Tag: education in maine

Some Maine School Board Members Lay Their Heads On The Desk.

The school board in a small Maine community held some late night meetings.

Actually early morning discussions. In fact one that droned on at 2 AM in the morning. That caused some school board members to close their eyes, put their heads on the table in front of them. From the exhaustion of the topic front and center before them to thrash out, come to a shared solution, conclusion.
Score The Goal, Make The Point. At A Small Maine School Board Meeting.

To move on to other bigger problems of running a small Maine school system. Keeping everything afloat, everyone in the boat.

The issue at hand not about the heated debate over a school budget and spending money the district did not have.

It involved a child wearing a mask daily to school. Not with aspirations to be a bank robber. Or a fantasy of being a super hero.

The surgical like blue mask to protect the small boy from pollutants, contaminants. That threatened his life, immune system.

And one local teacher feeling sorry for the boy who was the target of jokes, sneers and just too much attention.

Seeing The Issue, The Resolution At A Small Town Maine Meeting Can Be Hard.
Due to the mask asked “could you go a day without it?” Innocent question, not a demand but just wondering what would happen, was it really needed all the time.

The parents got wind of the question when the lad got home.

A phone call was made, the beginning of a series. Then letters generated from a law firm and here we go. We have a barn burner of a legal issue staring down the double barrels right at the school board. With a what are you going to do about it, looking for damages from the hub bub.

At the school board hearing with both parents in attendance, smoking was allowed. This was back in the time when it was smoke them if you have them. Reach for your chest pocket or purse and be a real Marlboro Man. Or a Virginia Slim Lady. As the parents explained that the boy was allergic to everything. You could not help noticing being quiet as a church mouse in the room that both parents were professional smokers. Toking, smoking, lighting one up before the other stopped the blue haze, toxic wispy air curls.

The school board chairman, a doctor had tried to make it off limits to smoke at the school board proceedings.

Any meetings but was quickly hushed up by one school board member that did smoke. But does not now and is dead because of it. But at this proceeding with the high power out of town attorneys racking up the billable hours to oversee the what you say, how you say it, it was obvious.
Running A Small Maine School System Smoothly.

The small boy had rights to wear the mask.

But with the amount of two, three packs and more of second hand smoke generated by his dad and mom, it was obvious all the blame was not to be rock piled on the school board for questioning the need to wear the mask.

Because of the impassioned plea from the school board chairman at 2AM in the morning, a call came in from the parents.

The next day they dialed him up on the rotary phone. Thanked him crying. Saying they were sorry for making an issue of the teacher who was simply trying to help the boy with the mask.

Who got a little too much attention over the need to wear it at recess, at home too. To protect from those who loved, cared for him who were part of the problem as heavy, round the clock chain smokers.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
207.532.6573
info@mooersrealty.com

July 18, 2014
Free Thinking, Open Minded, Simple Living In Maine.

Standardized educational systems, the classroom approach to mass assemble what’s important in our society is one hot
Teaching, Not Scolding, But Guiding, Nurturing Young Children.
Maine potato.

How to “build” from the cradle, as a young grasshopper all the way up to a responsible, community minded, self supporting, contributing adult.

But like a new video game that initially challenges to stimulate but shortly is figured out and mastered, education is not just striving to achieve higher test scores in a factory setting.

The success of the classroom education is not just measured by healthy GPA’s to get the sheep skin, but outside that multi-layered restrictive filtered system.

What happens in real world applications way beyond the classroom “educational simulator”.

And the fun, passion of wide open, old fashioned brainstorming. Creative free thinking. Not just in a group but one on one with just you outdoors in a Maine natural setting.

Without a critical eye in the bunch, any wet blankets thrown on the individual who like the Harry Chapin so many colors in the rainbow song does not agree that all flowers have to be red. That everything is not cut and dry, black and white and come in many more than fifty shades of gray.

That you or I as youngsters can without any guilt reach for, apply other colors. To express our individual spark, unique creative spirit we are born, blessed with but can lose. Some argue that like the Maine snowflake, no two the same distinction is being lost, going extinct.

Squeezed, stamped out and that there is no place in standardized educational herd them in and out modules for the individual creative expression. That essential emotions, passion if missing or stifled, smothered can ignite a cancer of dark cold sameness. That ripples across, “dumbs down”, turns out the lights on everything it touches in the fabric holding together, shaping our society.

Sir Ken Robinson talks about the irony of no child left behind in education where kids are disengaged, don’t get a benefit and conformity not individuality is pushed.

Instead of curiosity, that it’s okay to be different and diverse. He asks there is teaching, but is there learning going on?

And do our well intentioned public schools kill creativity?

The education, critical thinking skills and ability to adapt out in the real world realizing that ADHD is not an epidemic. Just maybe a flawed approach in the cross hair target for our educational approach to teaching in our country. What thinks you?

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
207.532.6573
info@mooersrealty.com

January 15, 2014
What Can Your Child Offer An Employer For Real Life Skills To Keep The Business Open?

Instilling In Kids Early On The Right Stuff To Succeed. To Contribute For The Greater Good.

The days of lots of laborers on any job have seen erosion.

Partly due to automation, to skirt around the rising cost of employing John and Jane Doe. And a change in what we consume, find important for pleasure, for survival. Would you hire your own kids?

Do you have all you need, and what are the basic elements of your contented life, to achieve your purpose here on Earth? What is “comfortable” for you may not be the same laundry list of items for others. Those around you may scribble down, crumple up and carry shoved deep down inside their pocket a slightly different bullet list. The distinction of what is written down in black, blue, or red and white may be from a country or city mouse existence approach to life.

In smaller areas of the country of little towns, better spending control and get your money’s worth conservative thinking, the coins come harder.

Dollars are not let go of so easy. And on the smaller local scale, everything is much more out in the open. Visible and not layered so highly that it becomes the pea under the mattress to figure out and fix the insomnia. The reason for falling asleep at the wheel. And heading into the ditch, beyond. Life and business skills go hand in hand.

So skills for the laborers we produce to put online. Starts with values planted early on as kids. The set of talents as parents, extended family, educators, mentors, coaches, ministers, neighbors and local community members all together instill. Then the kid adds their own gas to fuel the passion. To develop and hone what they hang on their utility belt. To carry on tradition of the “right stuff”, true grit for a rugged individual worth having at work.

Pulling their weight in the society.

And the worker that adds new twists, direction dance steps to think on their feet. Adapt, adjust, bob and weave. To correct the course to account for change in the economic storms that happen daily in everything around us. You can not have a we have always done it this way mentality to have necessary change. To survive and prosper with a smile on your face, joy in your heart.

Change that keeps step with progress. But also is a knee jerk reaction to erosion of skills. The ones needed to be productive, to contribute to the greater good. To be considered an asset not liability, dead wood. If healthy enough to pitch in, add color, flavor. seasoning to the local community. But jobs needing filling can go empty because finding the right skilled employee can be needle in the haystack hard.

During a local Rotary Club meeting yesterday, the topic of discussion was change in the education system.

The approach to the curriculum to make it stick, roll around the head of the students. Not just be a cram for a test that you ace because of an all nighter approach to get the “A”. Then forget what you can suddenly recite that has no meaning, nothing to stick to the ribs. No take away. To lay the foundation of the cognitive wiring of our workers of tomorrow in the classrooms of today. To carry between the ears, behind the eyes the skill set a business needs. To keep you hired, on the payroll. Being ahead of that curve means seeing it. Before entering in at a very high speed in dim, drizzly wet conditions. With way too much loose gravel on the steep, sharp curve.

One Rotary member lamented seeing a resume that would make you catch your breath, smile brightly with relief in the hiring process. Because of a heavily loaded list of 4.0 mastery with the present grading standards to win the cream of the crop marks. But then hired the person with expectations big, to find out they can not problem solve. Their education works around the classroom race track. But not the one of real life outside the school.

Another employer told me yesterday the job applicant on paper looked world class. But when hired, was lazy, unimaginative, and had pretty much been a student most of their employable life. Not a real world contributor to earn a living outside the higher learning institutions. Stuck in the educational fountain of knowledge bubble way way too long.

Part of the problem is making sure no ones feelings get hurt.

That it’s light, bright and always entertaining before boredom takes over. Let Jimmy take the test over and over until he gets the 4.0. Feels the same high of mastery in a field that Jimmy may be just way over his head. And not the direction he should be heading for employment. So the employer does not shock the kid with over and over demands for skills he lacks. That got left out in the busy work of the latest and greatest education system parked on the easel during assembly, teacher workshops. The kid can get lost but think he is a whiz at this, this and he is not on the stage outside the one with the desk, apple on it up front.

The courses are an education obstacle proving grounds to get the rolled up diploma wearing the square cocked hat with tassel. That more and more may not match the real world. What it is going to take to have under your belt to bring home the bacon. To keep food on the table because you can exchange a needed skill with consistency, a positive attitude for the paycheck with your name stamped on it. Success outside the classroom being the proof in the pudding.

Maine, smaller, leaner, and able to adapt quicker once we see where the problems are. More connected, we talk pretty openly, crusty and not afraid of the truth among ourselves. Feel in the 108 small towns more of a personal stake in the game of local life. It is up to each and every one of us because there are no extras for reinforcements. To leap off the bench, spell any of us in most cases.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
207.532.6573
info@mooersrealty.com

April 2, 2013