I was talking to my 14 year old cousin this weekend and found out that she is not taking English this year. This shocked me. “Don’t you have to take 4 years of English in highschool?” I asked. “No, you only have to take 2 years,” was her response. WHAT?!?!

This freakin’ blew my mind. Seriously? Only 2 years of English. I was in such disbelief that I actually had to look this up on the Tennessee State Education website to confirm it. Sadly, it is true. After reading through various parts of the website, it would seem that the state needed to increase various numbers, like the proportion of students that actually graduate, so there solution was to lower the standards. This is abombidable! No wonder I get freshmen students in college who cannot write a complete sentence, let alone a paragraph. I argued with my cousin about the requirements. She thought it was a good thing. Her reasonign was that she already knew how to speak English, so why take English classes. I argued that in reading the classics you develop critical thinking skills and you broaden the depth of your own knowledge. This argument, of course, held no merit in her eyes.

In reading through the Tennessee Education website, I also found out that you only need 14 units (1 semester of 1 class is a unit) to graduate from high school. You need the 4 English units, 3 units in Math, 3 units in Science, 3 units in Social studies, and 1 unit of Physical Education. Now, when I was in highschool, we took 6 classes a semester: 6 units x 2 semesters a year x 4 years = 48 units. So, I wondered where the other 34 units of time were going. Then I found out that they only take 4 classes a semester: 4 units x 2 semesters a year x 4 years  = 32 units. This still leaves 18 units unaccounted for. That is more units than are needed to graduate. Are those all electives! What is happening here?

All I have to say is that if the standards don’t change by the time my children (yet to be born) go to school, they will NOT be attending public school in Tennessee. Now, we may not be living in TN so it may no be an issue, but if we are, private school here they come. My children will take 4 years of English, 4 years of Math, at least 3 years of Science, a year of US History, a year of World History,  at least 2 years of Foreign Language, and at least 1 year of some sort of Art or Music class. This idea that children get the bare minimum in K-12 and that it is mostly baby sitting and everyone needs to go to college because they do not learn much of anything in K-12 is reprehensible. My children will be held to higher standards if my no one else than my husband and myself. You should be a well educated, well-rounded individual by the time you graduate from highschool. Even if you go into a trade and never attend college, you should be able to read and write intelligibly, talk about the government and politics with some knowledge of how the system works, have a idea of the basic principles of science, and an appreciation for music and the arts. I do not know what has caused our culture to shift away from valuing these types of knowledge, but alas …

Well, there is my rant for the day.

The resolutions are going pretty well.

1. I have managed to keep my sink clean every day since I started, and the cleanliness of the sink is slowly spreading out to other parts of the house. There was one little glitch last night though. When I went to bed, the sink was sparkling clean, as usual. However, I woke up to the shoke and horror of a dessert bowl and ice cream scoop befouling my pristine shiny sink. Dear Husband has been mostly on board with the cleaning thing, but I guess he slipped up last night.
2. As far as the knitting goes I got a lot done last week after an ovarian cyst ruptured in my left ovary. Quite a painful experience. So, I was forced to take it a bit easier last week which meant I got in about an hour of knitting each morning. I don’t think I will keep up at that pace, but I feel like I am back on track with my knitting.
3. Now, the sleep thing has been on and off. Last week I stayed up way too late most nights because watching the Olymics is just too much fun. However, last night I was in bed by 10:30 which is pretty close to my goal. And, I was able to wake up at 6 this morning without it being a positively horrid experience.

Those are the resolutions … now for the other stuff.

The fall semester starts tomorrow. On Thursday I start teaching. I volunteered to cover classes for two different people on Thursday (in addition to the two sections of my own that I have to teach). Sometimes I wonder about my sanity. It shouldn’t be that bad though. One class I am coving is a class I have taught before. For the other, the instructor gave me very clear, very explicit instructions abotu what to go over and such, so it should be so bad. I am very excited about my own class. I am teaching two sections of Math 113 — Mathematical Reasoning. This is the class that I taught over the summer. Despite how crazy it was teaching so much in such a short time, I really enjoyed the class and had a lot of fun with it.