I take a step
You take two,
I hurry to catch up with you
Do you know that I am falling behind?
Does it matter? Have you lost your mind?
Lost in thought you don’t see,
The person I clearly need to be.
I take a step
You take two
I hurry to catch up with you.
I have no strength to keep this pace
I am clearly locked in second place
Running a race that can never be
Then……………….
You stop and wait for me!
The teacher that I talked about on here before about the inappropriate items posted in the hall has now had two books removed from his classroom and even though I haven't agreed with some of the teaching strategies I do NOT support censorship so I wrote the following letter to the administration: (I did remove the teachers name because if you know who I am talking about fine but otherwise that is their business)
I would like to express my frustration with the removal of the books from Mr. ??? classroom. The author of Flight is an award winning author with repeated publication that has won numerous awards. Caged Bird was nominated for a National Book Award in 1970 and it has been used in educational settings from high schools to universities, the book has been celebrated for creating new literary avenues for the American memoir and it was on the schools approved reading list.
Mr. ??? and I have not seen eye to eye on every subject area but he has pushed my two children to grow in their thoughts and feelings on different subjects. Mr. ??? has created an environment that allows them to think outside the box and feel that they have valued opinions. He encourages them to believe in their thoughts and not to allow others to sway them from what they believe in. I understand that some of the material that he teaches pushes the envelope but isn’t that what we want our educators to do? We want them to push the envelope and we want them to make our children aware of the world around them and we want this to be done in a safe environment that allows for open honest discussion, discussion with leadership. Potter Stewart said “Censorship reflects a society’s lack of confidence in itself. It is the hallmark of an authoritarian regime” Do we lack confidence in our students at Riley County High School? I for one believe that we have raised great kids here at Riley County but if we only allow them to see what is inside the box we create for them and never introduce different subjects and criteria then we are stifling the possible creativity and their ability to grow. I am concerned that if we continue to approve material and then not support the teachers when people make it uncomfortable then we will lose teachers that could make a difference in our children’s lives and education. The books that had been chosen contained material that is relevant to students within the walls of Riley County High School, it contained material that would allow students to discuss topics like discrimination, poverty, achievement, foster care, and history. In approving the material and then pulling it because of complaints we are allowing the general public to control our children’s education instead the school board that we elected to make those decisions.
I would like to thank you for you listening to my concerns and I would encourage you to take a stand that will allow our children to grow and learn. This cannot be done if we allow fear to rule our actions.
Sincerely
Angela Toews
OK this is for all the times I share things about my family, this ones on me!!
I let the dogs out this morning, it is pitch black dark, 5 a.m. I have my head light on that allows me to see fairly well for things that are close, to far away and I can see a little but not great.
The dogs are doing their business I holler at them to come back the husky comes back I let her inside the wiener dog does not come back so I walk out to look for him. I yell and yell and here he comes waddling along taking his own sweet time, I yell again and walk closer towards him. We get within 15 feet of each other and I realize Holy Crap that is not my dog but a opossum. This sends me into a fit of laughter I can hardly stand up from laughing because all I can think of is that commercial with the lady and the raccoon and the fact that maybe I need glasses.
My dog picks this moment to show-up from wherever he has been and decides he is going to protect me from the opossum, I scream the opossum runs and my dog looks like I just whipped him, this starts the laughing all over again.
Yes it really happened!!
Ok maybe my kids are the source of this blog a little to often. Yesterday I had the camera out and the youngest goes "look out your about to be blog material" to the people standing around her. After the total mortification passed it really was funny.....still is, so even without pictures she became "blog material"
We went to Lincoln on Monday for the start of spring break, had an awesome day with my girls we shopped and ate and laughed (the only thing missing was the guys Duane and Jake) but great day.
We had afternoon snacks. Allissa had a Carmel apple her all time favorite and Kaylee had a peanut butter cup that was huge.
We ate at the mall and I found my all time new favorite restaurant, Charlies. I had a BBQ steak sandwich they grilled the steak right in front of me....it was amazing!!
This is Kaylee shopping, I am sitting in a chair waiting, they can out do me shopping anymore
Allissa found a chair in Justice and was waiting on Kaylee to finish.Sometimes I just put things on here that I want to remember when my kids are older this would be one of those conversations, it went like this:
We are driving by the high school track after school and track practice is going on.
Allissa: There goes Stacy she is one crazy girl
Me: Why do you say that?
Allissa: She is doing Pole Vault
Me: I don't think that makes her crazy, I wish I had done it in high school
Allissa: Maybe I just think it is crazy because if I was doing it I would be the pole vaulter with the "SPECIAL" helmet.
Me: Why cause you think you have coordination issues?
Allissa: You know it there is no way I would ever be able to run and stick that pole in the hole, it would miss and I would fly somewhere I wasn't supposed to be.
I love my daughter and she so makes me laugh, and if you know Allissa right now your picturing her in her "SPECIAL" helmet trying to pole vault.
Anyone that knows me knows that when Easter comes around I stock up on these little eggs simply because they are amazing, I love them and they are seasonal but....
