Since October, I have been trying to increase my physical fitness. As some of my friends know, my wife got me started, and I have really thrown myself into fitness over the past couple of months. Most recently I joined a local gym. I've had gym memberships before, so I am dubious about this venture, so currently I sought out a no contract arrangement. My real goal was to find a place to run in air conditioning since the heat and humidity are really making running difficult for me.
Now, with that quick update, I want to get the meat of my thought today. Fitting it all in. I am the father of three girls, a teacher, and own a house with my parents. We decided some years ago to buy a multigenerational house when we all moved at the same time. Although it has come with some challenges and required some adjustments, it has provided benefits all around. Currently, however I have found that squeezing in workouts is getting more and more complicated.
I used to remember thinking about how busy life had become when my wife and I had first started our professional careers. We lived in an apartment, had no children, and were just out of college. I look back on those days and laugh. Ultimately I can't remember what I was so busy doing. I certainly wasn't keeping myself physically fit. Being a new teacher was demanding and often required late nights grading and prepping for the next day, but certainly a trip to a gym, or a quick job was not only possible, but would have been pretty easy.
Now that my life has really gotten complicated, I find it more and more depressing that I waited so long in life to take my own health seriously. I used to fool myself into thinking that I didn't really need to worry about it, I was active with my children, shared their same schedule, kept them busy with activities, and participated when I could. However, the real thought that I could be more like my parents when I aged struck me. I decided it was critical that I take control of my body and make it a real priority.
Unfortunately making it a priority has come with some real consequences. first and foremost, making a happy home requires certain conditions need to be met. With such a full house, keeping everyone updated on the daily schedule and trying to find time to as a family sit down for meals offers lots of complications. And the more we let those schedules lapse the more distant we all grow. This poses real problems for a harmonious life. I have taken an odd role in all of this. Although living with parents can often be emasculating, it does require that you find an inner strength to walk a delicate line. I need to offer my parents a certain amount of respect and strength while at the same time looking out for the priorities that I have outlined for my children and myself. You never stop being a child in the eyes of your parents, but you have to be both an adult for your own kids and transition to a care giver when necessary for your parents. Although my parents are still in relatively good health, I do find myself often providing them with certain comforts to make their days easier. At the same time, the pace at which I run my children is different than the pace that they are able to maintain, so we are often running frantically to do all the things we wish to experience day to day and week to week. During the year, between dance classes, school work for the kids, my wife and I's teaching demands, and keeping up with the household responsibilities, the weeks can get both complicated and demanding.
One would think that the summer would offer a break, but we believe in seizing the summers. As teachers, we have less pay than others with similar education, so we believe that our paycheck arrives in the form of rays of sunshine, and salt from the ocean, and time with nothing to do but connect with our children. So, in the first month alone, we have been to the beach 8 times, been to Kennedy Space Center, swam with Manatees, toured Hollywood Studios, squeezed into Main Street for Independence Day Fireworks, and visited with several parts of our extended family. Furthermore, I have repaired the roof, planted flowers, cleaned the garage, rearranged parts of the house, hung drapes, and washed the windows. All this and we are just now entering week 5 of our summer.
So, when it comes to getting into that gym, it has been tough. In an effort to appease my wife and to encourage my children to stay fit, I have moved our treadmill to the upstairs. This works great for everyone except me. I'm 210 pounds, and it doesn't seem like that is ever going to change no matter how much I run. However, 210 pounds running upstairs on the treadmill shakes the entire house. And since I often run for an hour, its hard to find a time when I can do that and not be waking someone up, or interrupting someone's work or etc etc... The gym offers a treadmill I can abuse without it conflicting with my family, and although when I am done at the gym, it might be covered in sweat and begging for mercy, it all stays there. This also gives me a chance to get off the total gym here at home, and get in some serious resistance training.
So now this means finding 1.5 to 2 hours a day that I can escape and get to the gym. It now comes down to making this happen at all hours of the day and night. I've only been a member for 2 weeks, but I've been in the gym at 8am, 10pm, 3pm, 10:30am. I'm all over the place, and since I can't get myself into a regular schedule, I am constantly rethinking the work out I want to do each day. This makes getting through a workout even longer. Moreover, its been years since I have been faced with a room full of equipment, so I am also constantly trying to remember all of the exercises I want to do or that are available.
As I sit here an ramble, I realize of course that I could be done with my cardio and moving on to the weights, but sometimes I just have to get something off my chest before I can move on. If you're reading this, I'd be interested in how you deal with these types of challenges. I won't bore you with the problems I have nutritionally, just keep in mind that my parents are not interested in any kind of diet, so I live in a home filled with food food and more food! Arg!!!
Time to hit the gym, gotta run off these M&M's!
Monday, July 11, 2011
Friday, July 01, 2011
An Educator in Florida
As a teacher in Florida, I can't help but be offended by letters in the paper and comments from readers that our education system is broken and atrocious. The calls for privatization of the program and a move towards capitalism in teaching is both ridiculous and irresponsible.
Thomas Jefferson believed self governance required an educated populace. It therefore became the responsibility of the governed, the members of the community, to educate their children in order to take on the role of self governance as contributing members of the community. We are all responsible for the education of our young.
Now as the world has evolved and the nature of education has changed, the focus of our schools has come into question. I could raise the argument that Jefferson wasn't faced with our world globalization and worldwide competition for resources, but our government is designed to handle change and to grow to accommodate.
The very idea of handing off schools to private enterprise is just as irresponsible as the parent who doesn't go to school conferences or take an active role in their child's education. The call for vouchers is a direct threat to the nature of community. By removing oneself from the community and taking away your resources from the collective, you weaken the community as a whole and isolate yourself from society. Further, you take the position that you and your child are some how more important than the role we have for you in the community. I'm not suggesting that you not make yourself your first priority; however, I am suggesting that you have a duty to your community in the same way that you should vote, help your neighbors in need, take a role in community discourse, and lead by example.
People who can afford private education seek it out for two primary reasons; to provide a nonsecular environment for their children and/or the belief that their primary school is inadequate either due to class sizes, poor test scores, or the like. The cost of private education is high, and interesting enough the pay to the teachers and administrators at those schools is low. Except in some elite (translated as very high tuition schools) the resources are normally not any better than public schools as well.
Vouchers can be no more than the states contribution per child which is around $3000 dollars per year. This will not bring private school within the reach of most families. In fact, of the schools I've surveyed, this would not pay for even one semester of a private school tuition. So people who can already afford private school will get a tax break and a few people who were on the verge of sending their child to private schools may decide to move their child, but the vast majority of students in public education would not change. What would change however, is a permanent reduction of public school funding for all of those children who are currently in private schools who will have their tax money removed from the public school system. This a poor example to set and creates an even larger separation between the elite and the average.
If you wish to make a change in public education, then become a part of the solution. Take part in your community. We have school districts for a reason; to allow the community to take part in the discussion. The more we let state and federal laws into our schools the less control we have. By letting the state legislature decide the fate of your schools over the past 8 years you have let them dictate the terms of the debate. We now have nearly 5 weeks of testing in K-12 schools when you include all of the required local, state, and federal testing for all of the programs for which we are responsible. You must also remember that since you won't parent your children, we are asking the schools to take on that burden as well. Therefore, we teach sex education, look for signs of abuse, teach primary children where it is ok for people to touch them and when it is not, feed every student breakfast and many of them lunch, provide transportation to the school and back home again, create a well balanced and meaningful extracurricular program, and have an active sports and arts program. I challenge you to find one private school that will do all of these and still pay their people well and provide your student with transportation. Furthermore, you (and by you I mean the collective you) would have our legislature debate the merits of evolution vs. creationism and Tom Sawyer vs. Slaughterhouse 5 while you write letters to the editor decrying the downfall of our educational system.
You are responsible for the raising of your child. The public school system is a strong program that together with parents and the business community is here to provide and promote life long learning and a strong commitment to the advancement of our communities. As a teacher of 15 years I would challenge any one of you to come in my classroom and see what happens any day of the year before you write your letters to the editor and your legislator of the atrocities in our schools.
In closing, it is the communities responsibility to educate our children. I am proud to be an educator, and won't ask for more, but don't make me do my job with less. The cuts proposed and supported by community members should be felt by the community that supports it. I do not support any district leader who states that they will keep the cuts from the classroom. The cuts should be upfront and center so that every community member can feel the new burden placed on our schools. Our schools should not become the domain of a corporation who seeks profit; I want my schools to remain controlled by the public, by me. We are creating the community in which we choose to live, and I will continue to contribute to it.
- Just some teacher
Thomas Jefferson believed self governance required an educated populace. It therefore became the responsibility of the governed, the members of the community, to educate their children in order to take on the role of self governance as contributing members of the community. We are all responsible for the education of our young.
Now as the world has evolved and the nature of education has changed, the focus of our schools has come into question. I could raise the argument that Jefferson wasn't faced with our world globalization and worldwide competition for resources, but our government is designed to handle change and to grow to accommodate.
The very idea of handing off schools to private enterprise is just as irresponsible as the parent who doesn't go to school conferences or take an active role in their child's education. The call for vouchers is a direct threat to the nature of community. By removing oneself from the community and taking away your resources from the collective, you weaken the community as a whole and isolate yourself from society. Further, you take the position that you and your child are some how more important than the role we have for you in the community. I'm not suggesting that you not make yourself your first priority; however, I am suggesting that you have a duty to your community in the same way that you should vote, help your neighbors in need, take a role in community discourse, and lead by example.
People who can afford private education seek it out for two primary reasons; to provide a nonsecular environment for their children and/or the belief that their primary school is inadequate either due to class sizes, poor test scores, or the like. The cost of private education is high, and interesting enough the pay to the teachers and administrators at those schools is low. Except in some elite (translated as very high tuition schools) the resources are normally not any better than public schools as well.
Vouchers can be no more than the states contribution per child which is around $3000 dollars per year. This will not bring private school within the reach of most families. In fact, of the schools I've surveyed, this would not pay for even one semester of a private school tuition. So people who can already afford private school will get a tax break and a few people who were on the verge of sending their child to private schools may decide to move their child, but the vast majority of students in public education would not change. What would change however, is a permanent reduction of public school funding for all of those children who are currently in private schools who will have their tax money removed from the public school system. This a poor example to set and creates an even larger separation between the elite and the average.
If you wish to make a change in public education, then become a part of the solution. Take part in your community. We have school districts for a reason; to allow the community to take part in the discussion. The more we let state and federal laws into our schools the less control we have. By letting the state legislature decide the fate of your schools over the past 8 years you have let them dictate the terms of the debate. We now have nearly 5 weeks of testing in K-12 schools when you include all of the required local, state, and federal testing for all of the programs for which we are responsible. You must also remember that since you won't parent your children, we are asking the schools to take on that burden as well. Therefore, we teach sex education, look for signs of abuse, teach primary children where it is ok for people to touch them and when it is not, feed every student breakfast and many of them lunch, provide transportation to the school and back home again, create a well balanced and meaningful extracurricular program, and have an active sports and arts program. I challenge you to find one private school that will do all of these and still pay their people well and provide your student with transportation. Furthermore, you (and by you I mean the collective you) would have our legislature debate the merits of evolution vs. creationism and Tom Sawyer vs. Slaughterhouse 5 while you write letters to the editor decrying the downfall of our educational system.
You are responsible for the raising of your child. The public school system is a strong program that together with parents and the business community is here to provide and promote life long learning and a strong commitment to the advancement of our communities. As a teacher of 15 years I would challenge any one of you to come in my classroom and see what happens any day of the year before you write your letters to the editor and your legislator of the atrocities in our schools.
In closing, it is the communities responsibility to educate our children. I am proud to be an educator, and won't ask for more, but don't make me do my job with less. The cuts proposed and supported by community members should be felt by the community that supports it. I do not support any district leader who states that they will keep the cuts from the classroom. The cuts should be upfront and center so that every community member can feel the new burden placed on our schools. Our schools should not become the domain of a corporation who seeks profit; I want my schools to remain controlled by the public, by me. We are creating the community in which we choose to live, and I will continue to contribute to it.
- Just some teacher
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