I'm still boggling at the difference between CA and CO public schools. K-Bug had fantastic teachers in CA and received a good education. But the resources were very limited.

The schools here in CO are crowded, but well stocked in texts and technology. Back to School night was packed, indicating large parent involvement. Plus the G&T program here is well funded. I hope that translates to a good education for CJ.

I went from a MI school that had, by and large, middle class and blue collar families (with a few upper middle) as its base to an NC school that had, by and large, middle class and blue collar families (with a few upper middle) as its base. They each had pretty strong family support and engagement.

The MI school had undergone massive budget cuts the last few years I spent there, and it was in pretty appalling shape when I left. By appalling shape I mean it shut down for a few weeks in the middle of my 10th grade fall semester because it ran out of money. My last year there I had a "c" average.

The NC school had a fairly steady budget and was in good shape. There were a ton of electives and extra curricular activities. I was in the drama club 11th grade, the science club 12th grade, and graduated with a 4.0 my senior year (and with 9 college credit hours in the bank, thanks to their AP track).

Money won't solve all education problems, but all other things being equal it makes a tremendous difference in educational possibilities.

It varies so much, state to state, hell, even district to district. Folks in Texas near the NM border would lie, cheat and steal to get kids into LC's schools. And NM is a poor state, but at least in southern NM, schools are remarkably uniform and fairly good, all things considered. Looking at the NC and Baltimore school systems, I'm just sort of aghast. They've got magnet programs we never dreamed of, but the bottom of the barrel is truly appalling. It takes a really motivated parent to get their child a good education here, none of this neighborhood schools being good enough to get your kid through and into college.

I had an excellent public school education and ended up getting a score of 5 in three AP tests and a 3 in one more thanks to some great teachers. Some of that was just luck more than resources, just some really great teachers around when I went.

I like our school district for the kids. They are really trying to step things up right now and are getting good support from the community.

It looks like both kids will just miss the G&T program. Emaryn falls just short on IQ testing and Leif falls just short on Academic testing, though he had the disadvantage of having skipped a grade so he was 1-2 years younger than other kids taking the tests.

though he had the disadvantage of having skipped a grade so he was 1-2 years younger than other kids taking the tests.

They ought to factor that in. Leif's kind of obviously a smartypants.

I have saved Casper's mash note for Emmett's future perusal. And will probably send it to his mom.

In retrospect my public school education was only middling, but I did get an AP credit from it. I wasn't really prepared for college, though. I don't think I got the hang of college until my sophomore year.

Watching Emily S. deal with the SFUSD and the particulars of her teaching in a poor school in the Mission I'm not convinced that money alone can solve all problems. But it would make a lot of other options possible.

We're way underfunded since Prop 13. One of the worst things that ever happened in California.

Still, Emmett's district in Albany is well funded and high performing and he's definitely benefited from that. Matilda will probably go to school here in SF and (as java notes) that's a bit of a crapshoot. Though our neighborhood school has risen in the rankings considerably in the last few years. Not that we're guaranteed a spot there but there is a local weighting to the (maddening) lottery system.

We're way underfunded since Prop 13. One of the worst things that ever happened in California.

Hey, you won't have to pay high property taxes. Which sounds fantastic to people when they don't realize what their property taxes pay for.

Honestly I am pretty sure that's what is mostly wrong with people - they want things but they don't want to have to pay for things.

t, Sports Basement in SF next to Chrissie Field has prescription swim goggles in the triathlon section. I prefer the Tyrs. They are wonderful. There are 10 or 15 powers and you just go through their samples until you find the one closest to your correction needs. Mine are still going strong after about three years of use. Not bad for under $20!

[link]

I also wear contacts sometimes for swimming, and always for scuba diving, gas perm hard lenses, and open my eyes underwater with no goggles relatively often - the power of contacts to cling to your eyeballs is way stronger than anything else.

Random Hivemind Question...

CJ and a school friend (yes, a friend. At school. Woot) have been discussing the sale and our potential purchase of a Wii plus some games. The friend and his brother want to buy an XBox.

Anyway, what would be a reasonable price for a used Wii console? And used games? I tried to look at ebay and saw a HUGE range of prices. I'm clueless.

I could be completely talking out of my ass here, but I think part of the problem with high schools/dropout rates, etc is that the kids in less wealthy neighborhoods who in the past might have completed high school but not college don't see any benefit to just completing high school (in terms of jobs/income). And frankly, I am not sure I do either. Without either a 2 year school or a training program, things like office work, hotel/restaurant management, retail or grocery management, auto repair, etc aren't open to people, and other jobs like clerk, waitstaff, cleaning staff tend to be open whether or not you have completed high school. Working your way up seems to happen less and less.

Also, if you don't see behavior modeled, you have no idea how to go about things. I am the first (and only so far) person in my family to have a bachelor's degree. Although my family is very, very smart and well read, and most did fairly well in government or blue collar jobs, I had no idea how to use my college education to my advantage when obtaining jobs, or to use it to obtain a job that was, say entry level management instead of entry level worker. I had no idea that at least some of the vaue in your degree was not the education, but the name of the school. And my family was/is so against self promoting or asking for help that to this day things like networking or using connections to get an interview for a job seem like "cheating" to me.

I wouldn't assume that individual students will automatically thrive in the better-funded schools, either. I went from being a slightly above-average student in the cream of the crop elementary school I attended grades 2-4 to exceling in the older, poorer elementary school and middle school after a move. Competition was somewhat less fierce (the new school didn't have advanced Math, so I re-used the same text I'd had in 4th grade and became the top Math student in my class), but I really think it was a combo of being better suited to less supervised instruction and not having as many friends around to distract me that made me get serious about school and really try hard.