Today’s thought from BH the substitute:
today and tomorrow, parent(other)-teacher day.
I’m thinking we’d have better turnout if we paid $15 for one adult, $25 for two, and provided food. We hope to have a good turnout anyhow.

Previous post continued: I know some will judge and say why should we pay people for things they should do anyhow? Because it’s good for the kids, that’s why! You either help make them the best they can be now, or you deal with it later.
I was thinking today, I remember none of my parent teacher conferences. I dont think kids went back then.
Parental involvement one of the keys, if not the panacea, to turning education around.
I remember that one political genius, I forget his name, always whining about passing a law requiring businesses to let parents off with pay from work if they go to visit their kids in school, once a month; for tax-credits for the businesses (why should we pay businesses to do something they ought to do anyhow? same answer), and others same deal to tutor, once a month. Good luck with that plan. Like the Greek Cassandra, no one ever listens to him. Maybe he doesnt exist.
Student of the day: “Don”. He used to hang out in the hallway/stairwell between 2nd and 3d floor first lunch. I volunteered to be the hallguard at that end during my lunch. Would always tell him to go where he was supposed to be (he said lunch, which would be in the cafeteria); he just went off somewhere else, then came back later. I didnt like him much. (Which of course says more about me than it does about him.) Sort of quiet, sullen. Nice looking light-skinned young man.
Then I realized he was in one of the math classes I help out in (I’m not good with faces, he may not have always been there; took me a while to recognize him out of context; also he was always doing his work, and I tended to notice those not, who needed more help).
That day we worked in groups. I noticed he sat in a group by himself. I asked him about it. He said he was ok. Lots of other young men in the class, but obviously he wasnt close to them.
That’s how I got to know him better. Smart but a loner.
I dont know why not more friends. His light skin? I dont know.
But I realized he was hanging out in the hallways at lunch, not because he was getting in trouble, but because he didnt want to get in trouble.
I told him I was sorry for always chasing him out of the hall at lunch. He replied, “you were just doing you job”. Nice. And when the guards asked if I was still seeing him up there, I told them I was cutting him some slack, and maybe they could also. And I told him the same thing.
Funny, I didnt like him until I got to know him better. That’s the way it usually goes. The people who you like the least you may like the best when you get to know them better. And adults, like children, and especially the young people I deal with, when they deserve love the least is when they need it the most. I’m going to keep an eye out for him now, try to help him be the best he can be, let him know I care. I think that mean something to him. His life doesnt seem to have had enough of that. It should help him care more about himself. I know it does me.

In a quote from an article in the Post-Dispatch;
Shields said he hopes to put roughly $500 million from the stimulus package into the fund, although he estimated that Missouri schools have roughly $4 billion in infrastructure needs.
If one does the math using the data available from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Mr. Shields estimates that the average school has $1,729,355.80 in infrastructure needs. It’s this kind of figuring that creates so many problems. Legislators should try to get a handle of concepts like 4 billion dollars. Always divide it by the number of schools, or the number of students, or the number of whatever is pertinent and see what the per capita amount is. If it still makes sense, go ahead. If you truly believe that the average school in Missouri requires over 1.5 million dollars in infrastructure go ahead. There is a little voice in my head that keeps asking for what all that money would actually be used. It is also interesting that the legislature feels the need to “tweak” the new casino laws. Schools will get about as much new money as they did when gambling was first allowed, $0.