Posted on January 12, 2013 by Jennifer Wolfe
“I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center.”
– Kurt Vonnegut
I wonder sometimes how close to the edge I can really get, where I can take risks and where I need to crawl back to the safety of the middle.
Where do I teach my children to stand, and where do they naturally gravitate towards?
So different from when I was a kid.
I wonder how to live life close to the edge without falling off. Tipping over. Or tripping into the abyss.
I wonder what would happen if I took one. step. closer.
Who would follow me?
Could I balance like this, on the railing of life, arms wide open? At my age?
I wonder if this is something only a 13-year-old boy could do. Would do.
Life has a funny way of showing us.
Right now I think I’m cruising along in the fast lane.
Straddling the center median at times.
Like a bumper car, hurtling back to the middle at one moment, then flooring it back to the edge.
I am seeing all kinds of things I never saw from the center.
Out here on the edge.
Posted on January 9, 2013 by Jennifer Wolfe
There is no doubt in my mind: the American education system is in deep trouble and needs reform. According to a recently published report of the world’s best education systems by the education firm, Pearson, the US ranked 17th of 40 developed countries. Finland and South Korea, leading the study, received high rankings because they “tend to offer teachers higher status in society and have a “culture” of education.”
As a 22-year veteran California teacher, I live this every day. In recent years, I have witnessed the decline in the culture of education in my community as well as nationwide. While some might think funding is the root of all problems, I have some other ideas about how we can start to tackle education reform in America:
- Put students first. We need to start every discussion around the concept of what students need, not what the district needs, the state needs, or the federal government needs. Students are our clientele, and we need to make decisions as if we were creating reform for our own children. Thinking about kids first, and creating reform that is best for educating, nurturing and protecting ALL students is the first step.
- Create opportunities for student engagement. America needs to reform our thinking about the primary purpose of schools: is it to churn out a citizen who is proficient at bubbling in answers on a test, or to develop creative, innovative, collaborative citizens? By prioritizing the arts, humanities, and sciences equally, we allow children opportunities to learn in a variety of disciplines. Honoring student exploration and discovery alongside standards will help develop confident, creative adults who can tackle the global issues facing their generation.
- Invest in teacher training. Like any profession, teachers need relevant, high quality training to move forward. America needs to support teachers by providing professional development as part of a teacher’s contract, with time to implement and refine throughout the school year. Training that is focused on student-centered strategies, led by qualified educators with like-minded goals, will strengthen our workforce and help bring American schools back to the top of the world’s education systems.
So what can we do? Do we sit back and watch our systems disintegrate, watch quality teachers leave the profession, and see our students stifled, bored, and falling behind? I think not. Now is the time to let your voice be heard. Stand up for education reform – our children deserve it.
*image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net
Posted on January 7, 2013 by Jennifer Wolfe
I’m starting now as if I haven’t already been up for hours…
as if I haven’t made the coffee and the bright red tea kettle hadn’t whistled for your pomegranate green tea…
as if I haven’t cooked the peppered bacon, veggie omelet with mushrooms, onion and crunchy green bell pepper, held together with gooey cheddar cheese…
as if I haven’t sliced the juicy melon or packed the food for your skiing lunch break…
as if I haven’t folded last night’s final load of laundry, and the washer wasn’t humming with today’s first…
as if I haven’t carefully packed your ski boot bag with dry gloves and hand warmers…
as if I haven’t re-positioned the blankets on our bed…
as if I haven’t received an unexpectedly long good morning hug and comforted you when your legs felt like jello and you’re not sure you can make it out the door in the dark, frosty air…
as if I haven’t already had three cups of that coffee with cream and cleared the dishes from the breakfast table…
I’m starting now as if today was all about me…
and grateful that it isn’t.
Posted on January 4, 2013 by Jennifer Wolfe
“Not knowing when the dawn will come
I open every door.”
Posted on January 3, 2013 by Jennifer Wolfe
I really didn’t want to walk out the door this morning. Not because I was snuggled in bed. Not because it was too early.
I was nervous about driving in the snow.
A few days ago I had a wheel spinning incident. It was nothing serious, but serious enough to make me second guess the ability of the mighty Prius to make it up the icy road in the dark. At 6:30 am.
One good thing about having kids, though, is that they don’t let you off the hook. We needed to get to ski training, and Cam didn’t want to be late.
How can you argue with a teenager who doesn’t want to be late to 7 am ski training? Even when he knows it’s -4 degrees outside?
He was right. That’s hard to say about your teen sometimes, but this time he was.
The Prius, in all its glory, delivered us up the hill on time. And this is what awaited me:
Notice how there are no other people out there? That’s because it was FREEZING! And dark! And early!
Just as I turned to go in, I saw this:
And this – one of those little dots at the bottom is my son, waiting for the chairlift:
And as I stood, mesmerized, the chill didn’t bother me anymore. I couldn’t believe the beauty:
Slowly, the sun brushed the slopes with light. We welcomed a new day together.
And once again, I was very glad I walked through the door this morning. You never know what you might be missing.
Like this:
He makes it all worthwhile.
Thanks, Cam.
