If Looks Could Kill

If Looks Could Kill

 Thursday morning was really not a pleasant time for me. Now, no, it was not a horrible day, and I know that it could have always been worse. However, I feel the need to share the intense unpleasantness. 




Thursday morning marked my OB appointment where my glucose was tested. Now anyone who has ever been pregnant is going, "YUCK". You know what I am talking about. This is where you have to drink that nastiness disguised as orange soda which tastes nothing like it and has an automatic reaction of gagging. Not only do you have to drink this disgusting mess, but you are not allowed to eat or drink anything after midnight the night before. MIDNIGHT!! That is hard for anyone, but it is especially hard for a pregnant woman and even harder for a pregnant woman who allows herself one cup of coffee each morning. 


Needless to say, I was not in the best mood when I arrived at my appointment at 9:00 in the A.M. As I sat waiting, not happy at all, a girl walked in with her mother. I say girl because she looked all of 16. I glanced up and had to look again to make sure she was actually pregnant. She had a little bump, kind of like the one I have all the time when I am not pregnant. Then she informs the front desk that she finished her glucose drink at 8:15. 

At this point I almost choke. Why you may ask? Well, you have to be between 25 and 28 week to do the glucose test, which means she was as far a long as I am. However, the difference was insane. I know, I know. Everyone is different but this mess is ridiculous!!!

Me!! (not really, but close. I am actually a bit bigger)

Her!!!! (not really, but this is pretty accurate

I now begin to sink into a little bit of depression. However, it is lightened when I get called back and get to talking with my super fabulous nurse and the BEST midwife in history! The bubble bursts though when super, skinny B---- comes back in to the small room to have her finger pricked. I ask her how far along she is. "25 weeks", she responds snottily (I guess the B---- was an accurate description). 

I look at my midwife and say (close to tears), "That is ridiculous! Look at her and look at me!" My midwife says, "Liz this is your third baby! You look great. You can't compare the two!" I feel a little bit better until the super young, skinny b---- opens her mouth and says (totally lacking in any tack whatsoever), "It's my third baby, too."

My midwife and nurse later told me that if looks could kill that little heifer would have bee dead on the spot. Seriously, have some compassion!

Teachers Are Not the Only Ones Who Need to Be Evaluated!

As a Georgia teacher or any teacher for that matter, I give Dick Yarbrough a big HELL YEAH! After this recent column that he wrote. Even if you are not a teacher and no matter what your political persuasion, I am not sure you can argue with this. 

HOW CAN YOU EVALUATE TEACHERS AND NOT EVALUATE SOCIETY?

Oh great. Now, the Obama administration is getting involved in public education in Georgia. That’s all we need. The deft touch of an inept federal government.

Outgoing Gov. George E. Perdue (please tell me he has left the building) agreed to participate in the $400 million Obama Race to the Top program. Our new governor, Nathan Deal, has inherited the thing and turned it over to Erin Hames, his deputy chief of staff.

The program will include a new evaluation system of teachers. For subjects where students take standardized tests, 50 percent of a teacher’s performance will be based on the test scores.

Fair enough. I was assessed my entire corporate career and judged on the quality of my management. However, if employees didn’t show up for work or were habitually late or refused to do what I asked them to, I could get rid of them.

Try that in the classroom.

Said Ms. Hames, “We strongly believe that the most important thing in a student’s education is the quality of the teacher in the classroom. The heart of education improvement in Georgia has to be focused on the classroom and classroom teachers.”

Maybe Ms. Hames can tell me what happens if a child transfers to a school in the 32nd week of a 36-week school year and didn’t learn squat at his or her old school and flunks. Is the teacher at the new school going to be held accountable for the results?

What about a student who just had a miscarriage and is at school only because a judge ordered her to be there? Or, the child who slept in an abandoned car because he was too embarrassed to tell anyone he couldn’t live at home anymore? Or, the kid who was given a “social promotion” even though he didn’t deserve it? Could Ms. Hames or any member of our esteemed General Assembly motivate these children to learn without losing precious time trying to teach the other students in class? Tell me how classroom quality will be measured when teachers can’t get parents to return their telephone calls or show up for scheduled conferences because they “forgot”? How, Ms. Hames, do we handle these piddling details?

Is there any way we can evaluate society while we are evaluating teachers? One of the finest advocates for public education was John L. Clendenin, retired CEO of the now-no-more BellSouth Corporation, who established a foundation devoted to the subject. Clendenin recognized that public schools are a microcosm of society. Poverty, apathy, drugs, abuse and hunger don’t linger outside the door. They come into the classroom with the student. As Mr. Clendenin used to say, “You can’t teach geometry to a hungry child.”

Call me cynical, but I doubt Barack Obama, George E. Perdue, Nathan Deal, Erin Hames or members of the esteemed Georgia Legislature have taken that into consideration. That just muddies up simple solutions to a complex problem.

House Majority Whip Ed Lindsey (R-Fulton County) took a trip to Colorado recently with Rep. Alisha Thomas Morgan (D-Cobb County) to examine a newly passed bill there on teacher evaluations. No word on whether they first surveyed any classroom teachers around the state and got their input. If so, how many?

I’m not sure Lindsey and Morgan are two of the higher and better sources on the subject of public education. Lindsey is a lawyer in Atlanta who, after he announced the necessity for teacher furloughs in the last session, was seen later that week in the local newspaper sipping wine in his tuxedo at a hoity-toity party in tony Buckhead in one of the classic cases of “Let ’em eat cake.”

Morgan? Her claim to fame is refusing to leave the well of the House after her allotted time ran out during a debate on the Voter ID bill, and her decision to instead begin singing, “Ain’t Nobody Gonna Turn Me Around.” Lady Gaga she is not.

Who better to evaluate the effectiveness of public school teachers than a silk stocking lawyer and a legislator who sings when she can’t make her point otherwise?

Teachers, I wish I had better news for you, but you are facing an education bureaucracy with more layers than a Vidalia onion, more second-guessers than a losing football coach and more shallow thinking than a party at the Playboy Mansion.

Remember that in spite of all of this, you change young lives for the better. That is more than I can say for your critics. Hang in there

The Clothing Wars Begin

      

   The Clothing Wars Begin

     I remember fighting with my sister about clothes from the time she finally hit middle school and I could fit into her clothes and, likewise, she could fit into mine. This was the starting point for epic wars in our household. I am not sure we ever fought about anything, as much as we fought about clothes. If only we had worked out and abided by some sort of treaty, i.e. asking before you wear or you can wear everything except for this section. Then I think our whole family could have been spared the destruction that followed after someone was discovered wearing another someone's favorite shirt. 
       I mean think of the benefits for all, including the money strapped parents, when you had not one wardrobe to choose from but two or further down the road in our house 3 wardrobes (unless this munchkin comes out with something swinging between its legs;)
      Because I was blessed with a sister, and I do consider it a blessing now because there is nothing like the relationship that I have with her, I understand the clothing wars. I just thought we had a little more time before they were declared in our household. I mean really who ever heard of a 3 year old and 6 year old fighting over clothes. You don't even wear the same size people!!!
      So this morning when my youngest brought in a sweater that was accidentally hung in the wrong closet by my dear sweet hubby who does all the laundry I drew from my past experience and sensed a storm brewing. She wanted to know why she didn't have a "boootifull" sweater like that. We told her that she would one day and to please go hang it in her sisters closet. And so the drama ensued...
      She stomped her cute little self down the hallway and was quiet for sometime, which as any good mother knows is not always a good thing. Soon we began to hear some sort of singing coming from the back. At first, it wasn't loud enough or significant enough for us to pay attention to. But as it went on, we realized, with a laugh, that it wasn't singing but chanting. Chanting that was coming from inside the oldest munchkin's closet. Chanting of the same line over and over again. The line that we did not think we would hear for at least another 10 years:
                    Aubeee's got more bootiful clothes.
                    Aubeee's got more bootiful clothes.
                    Aubeee's got more bootiful clothes.
And so the clothing wars begin at the Hill house!