School

An eighth grader in Arizona has been suspended--for drawing a picture of a gun.
No bullets, no bodies... just a gun (the boy said it was supposed to be a laser gun). And the teacher (mistake number one) sent him to the principal, who (mistake number two) suspended the poor kid for five days (she later reduced it to three). She then called his parents to go get him. When he got there and tried to reason with her, she referenced Columbine and zero-tolerance policies.

Unlike Cara, I don't particularly want to home school. (I admire her to death, I just don't think I could pull it off. If I live near Cara when our kids are school-age and we can double-team them... perhaps I'll reconsider.) I enjoyed school, with the memorable exception of fourth grade (and math, from second grade on). But then, I went to military schools for all of elementary school (again, with the memorable exception of fourth grade), and this NEVER would have happened in a military school. At least not in the military schools I grew up in. I dearly hope they haven't been wussified as well.

I am tempted to insert a diatribe on the state of society in general here. But I read a lot of the comments on the story that I linked to, and you know what? It's not society that's the main problem in this story. It's the school's administration, and the school board... You know, folks, school boards are elected officials.

Anyway. My kids are (hopefully) private school bound. I worked in a public school. And I loved my job, and cried when I left it. But public schools are way too prone to things like this-- hyper political correctness, thought-policing, and demasculinization (seriously, all you education-administration types: there are some games that everyone can't win. Really. Nor is playing with toy guns a step on the way to using them on someone else for the VAST majority of human beings. But that's another post.).

Anyway. Don't send your kids to public school unless you have already changed the system. And if you have... spread the mojo.

While I'm blogging...

Can I just tell everybody how wonderful my husband is? Not that he's done anything particularly spectacular (other than work his tail off... big product release September 1st) today. He just is, and always has been-- or at least he has been since I was 16:).

The Willex

Will will (Will'll? Will shall? The name is pragmatically problematic... but so fitting) be a year old tomorrow. Bizarre, folks. I was looking at some pictures of him when he was little (littler) the other day, and it amazes me how different he is. He walks, he talks, he plays soccer, and is inordinately fond of phones, remotes, USB cables, computer mice, and all other things techie. He knows what "no" means, can unzip a zipper, and loves Mexican food (he DEFINITELY takes after James).

He is still perfect.

Yikes

You know you're getting old when you have to do some significant scrolling down to find your birth year to sign up for stuff.

To give Cara something to do...

Cara's stuck up until at least 11 o'clock tonight waiting for her in-laws to get there for Michael's graduation... so in order to give her something to do till then:

I have some super cute fabric in Christmas colors (dark green, burgundy, and a kinda goldy-cream)for my niece being born in December... but I have scant experience making quilts, and even scanter experience with GIRL quilts. Help!