Busy days

The last several days have been very full. But I'm getting terrific gas mileage.

Let's see... the "rest weekend" I had been hoping for last Saturday and Sunday just didn't happen. Plant clinic in Berkeley on Saturday morning, smog check, errands, and a baby shower in San Rafael left me with about six hours of free time in two days. Sigh.

Enter this week. I got a bit of time to myself Monday night, but I was crabby and went to bed early. Tuesday I got a little more done in the garden and went out with Emmett in Mountain View/PA, which made for a late night. Yesterday I got off of school, helped Nick cram for his chem quiz as he showered and dressed, shoved him out the door and drove myself down to Fremont to see knaveofhearts. Then I got up at 6:30 this morning, as usual.

Needless to say, I'm behind on reading just about everything electronic. Mail, newsgroups (good god, I'm a week behind on Usenet), LJ, all the nifty links people send me... sigh. I've been stealing time for Lily. I haven't even touched Half-Life since a week ago Monday, when I had a half-hour to play.

Where did my time go?

I like driving, and as I said, I'm getting incredible gas mileage with all this high-speed freeway. Still, I'm looking forward to settling down this weekend and not going much of anywhere. I have all this Biology stuff to do, too. Sigh.

Joining the club

Three entries in one day. wow.

I now have a Gmail account. I never did hunger after one, but when eyeofcanaan randomly shoved an actual invite my way, I said why not. This is considered to be the last big push before they open it up to everyone, and I've been hearing good things from those who already have accounts. Now, whether I'll find a use for it...

It's the same as my regular email address, just sub "gmail" for "foogod". Easy.

No Child Not Mediocre

Kudos to This Is True:

A school spelling bee in Rhode Island was cancelled because the district believed that the competition conflicted with the standards set by the No Child Left Behind Act. (It was later reinstated by the new superintendent, who seemed to feel a little differently.)

Their argument: "a spelling bee does not meet the criteria of all children reaching high standards." It creates "winners" and "losers", you see, which is to be avoided; this is one of the main points of the No Child Left Behind Act, which seeks to make sure all children succeed. I note that the same reasoning has eliminated team sports in many elementary schools.

I recall one of the biggest disappointments of my grade-school years... I participated in our school district's Young Authors Project for two years, submitting hand-bound books in sixth and seventh grade. The first year I netted an award -- tied for second, I seem to recall. The prize that year was a little certificate, and the choice of any two books I wanted from the book bins, which were stuffed full of new young adult fiction. I had taken home "The Dark Is Rising" and another one the previous year, and was looking forward to rummaging through the bins again.

The second year my book was considerably better (as I had learned quite a bit about making one), and I expected to do well. I was quite dismayed at the awards ceremony, when they announced that there were no individual awards: we would all be given little medals for our participation, because our hard work had made us all winners.

It wasn't that I hadn't gotten a ribbon or anything to hold up as proof that I was better than anyone else... it was that, by lumping all of us together, they had done just the opposite of what they set out to do. Instead of making us all feel like winners, they made me feel like I was just another generic kid. All that effort to make the best book I could, and the only acknowledgement I got was a pat on the head and a platitude.

This is why, when I come across items like this, I know exactly how the kids feel. It's not just the bright ones, who feel like they're being lumped in with the average ones -- it's the average ones too, who feel like they're never given a chance to show that they're anything other than average. And when kids lose that chance to shine, everybody loses.