Edumacation

For some strange reason I have in the back of my mind that Saturdays are supposed to be a day "off", but it seems that I'm working all just the same. My feet hurt from being up all day and from the amount of laundry, cooking, cleaning and general dude wrangling I did I feel like I didn't do a damn thing all week. Aren't working parents the ones who are supposed to feel like they catch up on all the housework on Saturdays? I do my best to really put Sundays aside as a day of NO HOUSEWORK because otherwise I would never feel like I had a break. I'm not a religious observer so I don't follow suit here in Salt Lake for any similar reason, I just adore the idea of a day of rest. It's so simple and challenging at the same time. But Saturday? Saturday needs some kind of special designation too. Maybe "try something new day" or "create something day", "activism day" or "volunteer day". I have lofty ambitions, I know, but the activism focus does have a strange appeal for me.

I've never considered myself an activist beyond my own social network. I'm the girl who always has the "well did you know" statistic or bit of information that my very conservative family doesn't know and most likely wishes they hadn't heard from me. Nevermind. I'm always open to hear the opposing opinion and new information but they never seem to have anything new to offer unless it was on Dr. Laura or Bill O'Reilly. Both of whom I appreciate for their uncanny ability to flesh out the fat ignorance of America. Yes, I'm saying it. I think Americans are a stupid lot. We like feces in our cheap meat, lead in the paint on our cheap children's toys, and guns in our public schools. We like going bankrupt over medical bills and giving birth under regional anesthesia. In the 2006 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)'s international assesment of student performance, PISA, the United States' students barely made a blip on the map. Were we in the top 20 at least? Oh no. The United States repeatedly performed in the bottom third in literacy, science, problem solving and math. We weren't even average. Who were the top countries? Finland, Hong Kong, South Korea, oh and Canada. Finland is an interesting case for me because here is a country where students rarely have more than a half an hour of homework a night, there are no honor societies, children don't start school until age 7, the same curriculum is taught nationwide and college is free. We seem to do so many of the opposite things. Early childhood education gets a lot of lip service here to the point of wealthy parents seeking help from preschool counselors to ensure proper placement to start their budding genius toddlers on the ivy league track. Kindergarteners have homework and competition for college is fierce. I think it's time to look around and learn a thing or two from the world community. We are not an island of immunity. People are unhappy and it is time for change. It's time to get involved.