Can you call it the heart of the city, when no-one knows where it is?

12/23/16

© words and pictures by Dan DeMarle 2016

In the winter the water freezes, but does it ever freeze completely?  Does you heart every freeze completely, other than in death.  Your heart beats on, and the water and the potential of the water continues.

12/16/16

© words and picture by Dan DeMarle 2016

What a conundrum – The NY State Testing Program. For all my friends, you are entirely correct to push to opt students out of the testing. It is lousy testing, and the testing program begun by the Bush Administration under No Child Left Behind has severely distorted Education and made teachers, not teachers but simply methods of pushing precanned material aimed at teaching to these tests.This has severely damaged the profession of teaching, and the education of countless children.

The problem is that the push to opt out, only seriously started when more and more white suburban School Districts began to be seriously hurt by this testing. Prior to that time, many, many urban students and urban school Districts were getting hammered by the testing. Many urban schools were closed, and then reopened due to the failing grades of urban students on these tests. This happened for years before parents in majority white school districts correctly took up the call to opt out. No one seemed to care about the urban students prior to that time.

Of course the outcry really began when teachers were suddenly going to have their performance reviews based in part on how their students did on this testing. While this was largely useful for Schools with low student turnover, it was vastly unfair to teachers, again largely in Urban Districts with very high student turn over.  In these situations a teachers job performance could be negatively or positively impacted by the scores of a student that they may only have had in their class for the last month or days.

While this was true, no-one really cared before that time about all the students who failed to do well, year after year on this testing.I frequently find patients who come to me who have received scores of 1 or 2s on this testing for years, and no-one has explained to the parent or student that those scores were indicative of a serious disability.  Years wasted as schools and districts simply said, the testing is lousy and everyone does poorly.

Now if your child does not have any disabilities, if they have always done well on the testing, I strongly encourage you to opt your child out. If however your child is a patient of mine, if they have done poorly on past testing, if they currently have a Section 504 plan or an IEP, DO NOT opt them out.  While the testing is terribly flawed, it is standardized and it is norm referenced. This means it gives you much more meaningful data about your students’ learning and progress then any report card or any F&P number or letter.  Additionally if they do poorly it will force the School District to provide some level of AIS or RTI support. Of course if they do get a 1 or 2 on the testing, don’t settle for the “oh its not meaningful, don’t worry” Maybe it is, but, maybe its not.  If not follow-up with your school or your pediatrician or family doctor. Or if necessary come see me, then I can explain what it really means.

Years ago my eldest sister collected mushrooms.  As a young college student, I drove across the State to her wood stove heated, out door toileted house. She and my brother in law had collected mushrooms that day, and made a delicious mushroom tofu dish.  Thinking back on it, it was a gorgeous meal, with wonderful company.  All before any of us were parents. Back when we had time to sit around a wood stove and talk and laugh, and then to walk out in the night and see the gorgeous stars.

Years later, my second oldest sister gave my new wife and I mushrooms for Christmas. It was a log that we kept in the bathtub and every week or so for a month, we would have a harvest of mushrooms.  What I remember is my young wife and I making some delicious mushroom soup.  It was a unique and very appreciated gift, and great soup.

For those who know about mushrooms, they are veritable feast growing all around us.  Of course for those of us who don’t, they can easily be deadly.  There’s a whole secret world of arcane knowledge that must be learned to pick mushrooms. In another life,  I will take the time to learn it.

© picture by Dan DeMarle 2017

Fred stormed into the kitchen demanding to know where his wallet was.  He slammed the cabinet door with his fist and screamed at his wife. Ruth froze for a moment, the color draining from her face.  The children sat stunned at the table.  Maryellen’s fork half way to her mouth.  Jake was starting to push away from the table and getting ready to run from the room. Ruth looked at the picture of Jesus next to the refrigerator. She grabbed the knife tighter in her hand and turned to face her husband.

Part of my Americana series.

© words and pictures by Daniel DeMarle 2017

“What a school thinks about its library is a measure of what it feels about education.”
― Harold Howe

© picture by Dan DeMarle 2017

Funny how if I had wanted to pose someone in this picture, it would have been someone with a hat like this and a coat like this. Funny how fate works.

Part of my Americana series

Estate sale 12/4/16

© Words and picture by Dan DeMarle 2016

There’s a personnel connection that exists when biking through a neighborhood versus when driving through that same neighborhood. As an example I am much more likely to stop at a little store or bakery when on my bike then in my car. It just somehow seems like more of a hassle to pull the car over, get out, lock the car, shop, get back in the car, versus just getting off the bike and locking it. Sometimes, it is literally easier to park the bike right next to the store, versus finding parking somewhere nearby. During the recent storm, it was much easier to get off the bike and push peoples stuck car/s versus doing the same thing in a car. I have seen, over the years, dozens and dozens of walkers or bicyclists stop to help someone who needs a push in a car, versus seeing car drivers doing so. It is also easier to stop, check on things, double back to check on something, and if necessary intervene or call 311 or 911 when on a bike versus in a car. Lastly I am a better artist when on a bike. Its much easier to take a photo from the bike than a car.  Much easier to get off the bike to get a picture, then to get out of the car.  My point is that I am the same person when I am on a bike or in a car, but I am a better citizen, a better neighbor, a better artist, and a better asset to my community when I am on a bike.

© words and picture by Dan DeMarle 2017

Everything you think you own, everything you love and want, everything you have touched and desired, is not yours.  It will pass on to its next owner, to its next destination after you are no longer here.  All your acts, all your in actions, will still be here, although they will only exist as ripples.  Ripples lapping on distant lives that do not know where they came from.  So why are you here? Why do you try? Why do you act?  Because you are a unique collection of DNA that will never exist again.  You are a unique pattern of energy, and energy does not die, it simply changes. Because your life has meaning, even if it is only to you.

The lonely monocled British soldier stood silently on his watch in the field of fresh fallen snow.  His commander had ordered him to stand watch on the edge of the field. His feet were cold, his hands were cold, and his clothes were soaked.  As he stood he thought about the time Jane and he had gone into that chocolate shop in London and stood by the lit fireplace and had hot chocolate.  He was unsure what he craved more at that moment, the warmth of the fire, the Hot Chocolate, or the feeling of her hands in his as she stood on her toes and he lowered his head to kiss her lips.

Dusk 3/15/17 snow covered plant taken in the midst of a plus 20 inch snow storm

© words and pictures by Dan DeMarle 2017