Brother can you spare a dime?

Donations are always welcome, but I'm doing OK. Actually better than I thought I was. Well, in a "college financial aid" kinda way. You know, "you make too much money to qualify for any grants, but enjoy your ramen noodles for dinner."

One thing I was actually dreading about getting my wife's new vehicle was the credit application. I know that I'm much better off than a large number of people, but I hate having so much debt and so little savings. We'd socked away the tax return in February and all we could since then as a down payment at the expense of larger checks to Visa and his cousin, but because we needed a larger car (we'll have three tall teenagers by the time we are done with this vehicle, plus the two of us as well), we couldn't fit into a pop can on wheels.

My wife actually submitted the credit application on our behalf while she was at the dealership the day the vehicle came in. She gave them estimates of income and house payment, etc and set the wheels in motion.

Payment history -- good, no flaws. Length of credit history -- all good, lengthy track racord. Amount of available credit to income -- a little high I think. Amount of debt to income -- higher than I'd like, but not unmanageable by any standard. Available savings -- sitting there waiting to make a down payment. Really nothing for me to worry about in reality, but it's kinda like being called into the boss' office without an agenda -- makes me a little nervous.

In the end, I was very pleasantly surprised when not only did we qualify for the low rate we were after, but I happen to see a copy of the credit score. Much higher than I was thinking. I know that they've really tightened up on credit and even reworked the FICO score not too long ago. I'd gotten my score several years ago before that change, but other than paying down debt, had not really done anything else to influence that score.

I know that they (the bankers) are in a funny spot. On one hand, trying to convince you to take as much loan as they can get you to take, telling you you can afford more than you really can sometimes -- that's how they make their money after all, but on the other hand if they over extend themselves, or rather, get you to over extend yourself, that's not good for them and they lose money on defaults.

My credit score is not something to brag about, but I have been working a long time on maintaining a good credit score and report, and I'm still working on the outstanding debt part of the equation, but I guess in the end I may not be as bad off as I had thought.

Now I just have to find a way to figure out the whole financial aid thing within 3-4 years. I really hope my kids like writing grant essays :-)

Back to school time?

...Kids are quick...

TEACHER: Maria, go to the map and find North America.

MARIA: Here it is.

TEACHER: Correct. Now class, who discovered America?

CLASS: Maria.

__________________________________________

TEACHER: John, why are you doing your math multiplication on the floor?

JOHN: You told me to do it without using tables.

________________________________________

TEACHER: Glenn, how do you spell "crocodile?"

GLENN: K-R-O-K-O-D-I-A-L"

TEACHER: No, that's wrong

GLENN: Maybe it is wrong, but you asked me how I spell it.

_______________________________________________

TEACHER: Donald, what is the chemical formula for water?

DONALD: H I J K L M N O.

TEACHER: What are you talking about?

DONALD: Yesterday you said it's H to O.

__________________________________

TEACHER: Winnie, name one important thing we have today that we didn't have ten years ago.

WINNIE: Me!

__________________________________________

TEACHER: Glen, why do you always get so dirty?

GLEN: Well, I'm a lot closer to the ground than you are.

_______________________________________

TEACHER: Millie, give me a sentence starting with "I."

MILLIE: I is...

TEACHER: No, Millie..... Always say, "I am "

MILLIE: All right... "I am the ninth letter of the alphabet."

_________________________________

TEACHER: George Washington not only chopped down his father's cherry tree, but also admitted it. Now, Louie, do you know why his father didn't punish him?

LOUIS: Because George still had the ax in his hand.

______________________________________

TEACHER: Now, Simon, tell me frankly, do you say prayers before eating?

SIMON: No sir, I don't have to, my Mom is a good cook.

______________________________

TEACHER: Clyde, your composition on "My Dog" is exactly the same as your brother's. Did you copy his?

CLYDE: No, teacher, it's the same dog.

___________________________________

TEACHER: Harold, what do you call a person who keeps on talking when people are no longer interested?

HAROLD: A teacher.

Life is 'Baeutiful'

All kinds of nasty things that take place daily all over the world. All kinds of nasty things are printed in the newspapers (yeah, they do still print those) and on news websites everyday. Every once in a while, it's nice to forget about the real world and imagine (or remember) the good in the world. The Daily Good site helps you do just that. It shares stories and posts like this one reprinted below:

DailyGood: Life is 'Baeutiful'

Do you remember the name of your kindergarden teacher? I do, mine. Her name was Mrs White. And I remember thinking she must be some older relation of Walt Disney's Snow White, because she had the same bright blue eyes, short dark hair, red lips and fair skin.

I don't remember much about what we learned in her class, but my mother once told me that we used to write a lot. And I would bring back what I wrote and she would look at it and see there were so many mistakes. But no red corrections. And always a star. Sometimes even a Good! scrawled in that would make my heart soar with happiness. But it worried my mother, so one day when she went in to meet Mrs White for one of those Parent-Teacher meetings, she asked her why she never corrected my mistakes. Why she never red-pencilled in the right spellings of words or pointed out grammatical errors.

And my mother says Mrs White said-The children are just beginning to get excited about using words, about forming sentences. I don't want to dampen that enthusiasm with red ink. Spelling and grammar can wait. The wonder of words won't... And maybe she didn't say it Exactly like that. It was a long time ago. And what my mother gave me was the gist of what she could remember. The rest I added in. Because I grew up learning to use words with loving confidence like that.

And it occurs to me that if Mrs White had used her red pen more precisely I probably wouldn't be telling you about this now. Which is kind of obvious but also kind of not. I look back now and think she must have been a rather extraordinary teacher- to exercise such red-pen-restraint. To allow the joy, wonder and excitement of expression flower- however faultily- like that. Because to bloom is better than not to bloom. And a bud once nipped never opens. May we all be so kind...

I used to misspell beautiful a lot. Never could quite remember that the e went before the a. It exasperated my teacher in high school no end. If I was going to employ the word with such lavishness she figured the least I could do was spell it right. Eventually the e's and a's settled into their right places of their own accord. Am glad I didn't wait on them though. Pretty is easier to spell but it doesn't hold as much as you mean sometimes.

And thanks to Mrs White I had no qualms about writing what I meant even if couldn't quite spell it out. Because Life isn't Pretty. It's Baeutiful.

Thank you to all of you Mrs. (and Mr.) Whites out there that have influenced me and my children or anyone else and allowed us to express ourselves to the world around us.

Excellerate your skills

I consider myself pretty good when it comes to Excel (except for that new version with that darn ribbon bar - but that's just 'cuz I've not used it yet), but I'm always looking for new tricks and short cuts and new ways to do things. As part of that search for knowledge, I subscribe to a number of email lists (and rss feeds, and magazines and just about anything else I can get my hands on). One of those lists is the Excel Addict. Written by a Canadian, eh, Francis is great at showcasing knowledge that's relevant for the novice user and even the "Excel Addict."

Here's one that I learned from this week...


A Little-Known And Pretty Neat Data Entry Trick (XL2000-XL2010)

Excel is full of surprises! Once again, I have stumbled upon something that may have been there from 'Day 1' but I never recognized it...until now.

By default, when you enter a value in a cell and press Enter, the active cell moves down. If you want to enter data that goes across the rows, instead of pressing Enter each time, you can press Tab to move one cell to the right. That's pretty easy right? But when you get to the last column and need to get back to the first column in the next row, how do YOU do it? Do you reach for the mouse then point and click the cell in the first column? Or do you use the arrow keys to move to the cell?

I remember seeing this Excel feature in the past but I never understand how it worked until now. When you press Tab to move the active cell to the right and then press Enter on the last column, Excel remembers which column you started (tabbing) from and automatically jumps one row down and back to that column.

That makes for much easier data entry when you need to enter data across and then down...as long as you remember this trick. Tab, tab, tab, tab, tab, Enter, tab, tab, tab, tab, tab, Enter, etc...

From http://www.theexceladdict.com/

If you use Excel at all, it's worth the few seconds to subscribe to this list.

What's wrong with education?

This guy has some very valid points...



...but how to fix it?

Ideas?

Lest there be any doubt...

I am NOT smarter than a 5th grader. Well, that might not be technically true. Maybe I should say 7th grader. No wait. She didn't get it either. I should say that I'm not smarter than some one on my wife's internet buddy list. That much would be true at least.

I called my wife on the way home from work and was confronted with a math problem that she was trying to help my daughter with. It had to do with solving the following equation for a:

a(2x+3) = 9x+12 -x. I got the right answer, but I couldn't show my work. Even the Wizard of the Internet didn't provide an exact answer. It may have provided the answer if we'd dug a little, but nothing came up in the one box :-)

I had the right idea, but couldn't complete my train of thought. I guess that's the first thing to go ... the mind? Maybe that's 'cuz once the mind goes it can't realize what else is already going as well.

Anyway, back to the ice cream story. No wait. Math! Yeah, that's it.

My wife used her own little "Wizard of the Internet" -- the collection of friends she met on-line when she was pregnant with our daughter that have stayed together on an on-line bulletin board. People from all over the world and, apparently with mad math skills. Within a few minutes she had the answer to our problem - factor out a 4 from the right side (after combining the x values). Once we did that, all became clear.

Maybe there is some value in the "social network." Speaking of which, has anyone see that movie - The Social Network? I missed the free screening that I saw on Film Metro. I'm not a Facebook user (I know... I know), but the movie has been getting pretty good reviews.

Hiroshima anniversary

I meant to publish this last month on the August 6th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, but for some reason I got distracted and it never got out. It's an important post so I decided to publish it anyway. Better late than never.

I pray that neither we, nor our kids, nor their descendants beyond them ever see any more pictures of mushroom clouds or the devastation caused by atomic (or nuclear) explosions except in archives like those published by Tampa Bay.com to remind us of that sad day.

Speaking of School... Know anyone with a Doctorate?

OK, so you know someone with a doctorate, but do you know what that means? If they haven't' told you already, check out this site that explains exactly what a Doctorate is... You might consider yourself even more lucky.

Back to school humor for/from moms

For those of you sending your rugrats off to school today...

Misconception Number 1: Moms miss their kids when they go back to school.

Seriously. I’ve had enough of you by now. Every morning with the “what are we going to do today, Mom?” is finally over. I’ve had looked at your face twenty-four seven for the last 77 days. It’s time to go learn something.

No more asking me about the pool, when is the next snack or if you can stay up late and watch a movie. It’s over….You’re going back to Hogwarts and I get to have a life again.

There is a Christmas morning for parents and it’s called “back to school”.

Misconception Number 2: Moms like to go school shopping.

Are you freaking kidding me? Why do I pay taxes?…so I can rack up a 200 dollar bill

at Staples for crap that we have laying around my house in junk drawers. Why does it have to be new pencils? What’s wrong with the chewed up, broken strawberry shortcake pencils sitting in the bottom

of the toy box for the last 6 months? And how many subject books can you possibly need?

What happened to reading, writing and arithmetic. If they added a couple of things for parents to that list I wouldn’t mind so much….why not pencils, erasers and vodka…..or some Nyquil.

Misconception Number 3: Moms like back to school night.

Why must we do this every year? I got it already. You’re the teacher…I’m the parent. My kid is either going to be smart or dumb. If he gets a certain number or colored dot on his discipline chart, he can’t get a prize from the prize box.

Pretty simple stuff. Listen, I’m pretty old school. If he doesn’t listen to you…you can throw something at him. I don’t care.

But I got a lot of work to do at home and I’m paying a babysitter right now. Plus, I’m pretty sure you are going to assign some project on wigwams made by some Indian tribe I’ve never heard of, so I need to get home and start my research. So, I got it. We're all here for the betterment of our kids.

Blah blah blah.

Misconception Number 4: Moms like school paperwork.

How many trees are you planning on killing to tell me the same stuff I had to

pay a babysitter to listen to the other night? You know our name, where we live and our emergency phone numbers. He doesn’t have a nickname….call him “stinkbutt” for all I care.

We don’t have any “special circumstances” that you need to know about.

He lives in a home with two parents who may or may not like each other at any given time and they will fight.

If that qualifies as a reason he can’t get his homework done on time then he won’t be able to function as an adult and have a real job so you may want to “educate” him on that life lesson.

Misconception Number 5: Moms like covering books in that annoying sticky paper.

What exactly will you be doing with these books that I have to cover them in a plastic laminate? Do you often teach in the rain? Or while the children are drinking soda and eating soup?

Do you know how long that takes? Has any parent in the history of education been able to do it without any air bubbles in it?

From now on I’m covering it the old way…brown paper bags. That way I can cover the books and pack their lunches at that same time. Who says moms can’t multitask?

PS. Please tell my son if he can’t find his lunch to look in his science book.

Misconception Number 6: Moms like helping you with your homework.

What? I am scared out of my mind. I’m pretty sure that I forgot everything I learned in fifth grade by the time I was in sixth grade. I have no idea what you are talking about most days. I don’t really know my 12 times tables,

I read the cliff notes to all your summer reading and I don’t know how to conjugate anything.

But I do know that song “conjuction junction what’s your function” if that helps at all.

And please don’t even say the words “new math” to me. What the heck was wrong the old one?

Misconception Number 7: Moms can’t wait to pack your lunch every day until we die.

I hate doing laundry. Making dinner every night is the bane of my existence, so making your lunch every day for an entire year, in terms of “mom fun”, lies somewhere between brushing plaque off the dogs teeth

and scheduling my annual pap smear. Listen, as a child I hated what my mom packed me for lunch. But, like every kid before me, and every generation to come you will find a kid to trade with…I’m sure someone likes sardines.

Misconception Number 8: Moms love after school activities.

I don’t know who made up this idea of organized clubs and sports but they should be the ones in charge of carting your ass around. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against all after school programs. I just wish they would offer it

during hours that would work best for me so that dinner wasn’t at 8:30 at night followed by 4 hours of homework.

Why not do it on the weekends and call it “after-hours activities” so mommy and daddy could actually go out one night and pretend that we have a life of our own. Don’t worry about us though I’m sure that me and “what’s his name” will be married a very long time.

Misconception Number 9: Moms don’t mind taking you to school if you miss the bus.

Your bus comes at 7:10 am….which means that you should be standing by the door at 7:05 am. Not eating breakfast,chasing the dog around the house or in the bathroom, asking me to check your homework while I’m taking a shower.

Get it together! I don’t like running down the street in my jammies at 7:12 screaming “Please wait” or “If you stop I’ll show you my boobies.”

Misconception Number 10: Moms cry on your first day of school

We do cry but they are tears of joy. I have done my job. I have successfully kept a human child alive for at least 5 years without doing any major damage. Motherhood is the hardest job in the world!! Sure, doctors save lives and CEO’s run million dollar-businesses but…you teach a kid not to poop their pants and then you can say you’ve made the world a better place.”

Fiddle dee dee

Just got back from seeing nearly 40 high schoolers rock the fiddles last night (well actually, violins, violas, cellos, drums, guitars and mandolins - and a few tap shoes as well!). It is not music that I choose to listen to often, but they were full of energy and, especially as younger performers, very entertaining. They've played at the White House and with several famous artists so other people think that they've got a wee bti of talent too. :-)

We had the older two kids with us last night as well and they both commented on how good the concert was. It's encouraging, but sometimes embarrassing, that these performers are so talented at such a young age. It takes a lot of dedication, practice, and probably some ribbing, to keep at it long enough to be at the top of their game.

We try to expose our kids to a lot of different things and then let them decide "what sticks," so to speak. My eldest son has tried the violin in the school band already and really liked it. He has an eclectic mix of music likes. I think that's really cool.

The Saline Fiddlers have more shows coming up in the area. If you get a chance to see them, I doubt you'll be disappointed.

Don't Mess with Math Nerds!

In yet another tale of David, er um, Mike versus Goliath, the little guy wins, and shows there is value in staying in school and doing all your homework!

"Would you please join me in saluting Mike Mogil, a math tutor from Collier County, Fla.? Mogil is clearly that rare man who puts his math where his mouth is. And, indeed, where his wife is."

What teachers make

It's still sad how much we don't appreciate teachers. How we focus on the bad teachers we've had over the years. The boring ones. The ones that gave us homework over the holiday break. The ones that didn't really understand their subject matter. The ones that should've retired years ago. The ones that taught the class instead of the students. The ones that had eyes for the students instead of eyes on the students. The ones that never really understood how to connect with the students. The ones that thought we were all the same. The ones that held no faith in any of us.

But, the good ones... For all that they gave us, and give us, most aren't paid nearly what they're worth.

Engage Me!

Civics test

A friend passed this one along. He said that US officials scored 44%. I scored better than them, but I'm still not as smart as a fifth grader. :-(

We should all know and care about how our country works, and why it works that way. Some of this may seem like trivia, but in the end, it's what makes America... America

How do you score? Find out by taking the Civics Test.

How many lower case letters are in the alphabet?

WRONG! That's what I thought too! But, NOPE!

It's report card time and my wife received them when the kids brought them home the other day. She had already had a chance to digest them before I got home. I asked how they were and she said that they were really good, but...

Then she asked me how many lowercase letters are in the alphabet. I thought this was a trick question. We've both joked about falling behind my 5th grader already and having trouble helping her with homework, but surely I knew the answer to this one... I replied 26 with a bit of trepidation.

Apparently... There are 28. The "a" and "g" get special cousins included now as well. And I was just getting used to the idea of "New math" -- though I still don't know what it means.

The "a" can be made as a circle with a line down the right side (that's one), and it's cousin is drawn with a hat on top (that counts as a second). The normal "g" was a circle on top and a curved line down the right side with a tail off to teh left. Its cousin (now apparently an official part of the Letter family tree) looks like a circle on top with a slightly squished and offset circle underneath.

I've given up playing "Are you smarter than a Fifth Grader?" I already know the answer, but GEEZ. Now even kindergartners have one up on me? That's not right! :-(

Remember when...

BELOIT COLLEGE RELEASES ANNUAL MINDSET LIST FOR THE ENTERING COLLEGE CLASS OF 2012

This month, almost 2 million first-year students will head off to college campuses around the country. Most of them will be about 18 years old, born in 1990 when headlines sounded oddly familiar to those of today: Rising fuel costs were causing airlines to cut staff and flight schedules; Big Three car companies were facing declining sales and profits; and a president named Bush was increasing the number of troops in the Middle East in the hopes of securing peace. However, the mindset of this new generation of college students is quite different from that of the faculty about to prepare them to become the leaders of tomorrow.

Each August for the past 11 years, Beloit College in Beloit, Wis., has released the Beloit College Mindset List. It provides a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college. It is the creation of Beloit’s Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride and Public Affairs Director Ron Nief. The List is shared with faculty and with thousands who request it each year as the school year begins, as a reminder of the rapidly changing frame of reference for this new generation.

The class of 2012 has grown up in an era where computers and rapid communication are the norm, and colleges no longer trumpet the fact that residence halls are “wired” and equipped with the latest hardware. These students will hardly recognize the availability of telephones in their rooms since they have seldom utilized landlines during their adolescence. They will continue to live on their cell phones and communicate via texting. Roommates, few of whom have ever shared a bedroom, have already checked out each other on Facebook where they have shared their most personal thoughts with the whole world.

It is a multicultural, politically correct and “green” generation that has hardly noticed the threats to their privacy and has never feared the Russians and the Warsaw Pact.

Students entering college for the first time this fall were generally born in 1990.

For these students, Sammy Davis Jr., Jim Henson, Ryan White, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Freddy Krueger have always been dead.

1. Harry Potter could be a classmate, playing on their Quidditch team.
2. Since they were in diapers, karaoke machines have been annoying people at parties.
3. They have always been looking for Carmen Sandiego.
4. GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available.
5. Coke and Pepsi have always used recycled plastic bottles.
6. Shampoo and conditioner have always been available in the same bottle.
7. Gas stations have never fixed flats, but most serve cappuccino.
8. Their parents may have dropped them in shock when they heard George Bush announce “tax revenue increases.”
9. Electronic filing of tax returns has always been an option.
10. Girls in head scarves have always been part of the school fashion scene.
11. All have had a relative--or known about a friend's relative--who died comfortably at home with Hospice.
12. As a precursor to “whatever,” they have recognized that some people “just don’t get it.”
13. Universal Studios has always offered an alternative to Mickey in Orlando.
14. Grandma has always had wheels on her walker.
15. Martha Stewart Living has always been setting the style.
16. Haagen-Dazs ice cream has always come in quarts.
17. Club Med resorts have always been places to take the whole family.
18. WWW has never stood for World Wide Wrestling.
19. Films have never been X rated, only NC-17.
20. The Warsaw Pact is as hazy for them as the League of Nations was for their parents.
21. Students have always been "Rocking the Vote.”
22. Clarence Thomas has always sat on the Supreme Court.
23. Schools have always been concerned about multiculturalism.
24. We have always known that “All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned i Kindergarten.”
25. There have always been gay rabbis.
26. Wayne Newton has never had a mustache.
27. College grads have always been able to Teach for America.
28. IBM has never made typewriters.
29. Roseanne Barr has never been invited to sing the National Anthem again.
30. McDonald’s and Burger King have always used vegetable oil for cooking french fries.
31. They have never been able to color a tree using a raw umber Crayola.
32. There has always been Pearl Jam.
33. The Tonight Show has always been hosted by Jay Leno and started at 11:35 EST.
34. Pee-Wee has never been in his playhouse during the day.
35. They never tasted Benefit Cereal with psyllium.
36. They may have been given a Nintendo Game Boy to play with in the crib.
37. Authorities have always been building a wall across the Mexican border.
38. Lenin’s name has never been on a major city in Russia.
39. Employers have always been able to do credit checks on employees.
40. Balsamic vinegar has always been available in the U.S.
41. Macaulay Culkin has always been Home Alone.
42. Their parents may have watched The American Gladiators on TV the day they were born.
43. Personal privacy has always been threatened.
44. Caller ID has always been available on phones.
45. Living wills have always been asked for at hospital check-ins.
46. The Green Bay Packers (almost) always had the same starting quarterback.
47. They never heard an attendant ask “Want me to check under the hood?”
48. Iced tea has always come in cans and bottles.
49. Soft drink refills have always been free.
50. They have never known life without Seinfeld references from a show about “nothing.”
51. Windows 3.0 operating system made IBM PCs user-friendly the year they were born.
52. Muscovites have always been able to buy Big Macs.
53. The Royal New Zealand Navy has never been permitted a daily ration of rum.
54. The Hubble Space Telescope has always been eavesdropping on the heavens.
55. 98.6 F or otherwise has always been confirmed in the ear.
56. Michael Millken has always been a philanthropist promoting prostate cancer research.
57. Off-shore oil drilling in the United States has always been prohibited.
58. Radio stations have never been required to present both sides of public issues.
59. There have always been charter schools.
60. Students always had Goosebumps.

Why risk it?

Sometimes it's just easier to let someone else do the work. On the University of Colorado's Physics Education Technology site, there are literally dozens of physics-based simulations to play with and learn from. You can play the classic aim and fire simulations (complete with human cannonballs), or study wave theory or, in honor of Earth Day, study the greenhouse effect. Almost makes me think maybe I did learn something in high school...

BFE

If you search for BFE in Google or any acronym finder, you're likely to find that it means a "way out of the way place." -- rated PG-13 for language :-p

But for me, that was BK (before kids). Now, BFE means Boxtops For Education. General Mills started the program in 1996 in which they donate money to schools and other non-profits by having consumers return a special proof-of-purchase icon found on their products. Many other brands have joined the cause since then and the total donations so far top $200 million! The donations usually go toward the school's PTA or other school organizations that provide general funds for the students' education.

Here's the challenge... Print the list of participating BFE products. Tack it on the refrigerator or somewhere else visible. The next time you go to toss product packaging into the trash (or hopefully the recycling bin as most of these are on cardboard containers) take a look for the icon shown above. Clip it and put it in an envelope so it's safe (it's small and prone to loss if not secured). Every so often, send that envelope to a school that will then transform it into cash! If you know who I am, send it to me and I'll make sure that it gets to a good school, but if not, simply donate it to a local school in your area.

It doesn't cost you anything extra. You don't have to fill out any surveys. You don't have to give any of your personal information to who knows who. It doesn't take much time. Yeah, it may not be quite as rewarding as winning the state lottery (as if!) that claim to provide funds to the schools, but you're giving back in a real way.

Thanks!

The Phoenix

One week ago today, someone, or someones, lit fire to my daughter's elementary school in the middle of the night causing approximately $3 million worth of damage, completely destroying four classrooms and everything in them as well as causing smoke and water damage to all of the other classrooms, and forcing 350 students plus staff to relocate to another school for at least the rest of this school year. It was a very cowardly act of aggression. And it appears that it wasn't their first or last such act. The local police are now looking for a serial arsonist with at least 5 other school fires set in local schools the last 3 months.

While I am greatly saddened by the arsonist acts, and the sadness, grief, fear, anger, rage, nervousness, anxiety, frustration, hatred, worry, depression, and shock it has caused the students, teachers, staff, parents and community, that's not what I want to talk about. That would be too obvious and would dwell on the bad. Though the individual(s) is still on the loose, the students, staff, and community are moving on -- getting back to the business of teaching our children in the excellent fashion that our school district has been known for. They are not ignoring that the event(s) occurred, but choosing to not be held captive by the fear -- to rise above it.

When the company I work for was going through a massive growth spurt, stretching the internal resources way too thin trying to keep up with hundreds of new-hires, server capacity, etc, we used to comment that it was a good problem to have. Better to have to deal with how to manage too much business than how to manage not enough business. Since initial word of the fire broke last Monday, the community, students, families, and honestly, people around the world, have offered their help and resources. So many people flooded the school offering to help that the Principal and PTA president have had to ask people to stand down on their offers of assistance -- for now. You know how hard that must have been? To tell people "I'm sorry, we can't take your assistance right now." Their main focus and immediate concern was the student's safety, and getting something in place where they could continue their education.

There was SO much to do! In addition to the obvious requirements of time from the Police and Fire Departments (and the media), there was assessing and then finding a suitable location to continue schooling, evaluating the usability of the contents of the damaged school, dealing with the emotions of the staff affected, the logistics of bringing a school mothballed for almost 2 years back on-line and finding places for all of its guests for at least the next five months, preparing the school with comfort items to make the transition easier for the students, and I'm sure at least 500 items that we'll never even know about. All of this while dealing with the wide range of emotions running through their heads personally. I'm sure that their professionalism has held most of their emotions in check for now, but when the wave, hits, it will hit hard I'm sure.
They're not turning away the volunteers. They're not turning away the supplies being offered up by students, parents, local citizens, merchants, media and others. They're just deferring. As they get their hands around what's left to do, I'm sure that they will be GLAD to graciously accept the offers.

On Sunday afternoon, less than 7 days (only 156 hours) from the time the fire alarm went off, an uncountable group of persons transformed what was a devastating event in our community into a triumphant victory of teamwork, commitment and hard work as they opened the doors of the school now deemed the temporary home of those 350 students displaced by cowardice aggression, welcoming each of them with open arms. Despite the inherent confusion with all of those students and each of their parents crowding the school at once as if this was the first day of school, things looked incredible! The student's desks had their things in them (where possible). There were posters on the walls – many from other schools providing support and well wishes! There were pictures of past events all over the school. There were maps and signs and guides to make sure people knew where to go. There was A LOT of energy and excitement as students took to discovering new rooms and hallways. Some things may even seem like an "upgrade" – I remember my daughter commenting, "the bathrooms have three stalls in them!" This school also has air conditioning lacking in their last school. What was missing, mostly, was the fear. It had been supplanted by the positive energy and excitement all around.

There will be bumps in the road. Unplanned glitches will need to be addressed. Emotions will have to be discussed and overcome. The one thing that really came across though, almost from the start of the communications a week ago, was that everyone would be riding the same figurative bus down that road. It doesn't matter what school it stops at, it's the same group of people, the same community of caring teachers, staff, and parents that support these students. It's still the same school -- just in a different building... For now...