I love my mom

Just some things I need to work out.

     I went to Georgia to visit My mother after many years of just communicating over the phone or texting. Part to the reason is the My cousin and sister also live in and around Atlanta.. My cousin has had some issues in caretaking my mom. she has had the resources my sister an I haven't,  and she has done an amazing job. handling finances driving her around to her medical appointments, making sure she has what she needs. Like my mom my cousin wants to retire and pass these responsibilities to some one else. I live in New York and do not have the same resources the my cousin does. My sister I think is in a bad position. She works at her job, is trying to get her own thing up and running, while caretaking her husband who is gravely ill. She is burning herself out to the point that she is getting sick herself. My cousin has made inferences that my mother is not able to handle her own life, that she needs monitored care. At 83 my mother has trouble with driving, she repeats portions of conversation and stories, her short term memory is starting to get spotty, otherwise she seem to be in good health and with some prodding can handle her affairs. I think the best I can do is be consistent in my conversations with her. She lives by herself, doesn't go out much, does not have people over often, but does occasionally go to the senior center and tries to support local politics. she has never been a social person but the amount of time she spends alone may not be good. I don't like not knowing what I can do to help. I guess just be there and be available. I do not know my cousin or now even my sister as well as I thought. our lives have drifted apart. they have had experiences and moments that have shaped the in ways that i could not possibly be aware of. the young people that we were are very different than the adults that we are now.  I feel that I am being managed by my cousin to see my mother in a certain light and to back her decisions. I know we all feel that our parents a immortal and all knowing but I lost that shade a long time ago. My mother is getting old and so is her interaction with the world. Driving appears to be the biggest issue. The mental processes involved in drivng can be daunting when it becomes harder to juggle all the input necessary, so she drives slower and does not handle change as fast. Did I mention that she is 83. 

    During the visit we talked about lots of things, family, life, religion, and politics. Politics is where she brightens up be cause that is how she is wired, while she was repetitious on some points, she was very clear and in the conversation, She told me about some things that I have not heard before. and some things that will always come up to talk about. the issue does not seem as bad as my cousin make them out to be. My mom is getting old and she is slowing down in places, but she seems to be handling things ok. 

    I love my Mom. she has had an incredible life and has done her share of making the world better. I think she raised me to be a good man, a good person. I am proud that she is my Mom and I am proud to be her son.

Why can't Billy read?

  Another part of the assignment I had to do.

    In the days before memes, there were catchphrases that were easy to remember and kept ideas and questions in the public discourse. I can remember the above question for almost as long as I have been alive. It was a call to arms about how public school systems were failing our children. 

 For more than 40 years the public education system had been under fire for a state of declining achievement.  The arguments and solutions have been compelling, numerous and to relative degrees.. effective. 

Study Finds Declining Student Achievement, Increased Harm to School Choice Since Common Core

    I mean our society has not fallen into a state of illiteracy. Our businesses still run, new innovations are made, things get written. Our society is chugging along just fine. 

    Is the issue of "declining achievement is schools" a social problem? before you can answer that question there are so many that come before it.  When was the high point of student achievement? who sets these benchmarks? Have they been consistent? If some one is going to make a claim about this being a social problem. That is the best place to start.

 There a quite a few organizations that work to define academic school success. many of them are funded by the government. 

National Center for Educational Statistics

U.S. Department of Education - Data & Statistic

I personally think that student achievement and an effective education is a social issue that needs to be addressed. I believe that a good education would help resolve so many other social issues. It could be that it's not getting the press it deserves, or our society has never thought of it as priority.

Let's find out why.

Those in the know

I was doing a project for school about a Social issue that was not prevalent in the media stream. It was for a class I did not complete, so I am moving the work from another Blog to reclaim it.

"Declining achievement in education" Is a social problem. Without even getting to the subject itself, there are many questions that need to be asked. Who is making these claims? Whose metrics and data do they go by? Lets dive into the second question first.

    Everything you every wanted to know about Education in America including the things you didn't know to ask about Fall under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Education.

    The Mission statement of the U.S. Department of Education is "Our mission is to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access." The original Department of Education was created in 1867 to collect information on schools and teaching that would help the States establish effective school systems. The current Department of Education was created in 1980 by combining offices from several federal agencies. ED's 4,400 employees and $68 billion budget are dedicated to:

• Establishing policies on federal financial aid for education, and distributing as well as monitoring those funds.
• Collecting data on America's schools and disseminating research.
• Focusing national attention on key educational issues.
• Prohibiting discrimination and ensuring equal access to education.

This organization has been providing data regarding this issue for more than 150 years. They are the best source for anyone making claims regarding declining achievement.