"When I tell you something is dangerous, I mean it. And, I never forget the Victims"
T.J. Hooker
"Everyone can master a Grief but he who has it”
William Shakespeare
”I had given him a life not worth living, but I had also given him an iron will to live. This was a common combination on the planet Earth”
Kurt Vonnegut about his character, Kilgore Trout.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Sky Watcher Post,

I also talk about a new sweater pattern for the purple yarn, and introduce an article about a critically important development to save school progress in low performing schools in California.


The clouds today were just gorgeous!
AND.... There was snow in the mountains!  This photo is one taken between showers, about 5pm tonight.

It is cold for March, maybe only 47 degrees out there with some sort of windchill to factor in.  Brrrr!  I'm so glad that we didn't take the tortoises out of their garage slumber party where they've been since last November.  The wind was biting, and Wolfie wore his little red sweater fora walk late this afternoon. 

Earlier today, the wind twirled the big wind chime, and it looked like an umbrella without any fabric on it, being spun around.   That's a lot of excitement for a stick in the mud like me! 

Here we go!

Picking up speed...

In full rotation!
What a hoot!

I'm plugging in a hat pattern for later.  It's called a Lotus Hat, and is from a knitter in Ravelry.

The linen yarn will be turned into THIS beauty, from Caron.com.   I found it late one night while poking around at their web site.  Immediately she saw it, my DD said she was in love.  The sock is racing to the toe, I mean that I'm working on it as much as I can while reading THIS book, Hand dyeing Yarn and Fleece by Gail Callahan.  It's worth every centavo spent.  Thanks to Clara, I found out about it.  I'm really looking forward to having a yarn dyeing session this summer for the blank and two hanks I bought last year from Knitpicks.  I belong to a forum of sock yarn dyers on Ravelry, and they have made some beautiful things.  I'm excited to try my hand when the weather is warmer. 

DH sent this to me because of my interest in low income schools and their very important roll in lifting children out of the affects of poverty and into a brighter future.

First, a word about the critics:

"The critics of this approach argue that it will force layoffs onto other schools. These same critics often like to point out that the real problem with student and school performance is poverty. Well, if poverty is the problem, then what could be more important than creating stable learning environments for our highest-poverty students? And wouldn’t we want to make sure, in the name of equity, that we gave our low-income students every advantage they needed to beat the odds, close achievement gaps, and succeed?"

And HERE is the article from which the quote was extracted.

With the Middle Class being squeezed out and many families dropping into poverty, we really have to be looking not to expand the problems, but to solve them.  This forward thinking School Board is addressing educational issues, and we all have been brought up to believe that education is the key to improving lives, not just in material ways, but in ways that enrich us all as a People.

I really want to see all children reach their big dreams in life.  I want to see little seven year old children in inner city schools, or rural schools, realize their dreams of being doctors or nurses or scientists, whatever their dream is.  This is not something that can be brushed aside in an iniquitous and dismissive manner by Americans who are better off.  We can't abandon our children or our poor.  It's just too late to be selfish anymore.

Has someone ( us maybe?) started another big war somewhere?  Everything is so darned quiet.


2 comments:

  1. lovely sweater--I love the way the decreases/increases for the yoke/shoulder shaping are worked into the lace pattern.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I do, too, Helen. It will be very nice to knit. Joining the linen will be the "hair pulling" event. lol

    ReplyDelete

I’m going through some stuff but I will peek in now and then and will be back when it’s over..