Thursday, March 11, 2010
A Maplewood writer shares her Landmark Education experience.
I first heard about the Landmark Education about 10 years ago. An acquaintance mentioned she had just completed a course. She revealed that while taking the class, she realized many things about herself, including the fact that she was in love with a mutual friend. I was shocked. I could not imagine them together. Surprise, surprise. They have now been happily married for years. If you're wondering what I am talking about, allow me to explain. Landmark Education is an international organization that offers courses that are geared towards self discovery. Confused? So was I. Landmark came back to my attention a year ago. I was conducting an interview for a profile I was writing for Patch. I always ask people where they get inspiration for …
Friday, March 5, 2010
An application by Matthew Carmel, owner of the gun dealership Constitution Arms, to sponsor a team for the South Orange-Maplewood Baseball League was rejected.
Why did the chicken cross the road? To avoid a law-abiding gun dealer who wanted to support his local baseball team. In October of last year, I, Matthew Carmel, an NRA Certified Pistol Instructor, licensed firearm dealer and gun designer, contacted the taxpayer-supported South Orange Department of Recreational & Cultural Affairs seeking to sponsor a Little League baseball team. After months of correspondence, delays and bureaucratic avoidance, I finally received his answer: "The Executive Committee of the league voted not to accept Constitution Arms as a sponsor." Although the committee refused to provide a reason for the denial, it is fairly clear that someone has a problem with firearms and the shooting sports. But more galling is…
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Surviving a trip to the art museum with three kids
Recently, I've been feeling like all we do on the weekends is take the kids to basketball practice, read and watch TV. The snow was a nice diversion and we did sled, frolic and shovel—but even winter wonderland got old (and cold) after day three. So I decided it was time for a trip to the city. I grew up in downtown Chicago, so it's important to me that my kids are city savvy. As much as I love and miss Chicago, I feel fortunate to live so close to New York, the greatest city in the world. My husband and I want our three boys to love NYC as much as we do and feel comfortable and safe there. I went to college in Massachusetts and I remember taking the subway into Boston with some friends who were afraid and uptight just getting around. I …
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Are pop lyrics appropriate for young music fans?
I have always liked a wide variety of music—from Springsteen to show tunes—but I admit I'm a sucker for pop. I'm not sure when you're too old to like all the songs on the cheesiest pop stations but I have yet to hit that dreaded age. When we leased our minivan, they threw in three free months of XM Radio. It's genius marketing. If you like all different kinds of music and talk and can't tolerate ads, satellite radio is for you. So after my three months were up, I was gladly coerced into a contract that I don't regret for one beat. I am in the car quite often, driving the kids from here to there so the radio is my trusted companion. I switch around but often land on the pop, rock, and oldies stations. As a Jersey girl at heart, I am also a …
Are we really paying more taxes than we used to?
Here in New Jersey it has become conventional wisdom that we are grossly overtaxed—that tax cuts are the only cure for the slew of evils besetting us. After having watched my own property tax bills more than double since I moved to Maplewood in 1997, it was a sentiment I found hard to gainsay. I did wonder though, if my taxes are so high, why does there seem to be no money available to pay for anything? Our schools and municipalities, after all, have been retrenching and cutting back on programs almost continuously during my entire 13-year tenure in the state, despite vertiginous (some might say outrageous, or even confiscatory) local tax increases. I did some poking around on the internet and, much to my surprise, found that far from …
Friday, February 12, 2010
A letter from Mark Gleason, President of the South Orange Maplewood Board of Education
Gov. Christie today unilaterally rewrote New Jersey's tax code, assigning higher tax rates to property owners in some towns to offset lower tax rates for others. I applaud the new governor's forthrightness in tackling the state's immense deficit on the grounds that our current course is unsustainable. Yes, stabilizing the state's finances requires cuts even in crucial areas like education. But by making cuts in state aid apply only to school districts that have surpluses from prior years, and by selectively applying bigger cuts to some districts than others, he is forcing higher tax rates on towns where school officials have effectively exercised cost control and under-spent their budgets. He is rewarding districts that have left …
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Preparing for the Big Game Lefferts style
I live in a house with all males who are football fanatics. All season, they watch college and pro games, pour over highlights, and keep track of stats. The rest of their time is spent tossing the pigskin around the backyard with their friends. So, even though their beloved Giants were not in the game this year, Super Bowl Sunday is like a religious holiday in Leffertsland. It started early Sunday morning when ten-year-old Jacob and six-year-old Aden got into a screaming match over who was going to wear the one Saints jersey we have. Over the past several years, Jacob has asked for a gaggle of official NFL jerseys from many different teams for various presents. Several equally obsessed grandparents happily obliged. We happen to have a …
Friday, February 5, 2010
Unstructured play is making a comeback.
For some time now play has been under attack. The most obvious example is in our schools. With all the emphasis on test scores and more time in the classroom some schools have reduced time for play or cut it out altogether. But recently a number of leading social scientists and educators are promoting the idea that unstructured time is an essential part of childhood development that helps to shape the brain and opens the imagination. And, according to a new book by Dr. Stuart Brown entitled "Play" without enough play at an young age, children lose some of the ability to interact with other people later in life and they're less able to think creatively. Just so we're all on the same page what I mean by play are unstructured activities that …
As it faces cutbacks in special education, did the South Orange Maplewood School District move too fast on reform and innovation?
In the past two years, more money has been poured into special education than any other part of the South Orange Maplewood School District budget—but that's on the verge of being cut back. This year alone, inclusion classes were added in every grade in every elementary school. These are classes team-taught by regular and special education teachers. Twenty-nine new teachers were hired, experts trained staff and new technology purchased, in a bold and expensive move funded by $1.5 million in federal stimulus funding. But was it too much, too fast? "It's going to be hard to promise we can sustain everything we've started so far," schools superintendent Brian Osborne told a large group of parents attending the February 4 meeting of the Special…
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Why don't we let our kids go more than two or three hours without a snack?
There was a great article in the Dining section of The New York Times last week about how parents have gotten out of control in providing snacks for their kids. The writer lamented the fact that children often don't go for two to three hours without someone offering them a bite. The cultural norm has become kids with an inability to participate in any organized activity without "simultaneously shoving something into their pie holes." Hilarious and so true. Our little dumplings expect to be fed at every class party, sporting event and birthday celebration. God forbid they come home from school and don't have enough choices to satisfy their alleged hunger. They can't really be ravenous, so is this boredom—or merely routine expectations? I …
Thanks for sharing this Judie. I am a Landmark graduate and an aspect I have found powerful is the type of conversations I am now able to have that I never thought possible before. For me, it has been all about humanity. more ›