Depression – Peaceful Reader

An education for all…

(stock photo – 1970)

To be a teacher today you have to be a psychologist, play therapist, mediator, mother/father figure, and humorist all rolled into one. It’s not the easy job it once was; not to belittle teachers of the past but I think of the teachers I had growing up and they didn’t need to have quite the skill set we do now. I’ve interviewed some retired teachers to check my thinking on this and they agree. Teaching has changed; the pay has not. We work damn hard for our money and leave exhausted every day. Many of us work an hour (and sometimes more) at the end of the day to be ready for the next day and many of us spend weekend afternoons to plan for the week. It’s a lot of planning to keep kids interested in what we teach. We have to figure out ways to integrate technology but not too much. I don’t want to give kids the perception that everything fun happens on a screen. I stress books, reading, board games, and lots of time outside and that is true for in school and out. I want students I work with to enjoy school both in the library and in their classroom.

(image – JennyXYoung)

My daughter – Groovy Girl – is in high school now, a senior! When I started this blog she was just beginning elementary school, which she loved! She adored many of her teachers and was excited for the variety of activities they did. She hates school now and it crushes me. She loves learning and watches a lot of cool educational documentaries for fun. She is opinionated and understands a great deal about the world around her. So why do we squeeze the fun out of school at the middle and high school level?

She is sleepy every morning as she trudges off to school. She is tired from dance the night before and often stays up to midnight to finish homework. As a parent I’ve questioned why are we still doing dance when it leaves very little time for homework yet it is her absolute JOY. How can I take that away from her? I can’t. So we struggle through and she worries about if she’ll make it in college based on her high school experience. She gets little help from school counselors and her teachers. She’s smart, yet has to work hard, and she questions her ability all the time. Sometimes when she takes a test (1-4 performance-based grade) and doesn’t do well she has nowhere to turn. The class just moves on except technically they are supposed to reteach if kids are struggling. I want her to be able to retake a test to help her learn more. I want her teachers to reach out and see her even if she is the only one struggling with concepts. Our system at least in high school fails in this. She feels horrible when she doesn’t succeed and while I know the real world is often dog eat dog most jobs you learn as you go and you keep moving forward. We should allow failures to blossom into growth in all levels of education.

I am aware in all this that technology plays a role in her life and is often a HUGE hindrance in getting things accomplished. She can access homework on her phone and uses it for flashcards and learning apps like Quizlet but often that leads to checking IG, watching SnapChat videos from friends, the list is endless. After a recent conversation she deleted some of her time-wasting apps, which made her happy; to be pro-active but then said she filled that time with dancing around the house instead of more homework! I wish I had the answer or magical words to help. I don’t. Do you?

Teachers and students of today have a mixed bag of trouble and triumph. I hope she (and I) can make it through this year and that she will flourish in college. I want to enjoy this last year with her not spend every day helping her work out her frustrations and encouraging confidence in herself.

Too much to think about…

Last weekend I mentioned in my post that I really only thought about cooking and reading books. I have to amend this statement so you understand fully. I think about so MANY things it becomes overwhelming. It makes it easier to narrow it down to cooking and reading. Here is a smattering of other topics I think about…

World Peace

Kids in poverty globally – specifically the dear ones I know here

Donald Trump – just everything about him and his cronies/family

My family: I think about my kids a lot, not always a worry, sometimes just “I wonder how your day is…”

The environment and plastics in the ocean – just did an amazing research project with Hansen kids on this topic and it is mind-blowing and disgusting how much trash and plastic particles are in the ocean.

My extended family and friend relationships

School, work, lesson plans, my overload of 1,000 + emails, right now my portfolio due soon

Climate Change – I worry about this on a daily basis, really.

Immigration esp. concerning kids, human trafficking, sweatshops

My two gorgeous yet problematic dogs

Awkward conversations

the LGBTQIA and how to make us all one community

My old house and all of it’s needs (and wants)

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Black/Brown lives matter and how to fix this in our society

and now The College Scandal

This list is a random order – I could be thinking about my school work and suddenly I’m thinking about human trafficking. One big thing leads to another equally important big thing.

Life is overwhelming often, so yes, it is escapism to think of cooking delicious food for your family and friends, listening to beautiful music, a simple glass of wine, reading a good book. If you can’t let these big things go a bit then we are all going to hell in a great big overpriced Gucci purse. We need to focus on the good positive around us to, to help in whatever ways we can on a daily basis and yet be able to let it all go for our own well-being at the end of the day. I struggle with this and try to overcome it.

Holiday Hoopla

Christmas is over and thank heavens. The holiday is a bit of a mountain to climb; all the preparations of gifts and food, keeping everyone happy and moving in one direction, the right amount of drinks and frivolous fun balanced with close family time. I would think this would all get easier as the kids get older.

There were many parts of the holiday that I enjoyed and will savor over the course of 2018 and I plan to put a little more thought into next year’s plan. Next year I don’t want to be the one person constantly in the kitchen preparing food. We’ve always had interesting meals for holidays, we don’t tend to have a big platter of meat as the main course. This year we had two vegans to work with and it was no easy feat. As per my last post I did prepare an almost all vegan spread and they were delicious recipes. Even with a perfect spread it was still off. Next year I’m just going to have a ton of Indian food pre-prepared, ready to heat back up and served around the table.

Everyone has expectations for the day and I have a sinking feeling that somehow I was not a good cruise director. Although I think whatever plans I had made or not made wouldn’t have mattered. What is it about holidays and family gatherings that bring out the negative or at least hurt feelings? It begs the age old question “why can’t we all just get along? It takes a lot of empathy to understand trauma and depression and while I am a caring person I feel like I’m being slowly pulled down the rabbit hole. So instead I’m putting my whole spirit into ushering in 2018. Let it be a good and peaceful year.

The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls by Anton Disclafani

Synopsis:

It is 1930, the midst of the Great Depression. After her mysterious role in a family tragedy, passionate, strong-willed Thea Atwell, age fifteen, has been cast out of her Florida home, exiled to an equestrian boarding school for Southern debutantes. High in the Blue Ridge Mountains, with its complex social strata ordered by money, beauty, and girls’ friendships, the Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls is far remove from the free-roaming, dreamlike childhood Thea once shared with her twin brother on their family’s citrus farm-a world that is now lost.
As she grapples with her responsibility for the events of the past year that led her here, and what they will mean in the grand scheme of her life and her relationship with her family, Thea also finds herself enmeshed in a new order at Yonahlossee. Her eyes opened for the first time to a larger world, she must navigate the politics and competition of friendship as well as her own sexual awakening, and come to an understanding of the kind of person she is-or wants to be. Her experience will change her sense of what is possible for herself, her family, and her country.

What I liked: The mountain setting is as beautiful as Thea’s look back at her life in Florida and her family stories. I enjoyed learning more about the Depression from this unique viewpoint as a few of the wealthy young ladies were affected and were forced to leave the camp. I enjoyed Thea’s love of horses and riding. Disclafani’s distinction of “bad girls” vs. “boys will be boys” was well played and reflects what still exists today all though probably not AS bad. I enjoyed the twist of how her notion of what was originally meant to be punishment turns out to be her saving grace.

What I didn’t like: Thea was a tough character which made it hard to love her. I can’t say more without revealing important elements of the story that are best kept secret until you pick it up to read it. While she wasn’t easy to like there was much to enjoy in this story.

A sample:

I slipped away to the barn one afternoon, when all the other girls were studying at the Hall. Now instead of bird-watching, botany, and painting we had history, literature, and home economics; math and science didn’t seem to exist in this mountain enclave. We didn’t have much homework, either, or nothing that took very much time. I like literature, unsurprisingly, taught by bland Miss Brooks. She became impassioned, though, when referring to books she loved, and watching her I sometimes thought, isn’t that always the way? A dull girl charmed by a book? (119)

Find her here Anton Disclafani’s website and on twitter.

Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu

Anne Ursu

2011

312 pages

I consumed this book.
I finished it last night and even though the story ends wonderfully I just wanted it to go on. Hazel is an astonishing girl heroine!

Things to know and love:

It took place in Minnesota.
It made me miss snow.
It is a retelling of the fairy tale The Snow Queen.
The two main characters, Jack and Hazel, are lovable.
The two symbolize the difficult journey of growing up.
The parents are odd and generally not helpful (typical).
Anne Ursu makes some wonderful references to other great literature.

I read this beautiful retelling of The Snow Queen by Amy Ehrlich and Susan Jeffers to Groovy Girl tonight just to compare with what took place in the book and it is pretty accurate. Ursu has lengthened it by adding many adventures to the forest but it only makes the story more enticing. I am extremely pleased I purchased a copy of this book as I love the front cover and it is worth rereading. I will also want Groovy Girl to read it in her own time. I rated it five stars on Good Reads. Thank you, Anne, for this beautiful tale.