LIFE IN A FLYOVER STATE: Education in Oklahoma

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Education in Oklahoma

Last night the Oklahoma City school board adopted a new calendar. This coming school year -- 2011/2012 -- will begin August 1 and end June 1. The Oklahoma City school board is referring to this new school calendar as "continuous learning." I was heartened by this development until I read further into the article (which is in today's The Oklahoman). The amount of days in the school calendar remains the same -- 173. The days have just been redistributed.

Why not add more days? Apparently the Indianapolis Public Schools adopted a similar calendar, except they added 20 more days. Hooray for Indianapolis! Smart people.

You know why Oklahoma City didn't add more days? That would mean paying teachers more. Heaven forbid that Oklahoma should increase teachers' salaries.

Oklahoma gives lip service to wanting better education for our children, but when it comes to putting our money where our mouth is, we shut our pocketbooks and close our checkbooks, refusing to pay more in taxes. Taxes should be called "life enhancements." (See my previous post regarding life enhancements.)

Don't you want your child to do better in life than you did?

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We can see the beautiful Wichita Mountains from our front yard. People make fun of the fact that we call them mountains, but they are one of the oldest ranges in the United States. The Wichitas are just lying on their collective side. Frankly, I would be lying down also if I were over 500 million years old. Time wears us all down eventually. Even granite!

There’s a lake one mile to the west of us, but it is best viewed from a distance. It is still the ugliest lake I’ve ever seen and though I am fond of this area, my opinion about that lake has not changed over the years.

When we moved here 30 years ago, there were not the neighborhoods just to the south of us that there are now. Our neighbor to the north -- and that neighbor is one-half mile away -- runs cattle on her pasture. The pasture across the road from us is owned by the school district. That land is rented out for farming and grazing. Deer still surprise us and an occasional bobcat or coyote grabs a chicken from our coop. Our Suffolk sheep walk up to our dining room windows and peer in every once in awhile, baaing.

There is a military post on the other side of the Wichitas. If we go out at certain times of the day, we can see rockets streaking across the sky. Also, we will hear booming cannons firing on the practice ranges. It’s especially loud in the winter time when the humidity is low and troops are training on the east range. Once five Chinook helicopters hauling Army tanks flew low over our pasture. The post is the only fort built during the Indian Wars that is still active today. It was staked out on January 8, 1869. Its history is a rich one.

We can walk the same stretch of road everyday of every year and always see something different. We have to pay attention some days to see the changes, but we have the time.