On very rare occasion, I hear through the grapevine that somebody is reading this blog and hoping for updates. Such an occasion occured yesterday when my cohort called to tell me about this. Fine. If you are reading this and you are not commenting then you have your answer as to why I don't keep this blog updated.
You have to realize, I don't write to bloat my ego as big as it can get. I have many ways to do that without relying on this blog. I write when I have something to say, in the hopes of creating dialog. Okay, I admit, protest too. But not the kind of protest that means a street riot. I wouldn't condone such things, but protest as we have the right to do as American citizens. The exercise of freedom of expression without fear of retaliation. If you can't do this against Aspira then you can't do this say against a Bush bailout. Protest people, not complacency.
I wrote and I wrote and I had silent agreement from many and some comments and some dialog. But the dialog should not have been limited as it was. it should have led to action but it couldn't because there were too few willing to stick their neck out and some chose to be anonymous. All fine and dandy.
At the time, it was about kids and parents. Over time, it has become about teachers and administrators too. See how things get out of hand when everybody is shaking in their boots? The problems only got bigger and now you have a deluge. Don't say this Chicken Little didn't warn you. And as long as the sky fell on me and my cohorts, well too bad, everybody else is safe. Now it is falling on "professionals" and guess what? We can't stop it now. If you want to talk, this blog is still open for comments or you can start your own blogs. If you want to keep silent well then, don't look here. I can also keep very silent all by myself and be none the wiser.
If you are a teacher who is reading, or an administrator or work for CPS and you have kept your mouth shut and been complacent and looked the other way, well "Shame on you". How dare you sacrifice parents and children? The very people you dare to say you serve? Honestly, not to be hostile, but really, why should those of us who tried to help when it was half way feasible to win this thing, keep trying? Why should I sacrifice my neck when all of you quiet ones don't bother? I am worthy of being safe and happy too. I also have a lot to lose. I can forgive fear, but I can't abide those who stay frozen by fear indefinitely or those who want others to do the dirty work for them or those who come here for gossip about Aspira and nothing more.
I do prefer to think that those who come here fall into several different categories. Those who are just checking to see if I have anything libel like to say, in which case there could be legal trouble for me, or those who are actually curious and want to see if anything is happening in a sincere way, or those who are looking for rumors, or those who may be looking for help. The first one, please leave this blog alone and go stuff your rear end with your hatred, the others, as I said, comments people, except for rumors since that could fall into the libel category.
And yet, when I think of the prospect of reviving this blog, I would rather discuss the things that really matter now. Like the economy and how people are planning on surviving. If that is what you are about, visit me elsewhere. Email or comment and I will be most happy to give you my new and permanent blog which is rarely Aspira driven (since they failed to inspire me entirely), but still brutally honest, when I feel like it. Until then, I hope you can understand my point of view on why I don't care to keep going.
I didn't say anything about those of you who did not turn your backs. To those, a heartfelt thank you.And to my one cohort who worked your butt off, worked much harder than I ever did, you are a hero.

Okay, I submerged for a while and actually will resubmerge after this post for a while longer. I just wanted to update all on the fact that jollygreenmom is defunct for the same reason I rarely write to this blog. My head is in the sand.
I do not give up, I just live my own life. There is too much wrong in the world and most of it is right here in Chicago, for one person to keep going like this. With most of the readership lurking, there is no stimulating motivation for me to take time to write.
However, if you should decide not to lurk and to come forward as anonymous or with a nickname, go for it. I will publish all comments. Nasty ones will be edited for nasty words-sometimes, but not nasty opinions. We all need a good laugh now and then so go for it if you dare.
Have a great day.

Hmm.
"It isn't that the almighty aspira was doing anything bad on a grand scale..." I really wrote that so now have to own up to the complacency that led me to write such an ignorantly naive thing. Was I so sick of mind and spirit that I had tuned out entirely? I think anybody who has to fight like a minority with minorities against what happened that year is bound to eventually burn out. But I was mostly just happy to have escaped with my children intact.

I apologize now to the few readers who might have been waiting in the shadows for a post from me. I am not back, because I didn't go away. I just chose to not post here. I am still blogging elsewhere: http://jollygreenmom.blogspot.com/ I am still anti charter thanks to direct experience with a charter. I am not anti in general though. If you visit the other blog-please do not expect it to be clean. I am sick of walking on eggs on my own blogs. I am not a vulgar person so the other blog isn't going to be full of filth, but it isn't going to always be pretty.


I have plans to create a full website of my own at some point. I think the content here is enough to warrant its own archive on the new website, for the sake of being a responsible scribe. I think there is enough content to publish my own book titled "Charter School Survival Guide for Parents....A Satire in Community Empowerment"

"It isn't that the almighty aspira was doing anything on a grand scale"...yeah right. It isn't as if we knew what they were doing on a grand scale. We knew what they were doing on the stage in the forefront and doing it without once looking over their shoulder to make sure that nobody was watching....because even if anybody was watching, who would really give a damn and who couldn't be made to look the other way with a little bit of encouragement? Happens all the time.

That is more like it. More like me and smells more like the truth.

Interesting news gleaned from the District 299 blog.....Aspira Haugen got rid of one of their principles. It didn't surprise me that the one they kept is the one most likely to continue to throttle the charter proposal into oblivion. Oh wait,that proposal was thrown into the metaphoric shred pile the day the city approved this campus and looked the other way. I told you, it happens all the time. Oh well. Lets say they chose to keep the principle who is now apparently in full charge of the school (I would prefer to say that they chose a figurehead, like the Queen of England, since some of us know who is not in charge and more importantly, who is at that campus), anyway they chose him, because he is taller than the old principle and can therefor do a better job when looking down his nose at parents and community members.Of the two principles, he would not have been the parents choice last year. Did I say parents choice? What is that?

According to the same blog, Aspira also let the merta remirez principle go. I wonder if this has to do with how small their first ever graduating class was? One source who was there and graduated said that it was around 80 or so kids. I wasn't there, but if this is the case, and I think merta started out with 350 or so kids, what happened to the rest? Can anybody provide actual numbers? I thought student retention was important for charter schools to retain their contracts.
Oh and all of a sudden the merta parents are fed up. Really? Oh yes, really.

Anyway, it ain't over till the fat lady sings.
I wish all you dear readers happiness and more happiness. thanks for tuning in now and then.
and more importantly thanks especially to those of you who admitted openly to tuning in now and then, even if you didn't always agree with me.

It is always good to look back at a period of ones life and put things into percepective. I look back at the 2005-2006 academic year and see how little those issues are in actuality. It wasn't that the almighty Aspira was doing anything bad on a grand scale. It was more that they were doing and/or not doing the smaller things that added up to one big failure. Think of it, mistake after mistake after mistake without once stopping to fix or even acknowledge that something was amiss. On the other hand, refusing to uphold a charter contract is no small thing. I am speaking only of the day to day matters at the school when I say little things.

I learn from my experiences or that of others, so looking at the whole picture more objectively now that my children are safely tucked away in a school that is accomplishing everything that Aspira said they would do, has helped me to analyze my own life in general. I see now that while the efforts me and a few other parents made seemed to have no impact on Aspira, that we still succeeded. Looks can be decieving and I know the nature of the beast is to pretend that they are doing things because they feel like it, not because they were asked or told. I see that Aspira would never acknowlege openly that a few parents did manage to shine a light on the issues in a truthful way and that is enough when dealing with people who do not, for reasons of pride, arrogance or ignorance, want to hear the truth. To be silent and mute as we parents were expected to be would have been failure.

For me and my children, the mess is over with. We are all moving forward and on in postive and productive endeavors, the way it should be and the way it should have been all along. We all landed in a place where our talents, intelligence and skills are respected and valued. I don't have the time to post here lately but will most likely begin another blog that pertains to more interesting things or I might not. Life is too big and wonderful to continue to waste it on forcing changes in a place that wouldn't budge.

I tried to unscreen this post from an anonomous reader, but it was too long. I decided that it was really too intelligent and interesting to just let it go so I am putting it here for all to see and ponder. Anonymous wrote:

"I didn't watch the program either but would have liked to. I did read and watch the website you posted previously and was appalled at the narrowness of his research. Did he again compare international scores with us scores? I have some questions about his data.

1. In the first segment he pointed out that at age 10 on international test scores the US children scores were well above the international average. (He doesn't mention what place the US children took or how many and what countries participated.)

2. At age 15 he is a little more specific stating the 40 countries tested and Americans placed 25th. (But there are many different types of secondary schools for different purposes, which type did he select in the study, perhaps the highest level. US children are all bunched together except for the selective enrollment schools.)

3. He states, "American schools don't teach as well as schools in other countries."

My question is how much research has he done to know how schools in other countries are structured? What are there standards? How do they enforce these standards? Without this information his comparison is like comparing the nutritional value of sugar with meat as though they were similar (they are both ingested into the body) but one has inferior nutritional results.

If the US operated like international schools there would be no room for "No Child Left Behind." However noble the idea is, it directly affects the level of education in the US.

In other countries, the elementary level student grades are critical in determining what kind of secondary type and level of school students get into. If the student doesn't maintain a particular grade that student repeats the courses until the grade is accomplished. In the variety of secondary schools throughout Europe students are tested and must be proficient in the language of their country. Asian countries send their elementary and secondary aged children to school after school (they have a special name for these schools which I don't remember) to keep up with the fierce competition to get into the best schools resulting in the highest suicide rate in the world among children. From Americans living in Japan I have heard that the parks are empty of children save for international employees' children.

Here is a government website and some excerpts about education in Poland and Belgium since those are examples in the reports. However this is a US government web and again what we know of our government how accurate might this info be.

http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2000/eur/879.htm

Poland

There are no procedures in schools to protect children from abuse by teachers; in fact, the teachers' work code provides legal immunity from prosecution for the use of corporal punishment in classrooms.

People with Disabilities

There were approximately 5.5 million disabled persons in the country by year's end, and the number is expected to reach 6 million by the year 2010. During the year, the Central Bureau of Statistics (GUS) reported that 17 percent of disabled persons able to work are unemployed. Advocacy groups claim that the percentage is much higher. GUS data from 1999 indicate that 48.7 percent of the disabled have no more than an elementary school education, compared with 33.7 percent of those without disabilities, and that only 4.2 percent have a university education, compared with 8.2 percent of the nondisabled.

Minority groups in Poland have a particular disadvantage and many do not even complete primary school because of economic disadvantage, language barriers and parental illiteracy.

Belgium

Undocumented asylum seekers arriving by air whose claims do not appear legitimate are not allowed to enter but are held in a closed detention center at the airport for up to 5 months while awaiting deportation or voluntary repatriation. The children of such asylum seekers do not attend school. Those applicants whose claims appear to be legitimate are released to 1 of 27 open asylum centers for shelter and assistance. These centers have a total capacity of 5,000 beds. The centers, funded mainly by the Government and the Belgian Red Cross, have been overtaxed by the increasing numbers of asylum seekers, and the Government has solicited assistance from municipalities to handle the overflow. Municipal assistance commissions are expected to provide an additional 1,400 beds.

In November a working group created by the Minister of Interior to reform the Government's immigration and asylum procedures issued its report. Its recommendations included: Ending financial aid to asylum seekers (only aid in kind--food and shelter--will be provided); increasing by 10,000 the number of beds available at open shelters; establishing 10 registration offices at the borders (applicants will have to apply immediately upon entering Belgium and also will have to supply information on the route they followed to get to Belgium); creating a "fast track" processing procedure for applicants whose claim appears on the surface to be noncredible; and increasing funding and manpower for the regularization effort. The Government's goal for implementation of the new procedures, many of which must be approved by Parliament, is January 1, 2002. Some human rights groups criticized the new policies as being "repressive and restrictive."

Status of Child Labor Practices and Minimum Age for Employment

The minimum age for employment of children is 15, but education is compulsory until age 18. Youths between the ages of 15 and 18 may participate in part-time work/study programs and may work full time during school vacations. The labor courts effectively monitor compliance with national laws and standards. There are no industries where any significant child labor exists. The Government prohibits forced and bonded child labor and generally enforces this prohibition effectively (see Section 6.c.); however, trafficking in children is a problem

Trafficking in Persons
Belgium is both a transit point and destination for trafficking in women and children. In September 1999, the three government-designated nonprofit organizations involved in assisting victims of trafficking in persons reported 185 active cases of trafficking in women from over 30 countries. The largest number of victims were Albanian. Cases on 28 children from 7 different countries also were active; the largest number were from Albania and Macedonia. According to statistics compiled by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, nearly 2,000 unaccompanied minors requested asylum in 1999, most from the former Yugoslavia and central Africa. Because of the difficulties involved in traveling to Belgium from those areas, the International Organization for Migration believes that many of these unaccompanied minors were brought in by traffickers or assisted by professional smugglers.

Even utopia (Belgium) seems to have problems. Couldn't find any specific details on their education system on the web. Their embassy or consul might have more useful information on educational standards. Test scores, test scores, and test scores, that's all the rage. Comparing test scores from other countries with the US isn't fair unless you examine the culture itself and sees what it’s doing to get those test scores. We talk about diversity; well what about the diverse application of learning between countries that are developed to promote optimal learning for high test scores. We think the world is teaching just like us. Not so. Can we expect equivalent test scores? No.


The US's humanitarian position is largely responsible for "Stupid in America." It is unfair to blame the teachers for "Stupid in America" when they have to teach students of all different levels, esl students with a variety of different languages, learning disabilities, behavior disorders in the same class and keep up with teaching standards on a timely schedule. Parents are often hostile to teachers. The public in general because of such narrow press information that have targeted teachers as the source of "Stupid in America" for many years, believe teachers are responsible for what has happened to student achievement. Higher school administrators only care about test scores because that measures them. Good teachers have to deal constantly with in class behavior disorders and have little or inadequate means of dealing with these students and have to keep them in the class because if they report them, the teacher is considered poor with classroom management. Classroom disruptions take time away from learning. Smaller classrooms would help although "Stupid in America" thought not. But small means 10-15 students if you have to implement "No Child Left Behind." "Stupid in America" states that veteran teachers are not necessarily the best; well I wouldn't have heart surgery if that surgeon weren’t a veteran heart surgeon. The veteran teachers simply are stuck in a system that doesn't work. Oh yeah, there are probably a few bad apples that the system has actually created. So what are the answers to improving test scores of US students with other countries, maybe we should implement some of their standards instead of creating ones that don't work. And maybe the educational reformers and the press need to learn how to do their jobs better."

I must be really stupid because I went to public schools my entire life and actually graduated two years ahead of my class because my teachers were so bad that my standardized tests reflected that I was more than ready and capable to go to college. But then maybe my union teachers in regular public schools didn't know how to interpret my test results. I don't regret it and neither did my parents who packed me off to college without a qualm and I proceeded to study broadcasting and some film.

I missed Stupid in America, because I was sound asleep after a long day of intellectual thinking and discussion with my publicly educated children and husband.

I then forgot about it due to getting my kids fully prepared for their first day of school and taking them to the bookstore to buy them each a book which I do at the beginning of every year as a good luck thing. Stupid me, until this morning when when I recieved yet another edition of the charter movement newsletter once again proclaiming a victory cry although I sensed that this cry was a little less committed and alot quieter. This time they quoted parents who the newsletter said the show successfully "woke up". One(parent) demands to know how educational standards are allowed to be dictated by a union, those horrible monsters.

A parent that I know actually did watch the show, but she said that Stossel stated that he wasn't blaming the union or union teachers. He actually went out of his way to clarify that, since he updated the segment probally because he recieved enough flak that he had to back down from the controversy he unwittingly created with the original segment. I know that he and the network are happy creating inaccurate information that leads to controversy or outright panic since that is how they get people to watch, but either way, he apparntly re-evaluated his position in the hopes of repairing the damage he did by alienating some viewers and losing some credibility in the process. This time around, he made sure that one and all understood without a doubt that he is blaming the educational "system" so now the rest of us can get on board the bandwagon and rest easy.

I have always loved watching investigative reporting segments and documentaries. I think it is interesting to see that some points of view in documentaries are openly opinionated while others stick to the old national geographic type of film that literally "documents" things in a truthful manner based on cold hard facts. I would like to see more of this type of objective reporting when it comes to what is wrong with our educational system on a national and local level, both in public schools and in charter schools. A visual evaluation of sorts. Send in the cameras, do the research, but use primary sources, and then tell us what is wrong or what is right. I guess though, if you want the job done right, you might have to do it yourself. Any takers?

A few weeks ago, I was talking to a friend about my experience at Aspira when out of the blue, I got a phone call from the Illinois Network of Charter Schools. They got my number either directly from Aspira or from the unanswered phone call to their then Director, Elizabeth Evans which I made so long ago that I forgot I ever tried since she never bothered to return the call. Either way, they were barking up the wrong tree. The phone call was an attempt to round up parent volunteers to help the movement. I think the caller asked me to lobby, but I can't be sure because the call exasperated me once I found out what it was about.

I explained that I had taken my kids out of Aspira and that since Aspira is a charter school I thought they should know that I was highly disatisfied with our experience. The caller, was in turn, stunned for a moment and honestly didn't know what to say other than to apologize. I then went on to explain that I was highly dissatisfied with the lack of concern on the part of Elizabeth Evans since a friend had actually spoken to her once and she seemed concerned and asked my friend to keep in touch, told her she would be happy to come to meetings and help out. My friend made numerous calls back, but Evans never returned her calls either. She does have a voice mail, and my friend left messages, just like I did. The caller apologized again before ending the call but not before I asked that my name be removed from their call list.

I have said before on this blog that I didn't have a problem with the movement, that some charter schools are doing well and more power to them, etc. But that phone call made me rethink those statements because it reminded me that the whole reason Aspira is allowed to get away with so much is the lack of accountablity on the part of CPS, but I forgot that the movement should also be held accountable. While they send parents down to Springfield to lobby for more funding, and that funding is for students, I can't support a movement that doesn't support its stakeholders-parents and children. I can't support a movement who indirectly or knowingly or unknowingly supports charter schools that are not fit to be called a prison much less a school either. You would think that parents and children have opinions and experiences that should be taken seriously in this educational experiment and when evalutating a schools performance but that isn't so, and the joke is on us at every turn of the road.You would think that it would be in the interest of the movement as a whole to help weed out the bad eggs.

As a result of that phone call, I came to the conclusion that while I support school reform, I cannot remain in the middle ground. Not in Chicago. I am not so convinced that the few good charter schools are as good as our public schools. I am not convinced that charters are an answer at all. I think they have created worse conditions for our children and that there is no such thing as accountability. There is a lot of looking the other way on the part of CPS as can be seen by the fact that Aspira has been granted other charters based on "reports" that CPS reviewed. That is what I was told by a CPS person the other day. I asked "What kind of reports? Who wrote those reports in the first place?" the very weak reply was that they got good test scores. So where are the test scores?

I also asked this person if he thought that CPS was so invested in seeing Aspira succeed while our children suffered the consequences. He said he didn't understand the question as if the implications weren't clear enough so I reiterated- Aspiras success simply means that they open more campuses and they are allowed to do that despite the fact that they are not fullfilling their charter proposal and our children are suffering the result, so how invested in Aspiras success is CPS? It seems to be "at all cost". He still didn't understand.

I explained that to my knowledge, nobody from CPS ever bothered to come to the campus and talk to parents and children.Nobody bothered to check beyond test scores which until posted publiclly, I will see as a rumour. I also told him that I would not be sending my kids back to that place because I had higher standards for them, that Aspira didn't deserve my kids. While he listened, he had no real comments to make other than the recommendation that I make an appointment with Beatriz Rendon.

I will try to do that, more out of curiosity to see if I will be granted an appoinment than actually caring to get one. I removed my kids from a charter school and will never set foot in another one as long as I live. Neither will my kids. There are still parents at Aspira who want the school to succeed because their kids have no choice. This is their neighborhood middle school.They have gained a so far powerless and disrepected PTO, but they are smarter than that.I have faith in these parents and leave this situation in their able hands, since it is their children at stake. I look forward to eating my words with a fork on the day that Aspira post their test scores publicly. I have no problem admitting PUBLICLY that I am wrong.

John Stossel of 20/20 did a piece on education in America which originally aired in January of 2006. I missed it but thanks to the charter school newsletters that I subscribe to and recieved just this morning, I see that this segment will re-air on Sept. 1 at 10pm. Check local listings for actual time because the newletter doesn't state if that is eastern or central time and I haven't looked yet. this particular newsletter urges parents to watch this episode to see for ourselves how terrible our public, non charter schools really are. This segment is their victory cry! After reading all of this, please follow the link that I provide at the end because it raises a few questions about who it is that qualifies as being trully stupid in America.

You can also read a write up of the segment here: http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=1500338

while the segment has some good points to make,the article keeps those points as shallow and one sided as possible. I personaly resent the over emphasise on putting the blame on teachers in public schools because they have the union backing them up and therefor keep their jobs regardless of whether they do a good job or not. By contrast, I notice that he didn't go into charter schools which are non union, leaving the good and bad teachers unprotected and subject to the whim of the internal politics of their place of employment. Does that sort of environment make for better teachers? Further, in any profession, union or not, there are people who know how to abuse the system and are there to collect a paycheck and nothing more. Being a union member does not make you less passionate about your work or less committed either. In some cases, it makes you more qualified and in others it does not. I am sick to death of hearing that issue brought up by the overly pro choice who are usually simply pro charter and have their own agenda, to continue to brain wash unwitting parents into lobbying for them. Just like the charter schools themselves where every head counts , parents are just a number and there is safety and power in numbers.

And I question the idea of school choice being the Final Solution to our ailing school system. While I believe in school choice, the way it is happening here in Chicago is not working as of yet. We await the good news, as CPS is buying time to prove their theory of privatization correct at the expense of our children. If the choices provided to the student were of high quality across the board, we might be making progress and everybody would be on board. I won't repeat all the reasoning I have to justify why I feel that way since I have already done as much.

In Chicago, school choice is simply taking one segment of students from one demographic area that has been pre-defined as having need for educational improvement and putting that population in the hands of an organization that also needs to make substantial improvements and then calling it a school. In Chicago, such an organization is allowed not only 5 years to prove itself but in the meantime they are granted more charter contracts.

In the article, Stossel talked to a parent whose 18 year old didn't know how to read yet. He finally went to Sylvan and started improving almost immediately according to the mom. I don't know how this boy went for so long without any intervention on the behalf of the parents and teachers of his schools. If it were my child, by 3rd grade I would have raised holy hell and he would have been tutored or else diagnosed with a learning disability and recieved the services he needed.I wouldn't wait until he turned 18 and faced a dire future before I intervened.

Our children are not as well educated as the kids the piece compared them to in one school in Belgium, but we dont' know the background of the kids in Belgium or the kids in the New Jersey either. We don't know what criteria was used to select these particular kids to participate in what turned out to be public humiliation for the American kids.

But we are told that our children are lagging behind. We know that college freshman are going to school not knowing how to write. We have identified all of the symptoms but nobody talks about the real cause, probablly because we havn't figured it out yet since we are so caught up in heated debates that we end up spending more energy on defending our positions than finding out any substantial truths. My position as a parent is that my kids are not part of this stupid experiment and will not be the product of the stupid solutions provided to parents. And I might add, my kids are not stupid.

When Michael Moore put out his documentary "Farenheit 911" it didnt' take long for pro Bush young republicans to make their own documentary in opposition to Moores film. They called it "Farenhype 911". Why wouldn't competing media giants do an opposing view to Stossels story? Isn't competition a GOOD thing? Apparently, only in our ecuactional system and only when it targets our union teachers and puts down our children. I propose the title to the retort "Stupid is as Stupid Does", except wait! The title was already taken, http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh011706.shtml

My dad is an obsessed book collector and as such, comes up with some gems that me and the kids would never come across or think to pick up on our own.

Here is one:
The Moscow Puzzles, 350 mathematical recreations,
by Foris A. Kordemsky Published by Charles Scribner's Sons/New York copyright 1972
Thsi book can be purchased at Amazon.com so is still in print. The previous owner devoured it as can be seen by the personal notations made throughout my copy.

The introduction says that this book was first published in 1956 in the Soviet Union, first in Russian then into the various eastern block languages and finally into the various languages of Europe, Chinese, Japanese and Korean, before making its way over to us in the U.S.

Some of the puzzles are probally not as novel to math buffs, while others are standout more by the story they tell. Here is an example, reproduced in full, and the title is NOT made up.

"When the Fascists Attacked Our Country

During WWII, Russian cities near the front were blacked out. Once when it was time to darken the windows, schoolboy Vasya's parents could not find a shade for a window 120 by 120 units. All that was available was a rectangular sheet of plywood. Its area was correct, but was 90 by 160.

Vasya picked up a ruler and drew quick lines on the plywood. He cut it into two parts along the lines he had drawn. With these parts, he made a square covering the window. How?"

While the math in this puzzle is fairly simple, what intersted me was the Soviet party line, fully intact in the title, and in addition, my childrens generation and their age meant that they were unaware of the what this guy was talking about, so they got to learn a little bit about history and politics.

The book is peppered with such stories, life after the war, life during the cold war, the reconstruction of a war torn country, and hints as to what life may have been like during those years for children in particular since the majority of the puzzles were targeted at children.

Go ahead and solve the puzzle if you want, post the answer if you care to, but try and locate a copy of this book.

I was told that today marks the beginning of Year 2 at ASpira Haugen Charter Middle School. Next year.

As some of you may know, at the end of last year, Aspira consented to allowing the parents to have their first ever parent organization-the PTO. The parents who volunteered to join the PTO were to meet over the summer to discuss and trouble shoot the problems that parents were identifying. They were also there to ensure that ASpira would make good on their promise to make "next year" a success by meeting their stated goals.

Parents have largely put aside the High Tech model by the way because other issues were so bad that all our energy had been concentrated on safety and communication. I presume that Aspira is therefor relieved that the pressure to meet the High Tech standards has been put on the back burner. I hope that the parents who sit on the PTO realize what is going on here. by not improving security and communication all your work and focus will remain on those issues and away from academics. This is year 2, and Aspira should have solved the security issues enough to have a safe and orderly campus. Dont' forget academics, thats why our kids go to school.

At any rate, a friend of mine informed me that the PTO wasn't going well. At the first meeting 5 parents came. Not a bad turnout since it was over the summer. At the second meeting which was about school security, 4 parents showed up. Then finally, at the most recent meeting in mid August, some parents showed up but the principle did not. My friend told me that Velasquez was calling the parent volunteers himself to remind them of the meeting dates. Parents, exchange phone numbers, this is your organization.

Let me state here clearly- Quintana has been on sick leave so she was not obligated to be there. With her gone that left one principle-Velasquez who has the list of parents and their phone numbers and he could have had the courtesy to make a few calls and reschedule the meeting. He apparntly didnt' do that.

I also want to note here that a friend of my daughters recieved a phone call over the summer from somebody from Aspira who talked to the parents in an attempt to convince them that if her daughter stayed in the school, they would be pleasantly surprised at the changes. These parents at first believed the caller, but chose to move to the suburbs shortly after. Not sure if they did or not, but they really didn't want their daughter at Aspira for one more year. I asked several children over the summer if they got a call from Aspira. They believed they hadn't, but who knows for sure.

Another student went to transfer out of that school into a neighborhood school and the mother was told that since her son didnt' have good grades a certain Aspira person would help him get into Lane Tech if he stayed. The child is a high academic achiever and I saw his last report card, which I recall was all A's and one B. The mother has high standards and goals for her son and was apparently made sufficiently doubtful of her sons future that she complied to the "request" that she not transfer her son. this matter was brought to my attention by a phone call from another child who was smart enough to be alarmed after he read the news on another blog posted by the student by the way. He called me and asked me to go on the blog to read it myself. Just days before, this student had posted a happy goodbye to Aspira.

I have no problem with this if the mother had made the decision based on the schools satisfactory performance, but a parent who needs to be scared into staying and had gone in to transfer her child out could not have been very happy in the first place and her decision should have been respected. This is a charter school and our children are only there by choice. The promise of getting the child into Lane Tech should not have happened but why would a high achiever with a good report card have a problem getting into Lane Tech in the first place? Because he spent his 7th grade year in Aspira, thats why. to that parent who believed the promise, get it in writing from the person who made that promise. Then call Lane tech and ask them if they can give you the same promise in writing as well.

When I say good luck to the kids and parents who freely chose to go to that campus this year, I mean it sincerely. They will need all the luck that they can get.

Did anybody read the article about Daley proposing fifth year of high school in the chicago suntimes? http://www.suntimes.com/output/education/cst-nws-five25.html
He bases this idea on the fact that college tuition is unaffordable for low and middle income families. No kidding? According to the article, Daley states that if something isn't done about the cost of college "the birth rate will go down in the United States and our knowledge based economy will not grow." Hmm.

Correct me if I am wrong here, but over-population growth in most countries occurs in poor and uneducated populations. The United States is not in anyway lagging behind in population growth when issues such as live births, infant survival and immigration are added together. In fact, just for fun, visit this link http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html to see our national population clock. A new body every 10 seconds as of today. Further, while Daleys comment is based on economic competition against China and India, both nations that are overpopulated and as a result have high levels of starvation, among other issues directly related to over population - he isn’t considering the impact on the environment, natural resources such as oil and water or the simple fact that our schools and our city are both already overcrowded. Read this article to see how overpopulation affects things other than one nation’s economical competition. http://dieoff.org/page57.htm It was written in the 90’s but the issues remain much the same.

Let’s not forget one more thing of a highly practical nature that is already impacting the lives of our children; the more kids we have in our system, the higher the competition is for those kids to gain entry to both selective enrollment high schools as well as college, affordable or not. The more kids we have in our system the more money it will take for educating them within our system as well.

There is more to article of course, but I really felt that comment was socially irresponsible and misleading. In order to keep population growth in check, it is suggested that parents have only enough children to replace themselves and that means two. Parents that are having less children due to increasing college costs are merely being responsible reproducers whether they know it or not. Read the article and tell me if I am making too big a deal out of it.

You ask them what "team" they want to create. I dont' think they understand the concept of team work and I saw very little evidence of team work. What I did see was a cut throat environment that was hostile to all concerned. An example: Within one minute of a meeting in which both principles and the CIO were present with parents, I witnessed a highly unprofessional attitude from the CIO who didn't want to hear me go to the defense of Quintana and tried to firmly and rudely shut me down and when she couldn't shut me up she attempted to make the subject irrelevant as if she somehow could control me by belittling my point. Remember that parents wanted to be able to collaborate in the progress of the school so having a good working relationship and trust with the principles would have been crucial to that. We ended up in a silly arguement because we apparantly share both personal pride and a stubborn streak.I resent the fact that it seemed fine for a member of the school staff to go so far out of their way to do that to a parent who was there to give constructive criticism, which was the case at the time. That was my introduction to the personal politics of the administrative "team".

At the time, Quintana was trying her best to make parents welcome and while I never had a problem with catching up with her eventually,it was hard if I didn't remain persistant. Sometimes, I actually went to Velasquez who never seemed as busy as her, but he wasn't my principle. Quintana eventually would call though. However,other parents had the issue of not being able to meet with either of the principles at all. I was merely responding to the comment made on my behalf which wasn't as accurate as I wished it to be since the concern was a general one,and not a personal allegation against one person. CIO didnt' want to hear it even though she has told me over and over that she hoped our meetings would be "positive". What is worse is that besides a disregard for parents concerns, as I already stated respect for parents was not there in the first place which is why our concerns were never taken seriously enough. They didnt' seem to think that we were intelligent enough to bother to hide their internal power struggles as I would expect from professionals and I have been at many meetings in schools where power struggles probablly existed, but parents didn's see it and believe me, we shouldn't see it. It was as blatant as it could possiblly be. That is their version of teamwork.

Another example of the team work or lack of. Quintana and I had worked on a newsletter for the school briefly. She gave me a short deadline, but had a wonderful vision of what that newsletter should be. She wanted it to be bilingual and full of information and was willing to put in time and work to make it succeed. She asked Velasquez if he would do the Spanish translation and he agreed, gave me his email address and stated he would work on the articles over the weekend and have everything ready by Monday, two days before the projected deadline. He didn't and never acknowledged to me that he even recieved the articles. The newsletter as it was at the time had a staff of two- me and Quintana. That meant we had to design the layout, take the photos, format the photos, write the articles and translate into Spanish, and gather the information from teachers who wished to contribute as well as leave time to trouble shoot any possible printng issues that may arise at the last minute. Finally, both of us, as frustrated as you can imagine, agreed to put the project on hold until we could get more staff to volunteer. I bowed out of the project because to me, if certain people do not meet deadlines, I can't do my end of the deal and I don't respect that sort of lack of cooperation among a team in the first place and my time and skills are valuable.

Later, in an effort to revive the idea, the school used a template to create a horrible looking newsletter which was void of information, full of errors and negative space that could have been used more effectively, therby saving paper and money. I was subject to a snide remark by a certain person as to how "easy" it was to put out a newsletter. It was shameful enough for my kids to sit at home and edit the many grammatical and spelling errors as well as the layout, transparency issues of photos and graphics and the unexplained phantom objects that were scattered here and there. The school managed to put out four issues and it was dropped all together presumablly because even with a template, they didn't have enough people involved to share the hard work of putting out a quality product. They never did put out a bilingual issue and they did not translate one article into Spanish.

So you see, some examples of what I saw their team to be capable of. This from a relative outsider. I can't imagine how bad it really was for the people who worked there. I saw people who were just waiting around to be part of a strong and effective team give up and go with the flow just to survive and I saw alot of wasted talent as a result.

If you feel that these people need to remember that they can be replaced, then you must remember that they also know they havn't been replaced so why should they care to hear that? How many chances or time does Aspira feel they need to give to people who make constant mistakes or are they waiting for a scandal before heads begin to roll?

Thanks to the poster who wrote in to let us know about the baseball team for special needs kids. Find the story here http://wgntv.trb.com/news/local/eveningnews/?track=nav scroll down to The Slammers. That is what I am talking about. Parents and community members can make a differance in the lives of children.

I was looking for classes for my kids on the Chicago Park Districts website and happened to notice that alot of the parks are offering a Special Olympics classes for kids this fall. While there, I noticed that Jensen Park isnt' offering alot, and most of their classes are after 5 pm. Still a problem and while I know it is an issue that is being tackled, I havn't had any updates on any progress being made. Anybody out there in the know please post.

With the first day of school just around the corner, I also would like to invite readers to send in information or educated opinions on what parents who had 7th graders in Aspira Haugen last year should be doing to make sure that their children have a chance to qualify for selective enrollment high schools.

Please base the information on the following facts since most of the children that I know fell into this situation last year. Please tell me it isn't too late and that the damage will be undone with careful planning and commitment on the part of parents and students.

1. The children did not have the opportunities to fullfill community service hours that other schools have required their 7th graders participate in.Parents are under the impression that this will matter. True or false?
2. Most of the kids don't come from a family background that could have provided extracurricular activities outside of school and Aspira didn't provide that to most of the kids. Bad or not relevant?
3. There is a confusion among parents that grades alone will get their kids into a good high school. Therefore if a student had one bad grade in one subject, while having overall good performance, the understanding is that the child wouldn't qualify for selective enrollment high schools.Right or Wrong?
4. Attendance. What is adequate and what can a parent do if child was sick enough to not have perfect attendance.
5. We await the ISAT test results but the 7th grade science academy didn't have a math/science teacher for around 3 months. The test results might reflect that. If so, what can parents do to remedy the situation?
5. Will letters of recommendations from former teachers, staff or principles matter in such a situation?


In other words, since the circumstances were stacked against the kids last year, how can parents, me included, build a good case for our children who should have the fair opportunity to qualify for selective enrollment high schools. Can they make a differance in their own lives in 8th grade? The kids I refer to are ambitious, well behaved and intelligent with high abilities. Please help them if you can.

Somebody asked me not long ago why I was putting blame on one person, namely my childrens principle, when both principles were merely doing what they were told to do by higher ups. Good question and deserves some clarification. I am merely relaying certain experiences at this point in time. I am reporting it as it affected my children or their friends. I do realize that the ultimate responsiblity for the schools failures are not the direct responsibility of this particular principle. I have mentioned that she began the school year as hopeful and as positive as the rest of us and if you read the archives you will find that her actions were usually proactive, but tended to backfire on her. If I havn't made that fact clear enough, I apologize, but it isn't my story to tell. For example, she responded to the complaints about the "cages" by providing a reading program that lasted several weeks, while the tech kids remained in their cages as unsupervised as ever.

I mention her more than the tech principle-Velasquez because my children were not enrolled in the Tech academy for which I am highly thankful. I believe and with good reason, that with all its short comings, the Science Academy was a safer and more positive place for my kids. Please understand that if my kids were in the Tech Academy, I would be doing the same thing-reporting our experiences. I would have preferred to start this blog as a pro charter, pro Aspira parent of kids who attend a wonderful campus that offered all the wonderful and postive things that Aspira propoganda had said they would offer, but that was not the case and that is not my fault. Parents tried as hard as the situation would allow to bring postive action from Aspira's higher ups. They didn't care to respond at all.

So here is the structure of the school. One school, two academies- a science/math and a "technology" academy. The two academies are said to contribute to a small school environment which as we know is supposed to enhance personalization and learning.

Because of the two academies, we have two principles, who presumably would be willing and able without any sort of power struggles to cooperate in the running of the school in general while overseeing their respective academies. Now, do we have enough hands in the soup pot? No, we don't. We also have a CIO, Mary Ravid, a former principle at Thorpe elementary. She is responsible for overseeing all five of Aspiras campuses and the principles at our school were to report directly to her. Infact, parents were told to report directly to her with complaints as well.Some of us did.

So lets assume that both principles showed up to work on the first day of school to find that their students had no books, that the computers had not arrived and that there were no learning/teaching materials. Lets assume that these things were ordered and paid for in ample time for the school to open its doors fully equiped to start the business of education, which was the whole point wasn't it? And lets remember this fact, while the principles were not experiened administrators, they were highly experienced educators which leads to the safe assumption that finding the school empty of everything that makes a school a place of learning, they would have been sufficiently concerned to make some phone calls on the one telephone line that the building had at their disposal.

The question is, who did they call? While Ravid is the CIO, Aspira is a large organization. They have their own financial department which means that the principles were most likely not responsible for the schools budget an most likely didn't personally make the orders for the supplies. I would think that the curriculmn developer was one of the first persons informed. Yet she works under the CIO as well.

Regardless of my lack of knowledge of who might have been directly responsible, the fact remained that the school had not recieved their supplies in time to start the school year and the situation wasn't resolved for several weeks. I find it hard to believe that Aspira's CEO and the board of directors, who have the responsiblity of being the governing board of our campus, did not know about the situation. Aspira, as mighty as they think they are, with all their connections didn't have enough muscle to move shipments of school supplies in time to be prepared. This situation set the pace for the entire year.

When the supplies came, they dragged their feet on things like a school library and on the after school program. They never accomplished other goals that they alone had set for themselves.
When I visited Merta Remirez, a technology based school, they were fully equiped. I can't say how long that took, I wasnt there. Yet, the high school had two science labs complete with microscopes. Where is the science lab at Aspira Haugen? The school as of last year didn't have one yet are a science academy.

Worst of all, Aspira want to become a "charter giant". They plan on opening other campuses based on the fact that they say they have proven educational success. What does that mean? CPS clearly has forgotten to check up on the Aspira Haugen campus to see what Aspira conciders a success. How does one define success? I don't think that it is a matter of opinion. Sure the kids might know how to read and do math, but that is the case in many schools.

So while I have relayed experiences on this blog, please don't think that I have missed something. I know that the responsiblity for the campus is directly in the hands of anybody from the CIO on up to the governing board. I didn't want to go there just yet, but I don't wish to leave people thinking that it was a personal issue. It is personal only in that it affected my family. It isn't personal when it affects an entire community of children, their families and teachers.

While yesterdays post concentrated on my daughters experience, here is my sons:

When March rolled around, the school suddenly and without consulting the parent community, changed their hours from 9-4pm to 8;30-3:30pm. They gave one weeks notice of the decision and sited the need to give the kids the opportunity to take advantage of the park districts offerings and to take advantage of their new after school program.

The after school program had some good offerings- one being Robotics/Algebra. My son, a long time fan of Legos robotics was one of the first to sign for this class as were two of his friends. The first day they attended the class, the teacher taught them algebra concepts and they were told that the supplies for actual building would arrive in a couple of weeks. While the teacher was productive, one must remember the long school day and that more pencil and paper brain work at the end of the day just didn't appeal to the kids. Still, the children tried. Yet, they wanted to hands on build, that is what they were interested in. My son was one of the first to drop out, because the supplies didn't come in. His friends were next, lasting a week or two more. I know of one child who tried to stick it out to the end,but the supplies, according to her mother, didn't arrive.

Flash forward to around May. My son and a friend were late coming out of the building. When they finally approached my car, they told me that they had found out about a stand up comedy workshop that had started a week before and they had gone to the office to get permission slips but were told to find a certain teacher. They couldn't find her so they asked me if I could go to the office the next morning to obtain the permission slips.

The next day,I found out that the workshop was being taught by an organization called Gear Up who were active with the campus and that the boys were correct to say that the program started the week before. I got the permission slips from the office but had to wait for the teacher to send them down. I asked why this activity wasn't announced to the entire student body. Quintana was in the office and answered my question. She said that she gave the flyers to a "couple" of teachers who she thought would know who was interested. She went on to say that this was the second comedy workshop sponsored by Gear Up that year and the last session had only two kids in the class, which was a bad turnout. She felt that the kids were not interested. I know this doesn't make any sense, but I said nothing because it was obvious that the teachers who were privy to the information didn't know all the kids in the school. They certainly had no contact with my son or his friends.

The boys then heard that there were only two classes left and were discouraged so refused to sign up.

This left me wondering how many opportunities my children and others may have missed during the year because the school never bothered to announce these things for the general population. And what is worse, if Gear Up was offering classes and workshops but the students appeared to not be interested which would be reflected in the low enrollments of such events, then how long will they want to put in an effort to bring these opportunities to this campus?

While these issues may seem relatively minor to the outsider, I ask that anybody reading this remember that Aspira had stated they would provide such things to our children and to our community. They can say and prove that they did provide these things. What they can't say is that they did everything in their power to ensure that the children and parents were fully welcome and informed about activities to be able to enjoy them in full and they can't say that they were well prepared.

I am in a sentimental mood. I recall the day that I requested a meeting with Ms. Quintana, early in the academic year. My daughter was coming home from school on a daily basis practically bored to tears and with lots of angry questions: "When will I get my personalized learning plan?" When will the interesting projects begin?", but most of all, "Where are the books? I NEED BOOKS!"

I know from experience that alot of parents tend to believe that their child is gifted. What is gifted anyway? A straight A report card? High test scores? Artistic or Musical talent? Athletics? Enough curiosity to independently delve deep into a topic of interest? Logic? Gifted is all of the above and more. (see the following great website for gifted education research and resources http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/index.htm) Some kids have only one characteristic, while others have all. Some kids show it in their school performance while others do not. My daughter is one of those kids who has many of the characteristics, while my son has some, but tends to want to concentrate on his social life (interpersonal skills are a gift too after all), therefor not caring to be challenged academicly. I blame that on his age. He is getting more serious about his education/abilities as he gets older. I am very cautious in letting him be, and he doesn't complain much about academics. I step in when I feel he has strayed too far. My daughter, however, is another story. Her questions were her way of asking me to advocate for her, something she never had asked for before, either directly or indirectly.

It was because of my daughters clear frustration that I requested the meeting. By then, we had given the school some breathing space to get it together. I brought my daughters previous report cards, her IOWA test scores which have been consitantly in the high 90th percentile in both reading (99th) and math ( varied between95-97th) and her 6th grade SAT's to prove that I was not "bragging". I was requesting that the principle do something to make the situation work for my indivisual child. In the absence of the promised assessments, I provided clues to the school myself as to my daughters needs and abilities.

Quintana told me two things. First, that Aspira was not a gifted school. To this I argued that the assessments and the Indivisualized Learning plan spelled out a system of independent study and indivualization. Therefore, to me, it didn't matter if the school was calling itself a gifted school. My daughters personal needs could easily be met by practicing what they preached instead of getting caught up in labels.

After she heard me out, she agreed to talk to my daughters teacher about giving her independent study. Simple as that. We further discussed resources because in those early days, Quintana was as hopeful as the rest of us. She asked me if I had any ideas as to possible actitivies for the kids. I mentioned my childrens Tae Kwon Do teacher as well as a karate school called ITKA that I knew was dedicated to bringing martial arts to schools as a form of self-discipline and Quintana agreed that it would be interesting to talk to both of them about coming to the school to teach. We made a follow up appointment for the following week and I agreed to research other activities.

In addition to speaking to the Tae Kwon Do instructor and getting him to agree to the possibility of teaching in the school, I provided Boy/Girl Scouts information as well as 4H (of which I am an alumni) and the name/phone of the contact at ITKA. When I returned for our follow up meeting, Quintana was busy. I waited about half an hour then rescheduled the appointment, but I did leave the contacts.

I attempted several times to meet with her regarding my daughter, but she was always busy. Finally, my daughters teacher quit suddenly (see previous posts) and that was that. Fortunately, my daughters social studies/english teacher was having them write daily in their journals and one day my daughter wrote about how she felt to be so miserablly unchallenged. Since he bothered to read the journals, he tried to give my daughter independent projects and he did his best to challenge her in other ways throughout the year. Yet, despite the High Tech model and all the other elaborate plans, the system wasn't really set up to support his efforts so he couldn't be as consistant as my daughter needed her teachers to be. He reminded me of another dedicated teacher at the previous school who wrote a goodby note to my daughter in which she told her that she was going to miss having her in her classroom because she enjoyed the challenge of writing lesson plans with my daughter in mind! The previous school was not a gifted school either, but I digress.

As to the activities that I mentioned, none of them came to pass. Not a single one. Maybe martial arts would have been out of the budget (interestingly, Karate was mentioned as an example activity it the charter proposal), but 4H would have been ideal for the "Science" Academy. 4H has an in school program in addition to after school programs and they help clubs get grants. In addition, 4H has a high quality technology program as well. It couldn't be easier or more necessary, especially in the absence of the other promised science programs such as NASA- Mars Rocket Project, Science Fairs, Chicago River Wetlands Program, and the Algebra Project- check out www.aspirail.org where they still are claiming to have these programs for the students in the hopes of luring more supporters/students. They didn't have these programs last year with the exception of one science fair in which the 7th grade science academy was not invited to participate in.

My children will be going to a better school next year, and while there may not be as many activities as one would hope, I believe that they will be in good hands academicaly and professionally. As for the outside activities, I will continue to do what I did last year by providing them to my kids myself. I can't make up for the lost opportunities but kids are supposed to be resilient. Only time will tell just how resilient they really are.

Continuing my going green subject and my visit to Australia I want to mention that one of the greatest things we can do is to literally clean up our environment, but especially our beaches. Since my husband is a surfer and I grew up about a mile from the U.S Pacific myself, it isn't any surprise to me that our family has a special respect for large bodies of water. Thanks to the history of surfing, we came across the Surfrider Rider Foundation http://surfrider.org/ whose dedicated mission is clean water, beach access and protection. The midwest has their own version of Surfrider- the Great Lakes Alliance http://www.lakemichigan.org/adopt/ which has a local chapter. Last summer, my kids and I went to one of their beach clean ups. We chose Foster Beach because that is the beach we use. Most of the participants were high school students who were part of their schools ecology club. The purpose wasn't to just pickup trash though. We actually were given a checklist to track the type and amount of trash we found on the beach, in the water and on the grass area. Sadly, this event didn't even make a dent in the amount of garbage found on our beach, yet it did serve an important purpose. My kids were really disgusted at what they found. At their age, nonchalance is the driving force, but what they found trully moved them to make the decision to become more responsible in their own action and attitudes towards the environment.

That is the one thing I did notice in Australia that amazed me. Respect for the environment is ingrained. Their beaches are flawless and their highways and parks are notablly lacking in debris. Even their name brand washing detergents are biodegradable by law thanks to the fact that Australians use reclaimed household water to water their lawns and gardens, but that is yet another subject. We are heading to Foster Beach this morning, our first visit of the season and I am already cringing at what I know I will see.

The problem here is that it isn't only the beaches that are littered. As I already mentioned, our park is also not as clean as it should be. The other day, at the corner of Wilson and Lawndale, the garbage can was full to overflowing. People are using the trash cans, but the city isn't keeping up with the park. Why?

The reason I am providing the links I do is that I believe that education has to include involvement within communities. Our children need these kinds of experiences if we expect them to become responsible citizens.

One good thing about Aspira-the building, not the organization, is that they have a roof top garden. The kids were not invited to enjoy that space last year and they didn't learn about it in science, nor did they plant anything or help maintain it. I saw it one day myself. Is the garden thriving or has everything died off? The opportunity is there for our children in our own neighborhood to be involved, to become environmentally savvy,learn valuable skills and lessons.

I just don't believe that reading about the subject of ecology in a stale text book is going to interest our children into caring about their world. I mention all of this because opportunities abound to teach this generation about healthy living. Ideally, while bringing these programs into our community will hopefully make it a better place, we can't do this without involving the children. With that, I come down off my biodegradable soap box, but not before I ask a question of my readers- does anybody know of a beach in the area where boogie boards are allowed in the water?

Finally, a message to Basil- I posted a reply to you. Please leave a message or post the best times you can meet me. If you give me your contact information in your next post, I will concider it a private email. I would love to meet with you. Happy Gardening.

I have an interest in organic food, the environment, sustainable living and other ecological based subjects. I was perusing the links on the GreenTech website, ended up on the cities Conservation Corp which led me to Faith in Place The following link will take you to their youth progam http://www.faithinplace.org/programs.php?ID=5 which is in Logan Square. Not only does this organization teach practical skills, they actually help the children in their after school program market their harvest, which includes honey.While they are faith based, I see that they are also nondenominational. Check them out. I find what they are doing to be an inspiration.

Another program that is available to us and which I am happy to say that my friends and I are organizing for Albany Park is the Market Basket Program http://www.growingpower.org This program will help make locally grown, affordable produce available to our community. They offer both organic baskets as well as non organic baskets to be delivered weekly. When I say affordable, I mean that a box of fresh organic produce, enough to feed a family of 4 for a week, is $25. Look for flyers with more information at local stores soon. In the meantime visit the website.

Finally, while the following isn't about going green per say, I promise it is related to community,( a crucial aspect of "holistic" living). Jensen Park has a problem. There are precious few classes available there for our community members, such as the pre schooler and the senior citizen. The park does offer programs for youth, however, the times offered are not convenient. Has anybody asked why this is? I have.

I was told that since the club house shares a building with a school (ASpira), the park has to offer classes after the school is vacated by students. While Aspira stalled their after school programming until March, the park had to wait until after 4:30 to begin classes for youth. That means that the moms and tots classes that other parks offered would have to be offered at dinner time, and the senior citizens who do not like to be out late for the most part and need activities to fill their days had nothing either.

AS we know, as dismissal time rolled around, we had kids loitering in the park with nothing to do unless they happened to be waiting for a park program to commence. The school had just enough gang members that the public park became their hangout, despite the best efforts of the park superintendent to keep it safe. But remember, he was doing this alone. The park and the school grounds were often littered with debris despite the efforts of the lone park attendant. Aspira doesn't clean the perimeter of this beautiful building, they don't pick up dog poop on the city side of the property as an example and they do not prune the overgrown plantings. Nor do they pick up discarded beer bottles and throw them away. The place is going to the dogs.

There is a community effort happening now which is making some headway in cleaning the park and making it safe. I find the effort so far to be commendable. Yet we need more. I was invited to start a walking club at the park. A great idea, but who wants to walk after Aspira students leave their after school programs-at dinnertime? While sports are a great thing, what about art classes, stitch and bitches, ecology clubs and other community based activities? As citizens, we should have access to our neighborhood park at decent times. Our taxes support that and other neighborhoods have better services.There is no reason to have to settle on less, especially while the park is being supportive and has shown a willingness to move forward.

My point is that while at first, Aspira was a bane on the children and parents in this community, it has become apparant that their negative influence is affecting more people within our community. If they don't care to be a positive force, that is one thing. If they stand in the way of positive experiences in other venues, then as a community, it is up to us to come together and make positive things happen despite their existance. Every neighborhood has undesirables, but it is up to us to provide for ourselves what we want in our lives to counterbalance the situation.

I refer to my fellow blogger and friends question here. Read her comments for yourself at carmen4kids.livejournal.com. As some of you readers may already know, the issues Carmen is trying to deal with have to do with her special ed son, Idel. Carmen has taken the time back in mid June to submit formal complaints regarding the atrocious way her son was treated by the so called professionals at the Aspira Haugen Middle School Campus. She submitted two complaints that I know of, one pertaining to the schools social worker and one regarding the special ed program as well as the mistreatment her son underwent while attending school this last year, under the hands of the administration.

I have read her complaints, and they are serious. Infact any person with even the slightest sense of humanity would have been sufficiently alarmed to do something immediately to rectify this situation, even if only to assure this worried mother that things will be looked into. I know that Carmen sent copies to Aspira, which means the Chief Instructional Officer, the CEO, and the Chairperson of the Board. I know she also sent complaints to CPS and filed a complaint with the State Board of Regulations against the social worker. It has been at least 6 weeks since she submitted her paperwork and yet on August 2nd she posted to her blog asking "Where is the help?"

I will confirm with her tonight, but it seems that Aspira has made no response to her formal complaint which is not surprising but it is of interest to note here that the formal complaint process is spelled out in the charter application as one recourse for parents to pursue should they find themselves in this type of scenario. Carmen, however, is not alone in her long wait period. Another friend whose child was physically and verbally abused by staff, based on a false accusation by a favored hall monitor, also filed a complaint back in May. When I left town in late June, the family hadn't heard from Aspira either, and they also did not recieve a meeting with the CEO and the Chairperson of the Board despite putting the request in writing and giving ample time for all concerned to rearrange their schedules. The request was submitted to all concerned by the parent coordinator.

I understand that CPS might need a little time to deal with incoming concerns from parents, after all they have a whole city to contend with. I don't believe Aspira needs the same amount of time though, unless they have so many formal complaints that they don't know where to begin. But that is just wishful thinking on my part, concidering the fact that the formal complaint process was not something Aspira shared with parents and some of us happened to come across it by accident.

It is because of these examples that I can confidently say that Aspira really couldn't care less what happens to our neighborhood children in an Aspira school. Obviously, help for Carmen will come soon from CPS and maybe even from the community, but Carmen, don't hold your breath waiting for Aspira to do something positive. They simply won't.

While my children are safely removed from the negativities at Aspira Haugen Campus, I had a decision to make as to whether or not to remain involved in the problems that campus has created in our neighborhood. Selfishly, I would rather wash my hands of the mess and simply “give ‘em enough rope to hang themselves”. After all, that is just a matter of time. Yet, not being a self centered by nature, it bothered me that my children would at long last receive a good education, in a healthy and safe environment while the majority of the children in this community don’t have any real choices and the future generations of this community face a bleak future as long as this situation is allowed to continue to fester.

While I was away, there was a community meeting with the Jensen Park personel, community members, Ceasefire and Representative Bradley. The agenda was the safety of the park and the neighborhood. Thinking that the schools principles would be interested, an invitation was extended to them as well as to Jose Rodriquez by a concerned citizen. It was telling that not one of these people bothered to show up. We are therefore led to believe that what happens to this community is not their concern and when it comes to the safety of our children, it is clear that they believe it is not their problem or their doing. Parents whose children went to Aspira already knew that, but now so do a lot of other people.

I had the pleasure of meeting some of the concerned community members yesterday since they invited me and another parent to talk about our experiences. Their children are presently too young to attend school, but the parents are far seeing. They understand the history of how Aspira got the contract to run a school, have done their own research and are not willing to allow this so called “not for profit” to continue running a school in this community. They WILL NOT send their own children there and will not move just because Aspira is the neighborhood eyesore.

It takes one person at a time to create the necessary changes this neighborhood needs. One person saying no to Aspira and finding viable alternatives and sharing that information. One person who wants a safe neighborhood park for our children. That one person will always find like minded people to join in a common goal because those goals are for the greater good. We are not working individually or selfishly. I removed my kids, but I will help any parent find a better alternative if they ask me since I put alot of time and effort into finding those alternatives. Likewise, the park is not safe for any child, so what progress happens with that effort will affect all the children in this area.

There is so much to do to achieve the community we all deserve and desire. My goals haven’t changed after all. I just have a different point of view.