Let Your Voice Be Heard on School Needs

What good is a beautiful new home if it stands empty? What use is a shiny new car if it lacks the gas to make it run? What good is a boat if there is no rudder to steer it?

What’s the point of a brand new high school if it lacks the staff to run it properly?

This is the question many Hanoverians are asking themselves as our town faces a round of serious budget cuts that will impact our brand new, state-of-the-art high school, as well as our middle and elementary schools.

As a parent of school-aged children, the proposed budget cuts disturb me greatly.  For example, reading specialists will be reduced at the elementary schools. While reading comes easily to some children, what about the ones that struggle? Without reading specialists, how many children might continually wrestle with comprehension issues for the rest of their school career? How many will never enjoy spending an afternoon with Harry Potter or Percy Jackson or Katniss Everdeen?  How many will suffer as adults?

At the middle school level, how will 7^th and 8^th graders make do with only one Social Studies teacher for each grade? Will this produce a generation of children who will continue on to high school without the basic understanding of our ancestry?  I’m always amazed by the wealth of knowledge my 8^th grader demonstrates when questioned about early civilizations. Will the next group of middle schoolers have to rely on the Internet, The History Channel and their own initiative to learn about the origin of mankind?

At the high school level, there will be one less Spanish teacher, one less Engineering teacher and a reduction of “. 8 Chemistry Teacher”. It’s curious, how humans are being reduced in increments. I recently attended a meeting for parents during which the superintendent discussed the proposed cuts. I found it hard to follow when phrases such as “.2 of a Music Teacher” and “.4 of an Athletic Director” were thrown out.  My seatmate helpfully explained that the numbers refer to hours worked.  Maybe it’s easier to think in terms of hours and increments rather than a person’s livelihood.

These examples are just a few of the proposed cuts for our schools. Losing additional teachers, administrators and other personnel will increase the workload for the staff that remains and jeopardize the quality of our children’s education.  While listening to the superintendent speak about lack of state and government funding, I realized just how little I know about how our school system is funded.  The idea of trying to prevent these cuts in our current economy is daunting.

Daunting…but not impossible. I remember several years ago when the idea of a brand new high school seemed remote. And yet today our new high school stands proudly, the first of many generations already enjoying its benefits.   Who brought that dream to fruition? A group of concerned citizens founded HHSYes and managed to convince enough people to make the dream of a new high school a reality. There is concrete proof of what our town is capable of standing smack in the middle of Cedar Street. If we can do that, can’t we find a way to insure that our schools are able to retain the staff needed to provide the quality education our children deserve?

Just before Christmas I received an email request to join a letter campaign.  The sender included a letter that outlined the budget cuts, expressed concern and asked that school committee members harness the voice of Hanover parents and children when presenting their budget to the Advisory Board.  I dutifully forwarded the letter to each school committee member and received a reply from three.  One member thanked me for the email and said that she had only received five such emails thus far.  She also reminded me that, “…parents do not have to rely upon the School Committee to "harness" their voice when advocating for the students and schools. While that is our job and we are happy to do it, I urge you to bring your own voice and, most importantly, your own experiences, to the table to be heard. Public comment, letters to the editor, letters to town officials (such as myself), and your presence at meetings speak volumes.” Well said, indeed. Yesterday I discovered a new organization on Facebook entitled Hanover Students First, which “...represents the concerned citizens of Hanover who are raising awareness and advocating for solutions to prioritize the needs of students amidst the financial crisis the town is facing.” As with HHSYes, I’m hoping this group will become a valuable resource for educating and informing our citizens as to the options and obstacles we face as we move forward.

The school committee had planned to present their budget to the advisory board on Jan. 9^th, but that meeting is being re-scheduled to a later date in order to give the committee more time to go over specific concerns. In the coming weeks it is important for all of us to make our thoughts and opinions known to the school committee, the town advisory board, state representatives, the press and anyone else who is in a position to affect positive change. If we assume that “someone else” will take care of this problem, we may very well find ourselves in a hole out of which we are unable to climb.

Raise your voice. Make some noise. Let yourself be heard. Affect change. I honestly believe that we can do this if we all work together.

Join me?

Resolution Time Again!

As we bid adieu to 2011 and gear up for 2012, it’s time to get out your pad and pencil and start writing your list of New Year’s resolutions.

I started asking friends about their intended resolutions. One friend declared she would to try to stop swearing in 2012. When I mentioned this to someone else, their immediate reply was, “Why the *bleep* would she do that?” 

Other friends listed the usual resolutions: lose weight, exercise more, save money.

Those are all on my list as well, as they are each year, but I’m wondering whether I’ll have any more success in 2012 than I did in years past. I’d like to think that this is the year I’ll work out daily, lose a bunch of weight, get into the greatest shape of my life and save enough for my family to finally take that trip to the West Coast. In all likelihood, by February I’ll still be an overweight couch potato that spends more than my husband makes.

Maybe I need to lower the bar a bit and make resolutions that are actually achievable. Starting with…

Reality television. This year I’ll limit the number of reality shows that I watch in any given week.  I can’t drop “Survivor” since my kids and I watch it together (nothing like a little family time to enjoy back stabbing and blind siding), but I could give up one of the “Real Housewives” franchises that are so bad they’re good.  Do I stick with New Jersey, home of my birth, or Beverly Hills? The train wreck known as “Dance Moms” begins in January, so perhaps I should ditch the Housewives altogether and direct my reality time to mothers behaving badly.

Then there’s the Internet. I spend way too much time checking Facebook and email, and even more time surfing sites like “Crap at my Parent’s House” and “Awkward Family Photos”. Recently a friend introduced me to “Regretsy”, a site that reposts and comments on real craft items for sale on the popular site “Etsy.  Forget handmade hats and jewelry; Regretsy sheds light on the dark underbelly of crafters complete with uterus-shaped piñatas and necklaces made from “human ivory” (also known as finger and toenail clippings). Since discovering this site I’ve wasted countless hours chortling with glee over the very worst that these artisans have to offer. Probably best to put a block on that site and replace it with time on Linked In looking for more writing gigs. 

Another vice I should curb is overspending at the grocery store. Most responsible adults plan their meals at the beginning of the week and do one major grocery run.  On any given day I may not know until late afternoon what I’ll serve my family for dinner.  This means that I’m a frequent flier at Shaw’s, Stop & Shop and most of all Trader Joes.  The latter is one of the worst places to visit frequently in that there is always something new and wonderful to try and buy. I’ll run in for one or two things only to find myself with a cart full of impulse purchases by the time I reach checkout.  Not good for my wallet or my waistline.  In 2012 I vow to make a list, hit the store once a week and skip the chocolate covered almonds with sea salt and the deep fried mac and cheese puffs.

Each year I tell my husband that my resolution is to be more tolerant and less judgmental and each year I end up just the opposite.  This year I’ll try a different approach: I won’t make that resolution.  If that bothers you then clearly there’s something wrong with you and I have no time for you.

I think I can work with this list.  Of course, if the Mayans are correct, we have only one year left on the planet.  If that’s the case, perhaps I’d be better off cramming in as much reality television, internet junk and gourmet food as possible before December 21, 2012.

Care to join me?

I’ll try not to judge you if you don’t.

Do You Believe in Angels?

Do you believe in angels?

This time of year, angels are everywhere: on Christmas trees, overlooking nativity scenes, in store displays. A most beloved holiday film, “It’s a Wonderful Life” tells the story of Clarence, a bumbling “angel second class” who earns his wings by showing a despondent George Bailey what life would be like had he never been born. By the end of the film, George appreciates his life and a tinkling bell ornament on the Christmas tree indicates that Clarence has earned his wings.

Do we all have a Clarence in our lives, hovering unseen and helping us navigate the turbulent waters of life? 

Have you ever had a narrow miss? Perhaps you were delayed in leaving the house for one reason or another, causing you to miss a horrific traffic accident that occurred just seconds ahead of you. Coincidence? Or angel?

A friend relayed the story of a family who let their kids stay up late watching television on a stormy night. These were kids who always went to bed on time, but for some reason the parents let them stay up late to watch a movie just this once. The kids were in the television room instead of their bedroom when a tree fell on the house, crushing their beds. Coincidence? Or angel?

Some might wonder where the angels were when the tsunami hit Japan or the earthquake shattered villages in Haiti and Chile. I have no answer for that except to look at the instance of an infant found alive and unharmed under tons of rubble. I do believe that it was an angel that stopped my son’s bus in Springfield last June, allowing a deadly tornado to pass just yards ahead of him, keeping him and his classmates safe from harm.

If people believe in ghosts and demons, as evidenced by countless television programs and films like “Ghost Hunters” and “The Last Exorcism”, then doesn’t it stand to reason that angels are real too? What does it take for us to believe that there are benevolent forces at work in our lives helping to facilitate whatever plans God has in store for us? Do we need Gabriel to visit us in a blinding white robe as he did with the Virgin Mary? Do we require an angel to allay our fears, as the angel did with the shepherds over two thousand years ago when he brought his “good news of a great joy”? Or can we look at all the events, both tiny and large, that happen in our lives and take it on faith that an ethereal presence is helping them occur?

A friend reminded me yesterday about the last words of Steve Jobs. This was a man whose heart and soul were based in technology: hardware, software, bits, bytes and ‘bots.  And yet, as he lay dying in his bed, staring into space, his last words indicate that something significant captured his attention: “Oh wow…oh wow…oh wow…”

What could garner that kind of reaction from a man who spent his life making a dent in the universe with earth-bound technology?

I choose to believe it was an angel.

Tis the Season for Stress for No Reason

Well, here we are in the holiday season. Are you enjoying your new part time job?

My friend Julianne, who is a health and fitness coach, jokes with her clients that the holiday season is like taking on a part time job. When you stop to think about it, it’s true. In addition to the job you do all year long, whether it be in an office, on the road or at home, you add the equivalent hours of a part time job once the holidays roll around.

From mid-November through the end of the year feel free to add personal shopper, interior decorator, chef, cookie maker, chauffer, wrapper (not the bling bling kind), party host, music critic, mind reader and mediator to your resume. These are the valuable skills you’ll need to survive all the holiday parties, gift exchanges, seasonal concerts and a zillion other commitments before January 1st.

Some people, however, thrive under pressure. They love a challenge and look for any and all ways to add to their already crowded schedule this time of year. So for those of you who just can’t get enough stress, here are a few sure-fire ways to raise your blood pressure during the holidays.

-Host or attend a cookie swap. Yes, we all love fresh holiday cookies this time of year, and what better way to enjoy a variety of them than by attending a cookie swap? It sounds like such a good idea until you remember that you have to actually bake several dozen cookies to bring to the swap. Forget about buying cookies and passing them off as your own. Seasoned swappers can sniff out a store bought cookie before they cross the threshold. So when you’re baking those forty-dozen cookies for friends, family, co-workers, church members and teachers, remember to churn out an extra six or seven dozen to swap. What are a few hundred cookies in the grand scheme of things?

-Participate in an online recipe exchange. We all love to share new recipes around the holidays, don’t we? Isn’t Christmas the best time to jump on board an electronic chain letter? A friend sent me the email the other day, asking me to send one simple recipe to the name at the bottom of the list, add my name and then send it to 20 of my friends within 5 days. My favorite line was “Seldom does anyone drop out because we all need new recipes”. I replied to her immediately, thanking her for thinking of me, then continued, “If you ever again ask me to participate in a recipe exchange during the holiday season, I will beat you with a candy cane. Merry Christmas.” She replied that she understood and admitted that the recipes she had received so far were for a horrible clam dish, Ambrosia, and a sodium-loaded recipe for chuck roast smeared in onion soup mix and cream of mushroom soup. Find me in February when I have nothing else to do and I’ll be happy to send you something better than Ambrosia.

-Four little words: Elf-on-the-Shelf…’nuff said.

-Send yourself into a tizzy wondering what to get your child’s teachers. And their therapists. Their coaches. Their bus drivers. Your mailman. Your garbage man. Your paperboy, cleaning woman, babysitter, dog-walker, lawn-care professional, Tae Kwon Do instructor and hairdresser. We have the British to thank for this “Boxing Day” tradition of gifting all our service personnel. Thanks Great Britain, we’ll send you the bill come January.

-And speaking of gifts…in addition to all the holiday gift shopping you’re doing, offer to do the shopping for your siblings, your parents and your in-laws. My relatives all live out of town. My sisters work full time, my parents are older and my in-laws are retired but still very busy. Plus I know what my kids want, so it makes sense for me to purchase all the gifts my family is giving to my children…and organizing them…and wrapping them…and carting them to my in-laws…and I think I need my head examined. And a drink.

And speaking of drinks…host a party. Any party. It doesn’t matter when you host it in December, you will be competing with a thousand other holiday parties and you may end up with five guests or fifty. Your home must be clean and decorated to look like a mash up of “Everyday with Rachel Ray” and “Martha Stewart Living”. Don’t buy your decorations, that’s cheating. You must decoupage every ornament by hand and weave your own napkins from wool gathered from the sheep raised in your back yard. Don’t forget to hand hammer your own paper for Christmas cards while you’re at it.

If you’ve tried all these things and still crave a challenge this holiday season, I have one more suggestion for you: Come over to my house, wrap all my presents, address all my holiday cards, hang my Christmas lights and bake a few thousand cookies for me.

Consider it my Christmas gift to you.

Holiday Tunes Can Have Some Pretty Puzzling Lyrics

The holiday season is officially underway. Some will argue it began when stores put up their Christmas displays before Halloween but as far as I’m concerned, the official start is December 1. And what better way to catch the holiday spirit than by immersing yourself in the music of the season. Whether running errands, driving kids to activities or shopping for presents, I enjoy keeping the radio tuned to those stations that feature the “sounds of the season” to put me in the holiday mood.

However, I can’t help but notice that when you listen to the same holiday tunes over and over, you start to really pay attention to the lyrics and wonder just what these songwriters were thinking when they composed these Christmas “classics”. Let’s start with “We Wish You A Merry Christmas”. This song, dating back to 16th century England, is all well and good in wishing the recipient a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. The singers even bring “good tidings to you and your kin”. It’s not till the second verse where things get weird. “Oh bring us some figgy pudding…” So apparently the good tidings come at a price and that price is a concoction of figs, butter, sugar, eggs milk, apple, rum, lemon and orange peel, nuts, cinnamon, cloves and ginger. Don’t come to my house demanding this dish because I don’t stock half of those ingredients in my pantry. The third verse is truly ominous: “We won’t leave until we get some.” Presumably by this point you’ve innocently let these well-wishers into your home only to be held hostage until the aforementioned figgy pudding is produced. My advice when you see these carolers coming? Lock the door and shut off the lights.

Moving on to “The Twelve Days of Christmas”. If my true love started things off by giving me a pear tree which a partridge in residence I’d probably think he was overestimating my gardening skills. And what makes him think I’m ready to take on a pet? Does it live in the tree permanently or do I have to buy a cage for it and bring it in the house? This gift is then followed by two Turtle Doves, three French hens and four calling (or “colly”) birds. Okay, we’re four days into this thing and I’ve accumulated ten birds I need to keep alive? When the five golden rings show up, it appears this relationship is back on track. Perhaps if I sell four of the five rings, I can get enough cash to buy birdseed. But just then my true love, who is starting to seem like “Mr. Wrong”, produces six geese-a-laying and seven swans a-swimming. We’re up to 23 birds and suddenly my house is an aviary. At this point my idiot boyfriend (no longer my “true love”) thinks it’s a great idea to bring eight maids and nine ladies into the relationship. I don’t care if they’re a-milking or dancing, this has suddenly become an episode of “Big Love”. By the end of the 12 days, it’s a safe bet I’ll kick my true love to the curb and run off with one of the twelve drummers. Because everyone knows that drummers get all the chicks.

“Winter Wonderland” sounds innocent enough, till you get to the verse, “In the meadow we can build a snowman…and pretend that he is Parson Brown…” Ahem. If you think getting married by a snowman is legally binding in any state, think again. I can guarantee that anyone who believes Frosty’s ability to validate a marriage can expect an IRS audit when filing jointly the following April. And forget about bringing Mr. Snowman in for the audit, because in the next verse the kiddies knock him down.

Does anyone else think it’s creepy that some kid saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus? It’s a bit weird, especially when he says, “I saw Mommy tickle Santa Claus, underneath his beard so snowy white…” Um…gross? The kid then goes on to say “What a laugh it would have been if Daddy had only seen Mommy kissing Santa Claus last night.” I’m thinking Daddy might have been indicted for manslaughter if he caught his wife tickling some old fat guy under his beard, though a good lawyer could get it reduced to a lesser charge.

By Christmas Eve I’m so ready for the true carols that celebrate Christ’s birth: “O Holy Night”, “Joy to the World”, “Silent Night” and the like. There’s nothing I love more than celebrating that night with those reverent, holy classics. But that’s a few weeks off, so in the meantime I’ll enjoy my new favorite holiday song: “Candlelight” by the Jewish a cappella group, the Maccabeats. This song not only tells the tale of the Maccabees warding off the Greeks, it celebrates many of the traditions of Chanukah, all to the tune of the popular song “Dynamite”. The chorus is my favorite: “I flip my latkes in the air sometimes saying ayy-ohh, spin the dreidel…
Just wanna celebrate for all eight nights singing ayy-oh, light the candles.”

Beats the heck out of figgy pudding.