Life, Interrupted

A study from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is showing that those polled feel parents are mostly to blame for the state schools have gotten into. Their reasoning is interesting. Here's the article.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-ap-us-education-poll-blaming-parents,0,1949319.story

At a loss for what to do, if you are poor like me and have limited time for your little ones?

Read to them. That's what a local library is for. Kids generally want to hear favorites over and over, so you only have to check out the limit on books when you visit. Keep a separate recyclable grocery bag as a book bag -- pick the distinctive one of your stash, so the books stay together in the house. They ALWAYS go back to that bag after reading. Test your kids out on books at the library first, so you don't buy books that are not their favorites. Tell people who want to buy gifts for your kids that they need books -- and give them names, if special ones are wanted.

Your children will not thank you when they can't get the education they need, or the job they want, because they slowly slipped behind starting in their youth. My mother read to us. When she couldn't read enough to satisfy me, I taught myself to read. If your child loves to learn by the time they go to school, that love can survive even a year with an uninspiring teacher.

It's not a solution for everything, but it's a start.

Books read since 01/01-08:

Fiction:

HURRICANE MOON -- Latner
BADLANDS -- Rosen/Underwood
THE SADDLEMAKER’S WIFE -- Fowler
GRAVE SURPRISE -- Harris
AN ICE COLD GRAVE -- Harris
LEAN MEAN THIRTEEN -- Evanovich


Non-Fiction:

THE TIPPING POINT -- Gladwell

TOLKIEN ON FILM: -- Ed. Croft
Essays on Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings.

THE WAY OF MYTH: Talking with Joseph Campbell -- Boa

I liked all of these, although I confess to some skimming in AN ICE COLD GRAVE. Harris is good, and I hate serial killers with an ugly little passion that tells me I would shoot first and ask questions later if I knew one was prowling my city. Child killers are in the same category. People preying on children peg the meter.

So I read the relationships, and skimmed the details of the murders.