Why Do You Think Alabama Ranks Last in Reading and Math?

 

Why Do You Think Alabama Ranks Last in Reading and Math

Alabama students lost ground in math against the rest of the country according to the latest results on the nation’s report card. Those scores, released this morning, dropped Alabama to dead last, 52nd in the nation, behind school systems run by 49 other states, Washington DC and the Department of Defense.

 

That’s down from 2017, when Alabama’s fourth-grade scores ranked 47th and eighth-graders ranked 50th. This year Alabama students in both grades finished last in math. (Al.com Nov. 02, 2019, 10:55 a.m. | Published: Nov. 01, 2019, 7:00 a.m.)

So what about 2021? 

 

Alabama’s math scores are the lowest in the country, and state Sen. Arthur Orr is working on proposed math legislation to raise the scores.

“When you’re 52nd in the country, you’ve got to make radical changes,” said Orr. “And some people say, ‘Well, there are only 50 states,’ but we were behind the District of Columbia and the Department of Defense schools. So you can’t get much lower than we are today.” https://www.wsfa.com/.../math-counterpart-alabama.../

 

And who will they listen to on how to fix this debacle? I am a graduate of the University of Alabama (BSE) and Troy University Dothan (MSE). I will never donate to the College of Education of either university. Though I actually blame the Department of Education as the source of our decline, our Colleges of Education are its carriers. And the more we buy the argument that curriculum should be the same nationwide, we will continue to destroy effective school systems with a killer curriculum. (Remember national uniformity was the goal of Common Core --creating an Education Pandemic). Do not believe anyone that its deadly tentacles have been uprooted from the books and internet courses, or the minds of those teachers infected (by the Colleges of Education).

 

Dothan paid its former Superintendent of Schools big bucks to kill alumni support for Dothan's high school alma maters. I was a DHS cheerleader 1966 -68 and it breaks my heart to see what has happened. Who actually bought the claim that once again rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic (Dothan City Schools) by having one new Dothan High School and making the old DHS a "Preparatory" Academy" would improve Reading and Math skills?  (Anyone ever hear of lipstick on a pig? Not the children but the curriculum and using that fancy word to make it appear advanced.) Those 8th graders afflicted now with the consequences of the failing reading and math (52nd in the nation) find their curriculum substituted by Social and Emotional Learning, blaming the child and parent for the failure of the schools.

 

When I graduated from Dothan High School in 1968, our schools were highly regarded. You may say, if you are so critical of our schools, why don't you try to do something about it? I did run for the Dothan School Board. Twice. I was defeated once by an obstetrician "with a heart for education." His campaign was run out of the central office. Another candidate posted a letter to the editor accusing me of being a member of the Klan. Incredible since our Black children suffer most from the Whole Language reading method that I fought so hard against. That is according to the billion dollar Project Follow Through conducted by the Department of Education and the research of Dr. Jeanne Chall of Harvard. Someone else called me a Flat Earther because I proposed going back to the curricula that actually enabled those wonderful Black female Mathematicians to help us get our astronauts to the moon. 

 

I attended a meeting of the Alabama Senate at that time considering Goals 2000, the first step toward Common Core. That was where I heard the Director of Instruction for the State of Alabama boast of having written her dissertation on Whole Language. Needless to say, my heart clenched because that "expert with a clean shirt and a briefcase" was now carrying that failed method system to system. 

 

Now you ask, what would you have done? I would have put SIDE phonics (Systematic, Intensive, Direct and Early Phonics) in the classrooms to teach our children to read. Instead she promoted the newest version of the failed Look/Say, Whole Word guessing. If you see this in your child's classroom run. 

1. Look at the picture. 

2. Say the beginning sound. 

3. Think of a word that begins with the same letter. 

4. Does it make sense? Try both vowel sounds. 

5. Skip over the word and go on.

 6. Go back to the beginning. 

7. Ask for help. 

What I saw when I taught 8th grade history and English was too many children who could not tell you the meaning of a sentence by the time they got to the end of it because they guessed wrong on too many words and could not get meaning from the sentence. 

 

Fundraising organizations (called Foundations --like the A Plus Foundation) arose to raise money--because money was their answer to the problem. And then they demanded more money. To support more foolish ideas. And Dothan City Schools sank lower and lower in its rankings. Amazingly grades (GPA) got higher. (But, perhaps that is simply refers back to the fact that those with the lowest SATs enter Education and graduate with the highest GPAs). 

So called "grass roots" organizations popped up like poison mushrooms -- like the A Plus Foundation. They are regarded as experts and yet, by listening to them our state is now 52nd in the country behind Washington DC and Puerto Rico. I would hope a lawyer with such a record would be disbarred, or a doctor have his license pulled. Why do experts that have used our children as guinea pigs and produced these results get rewarded and even more appalling treated with respect!

 

Senator Arthur Orr will no doubt listen to the "experts" on how to fix the condition of our schools (and I am speaking specifically of what is going in our children's minds, not whether they are in modular buildings). I have no doubt that the liberation pedagogy of Harvard hero and defrocked Jesuit priest, Paolo Freire, will dominate the conversation. 

Read what Wikipedia has to say about his now approved form of mathematics. (Wikipedia: Critical mathematics pedagogy is an approach to mathematics education that includes a practical and philosophical commitment to liberation.)

 

So why do you think Alabama ranks last?

 

Gardening Southern-Style 5: Planting the Daylillies

 

As you can see the back of the Odyssey is full of gardening stuff I picked up at Rural King the Day before. This beautiful pink and yellow ruffled daylily captured Molly's interest. 

Saturday was a glorious day. Molly spent Friday night with me and Saturday we got up eager for our visit to the Daylily Farm in Ozark (http://www.intheneighborhooddaylilies.com) to pick up the daylillies I had ordered online. Betty Peters went with us. She is starting a new garden and wanted to add some fragrant daylillies.

In order to explain hybridization to Molly, Sharon Pilcher (owner) took the only daylily still blooming to show her how it works. It just so happens that daylily was Molly's favorite colors pink and yellow with a ruffled edge. It also just so happens that this third grader is studying hybridization and flowers at Providence this year. Molly is my garden buddy. 

We got back home and I realized Sharon had given us the direction to plant those daylilies immediately! I was not quite prepared for that. They need 6 to 8 hours of sun and good drainage. Daylilies do not like wet feet. It just so happens the best place for daylilies in my yard is right where the new pergola and deck in front of the She Shack happens to be. Molly and I decided to plan a daylily bed in front of the steps through the daylily garden. Now, planting 17 daylilies is a daunting task even for a young gardener but for one with bad knees and severe arthritis it can be even more daunting. But my daylilies needed proper care.

 

My bed had not been prepared, so I had to be creative. Guilty!  So, I used a posthole digger and dug the hole, mounded dirt in the middle, planted the daylily with roots surrounding the mound, Molly added a bit Organic Biotone and we covered the roots. If it had not been for Molly preparing our refreshments for our rest and rehabilitation time, I do not think I could have made it. Ice water and a banana are quite rejunetive. We gathered straw from behind the She Shack and covered our daylilies.  

Gigi took refuge from the sun in the She Shack. 

Lola finds shade beneath the twin baby buggy I use to tote heavy things and supplies around. 

After a day of recuperation, I could not sleep last night thinking of the admonition in one of my gardening books about covering the daylillies too close making mildew kill the daylily. So, first thing I came out and pulled pine straw away that was directly touching my precious daylillies. 

Before we knew it three hours had passed. We set up the iron arbor trellis (now held together with wire after going from my yard at 800 North Cherokee to our guest house in Panama City) to plant the anticipated Constant Gardener David Austen roses when they arrive in January and sat back to enjoy our efforts. I have ordered 13 David Austen Roses, but those beds should be prepared by then. 

Being old and not so agile any more, everything takes more time. I have bought a tractor scooter that makes it easier to get closer to what I need to do closer to the ground. And I bought a special tool to move big heavy pots around.

You may wonder, why do you do this? It keeps me active and interested. Dreaming and planning my garden activates those little cells as Hercule Poirot calls them. Just as my new little ShiPoo does. Home is a wonderful refuge where I can alter the environment to help my handicaps. Going up and down stairs is a challenge just as getting up from a chair does. I want to hold off more surgery as long as I can. 

Photographs and Videography by Molly

Gardening Southern-Style with Sharman 4

 Christmas Came Early!

Christmas came early at my house last night. What joy filled my heart at the sight of the name across those boxes -- Gardeners.

The lighter box contained 2 tub trugs as they are called, 25 standard garden markers, Garden clogs, rose gloves, a dirty little digger, one of my favorite hand tools, and a bag of Bio-tone Starter Plus Plant Food, something they use all the time on the You Tube Garden shows I have been watching. 

The Tractor Scooter came in pieces. I did try to put it together on my own, but fortunately my son-in-law, Mike Evans, with experience on bolts and nuts and washers as Service Manager for Hyundai who has now taken his talents to Techway Automotive across from Kentucky Fried Chicken on the Ross Clark Circle, saved me. He managed to get everything tightened up so that the thing will not fall apart first time I sit upon it.

And when I went out and got the mail I received the seeds from Eden Brothers: Zinnias, Nasturtium seeds, Red Corn Poppies, Sweet Peas, Larkspur and Daisy seeds. Inspired I went out and cut the Echinacea seed pods to collect the seeds. So now I have a lot to plant once PC comes to prepare my beds. JoAnne McFarland taught me the first time I planted a monet garden. I hope I remember!

This is my dream addition.

Gardening Southern-Style 3 August 23

Gardening Southern-Style 3 August 23

The continuing saga of Gardening Southern-style with Sharman. The last thing Joe bought over the internet was a power sprayer attachment to the hose. I have intended to use it on the playhouse for several years. I bought 4 tall slender plants to mask the side of the playhouse and decided it was now or never. It actually works once Cecily Ramsey and I figured out how to operate it. The really intriguing thing was the claim that it would get weeds from between bricks. Guess what? Not my weeds. So, I got my kneeling bench and sat upon it to pull the weeds I had slightly loosened. After 15 minutes fighting with one I decided the only thing to do was to poison those dirty word, dirty word weeds. Now that I have found my yard equipment, including weed killer I am moving forward.

The elephant ear closest to the gate is the one that got divided--about 8 I think. The gift that keeps on giving.

Butterfly garden check

divided and planted elephant ear bulbs check

began my new career in container gardening with 2 topiaries

Poisoned the bloody weeds! on the brick patio in intense heat, might I add.

Picture one is the newly divided elephant ears along the fence. Picture two is the boxwood container garden. It needs something more, I know, but it will have to wait. Something white I think.

Gardening Southern-style 2

 

Today was an auspicious day. I had my hairdresser take me all the way grey. Not just half grey and half brown. But, before I made it to the hairdresser I stopped at Lowe's and bought some new, sharp ended tools. I found my favorite tool, the hula Hoe for $19 while it was on websites one for $99. I also bought a post hole digger, a bulb digger, a new rake and a sharp shovel.

I did wait for it to cool off 3:30. Still hot. But not high noon hot.

Keeping to the plan I used to stick to when I had the big yard on Cherokee, I decided I needed to dig up the giant elephant ear in the garden now to be dedicated to butterflies. I needed to plant the Miss Molly butterfly bush and the yarrow I found at Dothan Nurseries. I managed to get the massive elephant ear out, divided and distributed through the back flower bed, though not planted. Too hot.

Then I remembered I needed to get the Miss Molly butterfly bush in the ground. I used the post hole digger for that and the yarrow and decided I would get down on the ground to tuck the little beauties in. That went well.

But then came the getting up part. I have had two hip replacements and the knees are begging for attention. But I was determined. Then I heard the voice of an angel. My next door neighbor, Gantt Pierce! I debated about 5 seconds on calling him for help. Afraid he might get away, I called him. Wiry guy though he is he lifted me easily. I am so blessed having him and Niki Blumentritt Pierce close. Niki heard Molly crying one afternoon after she fell on the concrete steps out of the gazebo and came to her rescue.

Joe would have chastised me for not having good sense and getting out there where it was so hot. Then he would have turned around and gone back into the air conditioning. He would probably have been right. But nothing ventured nothing gained. And I couldn't just sit inside thinking about doing something. When he was around I just waited for him to leave and then moved furniture or nailed holes in the wall. Or dug up elephant ears.

And I will probably go plant the elephant ears tomorrow.

Guess where the new tools are? Still in the car. It was too hot to go out and get them.

GardeningSouthern-Style: A Downhome Perspective on All Things Southern

Dr. Walter Van Fleet

Still my favorite rose. But I need a rooting!

I have been watching gardening videos while recuperating from Covid. I was sad that Dothan had nothing for its unique environment. And then I stumbled on to Megan Watson's channel. She has inspired me to start my own. Mine will be much different because I am an old lady looking for beauty with as easy as possible maintenance. Having other gardeners as friends is definitely motivating. Christie and Shelby Thomley helped me with that 2 acre lot on Cherokee that Joe and I once cared for. We met at Rayfield Vester's Master Gardener Class.

Our new home has a much smaller lot, but the gardeners here in Grove Park are serious. I have never seen a bigger sunflower than the one grown by Saundra Jordan and Wiley Jordan. Reva Carlise's cottage garden inspires me with the tour of her cottage garden by the street and her own "SHE SHACK" in her back yard. I rode by Michael Bailey and Catherine Griffith Bailey old home later bought by Sue Marie Shealy Coe and Mike Coe (I don't think they live there now, however.) and got inspired by the most beautiful hydrangeas -- White Annabelle or Limelight? (Not in Grove Park) Judy Bailey Wise brought beautiful camellia blooms to a club meeting and that inspired the camellia garden that will happen just as soon as things cool off a bit. I took Molly and Megan to PC's Nursery and hand delivered the list of camellias he will design my camellia garden with.

Of course, my mother as usual is the greatest inspiration of all. She loved her yard!!! She particularly loved daylillies and would go to Headland every year to the Daylily nursery there. I don't think it still exists, but I have found one owned by Randy and Sharon Pilcher called "In the Neighborhood Daylilies" http://www.intheneighborhooddaylilies.com. Mother started me off right. She started a little girl garden club, the Daffy Dillies, in the polka dot playhouse she made out of an Airconditioner container. I look forward to going to Ozark to pick up my daylilies, although they do deliver.

Saturday my little buddy, Molly, went with me to Dothan Nurseries. The first thing we spotted was a Miss Molly butterfly bush, which we definitely HAD to purchase because Molly even brought her butterfly purse, so of course it was meant to be. I am developing a butterfly garden so that was a must have along with the Yarrow I bought. I always tell John David Boone that coming to Dothan Nurseries is next to heaven for me. I also want to start a rose garden, but I have given my heart to David Austin Roses and sadly they do not deliver to Alabama. (Wonder why?) I do have a granddaughter in Panama City, so she may have to deliver to grandmother. That granddaughter Lily Butterworth, loves succulents. I must admit her affection has rubbed off on me. So one day when I was just cruising the Net I found a spot that made the most beautiful arrangements of succulents. So, of course, I ordered one.

Let me share with you something Molly and I found out! Dothan Nurseries now has a shed under which John David's garden fairies will build your container garden for you. And, if you love pretty pots as much as I do, you must go there. They have the broadest variety of pots, old fashioned flowers, etc. you will find. I brought my friends from Panama City there when I took them on a tour of the Botanical Garden. They were suitably impressed. One thing that I had to leave at our old house was the Doctor Walter Van Fleet rose that Marion Hall rooted for me. It is the ancestor of New Dawn, but a bigger bloomer, I think. As you all know, Marion designed the Camellia Garden at the Botanical Garden. Her mother, Eleanor Grant, (also the name of a camellia Marion propagated) propagated many camellias. All kinds of garden jewelry awaits you at Dothan Nurseries as well. I did a little web work for Rhoda Boone at one time there at Dothan Nurseries when the web was brand new and they were kind enough to trust that early endeavor. That was when JoAn McFarland with Dothan Nurseries did a Monet Garden in my front yard.

http://www.southern-style.com/a_southern_monet_garden.htm. I ordered Larkspur, zinnia and poppy seed yesterday and plan to make a grand effort in my back yard. I will see how this You Tube stuff works and share with you what I come up with here at the new place God has planted me. I finally got out of the chair and have done a little preparatory digging. Don't forget to subscribe to Megan Watson's gardening show. I look forward to learning from her! Southern Living needs a gardener in this area. Linda Vintner is in Oklahoma, Garden Answers is in Oregon, and Jim ..... is in North Carolina. If they are looking for a volunteer, my hand is waving!

After spending my Covid quarantine watching garden shows on You Tube, I have come out the other side determined to get out in my garden and do a bit of designing. I think every gardener brings some of their gardener parent with them into the garden. I go through a garden and see aspidistra and remember the great host that flourished under my mother's fig tree. I brought a lot of those aspidistra home to Cherokee for a shade garden there. Whenever I see a fig tree I think of Mr. Conti's fig tree in his yard from which he gave us an offshoot. I also think of Mr. Conti when I see red poppies because I planted some in my Monet Garden in the front yard. They grew in a mass and he would come and stand and remember his childhood in Italy where they grew in masses like that. (Bought poppy seeds yesterday. Eden, I think.)

I treated myself yesterday with a trip to Lowe's where I bought more than I could plant this morning. I figure a little bit at the time and perhaps my garden will achieve the Jean Burson design (everything she loved planted wherever she felt like putting it.) 

I plan to turn the playhouse into my she shack/potting shed as soon as Tex Rankin can come and add French doors, a deck and pergola to it. 

These are pictures of my current yard along with the after I envision

Imagine A gravel path from the driveway pad around the right side of the house through the gate lined with camellias. 

As you come in the gate there is now a fence and some very nice evergreens. 

Now imagine a hydrangea hedge in front of those evergreens. 

That hedge leads to the building formerly known as the playhouse now converted to a She shack with French doors, a deck and a pergola 

Behind the playhouse a nice shady area then becomes the garden staging area with an 8 foot potting bench a table and some comfortable chairs (or a hammock). I want to plant scuppernongs on the pergola. I have a fun picture of my mother, Jean Gillis, with cousins Naomi Kennedy and Joe Jernigan, getting snockered with scuppernong wine. Both my mother and Joe's mother had a scuppernong arbor. Apparently it is a southern lady thing. "The Recipe"

Behind this central bed, I want a shady spot just to hang out with my dogs GIGI and soon to be LOLA (a ShihPoo coming from north Alabama at the end of the month) and Cecily's dogs, Honey and Lacy. 

A gravel patio from the She Shack to the Gazebo

Behind this central bed

From here you look back at the house. To the left of the brick patio Gigi has worn a path toward the fence where some neighbor buddies gather. The gravel path will come in the back gate and veer to the left to follow this path to the brick patio. 

This would be the newest incarnation of the Monet Garden once in my front yard. I will fill that bed with mushroom compost to make sure it is rich enough for my vision. I have ordered poppy, nasturtium, Larkspur, and zinnia seeds. I will find a way to get the David Austen roses.

This brick patio will be beautiful with tables and container gardens like this one. 

I will plant a Mr. Conti fig tree in the front yard to mask the ugly utilities. An olive tree just adds interest, I think. And Citrus trees need to be a part of every garden these days just in case hard times arrive. A garden needs to fill several human needs--a passion for creating beauty, productivity, sociability, and a mental and physical challenge.

This is where I plan to put the "pottager" aka kitchen garden. Right now there is a pittosporum there I considered removing, but those are good for flower arranging. Behind that white chair that was Mother's and needs painting, but I used it to sit upon to pull weeds. Behind there is the butterfly garden. It has a giant Elephant ear that will be removed. I planted a Japanese Magnolia there in the spring and it was beautiful. I love it. Mother and Daddy had one right outside their window and they watched the same birds next there year after year. Drew built me the voting bench at the fence. I LOVE IT!

This is the elevated garden planter 8 ft by 2 feet I plan to put there in font of that white bench. Fruits and vegetables can be grown in containers. 

The Butterfly garden will be dedicated to birds and butterflies. 

This will be my gravel patio. 

Hopefully this will be a beautiful expanse of green grass. 

I will probably scallop in front of these statues and plant maybe daylillies there. 

The first year Joe and I moved in we planted Magnolias along the back fence. PCs also planted those drift roses in front of the Gazebo and in front of the front fence. We had to take down several river birch because of their intrusive roots endangering the foundation of the house.

We need more trees in the back yard and I am thinking of a flowering cherry, a pink dogwood, and a white dogwood along with a lot of shade loving plants along the back between the Gazebo and the playhouse. 

We had a Bartlet Pear on Cherokee that was quite productive. I think I will plant one right outside the gate where one of those trees came down. 

This is the plan. Step by step. We will see where this will go.