Finding The Words......

As a parent and a teacher, it's a scene that I dread doubly, an unimaginable horror that isn't really unimaginable any more. :-(  It could have happened in any town or city or rural school in the country or the world, really. On one hand, I cannot imagine the thought that I as a parent could send my kids to school one morning and by that evening know that one or both of them might not be coming home ever again, wonder what the hell to do for the holidays, what to do with the gifts so lovingly selected for each child already wrapped, the empty beds at night and the quiet at the breakfast table in the morning. On the other hand, having children in elementary school myself, working with young children in elementary schools and younger myself, seeing the pictures in the news, for a horrifying moment now and again I see my own children's faces in those photos, or even myself leading children across a parking lot or sobbing over the loss of a child.

Predictably, my Facebook feed - and those of pretty much everyone I know - is lit up with calls for gun control, with calls for MORE guns, with pleas for improvements in mental health care, with comparisons to other countries' gun laws and crime statistics - you name it, everyone has an opinion. And really, how can we not? Whether it's because we're parents, because we're pro-gun or anti-gun, because we have nieces or nephews, because we're teachers, whether we're Liberal or Conservative or anything in between, it's human nature to have opinions (and to hold them in pretty high esteem).

Reading posts from my gun-owning friends on one hand - and my Facebook friends list contains probably a higher percentage than average of self-professed "gun-toting Liberals" - and from friends who are very much anti-gun, I was struck with how many threads dealt in shades of gray, and also how many also veered sideways into the larger topic of children dying in situations that don't make the news - which is perhaps another post for another day, and an important thing to keep in mind, but one I'm not really up for confronting on top of the Connecticut event just now beyond this link.

So with all that in mind, this is what I posted in response to the events yesterday, based on what I knew/know at the time:

Opting Out: The Practice Test - Updated December 6 2012

Since my 5th-grader said she had a meeting last week with the principal about her letter and I only heard about it from my kid (and nothing from the school), I asked the principal and another teacher who'd been at the meeting for their own impressions, and they invited me to a meeting this morning. The letter below is coming with me (with the names and date filled in, of course ;-)). We shall see.....


To Whom It May Concern:

We would like our daughter [5th-grader] to NOT participate in the practice MSA's to be held the morning of January XX, 2013, nor in any makeup of that same test. We plan to keep her at home that morning so the school does not need to find her an alternate activity during the testing, and furthermore we will be happy to take the initiative to engage her in other appropriate educational activities during that period of time.

Please feel free to contact me directly with any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,
Mr. and Mrs. [Blogger]


Well....... we shall see.....

[Update: since we're planning to keep her home that morning, the school isn't obligated to either test her or provide an alternate activity for her to do in school as they would for, say, kids who don't celebrate Halloween to do during the schoolwide Halloween celebration. So I've basically made it easy for them to acquiesce. :-) That really was the idea, as opposed to putting them in an awkward spot, as individual schools are already kind of between a rock and a hard place when it comes to these tests. Before the principal realized that I was planning to keep my Bookworm home (for the purpose of making it easier on the school :-)), the principal was worried about how it would be handled and was planning to contact the countywide test coordinator - which is of course totally appropriate, and I would have happily worked at that level to handle it too had it been necessary.

So yay, we got that round. :-)]

Fluoride in City Water - Part 6: My Comeback

Picking apart point by point; my picking-apart is in blue, and apologies in advance for the inconsistency in font size - I've spent about 45 minutes fighting with what should have been straightforward and now my children want their pumpkin pie leftovers for dessert (and rightfully so) so I'm leaving it for now:

Dear [Blogger Lady],

Thank you for contacting the City of Rockville regarding fluoride in City water. I am responding on behalf of the Mayor and Council, each of whom have received a copy of your email.  

As you indicate, you previously wrote to the Mayor and Council regarding this same issue in April 2012.  I want to assure you again that each of the Mayor and Council did receive that email and it was forwarded to J*** D***, Deputy Director of Utilities for review and input for a response.  The City places a high priority on customer service and being responsive to citizens like yourself. If the City were truly committed to being responsive, I'd like to think that I would have gotten that message more completely by getting something other than what amounted to a form letter from your office in April, with NO response whatsoever to my initial followup from any other office, except a survey asking whether I was satisfied with the way my complaint was handled. (For the record, I responded that I was not at all satisfied, but nobody followed up on that either, which also, to me, does not fit any definition of "responsive" with which I am acquainted.) I had no idea that my email was forwarded to anyone, as that information was not provided in the original response you sent me; I know, because I have the City's original response on my blog here, and my response to that - which got no further response from the City, not even an autoresponse "we got your note but we have nothing further to say." :-( Please be assured that City staff reviewed your email and the links you shared. So City staff read that fluoride negatively impacts thyroid function (hypothyroid and Hashimoto's thyroiditis are on the rise), is an endocrine disruptor that is being implicated in the increase in precocious puberty, may very well be contributing to bone damage especially in children, is associated with lowering IQ, and has been implicated in Alzheimers, and decided that the status quo was ok?!?!? REALLY?!?!? Fifty reasons articulated here to NOT fluoridate water, and the City doesn't bat an eye? Wow. Would the City be so cavalier about this if it were the Mayor or her family who suffered from any of these? Ms. D*** also received a copy of the email you sent today. [read on for more.]

Fluoride in City Water - Part 5: The (Mostly) Brush-Off

After this morning's missive to the City Council again, I came home from work today to find this in my Inbox:

"Dear Ms. [Blogger]:

Thank you for contacting the City of Rockville regarding fluoride in City water. I am responding on behalf of the Mayor and Council, each of whom have received a copy of your email.  

As you indicate, you previously wrote to the Mayor and Council regarding this same issue in April 2012.  I want to assure you again that each of the Mayor and Council did receive that email and it was forwarded to J*** D***, Deputy Director of Utilities for review and input for a response.  The City places a high priority on customer service and being responsive to citizens like yourself. Please be assured that City staff reviewed your email and the links you shared. Ms. D*** also received a copy of the email you sent today.  

We can see that you feel strongly about this issue and we respect that, however there are others that feel differently.  There are people on both sides of this issue, however adding fluoride to public water is a generally accepted public health practice and the City follows the guidelines provided by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), State of Maryland Office of Oral Health (OOH) and the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE), each of which support the fluoridation of public drinking water supplies and strongly encourage municipalities to do so. Rockville is not alone in adding fluoride to its water supply. The majority of neighboring water purveyors add fluoride to their water, including WSSC, DC Water, Fairfax Water, Leesburg, Fairfax City and the central water treatment plants in Frederick County and Loudoun County.  Our practice has always been to follow the MDE guidelines to provide community water fluoridation at the recommended fluoride levels. Currently the City targets 0.7 parts per million (ppm) fluoride in the finished water, which is at the lowest end of the optimal range (0.7 - 1.2 ppm) to prevent tooth decay. For your information, the background (naturally-occurring) fluoride level in the raw water (prior to treatment) is approximately 0.1 - 0.2 ppm.  We dose just enough fluoride to reach the target of 0.7 ppm.  Per your request, it costs the City approximately $0.01 per 1,000  gallons to fluoridate our water supply.

We are very sorry to hear about your medical condition, and appreciate the additional cost to you  associated with removing the fluoride.  One option would be to consider purchasing bottled distilled water for drinking and cooking, while using the public water supply for other domestic uses.  

If you would like to speak directly to the Mayor and City Councilmembers regarding this topic, we invite you to attend Drop In with the Mayor and a rotating Councilmember one Monday of each month, between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m.  The next Drop In is scheduled for Monday December 10, with Mayor Phyllis Marcuccio and Councilmember Bridget Donnell Newton. If you would like to attend, please contact the City Clerk's office at 240-314-8280 to register.  

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and concerns regarding this issue with the City of Rockville.

Sincerely,  
 
[Name Deleted by Me, the Blogger]
Council Support Specialist
City Manager's Office
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I am going to have soooo much fun with this. Seriously, it's like shooting fish in a barrel..... :-(

Fluoride In My City's Water, Part 4: What Next?

Dear City of Rockville:

I first wrote to you in April of this year when I was researching my thyroid disorder and was alarmed at some of the information I was coming across about fluoride in municipal water supplies, as Rockville is one city that does spend the money to add this substance to its own water supply. I received precisely ZERO responses from either the Mayor or any members of the City Council, aside from a more-or-less form letter stating that Rockville was adding what was recommended. NONE of my concerns was addressed in the slightest, and I frankly have no idea whether anyone even read the letter, let alone the numerous links that perform the function that citations would in a more formal paper.

In order for me to avoid this substance in my own drinking water, I would need to spend a prohibitive amount of money to filter it out. The product that was suggested to me by a City employee, ZeroWater, costs a bit more than a Brita pitcher and filter system, so relatively affordable, but needing replacement filters every 2 months or is adding up. My only other options are Berkey water filters (over $200 a pop, and that's before the actual filters!), reverse osmosis (also pretty pricey and not an option on a music teacher salary, not even in "only" 2 bathrooms and the kitchen instead of a whole-house filter), or bottled water. As it is, it's hard to find fluoride-free bottled water, but it's out there; a list is at the bottom of this link. I'm already paying for the poison, and I resent having to pay more - considerably more - to also avoid it.

Over the summer came this headline in the local paper that shows up in my driveway every Wednesday: "Rockville wants to ditch bottled water for good." Seriously? I would personally prefer to be able to feel OK with using tap water in my refillable water bottles, but how can I possibly feel comfortable with that, knowing what I know about fluoride? If bottled water is my only option for avoiding a toxic substance (which my tax dollars pay for, and which is being administered involuntarily to an entire city!), I don't think I should have to drive outside City limits in order to get it. Believe me, I'm not a fan of the pollution caused by the manufacture of plastic bottles, let alone what the empty bottles do to the environment, so I get the plan to reduce waste, but if you're going to spend the money on one hand to purchase fluoride and put it into MY water and then make it harder for me to find safe options to avoid it on the other, that's just nuts to me.

I would like to NOT be put off (again). I would like to know that my concerns are being HEARD and perhaps even ADDRESSED. I would like to know how much money it costs the City of Rockville to add this substance to our water despite an increasing body of evidence that it's not only not beneficial but downright harmful, and why we're blindly following recommendations instead of spending even 20 minutes to do a little research (or spending the 20 minutes to REALLY READ the first letter I wrote and even half the supporting links). And if my city leadership is considering limiting my outside options for safe water, I wish it would invest that much time and energy into increasing the appeal and safety of the water we already have.

Let's sum this up: Fluoride works TOPICALLY, not SYSTEMICALLY. By putting fluoride into municipal water, Rockville is at best medicating its citizenry without our consent and at worst administering toxins with known undesirable side effects, and doing so at cost to the taxpayers. For those with thyroid and other auto-immune issues, which is an increasing percentage of the population, fluoride can be particularly dangerous because of the way it interacts with the thyroid. The city leadership has failed to address the concerns of at least one citizen in anything resembling a satisfactory fashion and with all the personal attention of a traffic ticket. (Strike that - a traffic ticket would at least be followed up on till resolution had taken place.)

It's the week of Thanksgiving in America. There are many things about where I live that I'm thankful for. I'm thankful also that I'm in relatively good health despite the alarming number of harmful and potentially-harmful things that end up in our environment, and that I've been able to find ways to work around my thyroid disorder - but many others with Hashimoto's and other disorders and diseases that may be caused or exacerbated by toxins such as sodium fluoride aren't so lucky. I would like to be thankful for a City government which is responsive to its citizens' concerns, and instead of following the recommendations of an outside agency without batting an eye, does its own research and acts on behalf of its residents. So far, that hasn't made my list this year, at least not on this issue.

I'm asking the City of Rockville to consider a different kind of holiday gift to its residents this year: the removal of a toxin from its water supply.  Even serious consideration of the issue would be a good start. Our residents deserve to know that our City is truly committed to the health of its citizens.

[Mailed to my Mayor and City Council this morning, November 20, 2012, and cc'ed to Public Works.]

A Child's Response to the Standardized Testing Madness

Yesterday morning as I was braiding Younger Child's hair for school, Older Child was in the basement at the computer furiously typing away. "I'm going to write a protest letter!" she told me as she passed the doorway on her way downstairs; this week, in early November, students at her school are undergoing the first round of practice testing for the MSA, Maryland's standardized test, which is administered in March. Yes, that is FOUR MONTHS away, and there will likely be another round of practice tests and countless sessions of "how to find topic sentences" and "how to summarize contrived articles" before the real thing. Test preparation last year took us huge and unwieldy chunks of time and upset schedules right and left, all while stressing teachers and students to the max. When Older Child asked me why there were so many practice tests, and what they did with that information, and why she would have to make up a practice test if she missed it (because in all honesty I was planning to let her stay home this morning and go back in to school after the practice test was finished), I had no answers for her, and suggested she ask the people with the answers, and so the letter below was conceived.  My only admonishment was, "Make sure I get to read it before you print, please!"

Here, with only the signature edited out, is what she took to school yesterday, and with her permission I'm sharing it here:
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To Whom It May Concern,

    What is the point of the practice MSAs? If they’re just to get us ready for the proper MSA, we already are. Most of the fifth-graders have taken it at least once, and the fourth-graders have usually taken it once before. I know there are some people who have just come to this school and are new, and the third-graders certainly haven’t taken it before. Maybe they should have the practice MSA, but it doesn’t mean all three grades should have to take it. It messes up schedules, and last year, I had to choose between instrumental music and my special. Nobody offered a make-up time, instructions on which to do, or even an apology I’d have to miss something. I don’t even think that’s a choice people should have to make.
    It also eats up our reading and math time. We don’t even get to read when we finish a section of the practice MSAs! Maybe it’s not allowed on the real one, but what about the practices? You’re supposed to check your work when you’re done. Okay. Once you’ve checked your work three times and you still have ten or fifteen or maybe twenty minutes left, is there any merit to checking it again? And then what are you supposed to do? If it’s still “good practice”, why is it as strict as the real MSA?
    Last year, among all the vocabulary quizzes, words of the day, and learning time spent reviewing strategies and going through packets, I think we got in more than enough practice time, and the tests really seemed unnecessary.
    MSAs are about reading and math, but instead of spending our time working up to the MSA focusing on reading and math (and science, in the case of the fifth-graders), we focus on test strategies. We’re learning how to take a test, not how to be good at reading and math.
    Altogether, I think we overload on MSA practice.

Sincerely,
[My 5th-Grader]
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I'm so very proud of her! :-)

Non-Academic Skills: Can We Teach Those?

Currently typing away as Hurricane Sandy approaches the East Coast, her sights set on a point a couple hundred miles north but determined to give the Washington, DC area a wind-lashed deluge over the next few hours and interrupt my typing with power outages.

With this in mind, my younger child decided to use yesterday afternoon to be outside and to burn off calories and to just....be. She's been working on jumping rope recently. As recently as 4-5 weeks ago, she was jumping awkwardly and managing perhaps 3 or 4 jumps before the rope caught on her legs. She would try again, over and over, before giving up in tearful frustration - and then, a minute or 2 later, with the tears not yet dry on her face, she was at it again, raging at the rope and at her inexperience as it happened again and again. And then, something very interesting happened.