WAITING FOR SUPERMAN (and Noah, too, actually)

I have never, ever, ever, ever, ever in my life seen flooding like this. My back yard is a lake. The roads are full of standing water. And we're a good block or so from the water. I can't imagine what it's like down there. And it's raining so hard, I can't see the water from here. I can't even see the house next door! It was so bad about 4:00 this morning that Chris and I got up and online to see what the heck was going on. It sounded like a tornado. The kids did go to school (which I cannot believe) although on a two hour delay. I can't believe the bus driver drove in this monsoon. I'm starting to wonder if there's a Noah around who simply ignored the missive, decided to keep on keeping on instead of building that boat. Which is his business, of course, but he could have given the rest of us a little warning, right? And of course, of ALL DAYS, my son forgot something at home that I absolutely HAVE to take out to school. But I can't complain with all the teachers and busdrivers who have already driven in it this morning. God bless the busdrivers. So anyway, that was the weather report from Edenton, NC. Back to you, Al.

When it's rainy like this, I like to snuggle up with a good book like THE PERFECT STORM. Open right to the middle and read a few chapters in the middle of a storm like this one, and you've got some good reading. But stop before it gets sad.

SO...I wanted to talk about Waiting for Superman. The movie isn't even in wide release, but it has already created such a buzz. Even if people never see it, they can't help but get caught up in the nationwide discussion about our public schools in America. It's such a great and necessary debate. We all need to be reminded that the future of our country rides on the education of our young people. And even if parents choose to educate their children in other arenas, we all have an interest in the public schools. As a public school teacher for many years and a parent of public school students (I have two in public and two in an independent school), I know that the key is parent involvement. OR at least that's how the system is set up right now. But we KNOW that a huge number of parents are NOT involved, so those kids are falling through the cracks. We can't just shrug our shoulders. But we also can't expect our schools to handle what is truly a social problem. The thing about this movie that I already love is the dialogue. Raising awareness always helps to educate, encourage, and shed light on a situation--THAT is the first step toward good solutions.

So what IS the biggest problem in public schools today? Irresponsible parents sending kids to school who aren't prepared to learn? Poverty? Drugs? Violence? Class size? Expectations? My vote is for the latter. I think we have greatly relaxed our expectations of students over the past twenty years. Because of all the other problems, we make excuses in our heads for why these kids can't learn, but the reality is most kids can do a heck of a lot more than they are doing. The New York Times website had a question online for students to answer. The question was about book censorship, do you think books should be censored? I was astounded at the number of times the answer was simply: I don't care. I don't read anyway. or I hate reading. or I just use CliffNotes or the internet or some other way to basically cheat when they should have read the book. It made me kind of sick. Because education is not just about school, it's about finding solutions for problems and improving yourself throughout your entire life. So if kids can't buy into the value of reading WHILE THEY'RE IN SCHOOL, then we're doing something very wrong.

Has anyone out there seen WAITING FOR SUPERMAN? It's only run in a few cities so far...but I plan to find it as soon as it's close. In the meantime, I'll keep rooting for our public schools, supporting our public school teachers and leaders, but praying for a revolution. For the kids. Because they sorely need one. We can't afford to have a disposable generation.

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