Missing -Part 1

Philomena Braxton swallowed hard when the officer knocked on her door. It made her nervous enough to see the police behind her on the highway, but at her door? “What could he possibly want?” she wondered as she made her way through toys in the living room to the front door. It embarrassed her how the twins kept leaving their toys all over the house, but the more she tried to get them to pick them up or did it herself, the more they threw them down. Her husband was no help; he always told her to leave them and they would get sick of falling over them eventually and start picking them up. She shook her head as she opened the door.

The officer removed his hat. “Mrs. Braxton? Philomena Braxton?” he asked. 

“Yes, it is,” she replied. “May I help you officer?”

“Ma’am, are you married to Terrance Braxton?”

“Yes, I am. What is this about?” she asked nervously.

“Ma’am, I don’t know if you heard about the police chase this afternoon, but it ended with the offender in the river. We didn’t even know who it was until we got the car towed out. There was a wallet in the floorboard and your husband’s driver’s license was in it.”

Philomena felt her head swim and she had to hold onto the door frame to stay standing. “Terry was out looking for work. I don’t why he would have led you on a chase. He barely drove the speed limit most of the time.”

“I don’t know what to tell you ma’am. We didn’t find a body. My chief thinks he may have been caught in the current and swept downstream. There is a dive team out now looking for him and they’ve brought in dogs in case he made it to shore. We really are looking for him ma’am, but you should know the river eventually does empty out into the Lake Michigan. If he makes it that far he could end up anywhere, even Canada.”

Philomena faltered then and sank to the floor not quite losing consciousness, but she could no longer stand. The officer caught her and helped her to the sofa. He looked around until he saw the kitchen and got her a glass of water.

“Is there someone I can call?” he asked her.

“I can do it. I have them on speed dial.” She reached over and hit a number and reached her sister. “Can you come over?” she said. “Something has happened to Terry.” She was crying now. 

The officer waited until her sister arrived. He left his card and gave them the location of the search for her husband. “If you need anything, just call,” he told her.

The house was filled with people dressed in black. People brought food even after the memorial service. There was no funeral; the body had not been found. The twins stayed in their room uninterested in the toys they had actually picked up without having to be told.

“What will you ever do?” Philomena’s sister Rosalind asked her. “You haven’t worked since the kids were born. You were already about to lose the house.”

“Well, no body; no insurance,’ Philomena said. “I have to go back to work. I don’t have a choice anymore. Maybe I can find something while the kids are in school. I don’t know.”

“You’ll figure it out. You always were the one who could pull through no matter what. Even when dad died you helped mom keep the house and then you put yourself through school.”

“But I left before I finished when I got married. Terry didn’t want me to go back. He said we couldn’t afford it and when I got married I lost all my student aid. I barely got the student loans paid off last year, and then Terry lost his job and we’ve been living on his unemployment benefits. They’re only part of his pay and it doesn’t last very long. He got a job here and there and then got laid off again and he didn't want me to look for a job. I don't know why, but I guess that's beside the point now."

“I know it’s been hard. If you need any help, sis, ask; I’ll do what I can,” Rosalind told her.

“You can barely keep your own family afloat,” she said gently touching her sister’s hand. “I’ve been doing some thinking. I’ll see what I can work out on my own first. I’m going to try to go back to school and finish that degree in business.”

“Good luck Philomena. I have to go. I’ll see you on the weekend. You and the kids are coming over for dinner, right?”

“Sure. Rosalind?”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t think he’s dead. I mean, I’d feel it if her were dead, right?”

Rosalind hugged her younger sister. “It’ll get better, Phil.” She swiped at a tear as she pulled away and ran to her car.

The No Child Left Behind Act

In frustration one day I said to my son, “I can’t believe how many kids around here are graduating and cannot read or write.” What I have noticed in dealing with the public in the last five years is that people who have graduated in the last decade (or about to graduate) have a very difficult time with reading and understanding simple questionnaires. In talking to them I get the impression many of them don’t really understand them when read off to them either. I have seen a few that actually can read and understand the questions, but cannot spell well enough to put down answers. Mostly they are written in texting language. Not everyone speaks text language –me included, which I’m sure irritates those who do. Texting is for telephone messages that are sent like email but shortened for space sake; right? So don’t use it on paperwork.

My son’s reaction to my statement was that it was because of the No Child Left Behind Act. Now, I have of course heard of the Act and I knew it was supposedly in place to raise standards of schools and education, but I also knew schools had complained about it for years. What I didn’t know, and suspect neither do a lot of other people, was the exact specifics of the law. He went on to give me the shortened version of it, in his opinion. The No Child Left Behind Act caused schools to make their curriculum steer to the lowest common denominator. (He likes to use mathematical references.) They test the students, see what the lowest level of ability is and teach on that level. That can’t be right. The law was meant to make schools be steadily better by 2014 and would cause them to lose federal funding if they didn’t.  That was my understanding.  He considered that because of teaching on the lower levels they were dumbing down the population.

I looked up the No Child Left Behind Act on Wikipedia and realized what he said actually was correct in a nutshell. It kind of irritated me that he had dumbed it down to tell me what it involved. School districts have until 2014 to improve their standard measured by test results. They have to improve steadily every year to bring students up to a well educated level. States will lose federal funding for education if they do not show improvement every year. States are allowed to create their own tests.

What the schools did was create tests that were below grade level and slowly inched up the level, but they are still below level. As a result, the tests show improvement. They did essentially what my son said; they dumbed it down to lowest level. Schools are putting efforts into what is on the test and diverting from other subjects that would give a good all around education. They are what is referred to as ‘teaching to the test.’ My son came home and complained about what a joke that test was every year when they made him take it.

There are ten states who have actually asked for relief from the requirement to be improved by 2014 and the president granted them waivers. One more is being considered. According to MSNBC (online) the ten states are Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and New Mexico is under consideration. Twenty-Eight other states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico are in line to make requests as well.

One thing I noticed with my kids is that they were bored half to death. Year after year they got the same lessons. In history, for instance, they didn’t get much further than the American Civil War and they barely brushed that. There was a mention for about a week each on the Industrial Revolution and World Wars I and II. Forget about the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, or the Space Race. Think how much has happened since then! I believe the children would have stayed more tuned in if the lessons had progressed from year to year. We did that when I was in school. What at one time had been called Americanism versus Communism was changed to Comparative Political Systems and the class lasted for a semester. Granted that could have gone further too, like changing geographical lines of countries and their names and their political systems.  World History didn’t get far up the historical chain either and they only got one year of that. Until they got into Algebra, my kids were bored with math and eventually that got old until more challenging subjects were brought in.

Challenge our children with interesting classes and they will respond. Don’t just simply decide they are not bright enough to learn therefore dumb down the tests. There are children with legitimate learning difficulties, but those can be worked around if one changes the way they teach those students. That means not labeling them, but still putting them in a classroom where the same material is covered as the other students, just taught differently. Right now those kids, if at all placed in another setting, are put in ‘Special Education,’ and that carries a stigma that makes the kids feel dumb and they get teased unmercifully for it.  

Some of the grounds for the waiver requests are that the students don’t speak English well enough to learn the lessons so they are taught in their language and then they can’t understand the test. Seriously? Hold them accountable to learn the language that may not have been legislatively recognized as the official language of the United States, but it sure is the language we speak. If we were in Mexico, we would have to learn Spanish in order to go to their schools. The same goes for other countries. Don’t use that as an excuse. Another reason is that the kids are poor and cannot relate to the requirements of the tests. They are poor; not stupid. That doesn’t have to go hand in hand. If their parents are uneducated then teach the children so that they can indeed achieve the American Dream of doing better than one’s parents. Parents have to take an interest in their children’s education and make sure they do their homework even if they don’t understand it themselves. After a certain point in Algebra I am totally lost, but I made sure they did the work. Find someone who does understand it if they need help that the parent is at a loss to explain. A kindly neighbor works well if a tutor is not in the cards, and for most of us, it isn’t. This is how parents help their children reach that American dream. Our children are the future, they will run the country and industry. How about we make sure they are up to the challenge? Is it really a 'no child left behind' guarantee, or an 'all children left behind' guarantee?

Trying to Regulate Sugary Drinks

I was browsing the net the other day and came across a headline about regulating sugar like alcohol and tobacco. I had to see what it said, after all my soda consumption may be in jeopardy. ( I don't really drink that much –but I don't want someone telling me I can't either.) Doctors think that because of the pervasive epidemic of obesity and diabetes (as a result of the obesity or just because of too much sugar in the diet) that sugary beverages, such as soda, should be regulated requiring one to show their ID if they wanted to purchase the product.  Most of us know there is a problem with people (not just in the US) ingesting too much sugar in their diets.There is supposedly evidence that sugar can be addicting and one can suffer withdrawal if they consume huge quantities regularly and then stops. However, we are free to eat what we want. Sugar isn't affecting other people by our using it; unlike alcohol and drugs where being inebriated can cause injury to others. 

What is the age they consider to be old enough to consent to consume sugary beverages?  How long will it be before they want us to show ID to purchase a candy bar? - 'I'm sorry; you aren't old enough for that pack of M&Ms you are dying to have.' How long until you have to show ID at the checkout for groceries such as cereal, cake mix, doughnuts, snack cakes, spaghetti sauce (it contains sugar!), and forget pancake syrup.

What will be next? Let's see… Studies have shown that processed foods are bad for us therefore anything containing white flour will be regulated. Canned meat products will be regulated. No more Chef Boy Ardee™ products for the kids; they contain sugar and flour. No more sandwiches because you can't buy bread unless it is whole wheat, and you can't get cold cuts because they are processed, and by the way, contain mass quantities of salt, which is probably the next to be regulated because too much of that is unhealthy too.

Are we all to turn vegetarian? My husband refuses to go without meat and I'm sure he isn't the only 'meat and potatoes person' on the planet. Vegetables are only available certain times of year anyway so they would have to processed somehow (you can't freeze everything for preservation). To buy imported produce year-round would get too expensive, and as they are discovering now, the government has no control over what chemicals other countries allow used on their produce. They are finding pesticides in the orange juice imported from other counties; like that's healthy.

I don't think it would fly to try to pass such legislation to make one show ID to buy a bottle of pop. Can you imagine people being ticketed for buying a bottle of Coke™ and giving it to a minor or selling out the back door of the store to people who don't have an ID. The sales person looks around, eyes shifting right to left, ever watchful for the cops. "Don't tell anyone where you got it kid. I'll deny I've ever seen you."

Read the article here (Open in a new tab!): http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-57369857-10391704/sugar-should-be-regulated-like-alcohol-tobacco-commentary-says/