Can you spare some change?

I noticed that most of my postings seem to be about things which are rubbing me the wrong way. I guess things are going pretty well today, because nothing really seems interesting enough to type about it.

I have also noticed lately that much like stress coming at you in bunches, change also seems to happen in bunches. I currently have puppies in my house that will be weaned and sold in two weeks. My oldest son will graduate college in two weeks. My 2nd oldest will be a senior in high school this Summer. My youngest will start 7th grade next year which means his sports aspirations are in the hands of professional coaches beginning in the fall; all I have to do is show up for the games. Schools will begin to look different this Summer with finance drastically changing. My church is in the process of looking for some new, additional leaders.

"The only thing constant in life is change." I know I've heard that on various occasions, but I can't tell you who said it first. It sounds like something Yogi Berra would say. And I guess when you get right down to it, how boring would life be without change?

A TAKSing week in the state of Texas

It's TAKS week. The last of the big TAKS weeks. No, not Tax week. That was two weeks ago. This is the one that causes undue stress on some of the hardest working people in the state. Maybe that still doesn't specify enough. This the week in which a majority of the standardized tests in the state are administered to students in public schools.

It's quite a difference from a normal school day. Which is one of many problems with the testing system. On a normal day, the students arrive at school and socialize until time for class to start. Then that finish up the socializing as they enter their classrooms. The teachers say their good mornings, and everything settles into the normal daily routine. This week, however, The students will come to school and be in a holding pattern beyond normal start time. The bells are turned off, and announcements over the PA system are silenced. The hallways are deathly quiet, as are the classrooms. No interaction is allowed until all students have completed their tests. These testing days are drastically different than the normal school day.

Therein lies a problem. How are students supposed to perform their best when they are taken completely out of their routine? It seems as though the best strategy would be to put them through the same paces as any other day and the answers would come naturally. That works in physical training. A basketball player who shoots 100 free throws each day trains his muscles to memorize the movement that makes the ball go through the hoop. A football player will wrap his arms around a tackle-dummy and take it to the ground all week in practice so that during a game he makes a tackle without even thinking about how to do it.

Answer sheets full of bubbles that have to be colored in? Multiple choice spelling tests? A perfect score of 2430 instead of 100? Really? Does that help a student perform at her best?  But our great state has the solution! We rename the test every few years. We change the way schools are graded on the results. We require the test to be passed in order for a student to be promoted to the next grade.

I think there is a bigger lesson to be learned from atop this soapbox. There is a lesson about life and how we live it. I hear people say, and see people type, that we should "live every day as if it's your last." I couldn't agree more. But when I hear these words, I think of the athletes in training between games. "Live every day as if it's game day." "Live every day as if it's test day." Live in a way that when you're tested, tried, judged, it will be just another day. You do it like you've always done it. Read about the Good Samaritan again (Luke 10). Which person will have the easiest time passing the test. The BIG test. "Live every day as if it's the last." Then when you have to give an answer, it will come naturally. Now those are words to live by.

Stress

Do stressful things always seem to come at you from every direction at once? It seems like when things are going to go wrong, or have the potential to go wrong, it's never just in one facet of my life. I'm not sure if stress always comes in bunches or if the times that I don't feel stressed is because there are just less things hitting me at once.

I think the latter is probably true. When only one or two things are demanding my immediate attention and worry, life seems pretty good. But when I start getting hit with difficulties at work, at home, with friends, family, church, your car needs repair, my lawnmower won't start, my computer gridlocks, etc., etc., is the times that I feel the pressure. Any one of these could go wrong and if the that's the only thing going wrong then life is pretty good. But when a wave of stress hits, it's always because my whole world is going wacko. I think I'll go home and hold a puppy for a while.

The times they are a-changing

I'm not a doomsday, 'the end is near', kind of person. That's less because I'm an optimist and more because I can survive and thrive in life no matter what the circumstance in which I find myself. If I lose my job, then I was looking for a job when I found this one. If my dog dies, I've had more dogs die that I can remember their names. If I wreck my car, I've wrecked more cars than I can remember. Nothing is permanent and God will help me take care of whatever comes.
There are a lot of people who like to talk about the 'signs of the times'. They seem to enjoy thinking that the end of the world will come in their lifetime. A casual glance back through history will show you that almost every generation thought that the end would happen during their lifetime. It's understandable that people did and still do think that way when you notice the events of their time. World wars, natural disasters, diseases, and all kinds of calamities have happened over and over again. To someone enduring such times, it's understandable that the end would appear to be approaching fast. After all, if it's not the end, then why would God allow so much misery on them? Or at the very least they would be hoping that the end is near to relieve the misery of their times.
In light of all of these ramblings, I do believe that change is near. Our experiment in democracy, as some still like to call it, can't sustain it's recent behaviors for long. Caring for those who cannot care for themselves is not a democratic government's job. Trying to do so corrupts the power that the elected have over the electors. Below is a list of things that my great-grandkids will know only in their history books:

• Retirement
• Medicare
• "Free" Education through 12th Grade
• The U.S. as a world Super Power
• Cheap energy (fuel, electricity, etc.)

For too long we have relied on our government to provide all of these things that we now think should be included among the inalienable rights listed in the preamble to our constitution. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are the only three listed. My Creator did not endow me the right to have all of my needs and many of my wants taken care of for me. Times are changing. Where the government can no longer afford to care for people, let the Church stand up and fulfill the need of caring for those who cannot care for themselves. Only in charity can this need be met with no strings attached. (Mark 10:35-45)

Incompetence

Nothing is more frustrating to me than someone who consistently will not do their job, not because they can't, but because they claim to be too busy.
I'm the guy at work who can tell you what you've been doing on your computer for how long and at what time and day. Don't tell me you've been too busy to do your job when there are traces of shopping, gaming, and social networking taking up 90% of your past Internet activity.
Our Junior High secretary has a sign in her office that reads, "Don't expect me to change my plans because you failed to plan." Preach on, sister.

RAIN!

It rained last night! Thanks God! I think the snow/ice of February was the last time we had precipitation. A little more moisture would be great, but we're off to a good Spring start. I know my kids are relieved that there is now hope for the Summer hay season.

'Rents

Parents are interesting creatures.
Our dog, Bella, recently had puppies. Before the birthing, she would go into small panic attacks (or at least be really distressed) if we locked her up in the laundry room without our other dog, Bea. Since the puppies were born, Bella has become quite territorial. Bea may not set foot in the laundry room now without serious repercussions.
I work in a public K12 school. It is amazing to see the way some parents have the same territorial fence around their kids. Their sweet babies can do no wrong. And when an adult-in-charge at the school tries to correct a behavior by using preset rules that are readily available in written form for the parent to read, the parent can sometimes make a complete donkey (or jenny) of him (or her)self.
I have been guilty in the past of loudly griping at a coach after a ballgame or yelling loudly from the bleachers at a referee. I like to think I've learned my lesson after apologizing and turning red with embarrassment.
This sort of behavior makes school staff members sometimes comment that "if it weren't for the parents, these kids would be very educable." This attitude is not widespread or constant, but it does pop up from time to time. In reality, constructive involvement of parents can make a child excel beyond their abilities in school, sports, or any other endeavor. It's when the adults in the relationship can't get along and the parent begins to pit the child against their teacher, coach, principal, or whomever may be in charge in absence of the parent, that things go south.
If you have a problem with another adult, take up the situation with that adult in the absence of the child. There may be more to the story than you are aware. Your child may be bending the truth away from the whole truth. Or if the other adult is in the wrong, they are more likely to drop their defenses without the child present.

"It's been such a long time..." and other Boston tunes

This blogging thing is really a hassle. I admire people who do it on a regular daily (or more) schedule. For one thing, I don't have that kind of motivation, nor time. For another thing, I don't have that much interesting stuff to say. So here's a hot topic close to my heart right now:
--Texas Public School Funding--
Back in the mid aught's, I think it was actually during 2005 but I could be wrong, some public K12 schools sued the state legislature because they claimed the "Robin Hood" system of funding schools was illegal. The schools won and the Legislature had to change the funding system.
The new system of funding gave most schools less money, so the state said they would "hold harmless" the funding rate and fill the gap so that no school would have less money than they were budgeted for the 2005-06 school year. At the same time, the state changed their income structure to one that would produce a guaranteed deficit within five years (according to the state comptroller at the time).
Now the five years is up and the state is in the deficit that was predicted. The deficit would actually have been noticed sooner were it not for the Economic Stimulus money that the federal government provided over the last two years and Governor Perry claimed that Texas would not use. Texas used it, alloted it to the schools to buy two more years of breaking even, and now is in a worse deficit than would have been seen two years ago.
Many schools can manage to get along with a smaller amount of money. That has been proven in their having budgets that stayed level for the last five years while inflation has increased costs of fuel, utilities, food, salaries, etc. Schools have been doing more with less for the last five years, and now are being asked to cut over 60% in some school districts. Surely the legislative branch of the state government wouldn't want to retaliate against the schools for losing a law suit 5 years ago, would they? Well, would they?