A Couple Rants

I have a couple rants that I need to get off my chest. The first is a local issue and the second is more of a national issue.

The first thing I must comment about (before I explode) is the MPS cell phone policy. Having taught in MPS for the past 3 years, I have firsthand experience with the problems that he school district has with cell phones in the schools. As a teacher, I took the stance of "if it is not seen nor heard, I have no problem with you having a cell phone." I found it hard to not allow students to carry cell phones when I had one in my own pocket.

There were two problems with this. The first is the kids still used the phones. When this happened would "send them to the office" so they could be dealt with. I wasn't about to confiscate something that is worshiped by an angry teenager from an angry teenager. The second problem was that the administration at my school did not support me. I would refer a student, and nothing (and I mean nothing) would happen to the student. They would be back the next day...phone in hand.

Now MPS has decided to "get tough". I think it is a fantastic idea. While I agree that students should be able to have cell phones in school, it is unfortunate that some people ruined it for everyone. There are legitimate reasons for a student to carry a cell phone...epsecially a high schooler. They may stay after school and need a ride. They may decide to go to a friend's house or the mall or something after school.

Unfortunately you can't tell the kid to leave the phone in their locker, since lockers in MPS aren't the safest places in the world. So, the only fair and logical step is to have an all-out ban. It sucks, but what else can you do?

Well, MPS decided that they can amend their "all or none" rule (which they chose "none") to add "exceptions" to the rule. BIG MISTAKE. All of a sudden everyone will have reason for "exception". The number of students with medical conditions or other things is going to skyrocket!

Here is my problem with exceptions. If you are going to have a rule, you must stick to it 100%. If a student has a medical issue, you make sure the parent can access the school and the student can access the parent...without needing a cell phone. Medical conditions and emergencies occurred before the invention of cell phones, and we all got along fine. If you needed to make a call, you went to the office. If a parent needed to contact their kid, they called the school.

What a concept!!

Anyways, here is my bottom line. Keep the damn things in your pockets kids! 99% of the time you will not be hassled if you don't advertise you have a phone.


Well, that was long. I will save my other rant for later, but as a preview, it has something to do with a legislator claiming they would have rather had New Orleans hit by a terrorist attack rather than a hurricane, suggesting that aid would be quicker to come if the damage came from terrorists.

Well, in case I don't get back to it, just remember that there is still a huge hole in the ground in downtown Manhattan nearly 5 1/2 years after a terrorist attack.

Badger Anna!

Anna attended her first Badger sporting event over the weekend. Unfortunately, we had to take her to Northwestern to do so. We made the trip down to Evanston Saturday to watch the Badgers battle their way to a 56-50 victory over the Wildcats.

Anna had a good time after a rocky start. Our tickets were in the upper part of the upper deck, which consist of bleachers that are dark and all too close together. The large number of Badger fans at the game made for a loud atmosphere, which made Anna cry through the first 5 minutes of the game. On a side note, despite the fact that this is possibly the worst gym I have ever seen Division I basketball played in, it is definitely worth the road trip, as tickets are much easier to get than in Madison.

After sneaking down into the Northwestern Student Section (plenty of seats available!), Anna really enjoyed herself, and actually watched some of the game. Melissa was the hero of the day though, holding Anna and keeping her happy when she started to get a little whiny in the second half. Her arms were a little sore afterwards!!

We didn't make it to the end of the game, but we stayed until the game was in hand with about 10 seconds left. Here is where our original seats were...

Breaking Laziness Records!

I thought it was bad last time when I hadn't posted in a while, but this is bordering on ridiculous. I don't know if lazy is really the right word though. It is somewhere between there and overwhelmed. Life was real busy in 2006 (as you could imagine) but things are starting to get under control. Here is what has happened.

Neither Melissa or I worked this past summer. We decided to hang out with the baby instead. It was really weird for me at first, since this was the first summer since 1994 that I hadn't worked!

In August, swimming started. Swimming takes up a lot of our free time, leaving us time to play with Anna and hang out with family. The team did real well this year. We aren't world beaters yet, but we definitely made some real solid improvements, even winning a couple meets over the course of the season.

Then Melissa went back to school. She seems to be enjoying her students, as much as you can enjoy 30 7-year-olds. I stayed home and took care of the baby again. We have been having a blast.

Since then, Melissa got accepted to grad school in Madison. The program is a combination of online and summer courses, so she will only have to actually be in Madison for a couple weeks over the next two summers. She is very excited about it!

Then came the whirlwind that was December. With Anna's birthday and Christmas, things got pretty nuts. It also didn't help that MPS was the only school district in the world that went until the Friday before Christmas. Anna and I were able to get a lot of the stuff done that Melissa couldn't do because she was busy making money for the family.

And now we just got the fantastic surprise that Anna decided to start walking. This basically means I will be chasing her around the house three times as much as I had been in the past.

All in all though, things are great here. We are enjoying watching Anna grow, and I will try to see if I can get more stuff on here. I make no guarantees though!