Years of research in child development & education has brought me to the conclusion that young children do actually fare better when there is a parent in the home. And yet, our society dictates that the mother go to work. Now I know there are a few SAH dads out there, and they do just as well as moms. Still, they are at home, and available to provide loving care to their children.

So GOP, why the insistence of eliminating family benefits? Smaller gov is great, but We People need the help. If you’re not going to tax the wealthy, then raise wages so families have a fair shot at survival. My husband makes a decent wage, over 2x the minimum wage, but once the bills are paid we’ve not much left for groceries, gas, and household necessities. Utilities keep rising, the cost of food is at an all time high, and moms are trading their FT working income for childcare expenses. The cost of living; e.g. owning a home, car, children, is exorbitant, and does not match incomes of common, everyday people.

Mitt Romney and other politicians are making millions every year, while myself and everyday folks like me are struggling to eat healthy and get adequate health care. I fret over the $25 co-pay to visit my GP, and sure don’t have $500 cash on hand for an MRI. Is this the problem? The wealthy have so much excess they can no longer relate to working class citizens? Perhaps because they’re wealthy, have everything they & their family need, the rest doesn’t matter.

We’ve become so very corrupted by wealth and greed I’m not sure there’s any way to change it, especially in the overnight manner that the people expect.  Instant gratification is ruining the populace just as quickly as income inequality.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Political/WhyAmericansDon’tVote.html

I’m trying to figure out how I can tend my garden when I have to go to work. Who will care for my children this summer when I have to go to work? Who will tend the home while I go to work?

America, can you understand this mom’s dilemma?

Cut a fresh, or not so fresh cigar (not one that has been smoked) into quarters. Place a quarter of the cigar into a pint of boiling hot water and one tea bag and allow to marinate and cool. Then add 1/2 teaspoon of Listerine [I assume the old ucky brown kind], 1/2 teaspoon of liquid soap [like Dawn], as well as 1/2 teaspoon of Kelthane.

Now I had to stop here and Google ‘kelthane.’ What is it? According to Wikipedia it is Dicofol, “an organochlorine pesticide that is chemically related to DDT… a nerve poison…can be stored in fatty tissue.”

WHAT??!

I have to wonder, especially as Grandma Billy was my family’s own Master Gardener, did earlier generations actually know how harmful these chemicals were? No wonder cancer is so heavy on the scene. I can envision millions of housewives being so enamored with the convenience of chemical living that, like today, no one really took the time to learn what they were exposing themselves to. Prefab insect spray on the houseplants once a month and voila! Poisoning yourself! 

Today, I’m leaving out the heavy chemicals in my life, in baby steps. I’m no master gardener, just trying to get rid of the whiteflies that have invaded my potted houseplants. Jerry recommends using the aforementioned recipe as a spray, but I’m going to try pouring 1/2c -1c into the plant soil, depending on the size. I’m hoping the tobacco won’t hurt any of my newly adopted tropicals.

I’m just stuck in the middle with you.

I’ll admit my family has it pretty good. Everyday I remind myself how fortunate I am to have a loving family, a beautiful home, relatively clean water, electricity, and a few amenities such as Cable TV and Internet access. I even have 2 vehicles. Compared to others, I’m living large!

The GOP seems to think folks like me must be living on a three figure income. Yes, They consistently ignore facts to benefit their own oligarchic agenda, including basic math. It seems They assume that A Job automatically equates to Living Comfortably. They don’t seem to understand it’s actually a juggling act. The Rest of Us (earned income < $100,000/year) are living on the edge.

To be fair, current Democrats across the nation are just as guilty of wealth-inflicted disassociation with The People.

Today, HuffPost reported a story that Mitt Romney encouraged one of his former flock to give up her baby for adoption. Perhaps he knew that this young mother, earning less, struggling to support herself and one child already, may fail at being able to lovingly support a second child. Perhaps he was trying to prevent a future case of abuse and neglect due to poor circumstances.  

I’m sure Peggy Hayes is not on the road to becoming Kim Hainey, but in the arena of child education and welfare we cynics are becoming increasingly aware of how income inequality and learned behaviors are leading to many more cases of abuse, neglect, and even murder. Early childhood education is morphing into parent education and case management, but usually after its too late. How many unwanted pregnancies could be avoided if we could educate young women about parenthood BEFORE the fact? This past semester I worked with teen moms, and most of them are clueless as to what resources are necessary to provide a good and decent life for a child. There’s a little factoid I heard once, that to comfortably provide for a child, a family needs to earn at least $50,000 per year. Teens and young women don’t know how much this actually is. They cannot comprehend the amount, the idea of earning money to pay for necessities is still beyond them.  

With comprehensive education we could teach young women to see beyond the picture painted by Hollywood & mass media. When will our fearless leaders take off Their rose-colored glasses? How many more children will die at the hands of their care-givers, everyday folks who have had to suffer too much themselves and simply snap? If a child has grown up without learning unconditional love, they will not know how to lovingly care for a baby, even though biology says they’re capable of having one. The biological fact of Being Pregnant does not create a Love and Care hormone. Love is an experience that is learned socially, from our familial environment. The thing Ms. Hayes and Ms. Hainey have in common is that they COULD have given their unplanned children up for adoption, not because they were bad people, but because those children could have been raised in an environment where they did not have to suffer. When will The People understand that adoption can be a Good Thing, especially for the life of a child? 

Today’s adults (who were once yesterday’s children) were raised on Ideals. Parents taught their young to believe that they could have the American Dream, but never taught them how to work. Children were not instructed in life skills, because they’d grow up to be millionaires and have everyone else take care of them. As in The Devil Wears Prada, “Everyone wants to be [glamorous] us.” Children were not instructed that, indeed, they may have to clean toilets or dust shelves to earn their Independence. They were led to believe if they studied well they’d go to College. They would have a Career. Let ‘em be doctors an’ lawyers an’ such. Nevermind the $50-$100K cost, we’ve got Credit and Loans for your family. Consider it an investment.  Heck, have a baby and you can get Pell Grants and welfare money. In the real world, not everyone can be fabulous. Someone must collect the trash, manage water & sewer service, maintain the grid, fix the roads, etc.  Americans seem to believe the Hype; their mere existence in this world entitles them to be free of labor, and they perpetuate the Dream myth to their children.

Apologies, readers. I hope those who do abuse The System are of the few. I do know those who use The System don’t always vote, and may be uneducated. Cycle of poverty…unwed mothers…decline of western civilization…

I read a lot of Internet news; HuffPost, AlJazeera, and the like. One commenter (probably of the 53%) suggested the poor grow their own food and Uncle Sam could eliminate food stamps. I’m always amused by folks who think social change can happen at will.

First, the poor, some grossly uneducated thanks to public spending cuts, do not know that food is grown in a garden. Many adults with means do not grow plants, and wouldn’t know a bean from a pea. I’ve met so many parents that don’t know diddly-sqaut about how food grows, its frightening. Because we’ve continued to cut Science & Art, we’ve multiple generations of Nature challenged biophiliacs.

Second, with the majority of humanity living in densely populated areas, where exactly would people grow food? Foods don’t grow like Philodendron. People rent duplexes and apartments, the poor suffer areas of increased pollution; not exactly ideal for growing food. Anyone out there know how many acres in the U.S. are covered in pavement and blacktop? If a family is lucky enough to own a home they’re overworked to meet the mortgage payment, and don’t have the whole day to tend a food garden. Rooftop and school gardens are cropping up in progressive neighborhoods, but as Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution has shown us, very few people even know, let alone care, about the food chain. As long as its convenient and they don’t get Dirty. Folks don’t let their children cook in the kitchen, or dig in the dirt, because its “too Messy.”

Third, if the poor do not have their own money to purchase food at the grocery store (usually Eco-intensive) they also don’t have money to purchase seed, nor resources to begin food gardening; or they do not access local programs such as extension offices. It all begins with a Seed, and since we’ve patented the G-Nome(sp) Monsanto owns all the seeds; their greed would rather the poor be addicted to the grocery store.

Remember, citizens with Wealth, it has been greed and excess that has put the entire nation into this pickle jar. Capitalism has brought us Here. Food, Health Care, and Learning are essential to Life and Liberty, in my humble opinion. It would seem the Pursuit of Property has been distorted to extremes, thanks to unadulterated Greed. If the wealthy had been paying a higher tax rate we could’ve kept public education on the up-n-up. I’m all for equalizing the tax rate, so that any citizen earning income pays a % (5, 10, 20, 50, the IRS takes it before I can spend it anyway) in exchange for those necessities in this game called Life. America, the corruption has trickled down, but not he cash. I wonder if there would be less crime if more of the people’s basic needs were met? Without the perpetuation of the Dream would children have stayed on the family farm? Without the ideal of becoming a millionaire or billionaire, would children learn to be content with What Is? Would the equalization of incomes provide modern health care for all?

So I must ask you parents, how is it that you send us your children while at the same time you think we are valueless? Does this mean you also do not value your own children? Can you understand that your child receives more face time with their teacher than they do with you?

Our Occupy movement is attempting to address income inequality, which is quite extreme in these modern times. Children are suffering this inequality the most, because they have no power over their birth status. The U.S. may be a wealthy country, but many of its children are born into poverty, as are children the world over. The reason the Occupy movement is not making any headway here is because our experience of poverty is very different from less affluent countries. We do have assistance for poor families, we are trying to socialize medicine, and we do consider Entertainment a necessity. Many of the upper-class, against welfare programs of any kind, have argued that families receiving assistance may not actually need it. They go into homes where families own newer televisions and appliances, 2 vehicles, and believe that because of these items that family cannot be considered ‘in need.’ However, many of the families’ currently receiving assistance have been in a higher tax-bracket, regular working folks who trusted their employers and received the shaft.

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Now, I commend media celebrities who report on the despair of our nation. I prefer Brian Williams, Jon Stewart, and Bill Maher. But fellas, how much do you make? Do you understand that you’re part of the problem? You’re in that millionaire class; your children do have a bright future. You may blame congress, and I’ll agree, it is the government’s robber barons that have for the past half century slowly robbed the working class of its American Dream, but the sheeple are not responding. They continue to numb their brains with American Idol, Wipeout, and other currently popular entertainment television.  Why, you may ask? Because they have no other options. We the People are not educated to compete in the global economy created by those robber barons. Those who have successfully made their way are actually social dropouts and deviants. If the People are given no honest avenues for work, they will beg, borrow, and steal. We’ve entered the age of Paradox. Wages are so low we cannot afford necessities, and in order to escape our despair we turn to media entertainment, which keeps us misinformed of the actions of those who have the power. Lobbyists have corrupted Washington beyond the point of recognition. We are subject to a false democracy whose leaders provide sound-bites that do not address the actual needs of society.

If we want to get out of this mess we must address our education needs first. Schools must be our highest priority. Schools must be our largest budgetary expenditure, not the military complex. Without a strong education base we will fall further behind in this global economy. And I’m not talking about providing higher education; I’m talking about K-12! Public schools have become, pardon my French, shitholes, where the poorest children suffer the most indignities. Teachers in the trenches are not valued by families, even though our children usually have more face time with those teachers than they do with parents. We’re stuck between a rock and a hard place, moving away from what we want, and getting back to what we really need. As more children are being born into poverty level households, their own parents are also uneducated, and apathetic.

Jerod Gustin, a parent in the district, states “Teacher-student contact time needs to be as high as it can be.” I wonder if he realizes that suggests we have an official Nanny State. Do we really want publicly funded boarding school? (Read Brave New World by Aldous Huxley) Educational research shows that it’s actually increased parent-child time that increases a child’s knowledge and learning, IF the child lives in a loving, nurturing environment.

So here’s a broader idea: school-neighborhood community gardens.  When first confronted with the idea of having to find outside care for my student on the fifth day, wouldn’t it be great if I could afford(in dollars and production time lost) to take the day off with my child? Employer compensation for employee participation in school food gardens would benefit the entire community. Schools can extend the Presidential Challenge program to teach families about food nutrition and the benefits of an active lifestyle. 

Families are suffering in current economic standards, and with employment down its hard to put food on the table. Public schools could best benefit their patrons by providing a site for food gardens. On the fifth day, parents and students can work in the gardens, while teachers and students work the garden throughout the week, incorporating math, science, reading & writing into a project-based curriculum. Employers could pay an employee for the day off if that parent works in his/her child’s school garden. At harvest time food can be distributed to school families first. Surplus harvest items can be sold at market to further fund school garden learning. 

As a working parent, I often feel guilty that I don’t have more opportunity to volunteer at my child’s public school, but I’ve got to earn money to supplement my husband’s income. He has a heavy work load, and even with adequate paid vacation, he is still overworked. 1/5 of children in the U.S. live at or near poverty, and they are struggling to learn for several reasons, directly related to their environment. Mr. Gustin also asks “How does the struggling student make it [without the teacher]? I say, with the parent. As a society, not only must we reconnect with nature, but we must also reconnect as communities. I know this is a difficult shift in social structure. Currently parents are entirely over-worked and over-stressed, while schools struggle to provide more support for families without funding. With local business support, parents and children can connect to their communities without risk, and employers retain dedicated workers who receive moral benefit from participating in social events with their children. 

As a teacher I’ve learned much from Last Child in the Woods, A Framework for Understanding Poverty, The Worm Cafe, Worms Eat Our Garbage, and countless other articles absorbed for research at WU. Check out my links! Feel free to comment!

Recently I’ve had lots of little signs in the world that tell me to persevere.  Like my husband’s 101 year old grandmother dying on New Year’s Day, after we’d had the Christmas blizzard here in Kansas.  Or one of my dearest friends having some serious heart issues at 50, most likely due to diet and lifestyle.  Grandma Lola didn’t smoke or drink, grew her own food (including chickens) and lived a long, prosperous life. Floyd the Barber has grown up during the 1st Green Revolution, and his body has absorbed goodness knows how many chemicals, whether illegal or legit   Heck most of the health issues we face today are due to boomers and The Greatest generation being exposed to synthetic chemicals through food consumption.  Lola is probably one of few of her generation to suffer only dementia.

My point is, this isn’t working.  We civilized people have had like 2 or 3 generations to practice Monsanto’s and Exxon’s ways, but it’s not working.  How far will Greed take us?  Are there enough greedy people in power to eliminate the rest with less?  What happens when 1% of the wealthy becomes 1 person?  Sometimes I envision these men with their “backroom deals” and I wonder: will it really always be this way?  It seems men have been goverened by profit since time immoral. I think much of what we’re seeing these days with the Supreme Court and the Senate are last-ditch efforts of a generation about to lose power, and I must say, our nation’s politics will likely get worse.  Can anyone out there remember, or know of a good political machine?  I’m dying to know.  Even China can’t get Taoism right…

Something I’ve learned about biophelia  is that each new generation of specie adapts to its present environmental conditions, and learns what is normal beginning with its individual existence.  Therefore, an individual experiences environmental factors as they are, not as they were in earlier generations.  How long has it been since we’ve seen Small Pox?  Do today’s adults understand just what small pox is?  Or staff infection?  Our young children will take for granted that there is food, shelter, clothing.  They will not relate to Little House on the Prairie because there may not be any such thing as a prairie at the rate of Industry.  Our children will virtually hike the Appalachain trail, because the real one will have been demolished.  Dude, just watch Wall-E.  That’s where corporate democracy is taking us, man.  Yes I know Disney is evil too, what can one do?  The message is in the medium. 

Here on the home front, things are changing, if one takes the time to watch the flowers turn.  Things are not always as they seem.  I am being patient and going with the flow, but geez its only Monday!  I am still excited to garden this spring & summer, and look forward to sowing seeds.  See the thing is, Nature gives all the world’s species what they need to survive and thrive.  We people experience Joy from the flowers, Sustenance from the fruits of the trees and vines, and sweet honey from the bees.  What is there but to Love and Be?  Why does it matter if he has more tomatoes if I can trade him my honey?  So long as we both eat, and Live.  Our children can learn to be responsible, caring, peaceful, and fair, all from being nurtured by nature <3

Another benefit of moving into the Toddler 2 classroom is practicing a process called looping, where a teacher advances into the new classroom when her/his students do.   This past year Ms. Aimee looped up from 1 to 2, and the children had a successful transition into activities that challenged them and encouraged development.  Young children become attached to caregivers much like a parental relationship, and many may experience severe anxiety being introduced to a new physical environment coupled with a new caregiver.  Stranger Anxiety overload.  We have a few students advancing this semester who need more support and guidance, and I look forward to practicing garden activities with a variety of learners.

So far, this year is looking up

This year, I’ve learned about patience the hard way.  It started off with a bar brawl on my sister’s birthday in January.  This hippy hasn’t been in a fist fight since high school (20 years ago).  I think I just lost  my last marble this year, trying to balance Work along with Washburn and Motherhood.  That and our family budget resembles an overcooked noodle.  I had hoped to be more available to the UCD garden project this summer, especially after the success of our Flower Power fundraiser.  Although my studies at Washburn kept me away from the garden site, I did try to share information via facebook and sometimes this blog.  What I didn’t realize, and couldn’t really comprehend, was that some of our staff literally did not know how plants grow.  I’ve had chilling visions of young children’s chores consisting of dusting the plastic plant decor, instead of watering and caring for live plants.  This aspect of society, that an entire generation of now high school and college graduates has zero knowledge of plant life, is quite alarming.  I realize just how over-dependent on others the People have become.  This makes it all that much more important to teach the next generation how to grow plants for food and sustinence.  However, I became impatient in allowing others to learn at their own pace.  And I grew impatient with the time it takes for any grassroots project to truly grow.  Our staff are still learning that plants take time and care.  While we did not harvest any food out of our garden, we did learn that rabbits like spinach and squash.  We learned that strawberry transplants need lots of water, but not pine-sol & water.  We learned that the roly-pig composter needs to be watered, because it does not absorb rainwater like a traditional, open compost heap.  If I could see inside the pig, I’d know what the problem was.  Has something taken root (like whole potatoes)?  Is it seriously clogged and needs to be taken apart and started over (stinky-dinky)?  BTW, volunteers welcome   Another downside to this year and the garden project is that I have not been able to work on it first-hand, because I’m in the Toddler 1 room, and these children are too young to dig a garden (but we do water our container plants).  See, the thing is, its not about me wanting to garden with children, its about children learning how to garden.   If these children in our care can be introduced to plant science, they will be successful science learners in higher grades, and maybe, just maybe, those with school gardens across the nation can grow a generation of individuals who know how to work a farm and provide food to communities.  The current state of the farming industry is about to collapse (hunch), and our nation will be in dire straits if we lose our ability to engage in a cooperative relationship with nature.

So I ask you, dear reader, to take a baby step with me.  Side by side, with our own two hands.  Remember, we should forgive our friends their flaws as readily as we forgive our own.  This is possibly the one difficult lesson it took me a year to learn, and I apologize for getting too pushy back there in September (it was my 37th birthday, and I was freaking out!).  Also please understand that while some staff at UCD are only temporary, others have long-term, professional goals in Early Childhood Education; this garden classroom is what I hope to accomplish in transforming UCD to grow with the 21st century.  When thinking of technology, think about what life was like before Mr. Weatherman’s radar, or even a rain gauge for Mr. Almanac.  Today’s technology gives you a soil test tool the size of a pocket-light.  Think about how processed food has affected previous generations of the People (cancer, diabetes, heart disease) and think about how our bodies are part of the Natural world.  Where does real food come from?  Time to tip the scales back to balanced in the world, and each of us has to act.

The baby step begins with a tiny seed, care, and Love.