Swimming in the Pensieve

The kids are up and at their classes this morning; as I swill coffee, waiting for the caffeine to work its physiological magic on my grey cells. (more…)

I forgot to mention that, back on Thursday, after we got home from signing contracts on the new house, Phillip’s CAliVA computer arrived via FedEx. (more…)

Lia just finished-up her assessment for her semester 1 math. She’s now on semester two math in her 8^th week of school, this year.

Robinson would only have held her back from realizing her potential, and I have LBUSD to thank for teaching me that public school is just about the worst way to educate a child (more…)

We, the family, have been holding our collective breath over the possibility that we might be relocating. Not far. Just around the corner, as a matter of fact. The problem, in today’s market, is obviously one of pricing. Real estate (to buy or let) is ridiculously priced in California–moreso in Long Beach–and one finds oneself emotionally contending with others for a particular property when one crops-up that is about as close as perfect for one’s family as reality will permit. (more…)

It’s so cool when district-types leave auto-responders up while they’re on holiday; because it makes confirming the successful receipt of emailed documents a slam-dunker. (more…)

We were treated to a telephone call from a “counselor” at Robert A. Millikan High School–at exactly 14:19 this afternoon.

In a clear-cut case of unintentional mercy to the calling individual, my lovely wife picked-up the phone before I could get to it first.
:::sigh::: It isn’t always a good thing to be slow, folks! (more…)

We received a much-anticipated email, from the wonderful folks at CAliVA@Kern today. Have a look: (more…)

Seeing as the two pieces of district party-line that come our way seem to relate to either the resounding successes of mandatory school uniforms and the value of the socialization children receive in a public school setting; I decided to do a Google search relative to the comparative socialization of home-schooled and public-schooled children–just for kicks.

Taking a wander through the hits obtained from the Google search link above, you’ll discover that there exists a body of research since circa-1994 that refutes the self-serving position, long-held by the public schools in the United States of America, relative to the issue of childhood socialization. (more…)

“Students must correctly answer roughly 55 percent of the math problems and 60 percent of the English questions to pass.” — [For 25% of LBUSD seniors, diplomas ride on exit exams 10/16/2005]

Twenty-five percent of the LBUSD high school seniors cannot pass what amounts to a middle school test of proficiency in math and English with at least an ‘F’ and a ‘D-’, respectively? This, of course, leaves us to wonder how many students just barely passed the test with an ‘F+’ and a ‘D’.

Interestingly enough, CAMS is sporting a 100% pass rate on both portions of the CAHSEE, with Lakewood coming in at a distant Math: 75%, ELA: 76% pass rate; with LBUSD, as a whole, lagging behind the statewide CAHSEE pass-rates.

While LBUSD claims increased academic performance on the part of the students as among the benefits of mandatory school uniforms, neither CAMS nor Lakewood is a mandatory school uniform campus.

LBUSD is certainly missing some key variables in the formula for providing a quality education to its students. As a first step in a positive direction, perhaps they could replace Chris Steinhauser with the principal of CAMS, Dr. Kathleen Clark. (more…)

This year has basically been one battle after another, and they just keep coming at us. Now, pretty much everyone in the house is either sick, or on their way to being sick, and we have the certifiable Bozos over at Millikan to deal with.

How is it that the state of education has sunk so low? (more…)