Back To School

This is the video of my favorite Schoolhouse Rock animation (Verb! That's what happenin'). My second is the one about the bill, did I take you back? I like all of them to tell the truth though. There are so many good ones. My kids like the one about the pronouns. If you can remember, it's the one about the guy who has a friend named Rufus Xavier Sasparilla. If you got young kids, you need to put them up on Schoolhouse Rock. I passed the Preamble recital back in the day solely on my memory of the Schoolhouse Rock rendition of it.

Memphis City Schools begin registration for the '08-'09 school year next Tuesday and school starts the following Monday so I gotta make sure I don’t miss the opportunity to buy tax-free school supplies this year.

This weekend, parents can purchase certain items in Tennessee without paying state sales tax including school supplies, school uniforms, shoes, computers, and backpacks.

I don't know if I've said this before but my younger son plays football for John P. Freeman this year. He played basketball for them before and he's also in the band but it's his first year playing football. They've been practicing for the last couple of weeks and I can't wait to see him this weekend in the scrimmage game against Bellevue.

Two more scrimmages are scheduled before the season starts the 21st of August against Geeter @Whitehaven. Scrimmage @ AMWalker and another @ JPFreeman. The other team will be announced later. I gotta get the full schedule from my son. Don't plan on missing a game!

I know I've said that my older son attends Whitehaven and he's in the band but I've never mentioned my babies. They are twins and are in their last year in elementary school. I tried to get them in John P but they were full. I will try again next year but next time I will be sure to apply for their transfer earlier than I did this year.

I am pleased with the school they attend now but it would be much easier on me if I could get them and my son from the same school. As of right now, I have to fight traffic @ three different schools when I pick them up after school. Good for me, they're close to one another.

My older son turned 16 in May and he now has his driving permit. Soon he'll be getting his license but if he's anything like his daddy, I can wait for that day but that's a whole nother post.

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Band Season

Band season has started again. Not for me but for one of my sons. He plays trombone for Whitehaven and summer band has started for the Sounds Of Perfection. Right now it looks like this band year is gonna cost me about 900 so far. Not counting the cost of a horn, jogging suit, shoes and spats. When I marched for Whitehaven, the school board furnished most if not all the instruments. Now the students have to provide their own instruments. What really angers me is if the principal decides that he wants the band to support the football team @ away games, the band has to provide its own transportation to the games! You may not believe this but it costs the band about as much for a chartered bus as for one of those yellow school buses. No matter if it's around the block or across town, the prices are the same. This practice is a pure ripoff. That's why when the Sounds of Perfection travel, we ride in style. By force not by choice.


This season's football schedule is as follows...........

Sat. Aug. 23 vs. Mitchell

Fri. Aug. 29 vs. Fairley 3rd annual Whitehaven Classic

Fri. Sep. 5 vs. White Station

Fri. Sep. 12 at Melrose

Fri. Sep. 19 at Collierville

Fri. Oct. 3 vs. Hamilton

Fri. Oct. 10 vs. Houston

Fri. Oct. 17 at Kirby

Whitehaven vs. Fairley is the hood game. I grew up in the Fairley district but I transferred to Whitehaven. I won't miss this game. Everyone from the hood will be there. We been stomping Fairley for years!

Aug. 31, 2007 at Fairley 6, Whitehaven 35
Aug. 19, 2006 at Whitehaven 13, Fairley 0
Aug. 20, 2005 at Fairley 8, Whitehaven 13
Aug. 28, 2004 at Whitehaven 25, Fairley 0
Aug. 29, 2003 at Whitehaven 33, Fairley 8
Aug. 30, 2002 at Whitehaven 24, Fairley 26 (they cheated!!)
Aug. 24, 2001 at Fairley 6, Whitehaven 22

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Reception for Cash

The Memphis School Board will have a reception to welcome Dr. Kriner Cash on Monday, July 7, 2006 @ his first public event as the new superintendent of Memphis City Schools. The event is scheduled for 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. @ the Teaching and Learning Academy @ 2485 Union Avenue and all are invited.

Dr. Kriner Cash officially became the next superintendent of Memphis City Schools in a special meeting of the Memphis Board of Education a week ago but the board voted unanimously to hire Cash June 10. Cash spent the past four years working as chief of accountability and systemwide performance for Miami-Dade (Fla.) County Public Schools and nearly 10 years as superintendent in Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.

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Sparing The Child While Spoiling The Parent

A few weeks ago, Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton, a former superintendent of the school system, said corporal punishment, which hasn't been used in Memphis City Schools since 2004 when the school board banned the controversial form of punishment, needs to return to city classrooms . While presenting his plan to overhaul Memphis' education system, Mayor Herenton told the city council that he proposes reinstating the practice of paddling students in grades K through 8.


I have plenty of memories of being told to bend over and grab my ankles while a teacher administered three blows to my backside with a paddle. I wasn't an unruly student but I liked to talk. If I did when I wasn't supposed to and got caught, I knew the consequences. Corporal punishment worked in the past mostly because children were used to being held accountable for their actions and even expected to be punished for their wrong doings. Most kids nowadays never get so much as a stern look for misbehaving from their parents. In fact, misbehavior from young kids is mostly looked upon as being funny or cute. How can today's teachers be expected to establish clear behavior expectations and guidelines at school when the same obviously isn't being done at home in most cases?

The best way of dealing with school misbehavior is by preventing it. Schools with good discipline not only correct misbehavior but also practice teaching appropriate behavior and coping skills. Furthermore, parents should be held more responsible for the actions of their children while attending school. If they don't want their children to be disciplined by authority figures, every time their child acts up they should be required BY LAW to attend that child's class for a specific amount of time to monitor their child's behavior. Once the parent misses enough days from work or and I hate to say this, misses enough episodes of their favorite soap opera, I am pretty sure that parent will pay more attention to their child's behavior. No more sending the child home on a mini-vacation to sit in front of the tv and play video games only to get the suspension cleared and be allowed to come back in 3 days to do the same thing all over again.


If you live where corporal punishment is allowed, do you feel like it is working? Do you want to see the practice continue? If you live where such punishment is banned, would you support its re-introduction into the classroom? Twenty-two states allow some form of corporal punishment while twenty-eight have banned the practice.

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When Gaining 18 cents Costs $496,000,000.00

Last week, members of the Memphis City Council surprised Memphis City Schools last week with an ill-timed and ill-considered funding decision to cut school funding by $73 million. Council members hope to eliminate all city funding to the district in the 2009-10 budget. The city first provided money to city schools in 1937.

The county schools teacher who led the fight to cut city schools funding, Councilman Bill Morrison, stated he does not know how students will be affected and neither do those who supported the cut, which will shave a whopping $91 a year from the city property tax bill on a home valued at $200,000. The school board is being forced to consider a number of options beyond the immediate step of a management hiring freeze. Consideration has to be given to the risks of spending its budget reserves that would leave the district vulnerable to a potential catastrophic event. It will also be forced to look at the possibility of shutting down extracurricular activities or discontinuing valuable academic programs such as optional schools and advanced placement courses.

Now I have just read that if the City Council doesn't reinstate $73.3 million in funding to Memphis City Schools, the Tennessee Department of Education is going to withhold $423 million from the district. The state was expected to provide $423 million toward the district’s $931 million operating budget for 2008-09 and the schools are counting on that state funding, which would make up 45 percent of providing that $423 million toward the district’s $931 million operating budget for 2008-09.

In an emergency meeting Friday night, the Memphis Board of Education voted to file suit if the City Council won't reconsider its decision to cut more than $70 million from the district's budget. I didn't graduate with a business or accounting major but something here just doesn't seem right to me. The state is planning on withholding FOUR HUNDRED TWENTY-THREE MILLION DOLLARS just because the city won't fund $73 million? This decision would totally cripple the city school system. How can they justify this? And to think, this all started because last week, council members made cuts in order to reduce the property tax rate by 18 fvcking cents and now the city school system stands to lose $496 million!!!

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