new Harry Potter film

Jacqui wrote I'm not going to have teenage daughters who can speak a language
I
can't, so I'll be taking a French course myself

chortle!
My sister-in-law has two daughters who both were exchange students and both
speak Slovakian...


kathy :-)
A HREF="http://www.onceuponapond.com/"Once upon a pond/A

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ka30P"
Newsgroups: rec.ponds
Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 2004 12:52 PM
Subject: OT Education was new Harry Potter film

Kathy in our seperate highschools there is a world religion studies course
option in either grade 11 or 12. I know I saw it in my son's course guide
book and we talked a little about it. He is thinking he may take it in one
of those years...


We had a Compartive Religions class in my USA high school. Also a very
good
class, very small with only interested kids attending so it was an
easy/challenging class for the teacher to teach.
Nothing offered like that in my teen's high school today. Though they do
have
an alternative religions club.

As a Mom to 2 identified students I can tell you with certainty that
there
is no savings to be made in the area of special education.

Another subject near and dear to mine heart as the mother of a dyslexic
8th
grader. Though he has had excellent teachers, they are overwhelmed with
the
number and scope of all the students that come their way. Luckily I had
the
time, money and the skill (not being dyslexic myself) to supplement his
education. We could use triple the dollars for the programs and still need
more.


Been there, done that and pray I don't have to do it again! ;o) My oldest is
diagnosed with learning disabilities, central auditory processing disorder
(CAPD) and also has visual processing issues. I cringe when I think about
how much money we've spent, he's also had extensive occupational therapy at
school as well as worked with a speech-language therapist. He also wears an
FM system at school for all his classes. My middle kiddo is actually a
gifted learner (go figure!) and my youngest is incredibly similar to her
older brother. She also has CAPD and was speech delayed. She was enrolled in
a special class for SK where she spent a half day in a regular classroom and
the other half with a speech language therapist.


The other thing I noticed has changed is the whole second language issue.
We
started French in grade eight when I was in school in Canada. A Canadian
friend has her daughter starting in kindergarten. Here foreign language is
offered, Spanish only, as a supplemental class in middle school. All
college
bound students must have two years in high school.


Our kids now start learning french in juniour kindergarden.It's been this
way in my board for 9 years. My middle kiddo is in grade 7 and was the first
year. My brother is completely bilingual (thanks to living in Paris for 2
years, not school) and my kiddo can hold a conversation with him. My
youngest, even with her language difficulties is actually quite
conversational in french as well. Our kids must take french all the way
through elementary and must have 1 french credit to graduate highschool.
Janet in Niagara Falls who thankfully missed the doosy storm today!


kathy :-)
A HREF="http://www.onceuponapond.com/"Once upon a pond/A

--

"axeman chris" wrote in message
...

My eldest daughter is in JK this year & will be starting French Immersion
next fall in SK. It's an opportunity I wish I had had. However, I have 3
girls and I'm not going to have teenage daughters who can speak a language
I
can't, so I'll be taking a French course myself in the near future.

Jacqui


ROTFLMAO! That is too funny. I must say though by the time they are
teenagers they become invisible anyway...
Janet... Mom to a 15 yr old that we never see, we just check from time to
time to see if he's *still* on the phone! )

Janet wrote Been there, done that and pray I don't have to do it again!

It took a couple years for our youngest to be diagnosed dyslexic and a visual
spatial learner. I often wish I could have stopped time for a year and read all
the books I eventually plowed through to figure out what to do. And I'm still
doing it, just read one last month and am still learning things about the
wonderful world of the visual spatial soul.


kathy :-)
A HREF="http://www.onceuponapond.com/"Once upon a pond/A

This is my red button issue. Education in our country is highly dependent
on parents being part of the process and the schools are financed for the
most part on property taxes so kids who come from poor families get double
whammied. Their parents don't have the education to aid in the children's
education and the schools don't have the money to supply the materials or
teachers for a modern education. We have schools in NYC where the children
cannot take books home because they don't have them, teachers supply paper,
pencils, etc. themselves, there is no such thing as a lab or computer class.
This is one of the reasons we are developing a larger and larger gap between
the wealthy and the poor here. There is something terribly wrong when 80% of
our population has less than 16% of the wealth (40% less than 1% of the
wealth). We are the wealthiest country in the world supposedly yet we are
unable to care for our own children either with education and health care.
Deep breath.... sorry, I swore I was never going to rant in here again but
this is something everyone should feel shame for.


wrote in message
...
yup. and some of these charter schools dont have any review system so when
suddenly
they shut their door cause they gone bankrupt ... all the kids are stuffed
back into
the public system. now. what really gets me is Wisconsin PUBLIC school
system has
1/2 of all the kids score 100% on the SATs nationwide last year.. it is
the PUBLIC
schools systems that produce the most national merit scholars. but it is
mostly the
wealthier suburban public schools that get something like twice as much
money per
student as the city kids since how much each kid gets is based on property
taxes.
rural kids suffer poorer schools too. we moved into the city cause DH
wanted to work
with city kids. but these kids need more than burb kids. a lot of them
have
learning disabilities that are inherited from parents who were themselves
untreated
and under educated. or mental illnesses, drug abuse, etc. DH comes home
with real
horror stories, kids even getting killed. children cannot do well in
school when
they live in total chaos from the day they are born.
and no private or religious school gonna take kids with these kind of
problems. for
all that private/religious schools get to take the cream of the crop the
kids dont do
any better on standardized tests than the kids from public schools. all
this really
does is take money from the only system that is mandated to provide for
all kids no
matter what language they speak, how physically or mentally handicapped,
no matter
how disruptive. pfffft.
Ingrid

EROSPAM (Ka30P) wrote:
I will dip my tippy toe into this discussion, as this issue is near and
dear to
my heart and paycheck.
In our state we passed an intiative to reduce class sizes and increase
teacher
pay. The governor suspended this action as we just don't have enough
money. (We
do have money to spend millions and millions on high stakes testing,
which is
highly suspect that this is a good thing, but that is a whole 'nother
issue.)
BUT... the legislature just passed the authorization to take state funds,
that
are apparently very dear, and establish charter schools. Now another
group of
citizens has started a petition drive to put an intiative on the ballot
to
outlaw charter schools... it is two steps forward, six steps to one side,
three
steps back, bow to your partner....


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
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endorsements or recommendations I make.

we are drifting into 3rd world social status but we gotta have a first class
military. Ingrid

"dkat" wrote:
This is my red button issue.
Deep breath.... sorry, I swore I was never going to rant in here again but
this is something everyone should feel shame for.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.