he needed to be a wealthy Victorian child, educated by governesses or young, pale Divinity graduates from Oxford, looking to earn money until they secured a parish of their own.

That's so me. I didn't really understand how to study until ADD diagnosis and college. (The ADD diagnosis gave me the meds to be able to concentrate on dumb stuff, and college gave me space to figure out how to study, with stuff that I actually wanted to study.)

Leif has really been improving in the second part of the year. Earlier he was having problems with reading comprehension, probably because of inattention, but that has improved. He seems to be doing well with comprehension reading the Harry Potter books (about 1/3 being read to and 2/3 reading himself). His handwriting is lagging, but that's probably partly just being 1-2 years younger than his classmates.

Emaryn is just a breeze when it comes to school. She just cruises along with no problems. Sometimes we take it a bit too for granted, just because there are no issues. She gets a bit jealous of the attention Leif gets since school is more complicated with his combining of 2nd and 3rd grade classes.

I love the Weavers version of "House of the Rising Sun," sung by Ronnie Gilbert. A great bluesy torch song.

That article about the President's letters is terrific. I especially appreciated this (and hope that previous presidents did the same thing):

Mr. Kelleher’s office has a red box for what he calls “life-and-death constituent case work.”

“So someone says, ‘I’m despondent and I want to commit suicide,’ or ‘I have a life-threatening illness and I need help here,’ ” Mr. Kelleher said. “We immediately respond to those.”

I love the Weavers version of "House of the Rising Sun," sung by Ronnie Gilbert.

I don't think I've gotten that one yet either.

Judge away, msbelle. Teaching can sometimes put me in a weird position of having to swallow back judgment so that I can turn something into a teaching point instead. Doesn't mean I don't end up shaking my head later.

But that's not what it sounds like Burrell's students are saying -- it sounds like they are comparing it to having your fingers cut off one at a time or some shit.

Kinda that. The reaction was that blood and body parts signified torture to them and it was hard to conceptualize torture if the body remained intact.

Barb, have you had your son tested for a learning disability? There may be something behind the processing issues.

Timelies all!

My parents have gone home. Yay! (Although they left at stupid o' clock, managing to hit the doorbell on their way out. ugh.)

Emaryn is just a breeze when it comes to school. She just cruises along with no problems. Sometimes we take it a bit too for granted, just because there are no issues.

This is Abby. Although any jealousy we deal with around here is more on Nate's part because his sister gets better grades with seemingly little effort. (Uh, no, dude. She's just more of a self-starting kid where work is concerned.)

Barb, have you had your son tested for a learning disability? There may be something behind the processing issues.

We had a series of comprehensive tests run on him a couple of years ago-- the biggest issue seems to be a disconnect with how quickly his mind works versus how slowly he writes. Then last year we had him observed twice for ADHD but in both cases didn't exhibit quite enough markers to label him ADHD.

Oy -- I figure I should stay at work late, because I got here so late this morning, but I haven't gotten shit done all day, and I don't really plan to start now. If other people would just start leaving, I'd be OK! But no!

The Butt Race (1965)