Too Old Too Soon

Of the last 30 books I have read from the young reader classification, all the protagonists are 5th or 6th graders and 11 years old.  WHY??  And in most of these fictional accounts the youngsters behave in a manner much older than most 11 year olds that I know.  I taught 8th graders for 40 years and the books are attempting to move these kids into high school before they are ready.  I also just spent an overnight with 12-16 year olds, and I still believe the books are making their characters way too sophisticated, the 12 year olds at the event just confirmed my beliefs.

The behaviors that belong to older junior high or early high school, appear in these books with baby aged main characters, I can tell you no 13-14 year old wants to read a book about an 11 year old.  All publishers need to do is put all these kids in 8th grade and they would appeal to a much larger kid audience.  Everybody wants to read about kids their own age and those who are older.

So we are left with the later junior high kids moving to teen/young adult titles whose content is at times not appropriate for their age, but more importantly they miss out of all the great reading still available in the kid section.  So would someone please start writing for all the 13 year olds out there??

My Country My Choice

Tomorrow marks our nation's birthday and what did they play at church in honor of this holiday weekend? "This is My Song," what a cop out!! The pages surrounding this communist trash included "America the Beautiful" " Star Spangled Banner" and "My Country 'Tis of Thee" one of those beautiful hymns could not have been chosen, please for just one day can we be proud of our great nation? I am sorry that so many feel we need to apologize for what we have but I am too far down on the economic chain to feel anything but grateful for the country in which I live. We have enough, and "Enough is as good as a feast" per Mary Poppins. I don't believe that being proud of my nation is putting other countries down, just expressing a personal opinion which is allowed in this country. I don't believe that patriotism equals arrogance either. Any more than when I was in junior high and high school and supported my school's athletic endeavors. I didn't hate those other schools or the young people that attended them, I wasn't snubbing or bashing, often I was actually scoping out the hot guys, but we had school spirit and let them know it. We shook hands when the battles were over and congratulated winners.

I truly believe I live in the greatest country on earth, especially for women, and all this greatness didn't come free. We need to honor our heritage and those that fought to gain and protect our freedoms not make excuses for what we have. We should offer it to others willing to pay the price. They may choose to join or go their separate ways, but I do not have to be ashamed because I was blessed to be born here and choose to remain.

No, it is not a perfect country, we daily make mistakes and our freedoms are threatened just as often by ignorant do-gooders. Yet, even those times when I am sad for my nation because of poorly made choices, when I wish that life were more fair, I still believe this is the greatest nation on earth.


O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!

Katharine Lee Bates

OMPIYFPIPSAWM

It happens every year, we get two phone calls regarding the Father/Daughter dance and how blatantly unfair it is to call the event a Father/Daughter Dance, because there are some people who don't have a father. My brother suggested an alternative name for the event so as not to offend anyone "Older Male Positive Influence/Younger Female Positively Influenced Physical Social Activity with Music" or OMPIYFPIPSAWM for short. It could work. But it misses the point entirely.

Every young women's first date should be with someone who believes she is truly a gift from God. Who better than her father, one of his jobs is to teach her what to expect from a man and to demonstrate how a woman should be treated. This is the perfect venue for that lesson. There is also an obligation on the part of a male parent to be the earthly example. We pray a prayer that Jesus taught us "The Our Father" why did He give us that? What are we suppose to understand about our heavenly Father, and what image does He expect us to draw from. I wager it is our own earthly daddies who are meant to point us in that heavenly direction, to help us understand just how much He cares.

There is a single mom who's daughter attends every year, and even she said to me as she dropped off her donation this year, it's really about the dads and how special they are. She understands, she knows what a hole the absence of a father leaves in a home. A hole that can be filled by only One. She also has a wonderful daddy.

I feel I am surround by men haters they belittle the need for dads, the need for men. Someone implied the other day that only a female deacon could possibly understand and cure the problem of the priest shortage. I disagree, but that would be another rant. We need to respect the male position in the family and as mothers help dads in those areas, like communication with teen daughters or creating shared experiences, where they sometimes struggle.

We see the impact daily of households headed only by women in our country, we need strong men in positions of leadership in our homes and churches to lead the way for young men. And IMHO this is a job that woman cannot perform. We see it in junior highs boys, there is a loss of respect for the female parent, for female teachers. This is a critical time for the male parent to step up and be the one to primarily discipline the young man or men in his household, also the time to insist that the female parent be respected and treated with courtesy, honor. A dad does this by example and insistance, but if dad is gone this learning can become a challenge for the female parent, finding a male mentor can help facilitate the lesson. All parenting can be challenging that is why we should do it in pairs.

So let's hear it for dads, and not be afraid to use the term father.

Potty talk

I continue to be appalled at the crude behavior of people. This summer I attended a music event with my daughter, the venue was outside but bless the organizers there was no need to rely on the port-o-potties, but they actually have reasonably clean serviceable facilities. As the day progressed those nice bathrooms began to deteriorate. It was interesting that the stalls nearest the sinks and more heavily trafficed were the ones to survive the day. Those stalls around the wall away from too many eyes became hot beds of malicious activity. Throughout the day young women had managed to put out of commission at least 90% or the available toilets? WHY? I really don't get this one, eventually even the destroyer has to use this room, why is it funny to create unnecessary stentch and filth, plug drains and pipes, in a room that you will need. I truely was shocked at the destruction, it was going to take several hours of nauseating work to make all the facilitites serviceable.

This doesn't just happen at young peoples concerts, and youth have no monopoly on crude behavior in the bathroom. Visit any public toilet on a day when it has seen frequent activity and you will find a mess, unless there really is someone scheduled hourly to put on the gloves and take on the gruesome task of cleaning up after humanity. So can anyone explain to me why this happens? Is putting paper in a trash can, turning off water, peeing INTO the toilet instead of on it, flushing a comode all that difficult? By the looks of public washrooms these tasks must be insurmountable, we have failed out children once again in the transfer of the most basic of skills. Restroom attendants may be the only real solution, it's like having a mom in place to keep everyone on their best behavior, and I don't believe it would be much more expensive than the hours the clean up crew has to put in to repair damage.