diabetes. I just began taking 30 units of Lantus every day. Actually, tasking the insulin was my idea, my blood sugar being more and more difficult to control with oral medication. When I mentioned to my doctor that I thought it was time to begin the Lantus, he agreed and wrote my first prescription. After a week I am comfortable with giving myself the injections.

The weather being rainy last week, I cleaned out the garage--one of the major items on my to-do list. I still need to set up my work bench, but first need to get rid of 17 interior wood doors that are left over from the major remodel we did over the last three years. As soon as these are gone I will use the old vanity to make a base for my new work bench; maybe keeping one of the doors for a bench-top.

The last three bike rides I took resulted in me getting soaked when a sudden thunderstorm showed up. Each time the weather report said it would be fine and each time I got caught in a downpour. Today it was overcast and the predictions were for strong storms in the early afternoon, so I stayed home and planted some perennials around the house. As you might guess, not a drop of rain fell.

My bike riding has turned up some interesting finds this year. In the past ten years I have found cell phones, a police scanner, various tools (screw drivers, wrenches, and even a rather nice aluminum carpenter’s square), CD’s and the odd change as I ride. I have been able to return every cell phone to its proper owner and the police scanner to the city. I have kept the tools, CD’s and change for myself. This summer I have found another cell phone and will return it to the owner this evening. I managed to find the owner by calling the last number he dialed. Last week I found a $5 bill in the gutter along one street I bike on. Another day I found 85 cents (three quarters and a dime) along the curb in front of a home. Yesterday I found another 41 cents in various places. The total for the year so far is $6.26. This type of minutia occupies my mind in the summer; relaxing me and relieving the stress of a hectic year.

Tomorrow afternoon I take my wife to the eye doctor. Afterwards, we plan on meeting my friend from the Theology Department for an early dinner. On Thursday my wife and I leave for Michigan on a short vacation--leaving my adult daughter in charge of the house in our absence.

The tulips I planted last fall are in full bloom today. I am on “Easter Break” as are most other Catholic schools in the area and I had hoped to get out for a bike ride every day, but cold rain has been falling since early this week and I have been inside working on the computer every day. I have accomplished much this week, but still have a few things to do. On the first day of the break I finalized my search for a new car, trading in my 2001 Saturn with 118,000 miles for a brand new 2010 Honda CR-V. This is the newest car I have ever owned; having only 11 miles on the odometer when I drove it off the lot. On the second day of my break I went to city hall to register my new vehicle and obtain a new city sticker, then meet with my insurance agent to arrange to transfer the policy. This was followed by a shopping trip to buy some new clothes.

We are looking for a Physics teacher again. The one we hired last year has a PhD and was hired by a local university for next year. We had hoped that he would stay for at least a few years, but that was not to be. Finding a suitable replacement, even in this time of school staff cutbacks, will be a problem because of the fact that our AP Physics is Calculus based.

Aside from the Physics teacher I do not think anyone on the staff is planning on leaving or retiring this year. The job market for teachers is tighter than I can ever remember. Almost no schools are hiring additional staff; almost all are cutting to save money. The Chicago Public Schools are facing a deficit that could be 1 billion dollars, if the worst of the predictions come true; and many local suburban districts face equally crippling financial woes. The state will not be able to bail out the districts this time because of their own multi-billion dollar deficit. The only solution will be cuts in programs and an increase in class size. The teachers unions would like you to think that a small increase in taxes would solve the temporary problems—but their past greed has caused this problem and tax increases will not be able to make things right. Their pension entitlements alone will bankrupt the state in a few years if these obligations are not revised. It is altogether possible that most of them will never see their pensions funded in full. Thankfully, my retirement is not dependent on the state’s ability to fund my pension. As a private school teacher, my pension is based on my conservatively invested 401K and whatever I get from social security. While my probable retirement income is less that the public school teachers have been promised; it is probably more that many of them they will ever see.

The weather during our current break has been terrible; either rain, cold, or both every day. Today is looking better and I may be able to take a bike ride later. It is about 9 am on Friday morning and I will finish my lesson plans for next week after I save this post. Over the last two days I have been stuck inside because of the weather so I have completed most of my to-do list during the break; contacting the local regional office of education about changes to my teaching certificate, contacting the Illinois Toll-way site to register my new car on my IPASS account, order some accessories online for the Honda, and resolving some problems with my antivirus software with the publisher. I then installed my Income Tax program and completed my 2009 tax return. The only thing on my to-do list not yet completed is the outside work I planned in my garden; but this should be finished Saturday of Sunday if the weather improves.

My wife and I are planning to go out to dinner tonight with my friend from the Theology Department and do some antique shopping tomorrow. All-in-all I would say that this break has been one of the most productive in years.

Loyality to your Team

My uncle, a former high school teacher, is known to say, “When I become King . . . . ,“ followed by some edict that could not be enforced because of our constitutional rights. Most of the time he is correct concerning the problem, but he suggests an unworkable solution. I have my own list of things I would do if I were King, and on the top of that list is getting rid of high school athletics.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not against children taking part in sports activities. I am opposed to the school being responsible for their organization and funding. Especially in these cash strapped times, money spent to pay a coach should be redirected to seeing that the advanced language teacher isn’t laid off or the Biology class size doesn’t rise to 40 in order to save money. Most serious high school athletes play club sports outside of school, so why duplicate costs by allowing schools to run programs as well.
Some would argue that club sports are expensive and that would price many deserving athletes out of the market. Schools, they would argue, allow everyone to take part in organized athletic activities at little or no cost to the parent. I would argue in response that they are wrong. Many club teams charge huge fees to take part, as high as $5000+ for some elite teams. When my daughter played club volleyball we paid about $1200 for the season, plus the cost of equipment and expenses when the team traveled out of town. At the time I was surprised to find out that some of the girls on her team paid nothing. These young women were extremely talented and were recruited by numerous teams, having all fees waived if they agreed to play for the club. The cost of this “scholarship” was paid for by the others who, because they lacked exceptional talent, had to pay to play. If your child has exceptional talent he or she can play for a club team at no cost to you; if not, try your local park district, or pay to join a club. Clubs recruit paying players by claiming that they will improve the child’s skills; while in reality they take the money and give special treatment and playing time to the elite members of the team.
My interest in writing about this topic today is because of a conversation I had with a student last week. The girl informed me that she would not be in school Friday because she was leaving town for a volleyball tournament. I asked which team she played for and we talked for about five minutes about her upcoming tournaments. I found out that the big national qualifying tournament was going to be on the weekend of Prom, and she expressed sadness that she would have to miss the dance because of her commitment to the team. I praised her for her loyalty to the club and asked if the team would be as loyal to her. She looked puzzled and asked what I meant. “Suppose a new girl moved into the area and joined the team” I asked, “and suppose she was a better player that you, or the coach thought she might be a better player, would you lose your starting position to her?” She agreed that she would lose her position if that happened. “That wouldn’t be very loyal to you would it?” I asked. She didn’t answer, but looked confused and uncomfortable. “Why would you be more loyal to the club than it would be to you?” were my final words to her before she made her way off to lunch.
If you go away with nothing else from this, remember that any coach on any level is only concerned with winning. Their loyalty to a player is based only on what that player can do for them, and lasts only as long as nobody else comes along who can do it better.