Maybe it's not the schools

Charles Murray, the co-author of The Bell Curve, has written a series of three articles for the Wall Street Journal on the part intelligence plays in the classroom. In my opinion, it is the brilliant exposition of a serious flaw in our educational system.

Here’s what I understand his studies to show:

There is a wide range of levels of intelligence in the American classroom.

Half of all children are below average in intelligence. We are not from Lake Wobegon (where all the children are above average).

“Our ability to improve the academic accomplishment of students in the lower half of the distribution of intelligence is severely limited “

A good teacher may be able to bring up the grades of a motivated intelligent (IQ above 100) student, but even an exceptional teacher is not able to impact the ability of the student with an IQ much under 100.

“Some say that the public schools are so awful that there is huge room for improvement in academic performance just by improving education. There are two problems with that position. The first is that the numbers used to indict the public schools are missing a crucial component. For example, in the 2005 round of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 36% of all fourth-graders were below the NAEP's "basic achievement" score in reading. It sounds like a terrible record. But we know from the mathematics of the normal distribution that 36% of fourth-graders also have IQs lower than 95.”

Food for thought!

Raising Children in Your Spare Time

I pulled out one of my old time favorite books on child rearing to see what it had to say about two-year-olds now that both babies, (uh toddlers,) are two.

They seem to be learning a new word daily, plus learning how to open and close doors among other scary lessons. And they are learning how to push mama's and grandmother dearest's buttons by refusing to put on jackets, deciding that their formerly favorite meal is now poison and having contrary opinions about everything.

"How to Raise Children at Home in Your Spare Time" written in 1966 by Dr. Marvin J. Gersh, was a book I initally found at the Austin Public Library when I was pregnant with Elizabeth, so at least 38 years ago. It's a little out of date now, but it was reassuring with practical and tongue-in-cheek advice. His theory seemed to be that childraising was too serious to be taken seriously.

However, I think I need to get Vicki Iovine's toddler book to see what she advises about this new stage.

Brain Health

I heard a lecture yesterday about keeping your brain healthy and it was fascinating.

The Center for BrainHealth® , out of the University of Texas at Dallas, is dedicated to achieving an individual's highest mental and communicative potential to optimize brain health after brain injury, brain disease, and natural aging. www.brainhealth.utdallas.edu.

Sandra Chapman, PhD, made several points that stuck with me.

1. Forgetting is good. Somethings don't need to be remembered (trivia, your fourth-grade teacher's birthday, long ago negative experiences). Replace them with postive memories.

2. Don't have general anesthesia if you don't have to. It puts a ding in your brain that takes a long time to overcome.

3. Older people do forget details but remember the gist. Cultivate getting the big picture.

4. Keep learning, but find something you are already find interesting. Don't take up calculus or sudoku or French if you don't like it. Get better at something you already do well.

5. Multitasking can be overwhelming. Focus on the important things.

6. Forgetting and disorientation are not normal signs of aging. Consult a specialist - your gynocologist or dentist may not know. The Center for Brain Health is proposing a "baseline" brain checkup (like in mammograms or colonoscopy) so changes can be monitored and treated.

That's who she is

My daughter's child's play group has sort of nastily divided into the stay-at-home-mommies and the working mommies - with, it seems to me, a little jealousy on both sides.

However, a person who would pass judgment on someone else's child care and mothering choices is the kind of person who won't hesitate to tell you everything else you are doing wrong. My advice is to avoid her like the plague she is.

Frankly, there will always be someone who not only bakes their own bread, but grows and grinds their own wheat; has a professional-grade play yard; has a bigger house in a better neighborhood; is teaching their two-year-old Mandarin Chinese; - in short, is doing things you never thought of but think would be great for your child - if you just had the time and money to do it.

Life's too short to try to live up to someone else's expectations. Let's assume that we're all trying to do the best we can.

Books

We've just helped a widow friend donate books to our local library. Most will go directly to our quarterly sale, except some we want to read (me) or save (Byron).

I've just finished reading a novel by a friend of our daughter and son-in-law - Requiem by Christopher Moreau. Very entertaining, and I recommend it. A fascinating look at the LA music scene, with a murder thrown in.

Other books I've enjoyed lately:

Being Dead is No Excuse - a book about funerals in the Mississippi Delta - very funny and has recipes. Don't hold a wake without it!

Any title by Mary Lasswell (out of print - go to www.abe.com) The trio of ladies from San Diego during WWII will make you laugh.

Mysteries by Phoebe Atwood Taylor (who also writes as Alice Tilton).

I'm also listening to "Sense and Sensibility" by Jane Austen. I've seen the PBS movie and listened to other audio books, but this is a superior production of an amazingly timeless book.

Death & Funerals

I admit I've watched all of Gerald Ford's funeral proceedings. What beautiful music! And what a trooper Betty Ford is - 88 years old and holding up through all that (probably without the consolation of Scotch).

Do you wonder about all those military people who play in the Air Force Band and are honored to stand watch over or carry the casket? How do they get that assignment? Do they get to sign up for the band, or do they have to serve in combat first? The pomp and circumstance is very impressive.

It made me think that when Megan and Andy (both now two - ten weeks apart) graduate from high school, I'll be 79! Granted, my grandmothers lived to be in their 90s and Mother was 84 - but still.

It makes me sad that they won't know much about my little home town or their grandparents and great-grandparents in Pecos or their Dallas grandparents (who were so much older).

I'm going to have to write down stuff that they probably won't be interested in reading about until they are all grown up - if then.

Meanwhile, remember I don't want any sopranos singing at my funeral. Save the stories for the wake.

Grandmother club

At a New Year's Day Blackeyed Pea party yesterday (blackeyed peas on New Year's Day bring you good luck and prosperity), two friends and I were talking about our grandchildren.
The three of us are contemporaries, early 60s, and we each have had our first grandchildren in the last year or so. Mine at two and almost two are the oldest. Each of us married in our early twenties and had children right away - three each - and our children have waited until their middle thirties to have our grandchildren. It's been a long time getting here, but as one remarked "I'm so glad I'm in this club!"