The View from Here

Getting by...

 

These are the days that try a gardener’s heart. Hot, hot, hot and dry, dry, dry. There are long cracks in the ground in areas where I have not been watering. The pasture grasses are brittle. The pond is shrinking. The trees are sagging. Everything seems to be holding its breath until the next good rain. I hope it isn’t too long in arriving.

 

I had a bit of a limp this morning. I was startled awake just after midnight by something stinging my ankle. I told you I must be sweet! Now critters are trying to devour me in my sleep. I have no idea what stung me- scorpion, wasp, spider- but aside from the initial pain and a tiny bit of swelling it seems to be fine this afternoon. Is it safe to spray myself and my bed with insect repellent just before bedtime, or would I suffocate from the smell? Lol

 

As you might imagine, I am awake very early each morning to complete anything remotely connected with work before we reach the 100 mark on the thermometer. By nine this morning I had watered, fed the birds, edged a flowerbed, dusted the ceiling fans, vacuumed, washed a load of clothes, cleaned the bathroom, and mopped the kitchen.  Then I went to the genealogy library for a couple of hours of research. I’m going to work on a few projects and then it will be time for a spot in front of the AC with a good book. I told you…getting by… that’s the mantra for the next few weeks.

Cheating 101

 

In case you missed it there was another school cheating scandal reported yesterday. This is the opening of an article by Dorrie Turner, Associated Press:

“ATLANTA (AP) — Former Atlanta schools Superintendent Beverly Hall knew about cheating allegations on standardized tests but either ignored them or tried to hide them, according to a state investigation.

An 800-page report released Tuesday to The Associated Press by Gov. Nathan Deal's office through an open records request shows several educators reported cheating in their schools. But the report says Hall, who won the national Superintendent of the Year award in 2009, and other administrators ignored those reports and sometimes retaliated against the whistleblowers.

The yearlong investigation shows educators at nearly four dozen Atlanta elementary and middle schools cheated on standardized tests by helping students or changing the answers once exams were handed in.”

Are you shocked and appalled? I’m not. Why should anyone be surprised by the actions of frantic people in a desperate situation?  Do I think they have put themselves in an untenable position? Certainly. Would I have done the same thing? I pray not.  But I am not the least bit surprised that teachers and principals were caught doing something that students, attorneys, judges, bankers, politicians, preachers and government officials have all been caught doing. That doesn’t make it right. That doesn’t eradicate the consequences. But let’s not pretend we didn’t see this coming the moment “No Child Left Behind” got past the first press release.

Largely because of NCLB, state testing is no longer seen as a way to test the progress of students, but as a means of rewarding and punishing the adults who struggle to educate them. Ten states now use test scores as the main criterion in teacher evaluations. Other states reward high-scoring teachers with huge bonuses and more states are set to follow their lead. Low scores can result in teachers and principals losing their jobs or entire schools closing. Low scores can lead to massive tutoring efforts which in reality are simply “teach the test” programs. Low scores can lead to a mass exodus of students if parents have the means to transfer them elsewhere.

Yes, cheating is wrong, but please, please, please do NOT get sucked into this media black hole and focus on the poor choices and deplorable actions of a few educators who got caught doing what thousands are undoubtedly doing and will do this coming year. When an epidemic threatens our children we must look at the source of the disease, not just the symptoms.  The real problem here isn’t the cheating, but the perceived necessity for it. Why aren’t our children doing well on the state tests without the “help” of teachers and administrators?

The answer is that some of them are doing quite well. Our mistake is in expecting all of them to do well. There are as many reasons for poor test results as there are children. And it baffles me that we can take thirty children, give them all the same instructions in piano, soccer, dancing, or painting and NOT expect them to learn or perform at the same degree of skill, yet expect the same group to learn and perform reading or math skills at identical levels. Why do we intuitively understand the folly of one, but not the other?  

Unlike other professions, teachers are faced with the ubiquitous task of “do the best you can, where you are, with what you have.” We can’t choose our students. We can’t say “give me only the best and brightest this year!” We work with the children who walk through our door -so what we get is a group of students who represent every walk of life. We get students from that big house on the hill and from that van parked on a different corner each night. We get students who go home to two loving, caring parents who help with homework and we get students who go home to an empty house and fix their own dinner while they wait for their mom or dad to come home from the local bar. We get students who arrive at school with all of their supplies and a full stomach and happy face and we get students who can’t afford a pencil and haven’t eaten since their school lunch the day before and have tears in their eyes because there was a fight at the bus stop. We get students who are intelligent and have a gift for language and we get students whose brains are damaged beyond repair by the drug and alcohol use of their parents. And we get every student in between. Don’t tell me you think for a minute that we can teach each child in our classroom to perform at the same level on a state-mandated test that may or may not even be in a language they fully understand! I assure you we do everything we can to teach each child as much as we can before that test is given, but we cannot guarantee that each child will perform consistently. The people who are making those guarantees are the ones who have either NEVER been in a classroom or have not been in one in the last ten years. And if they make an impossible goal the requirement for survival, some people are going to cheat in order to survive.

You know I can’t stay off my soapbox when an issue this important is flaunted in front of me. I suspect this is just the tip of the iceberg and that cheating will escalate as educators are expected to perform more miracles with less money and fewer resources. And as usual, the great teachers who are devoting their hearts and minds to their students are the ones who seldom get media attention!  

 

Summer Camp

 

My mind works in mysterious ways so this morning I awoke to memories of summer camp. I didn’t give much thought to attending camp when I was a kid. My friends went and I heard stories of their adventures, but I was resigned to the realities of my life- most of our summers were spent in the cotton fields and the vineyards. There was no time or money for camp, especially for our family’s oldest worker. However, the year that I turned twelve a group of earnest Sunday School teachers decided that I must experience the joys of camp life and they agreed to pay my fee. They must have also been very persuasive to convince my father to let me relinquish my ranch duties for a week. I will be forever grateful to them for their kindness and generosity.   

It seems strange that I should recall so much of that experience. I suppose it is imprinted in my mind because it was so different and such a privilege. I even remember getting on the bus and waving to my mother. I remember being in awe of just how many children attended the camp. The photo shown here is half of our group. I knew the children from our church, but it was exciting to meet so many others.

Our activities that summer were very traditional. The girls learned crafts and the boys learned how to fish and row a boat. I can see us sitting around a picnic table in the shade of the pine trees and putting together something made of Popsicle sticks. I think it was a picture frame. I also recall making something with dark brown clay. And I got third place in a drawing contest!

I don’t know what they do now, but in 1962 the boys and girls groups swam at different times so as not to see each other half naked. Not that we could even be half naked. LOL  I had a very conservative swimsuit and mother made me promise to wear shorts over it.

I was surprised that camp included work! I was assigned to the kitchen and had to help do the dishes once a day. And we had to keep our cabins clean. There was no escaping cleanliness, even in the pine forest!

At night we gathered around a fire and roasted marshmallows. We had devotionals and prayers and singing, lots of singing. I loved that part the best!

Above all else, camp was about talking and giggling far into the night. My friend and I discussed the day’s events, the children we met, the lessons we learned, the sights and smells of the forest, the new foods, anything and everything for as long as we could keep our eyes open.

I was blessed to experience camp three more times in my life, but I don’t think any year was as wonderful as the first one.

I know many parents, especially moms, worry about their children being homesick at camp. They worry about safety. They worry about comfort. They just worry…

I’m here to tell you that camp can be a wonderful experience and the memories last a lifetime. Put them on the bus and wave goodbye!

(I'm in the second row from the bottom, second from the left.)

Generations of Soldiers

I’ve posted this list before, but it never occurred to me that some of the men in our family might have fought on the “other side”. I recently found this account of Mr. Wiert Banta, a famous Tory!

Banta Men in the Revolutionary War

(from A Frisian Family by Theodore M. Banta, 1893)

Hendrick Banta (NY) First Lieutenant in the Twelfth Regiment New York State.

John Banta (NY) Sergeant in the Twelfth Regiment, New York State.

Hildebrant Banta (NY) Served under Captain Fonda in the New York Regiment.

Daniel Banta (Bergen,NJ) Wounded in the leg during the attack on Fort Lee and later received a pension of $80 per year.

Dirck Banta (NJ)

Hendrick Banta (NJ)

John Banta (Bergen, NJ)

Peter Banta (NJ) Served as a scout.

Samuel Banta (NJ)

Wiert Banta (NJ)*

Abraham Banta (NJ)Served in the militia under several different commanders.

John Banta (Essex, NJ) Soldier in Captain Herring’s Company, Second New Jersey Regiment.

Daniel (Essex, NJ)

Abraham Banta (PA) In Captain Hugh Campbell’s Company of the 2^nd Battalion of York County, Pa.

Cornelius Banta (PA)

John Banta (PA)

 

Wiert Banta*

 “Going down in American history as one of the most notorious and daring of the Tory marauders and spies was Wiert C. Banta. He was the great-grandson of the original Cornelius Epke (brother of my ancestor), and had been born in the Sluckup area of the valley, west of the Hackensack River (NJ), in 1743. At the age of 23 he had gone to New York to become a carpenter and there married Elizabeth Mildeburger. In 1774, in New York, he was involved in a disturbance with some violent patriots and as a result he had to leave the city hastily in order to avoid being tarred and feathered. He was put in jail at the beginning of the war as a “dangerous Tory”, but after 10 months in the Albany prison he escaped. He then joined with Colonel VanBuskirk, an officer for the British and a fellow Dutchman, against his former neighbors and family and acted as a guide for the enemy in their raids on the Dutch neighborhood. Wiert was later wounded when a musket ball penetrated his knee. He escaped to Nova Scotia with others, across Lake Ontario, in a small sailing vessel and there spent the rest of his days.” Banta Pioneers, Elsa M. Banta, 1983

 

 

 

 

Worth the effort...

 

 

I must be sweeter than I think because chiggers, mosquitoes, ants, wasps, and other critters love me! My body currently has so many bites and bumps that I have to take antihistamine to keep from tearing my skin off. I should buy stock in Chiggerex! So I can promise you I don’t tromp around in the grass for just any old reason. When I spotted my neighbor’s foal napping at the edge of the pasture, I didn’t think twice about parking in the driveway, walking through the grass along the side of the highway and finding a break in the tree line so I could take some photos.  It was well worth a few more bites to see this sweet face.

 

 

 

 
 

Resistance is futile.

 

Behold the best “squirrel resistant” bird feeder I have ever purchased. Note the locking metal cap. Pay close attention to the sturdy cage surrounding the seed tube. Notice also that it is hanging sideways and it is EMPTY.  I think it resisted our clever seed thief for all of five minutes!

First she learned how to take the lid off and stuff her tiny body inside the feeder. But I think eating like that made her dizzy.

 
 

Next, she figured out that she could hang upside down on the handy wire cage and stick her paws into the holes to rake out some seed.

Then she discovered that she could swing the whole feeder back and forth and the seed would fall out.

But THIS…this is the best move yet. Somehow she hooked the cage surrounding the feeder back onto its tree wire, where it stayed until I spent five minutes getting it back down! And of course all of the seed went to the ground to make dining so much easier!

I should have expected this. She is the same squirrel that opened a suet cage I had carefully wired shut! I took two “twist ties” and attached them to the little hinged bottom of the cage to make sure the suet would stay inside. She not only untied them, but left them hanging on the cage!! I stared in awe at those hanging twist ties for ten minutes! lol Too smart for me!

So now we have a deal. She eats what she wants, and I get to take her picture. Yesterday she let me get within six feet of her. As long as she has teeth and nails that’s about as close as I want to get.

 
 

Does that look like a smirk on her face?

 

The Shade of a tree

 

 Yesterday I was watering one of our young trees and I realized that I was standing in its shade. I suppose that doesn’t mean much until you consider that the tree has only been here for a little over three years. It was a spindly little thing, barely as tall as me when our friend and neighbor first brought it to us, but I was very excited to receive it. Trees are so important to our environment!  They provide a strong foundation for landscaping, help keep everything cooler, and provide food and shelter for countless critters. This particular tree was harvested from the nearby woods and as I said, wasn’t very big or strong, probably due to crowding in its natural location. Now it is lush and healthy and reaching for the sky.

We’ve added a dozen trees to the yard since we moved in. We don’t have a lot of money so we purchase baby trees and “clearance” orphans. We got some “free” trees from the Arbor Day Foundation. We even planted one tree from seed. Of course we’ll have to wait patiently for most of them to grow large enough to support a bird’s nest or cast a very large shade, but they are all worth the wait. And I enjoy watching their progress.

 

I found a couple of photos to share with you that were taken at my grandmother’s house. We planted our Christmas tree in her yard one year because we knew we would more than likely move sooner than she would. It proved to be a wise decision because as you can see it grew into a beautiful tree.

 

I don’t understand why more people don’t plant trees. I’ve heard all the excuses, from “I don’t know what to plant” to “they’re too expensive” to “I don’t want to take care of it”. So I found a site that lists twenty reasons to plant trees. Please visit One Million Trees and at least read the list. It might convince you to plant a tree.

Have a shady day!