Daniel Voyles

So, I’m now a student at SIUC. I’m attempting to gain a bachelor of science in Information Systems. To be honest, I’m thinking this is a lofty goal. My time constraints are pretty tight, and so I’m afraid that my coursework may suffer as a result.

60 hours/week driving and working.

56 hours/week sleeping (I wish).

20 hours/week dedicated to family.

That’s 136 hours per week already tied up. Now if I add in the recommended time for coursework @ 48 hours/week, I’m up to 184 hours out of 168 used up. I’m already negative and I haven’t included anything for just relaxing. I suppose if I reduce sleep to 6 hours/night then I should be able to make it. Still, I’m thinking this may have been a severe lapse in judgment on my part. Time will tell.

For many years in a row now the Mount Vernon Primary Center has failed to reach the NCLB standards. This leads to an option for us to send our kids to other schools in the area, however the superintendents of the districts have allegedly colluded to not accept students from any of the other’s districts.

Recently, we were also informed that our children are afforded tutoring since the district continues to fail the standardized tests. I have not read up fully on that aspect, but how long can this go on before the government comes in and just shuts them down? I would think not too long.

Not to mention all of the wonderful new tools like smartboards the teachers have, but some don’t even know how to use by their own admission. No doubt these tools were paid for with one of the many, many fundraisers they send home for us to pawn junk off to our friends and family every year. Apparently the fundraising isn’t actually helping much.

However, the majority of teachers I have interacted with are nice and seem to care a great deal about the children they are charged with educating. However, the children must have some desire to learn. That desire to learn starts at home with parents enforcing that skool larnin’s is ipo’tent.

I fear that a chunk of the children are not receiving this reinforcement at home, and thus they do not give a shit about how they do on the standardized testing.

As a result, the rest of the school suffers with a continued failure to meed NCLB standards. This leads to absolutely zero education for our children outside of math, grammar, and spelling. A snippet of music, physical education, and a tiny bit of technology are about it from what I understand.

Now, instead of pinning the failure of the school to meet NCLB standards on one neighborhood school or two, all children must suffer. Those who can afford to do it, send their children to one of the local private schools to avoid the quagmire.

In turn, this leads to the school still receiving the same amount of taxes to operate, but having to educate fewer children. Was this planned? I don’t know. Still, it is the end result.

Still, the facility looks great when businesses or prospective residents take a tour. I feel sorry for them if they are not smart enough to ask for the NCLB results though…

For years and years the major publishing companies have controlled how we and our children are educated. Paying an outrageous price for books has just been a fact of life with these corporations doing what they can to educate, but at a profit. From the books your kindergarten teacher used to the overpriced Linux books you buy in college,  this problem never seems to end.

Until now.

Frankly, I have been wondering why schools keep blowing through budgets by buying these overpriced novelty items. With the advent of the Internet, free operating systems, Linux running on oooooold PCs, free ‘Course Management Software’, and willingness of people like me to help schools – WHY?

Honestly, I can’t answer that question. I can offer some possible reasons, but I’m not the one making decisions at our schools. Perhaps too many educators are stuck in the rut of using the same way things have always been as their methodology. Perhaps the colleges don’t want to give up their revenue stream, as hypothesized here.

When I took Cisco courses over the past couple of years, there were no printed texts. Every bit of the curriculum, save for hands-on, was online. There is very little reason that schools could not move to the same format. The books are available if need be, but access to the world wide web negates that need.

Yes, I know that not everyone has a PC at home. However, quite a few do have one that they goof with quite a bit. Shouldn’t they have the ability to use it to study as well? Even without Internet access, CDs could be burnt, library access is available, and there are study halls.

Maybe I’m too much into wishful thinking, but it seems we are due for change. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

Christ. Apparently I can’t send Amaya or Erich to school with a peanut butter sandwich now because the Primary Center is now a ‘nut-free zone’. I have many wisecracks about that assumption, given this idiotic decision, but I’ll hold them for now.

I know that some people are allergic to nuts, fine. Sucks to be them, especially as a kid, and I agree we should accomodate them as well as is possible. Unfortunately, I also feel that attempting to make an entire school nut-free is idiotic.

This point was made very evident to me tonight. Em sent a note to Erich’s teacher about bringing cupcakes in for his birthday on Wednesday. The teacher sent home a nice little note about how that would be fine and that right after lunch would be a good time. Unfortunately, we must go purchase the special nut-free cupcakes from Kroger or Wal-Mart since the ones on the shelf are made at a plant where they may have been breathed-on by someone who had a peanut butter sandwich 3 months ago.

Yes, I exaggerate, but it’s to make a point. What happens if Erich is allergic to honey? Do we get to ban honey and honey containing products from the school, school lunches, etc.? How about gluten? Gluten is a new hot-button allergy that people are scared of.

I understand that a kid with a bad nut allergy needs to have special accomodations, but damn. There has to be a line drawn somewhere. Perhaps I’ll send him to school with peanut butter cookies.

El yay. I finally got my AAS degree in the mail today. I now have proof that I spent two years fine-tuning my IT skills with official curriculum. Rend Lake definitely has a great program in my opinion. The instructors go out of their way to help you learn material.

While at RLC I picked up quite a bit of knowledge about networking, VoIP, and LAN/WAN design. While most of my Windows support experience was at my job/internship, that’s normal. Most of IT is basic knowledge with a lot of real world experience thrown into the mix.

It was a strenuous path to keep going sometimes, but well worth the trip. I met a lot of great people in the program too. Most of us are still in contact via the various social networks. Perhaps we can all have a reunion at some point.

I have to say that I’m kind of proud of myself for attaining a degree. Yes, I know an Associate degree isn’t a huge accomplishment, but it’s what I’ve got and I worked hard for it.

Now if I could just get this job thing worked out…

It seems to never fail. When the weather changes, usually for the good, the kids and I get sick. Naturally, that will fall to Emily as well since she is around us all the time. It can’t happen when there is snow on the ground, nor when it’s raining like it was for the past week. During those times, we could at least comatose on cold drugs and just sleep through it.

No, this has to happen when the kids should be at school and the weather is gorgeous outside. I should be out there mowing down my yard, but I’m posting this and enduring calls for more juice and ‘Daddy, my head hurtsssss…’

It’s a bunch of crap. Stupid illnesses always getting in the way of fun and outdoor activity. At least we did get to enjoy the zoo Monday before this plague kicked-in. I know I already posted about it, but it was fun to get out of town and spend some time together.

Well, enough whining about bad-illness-timing. I’m off to fetch more juice and take some antibiotics. I’m a wild man, sir. I’ll try to keep the noise down.

Well, today we went to the zoo. It was Amaya’s end of the year field trip. We took Erich and went over to see all the animals on display.

As usual, there were what you normally expect to see at a zoo, but this year, they added a stingray pool. You can walk up to the pool, pet a stingray, and for a dollar more even feed one. Since I had no desire to pet them Emily and the kids went through and did the bit. It would seem the consensus is that they feel like wet portobello mushrooms. I don’t like mushrooms, so it’s probably better I didn’t go.

Then we went through the penguin habitat. I was very excited to see the penguins since they are the mascot for my operating system. (Geeks, what do you do with them?) I have to say the outside area where the puffins are located is horrible smelling. That’s what you get in an enclosed bird habitat I suppose. Inside was a little better. There was a pool that the emperor penguins seemed to love swimming in and showing off for the crowd.

My wife had to be the troublemaker. She reached out and touched a penguin. Granted, there weren’t any signs to the contrary, but common sense should tell you to not play with or touch the wild animals. Apparently Emily was absent that day. She was lightly scolded by the elderly volunteer worker and we went about the rest of our trip.

Erich and Amaya had a blast seeing all of the animals up close and live instead of on television, and that’s really all the trip was about. Now if I could just keep their mother under control, everything would be great.

Pictures to come in the Flickr photostream.

I’m sure it’s just me, actually, I know it’s just me. I’ve just graduated after a long two years, my job hasn’t paid me, and now I’m searching for new employment.

While I have been looking for more gainful employ for some time, it kind of takes on a new importance when you don’t have anything currently. I’m pretty sad about that since I did like my job, but if the state doesn’t pay them, they can’t pay me. Silly bill collectors demand a little more than ‘The state is two years behind in paying my company, so they can’t pay me.’ Oh well, trying times make you stronger.

I am sad that I won’t see the guys and gals that went through the program with me. We all keep in touch via social networks and some calls, but it’s not the same as seeing them a couple of times each week. I have to say they are all pretty cool people, and were great to work with in class.

Well, times change. Guess I’m changing with them. Still, everything at once kind of robs me of any stability. That is something I miss as well – a predictable routine.