The Good School

The American education system is a constant and contentious subject of fierce debate from which no one seems exempt.

Parents agonize over how to obtain the best education for their children. Employers lament the lack of properly prepared and promising graduates they need to fill key positions. Educators walk on egg shells, trying to teach while extensive legislation continues to tie their hands ever more tightly. 

Enter Peg Tyre, a journalist with an entire career's experience researching, understanding and explaining the intracacies of the modern education system. Authoritative on her subject, Ms. Tyre speaks with the empathy of a parent who has known the guilt and struggle of seeking the best education for her own kids, and a deep respect for good educators borne from years of working with some of the very best.

Among the vital topics she covers are:

* The scientific evidence on how children learn math, science and reading that should influence and inform every school curriculum (but often doesn't)
* How standardized tests are developed, what the really tell us (or don't) and how they are actually eroding our public education system
* Where children should be developmentally by age/grade, what information parents actually need to know to assess how their compares to the standard and how to navigate the school system to actually get it
* How to be an active, engaged parent without being a "helicopter" parent or dismissed as an annoying nutcase
* The truth about teacher training, assessment programs, why it can be hard for schools to find and keep the best teachers

Ms. Tyre strikes a careful balance in her approach; while parents are ultimately responsible for their children's education, schools have a vital role to play. Everyone must be equally empowered and held equally accountable.
 Educators,employers, tax payers and parents will all benefit from the vital and startling information in this book - I strongly recommend adding it to your reading list!

Menu Idea Monday

Does this look yummy or what?

Sadly, it's not my picture... it's borrowed from Spoon Fork Bacon where the original recipe is posted. I made these Baked Egg Boats over the weekend and they didn't last long enough to get pictures of!

Theoretically a brunch recipe, this was fantastically easy and delicious.

You can check out the full recipe here, but essentially you're going to cut a deep U shape in a demi baguette (homemade or store bought) and fill it with a mixture of eggs, bacon, peppers, onions and cheese. Then you're going to bake it for 20 minutes, slice it into cute little wedges and serve.

Opinion: Definitely a keeper! The egg mixtures soaks into the bread giving it the rich, custard-y texture of french toast under a light, fluffy filling that rivals the best omelets. Active prep time is less than five minutes and clean up is a snap. The recipe scales easily, so you can make it just for yourself or for a crowd with equal ease.

My Modifications: I subbed in peppers and onions for the green onions, and bacon for the pancetta. Both substitutions worked great. I also subbed in goat cheese for the Gruyère because I had some on hand I wanted to use up. This is a forgiving recipe and you can freely adjust the add-ins to your taste.


Dietary Mod Friendly: This is pretty flexible, so as long as you can find a crusty bread you can eat you'll be good to go!

I Am A Follower

The Leadership and Strengths Movements have it all wrong, according to author Leonard Sweet. Life and Biblical Christianity are supposed to be grounded in weaknesses, human folly and complete devotion to following Jesus. Only a community of Christ followers, discipling one another and living in the (often unexpected, almost always uncontrolled) rhythms of the Spirit can truly find and serve as examples of the way we are intended to live.

There are shards of wisdom and sharp insight here; Sweet sheds clear, cold light on legitimate flaws within the leadership movement. He makes startling and thought-provoking observations, many deserving of exploration and reflection. Clarion calls for reevaluation of Church programming and formating in the complete absence of one-on-one discipleship are valid.

Unfortunately, these gems are lost in a morass of tangled tangents, excessive quotes, and disorganization. There is no systematic argument or logical transition between points. No clear suggestions of how a body of believers should function in a leader-avoiding society informs his feel-good generalization of equality and harmony. Barely a quarter of the extensive quotations and anecdotes are appreciable and many are just distracting.

While the topic clearly merits discussion and action, this will not be the manifesto to move it forward.

Crime

Really? Who thinks it's a good idea to stab a Marine? But kudos to the cops! Wish more of them were this wise.

Thoughts of Summer

It's been a fairly mild winter here, even by the local standards (which I consider low to begin with compared to the lake-effect snow belt city in which I grew up). But even still, the ground alternates between a patchy snow- and- ice combo and complete submersion under a sloppy lake of slush.

It's not exactly a landscape that inspires anyone to voluntarily be outdoors. (The notable exception being bordie collies, who believe that snow is the best possible environment in which to play. Can there be any better flourish to highlight one's skill in snapping a frisbee from midair than the tidal wave of snowy crystals that erupts during a flawless, four-point slide landing?)

Winter is, however, one of the best times to start planning summer projects. Victorian gardeners spent their long, dark winters mapping out extensive garden plans for the coming summer, charting the blooms to ensure a continuous riot of blossoms from the first tentative days of spring until the last burnished leaves of fall.

While few of us are that detailed, many of us wish we could get more out of our outdoor spaces.  It's become abundantly clear to me, as we immerse ourselves in the process of searching for a house, that whatever we find will almost certainly need extensive landscaping.

Enter Home Outside, a gorgeously photographed landscaping book I stumbled upon at the library. Written in the vein of the Not So Big House books, Home Outside is accessible, practical and inspiring. Appreciating that large swathes of Americans start with unkept, uneven or entirely barren yards - and very tight budgets - the author breaks down the basics into accessible, bite-sized chunks.

Simple, effective diagrams show you how to determine what style of yard works for your personality, family and property. Discussions on how to determine what plants are appropriate for your location and how to connect your outdoor space to your indoor space are easy to understand but avoid becoming insultingly oversimplified.

Most importantly, perhaps, is the budget-friendliness of the book. Glossy photos of intimate, gravel-lined retreats nestle side-by-side with wide flag-stoned patios, providing attractive options for every space and budget. There's also a unique and helpful exploration of how to design a multi-year plan for spaces in need of extensive transformation that will be functional and beautiful at each step. It's rare to see such books deal upfront with limits on time and money, but this book does so adeptly. Tips on up-cycling found pieces and matching your yard to your preferred maintenance level are also featured.

I know that when we eventually have a house (and a yard) to sculpt into our private haven, I'll be coming back to this book to help me design a plan to get the most out of our space. If you're looking to beat the winter blahs or hoping to get more out of your outdoors this coming summer, this is a great place to start!

The Art of Language

Have you ever been elbow deep in a book and forced to wonder if publishing companies still employ editors?  Or if perhaps the job description for editors has been revised? I often find my fingers itching for a pen while I read to start circling the blatant gaps that should have held transitions, theses and other distractingly absent fundamental building blocks of  sound writing. Favorite English professors come to mind, and I imagine the outrage and migraines that would envelope them should such lackluster specimens cross their paths.

On the other end of the spectrum, I was reminded recently of how incredibly powerful language can be when wielded by someone who truly understands wordcraft. An attentive wordsmith can frame flagrantly politically incorrect or socially inflammatory ideas in a delicate balance that neutralizes the incendiary response without robbing the point of its impact.

Case in point (paraphrased from something I read and was impacted by recently): If we scientifically examine all the evidence about educating and raising children to flourish, the single most defining factor  -by far - is an intact, stable two-parent family.

Therefore, the most effective thing anyone can do to improve the education system and state of our children (and therefore our nation) is apply pressure (at the individual and collective levels) to reduce the social acceptability of single parenting, divorce and children born out of wedlock. 

Framed that way, the idea forces you to stop and think, doesn't it?

It casts no aspersions to rail against, does not promote a particular form of activism to be disparaged, and preempts arguments on the relative value of other alternatives. It is not a call for anyone to act, simply a statement of empirical fact.

It is sadly ironic that as people of all stripes clutter the airwaves and tv channels with verbal lunges and riposts, so few exhibit even a shred of true craftsmanship with their words. How much more incisive and intelligent would our national debates be if they consisted of carefully constructed and thoroughly informed assertions instead of the standard rhetoric?

And how much more soul searching would we all be forced to do if issues were reduced to such a kernel of clarity that one could no longer pick apart the flaws of an argument's frame and run in a tangential tirade away from the true point? 

I've been blessed to unexpectedly encounter some gifted word crafters this past week, and as I head into the weekend my mind continues to chew on the question of what I am doing with my words. I speak or send off so many in the course of a week; how few do I take the time to sculpt and shape before I loose them? What does my carelessness cost, and how many opportunities sit before me even today to speak with impact or share the precious blossom of a timely, articulate blessing with another?

Have you been blessed by devoted word-crafters? Do you consider yourself one?

Menu Idea Monday

Side dishes have never exactly been a strong point of mine. Although my mother is amazing and diligently made balanced meals while I was growing up, I've always leaned towards casseroles or stand-alone entrées (think mac & cheese - complete in and of itself - yum!)

I have been making an effort to branch out, though, and was pleased to find Roasted Potato Stacks. 

3 tbsp olive oil
1 lb russet potatoes
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350*. Combine oil and garlic in a small saucepan and gently warm over low heat until fragrant but the garlic is not brown. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Peel potatoes and thinly slice with a mandolin. (Note: most cheese graters have a mandolin-style flat slicing option on one of their sides. I used that and it worked perfectly.)

Brush 8 muffin tins with the garlic oil. Layer a potato slice in the bottom of a tin and brush it with a thin layer of the oil. Layer another slice and brush it with the garlic oil. Repeat until it stacks up to the top of the muffin tin. Repeat with remaining tins.

Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with thyme. Bake the stacks for 35 - 45 minutes or until potatoes are golden brown and cooked through. Serve immediately.

Opinion: 

These look nice and are great for people trying to watch their portion sizes. (I got six stacks in a jumbo muffin tin out of two large potatoes.) It was also nice that they could be made ahead and stuck in the fridge until time to bake. I was personally not a fan of the oil-and-potato combination. If I do this again, I will use butter.

My Modifications:

I subbed garlic powder for the chopped garlic because the idea of little pieces of garlic in my potato stack did not appeal.

I also skipped the thyme because I do not like thyme in anything. Otherwise this was made to spec.

Dietary Mod Friendly?

There's not much in here to disagree with anybody, so go for it!

** Please note there is no link to the original recipe source because when I wrote this post the link was no longer operational. No stealing of recipes without proper credit is intended!