Teacher’s thoughts
After 12 years of teaching and 13 years of managing programs, it’s time to hang it up. Freshmen students are energetic souls who deserve energetic souls. Maybe a few new teachers will come along and fill in the spaces.
Despite decades of losses, teaching has been the most rewarding work I’ve ever done; it’s also been the hardest.
Like elbows, everybody has an opinion about public education. The opinions that seem to get the most play have been those of people who have not taught or been in public education except as bureaucrats, “C.E.Os,” and education foundations. That’s a problem.
Teachers need to be part of any reform or refinance of public education.
Not because they’re the takers but because they’re the givers.
We can blame the Democrats or the Republicans for our current state of affairs. We can continue to cut spending for education, healthcare or children’s basic needs by blaming waste or mismanagement or PERS.
But the failure that Oregon will be remembered for is letting yet another generation get short-changed.
What if we were to consider the best interests of children in all of our decisions?
Mark S. Reynolds
Hood River
Family opportunity
The time is NOW for parents and youth to participate in the Strengthening Families Program being offered by the Hood River Alliance Church on Rand Road.
This program was developed by Iowa State University and has been done in many towns throughout the United States. It is not a religious based program. When the Strengthening Program was offered about 5 years ago in Hood River, the parents and youth who attended really enjoyed the program and thought their whole family benefited a lot. The program is free and starts Thursday April 9. A light dinner for the whole family and child care for young children are provided free. Adults and youth can sign up to by calling the Church office 541 386-2812. I urge all parents with youth 9-15 years to participate in this program while you have the opportunity!
In the first hour of the two-hour weekly session, the parents and youth meet separately with trained facilitators and in the second hour, parents and youth work together as a family. Parents and youth learn about communication, holding family meetings, using a point system to motivate youth, peer pressure resistance skills and most importantly, working together as a family to appreciate each other and see each other’s strengths, needs, and perspectives. Parents and youth learn that a family that works together is the kind of family one wants to have.
Youth who are not in trouble have involved parents who are open minded, nonjudgmental, set limits and consequences, and have good communication (listening being very important) with their teens. As parents, we all know teens will make some poor choices, but it is crucial that we are doing what we can as parents to help guide them into healthy decisions.
It is not always easy to get youth to open up to their parents, so don’t miss this opportunity! Don’t wait until your kids get into trouble, they need you involved in their lives NOW!
Nancy Johanson Paul
Hood River
Supports SB612
I am a 7th grader at the Hood River Middle School, and last week my family and I participated in the first hearing of the state bill 612, at the capitol building in Salem, Oregon. SB612 helps students with dyslexia by making sure schools know about this kind of learning difference, which affects one in five people.
There were a lot of people there in support of this bill, so many that they filled three rooms and a hallway. More than 25 people spoke, even Senators and Representatives testified about their struggles in school with dyslexia. Although the stories were different, what they had in common was that they all made to feel dumb or lazy in school, when just the opposite is true, and that they just learned differently.
One story that stood out for me was told by a mother of two dyslexic kids. The first kid struggled and had to fail until she got tested in fifth grade, by then she was three grades below in reading. The other kid was tested early in kindergarten and got the right tutoring and is now reading two years above grade level. It shows that getting help early can help kids meet their highest potential.
Natalie Schumacher
Hood River
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