CENSUS 2010!

I love the Census! It's perhaps one of my favorite things about this country. There is something so thoroughly satisfying about counting all the people in the country and the idea that the number could change peoples lives for the better.

It only happens every ten years, so much like the Olympics (yes...I know the games occur more often) there's hype and excitement about it. At least there is for me. And probably the people that work for the census. But no one else seems very excited. Everyone I've spoken to seems to say, "eh."

I think about the "Mr. Willis of Ohio" episode in West Wing where the democrats are considering using sampling data instead of a direct count. They wanted to do this because it would cost way less and according to research, give the government a better count. They argue that the standard way the census is done is unfair to many different minority populations (illegals, (whom while they are illegal still need to be counted) the homeless and all minority populations) in the country. The republicans say that the constitution requires a head by head number count.

It's an interesting argument. I think that how we get the number is far less important than getting people the right number of representatives in the government, the right amount of monies for the SCHOOLS and all the other social programs that depend on how many people live in a certain area. I believe the founding fathers would agree with me.

And after learning that only about half of the people of the state of New Mexico were counted properly last time around (re: illegals, the homeless and the various different minority populations) and that the one of the more serious reprocussions has been the over crowding of our schools, I was even more excited.

So how are people not excited about this?

I wanted to be the person that filled out the census for my family ten years ago when I was sixteen, but because it's supposed to be the "head of household" my father filled it out. I was excited this time and made The Boy promise that I could be the one that filled it out. (I was "Head of Household!" Sadly, the form didn't say that specifically.)

It was a disappointment. Sort of like the time I saw Maya Angelou speak and it dawned on me that she was a racist. (True story.) Or when I voted for Obama but voted nay on the wrong state constitutional amendment and had to go through the crazy process of getting a second ballot and walking out wondering if my vote was now even going to be counted in this historical election because my name was on the roll in two places. (Ok, obviously, I never quite got over that experience.)

So we got a letter a week ago from the census bureau. I was so excited, ready to fill it out, only to open it and find a letter saying that we would soon be getting our form. When we finally got it, it was in a small envelope. So I filled it out and set it out to mail. We picked up our friends' mail while they were gone for spring break and they got a big envelope! I was so curious how our forms were different that I asked him to open it up right then when he came to pick up his mail. His form was in English and SPANISH!!! Now, why didn't we get a form in both languages? After all, this is the only state in the union that recognizes both English and Spanish as official languages.

I can only surmise that they saw the (very nice) location and fanciness of our house and assumed we spoke English. Our friends live in a part of town where the neighborhoods aren't as nice and there are more small rentals than houses. The Boy suggested that perhaps the people that lived here before spoke English and they had that information on file. I guess that would be ok, though still not kosher according to our state constitution except that all the houses that were here before were torn down to make way for the fewer and nice houses that are here now.

I also think there should be more questions. There's so much more the government could learn from such an official form. After all, it does say on the envelope that our response is required by law. (How would you be prosecuted for that after all?) After all the time and effort the bureau put into the census I gotta say, I'm not impressed.

I came home to this flower from The Boy!


Oh and that's my favorite wine.

PS. I lined the children up the same way I did yesterday and didn't get any parental complaints. Whohooo!

Obama; You're the Man.

"We did not come to fear the future. We came here to shape it."

This is why I became a teacher.

For Shiz.

PS. Still rocking the third graders.

Obama Speech!

I was so excited when I heard that Obama was giving a speech specifically written for children. What a novel idea! I got goosebumps.

I excitedly told Sr. Callejo about this speech and how I hoped that the whole school could gather in my classroom (as it is the only one with cable) that morning sans interruptions so that we could have a group campfire experience. He thought it was a fine idea and let everyone know in a MEMO.

Then, the next week while at the gym, I saw a CNN bit on how parents were boycotting the speech because it was going to be "too political." Many schools were sending home permission slips for parents to sign. This struck me as odd, but as NPR wasn't saying anything and so I didn't take it too seriously. As I heard more and more about parents refusing to let their kids see this speech at school the more incensed I became. Seriously? (channeling Grey's Anatomy here) Then the White House (in a very smart move) released the text of the speech early, so as to prove that it was not too political. Even this didn't calm people enough. Seriously? I didn't read the text because I felt like a kid on Christmas and I didn't want the surprise to be ruined, (also, I didn't believe that Obama was trying to create an army of socialist minions.)

This morning a few of the non teaching staff asked me if I was "really going to show it after all the hubbub in the media." My answer was as follows; "Look, if George Bush (the second) had ever bothered to give this kind of speech, about staying in school, to the nation's students I would have been just as gung ho about showing it the entire school. These parents who aren't (as well as the parents that are) letting their children see the speech at school are also letting their kids get their world views from Low Rider, Fitty (sp?) Cent, and so on and so forth, why can't the President of these United States speak to them as well?" Everyone agreed with me.

So, everyone came to my classroom this morning to watch it. It want really well, everyone basically fit and the teachers were all there as well, which meant that afterward, adults from all sides of the classroom were talking to the kids about what they had just seen and why it was important. Politics didn't enter any part of the discussion. It was centered on staying in school and working well with your teacher and classmates and the idea that he (Barack Obama) could get them all the school supplies, books, computers and school buildings they could stand and still nothing would change until kids step up to the plate.

There were a few moments when he mentioned that kids who give up on themselves are not only giving up on themselves, but on their country as well. I think I get that feeling of negativity because of September 11 and the huge surge in National Guard and Army Recruit numbers and the proud way that George Bush spoke about it. (Not that wanting to serve your country that way is a bad thing, its more that he made it sound like that was the only way.) FDR encouraged young people in his fireside chats to leave their families and work on one of the numerous New Deal Projects, JFK; "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you for your country." Neither of these statements are military-centric and people loved them for it.

I also have to say that I loved that Obama reminded kids to wash their hands, much like Jimmy Carter used to reminded not to speed and to keep our thermostats at energy efficient levels.

I loved that speech. It brought me to tears.