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Wabaunsee County Signal-Enterprise
Alma, Kansas
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November 21, 2002     Wabaunsee County Signal-Enterprise
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November 21, 2002
 
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By: Patty McQueen Just reading the TV the articles, I was what my shows are about this week. As tell, I am quite a I watch "Enter- Which is the latest in Trek ~dynasty. This the show description "As the Enterprise black hole, members are exposed to ra- which causes them to increasingly obsessed tasks". people compare to a black hole. be how I was ex- radiation. I've proba- obsessed with mun- longer than l've |Arkansas, but it's been evident since may- and remaining un- This has become obvious to me since to work full time at a ob two weeks ago. out being realistic. it would be stressful learning a new job. I told myself to forget home until I got in. That worked fine weekend. The first we had plans for the that took us away homemaker respon- That left Sunday. I did laundry all on cleaning the cooked some food, made cookies Church function and to put up the outdoor lights. my surface is Can anyone tell work full time, do you get every- spend time with and have any to pucker up for your Notice I _don't any time for myself here. The dog isn't helping ei- ther. Each night when I get home, she acts like I've been gone for a weekl I'm not sensing any sympa- thy here. The rest of the world is looking at me and saying, "Gee, now you're just like the rest of us, huhl" As long as I'm whining, I am not adjusting well to get- ting up at 5:30 in the morningl What are people thinking when they start their clays that earlyl I have always re- quired at least the amount of sleep that experts say everyone should have each night, which is eight hours. Give me ten hours and I'm an immensely likable person. But let's do some math. Getting up at 5:30 a.m. and getting eight hours of sleep means I would have to be asleep by 9:30 p.m. My TV shows aren't over until ten. And how about that com- mute? The last nine years I worked, I commuted six blocks. It took me five min- utes and that included drop- ping the kids at school. Now it takes more than an hour, round trip. I could be sleeping. I could be getting any number of things done at home. But no. Instead, I'm out on the highway with people who probably took their drivers training in the woods on four wheelers. My reaction to this insanity is constantly tem- pered by the Jesus tag I have on the front of my vehicle. Please don't misunderstand. My family is being very supportive and helpful. The feeling of failure is a burden I • place upon myself. It's hard to let go of mundane tasks. I'm sure I'll be fine after a short adjustment period. Say a year or so. And on the up- side, I know what I want for Christmasl I'm asking Santa for thirty-six hour days. LOCATED AT THE CROSSROADS OF COMFORT AND VALUE. R A bl A I)A.C()bl (,r I .80().2 RA bl A I)A N,.h,.,-b,, k,, ..... I.hw,.i,,¢~: N..d,.IL. %.,d, i'l ,,,. Ct.ILI., O,.,.,h., NOW HIRING F()R FULI TIME OPENINGS to meet Mine, Tatiana Faberge & Preview FAI3ERGE COLLECTION TRUNK StlOW Sunday, Dec. I, 2002 6:30 pro. I~ 9 p.m. '~, tions 0f the Czar's eggs in crystal ~ , sterling silver Prices start at $85 ~]'~ Tat+ana will sign your purchase! I:ainlax~u I'la/a In,.idc Ilw Mall 21',1 & I:aillaV, u| 795 27~ 0009 'l~,pL'ka. KS I ,qRR 7,~2 ()')()~) to the~ l ,t, ac, h...o.r, aOe, "B,e,ac, h , L.abz. the, oT_arl% Christmas shopping,while enjoying the beauty of the area. 100 nome orond stores oi Factory Oullel vitLoge 50+ cluo~nl anliaue shads * Boutiques, Samoler shoos I00 reslauronl~.- on & of! water. Fat", leog~ng rotes avail.able Pa e 13 The Wabaunsee County Siynal-Enterprise, Thursday, November 21, 2002 At The Rail by Martin Hmwver Something that doesn't feel quite right is happening in some of the state's small school districts--primarily in rural areas where money is tight and where the future probably depends both on the number of college graduates who return home to earn their livings and raise their families, and those who never left. Now, this is stuff that at the Statehouse tends to be buried in the discussion of millions of dollars of shortfall and "holding K- 12 education harmless" and a bunch of rhetoric that sounds laudable but is just hot air until we actually see it happen. What's going on is that the Kansas Legislature, which grew tired in the mid-1990s of hearing college presidents gripe that Kansas high school graduates who couldn't stay within the lines in their color- ing books were going to their universities because they were Kansans and had to be ad- mitted. Basically, if you had a high school diploma and tui- tion money, you, too, could be a college student. Those were the days of re- medial classes that the college presidents lamented having to offer on their campuses. (Al- though, there was a large school of thought that the state colleges were actually turning a profit on those classes of 150 students who were being taught English as a primary, language by graduate teaching assistants who were essentially working for drinks and tips...and health insur- an.ce.) Well, the college presidents created enough of an uproar that finally in the late 1990s, the Legislature passed "quali- fied admissions" which in- cluded a list of must-have courses that high school graduates had to pass to win admission to the state colleges and universities that their parents' taxes supported. That struck some of us Railsters as a little odd--like paying taxes to build bowling alleys that citizens can't bowl on unless they can roll at least a 200- point game. But that was then. Now, with shrinking ele- mentary and secondary school budgets, something unex- pected is happening. There are still enough students to keep the colleges humming...but there are some school districts that are in a frantic juggling act to provide the list of courses that high schoolers need to pass to get into the colleges that their parents are supporting. Hmmm... Something's not right here. School district ad- ministrators are starting to tell legislators that they face the real possibility in a year or so of having very smart pupils who may not get to enter state-supported colleges be- cause their home districts can't offer the courses that are needed to get into those col- leges. Oh, and remember that while K-12 education hopefully leads to college for a large per- centage of pupils, the real job description of school districts is to turn out graduates who, even if they don't seek another hour's formal education, make bright and intelligent employ- ees in businesses that don't require college degrees. Don't doubt for a minute that there are plumbers and electricians and discount store department managers and dealers at casi- nos who are making more take-home money than your average college graduate with a political science degree. Or teachers, for that matter. When is the last time you called for an emergency visit from a political science major? Some smaller school dis- tricts already are making choices that they didn't used to have to make: Do they be- come state college-prep schools, or do they tilt toward a K- 12 education that is booming %~ith vocational and technical and what we used to call "homemaker" tracks with consumer and family finance classes and basic under- standings of the workaday stuff needed to finance cars and figure whether "giant sized" is a better deal than "titanic sized" bottles of dish- washer soap. Do districts ditch courses that address the needs of non- college bound students in or- der to keep the regents-track curriculum in place? Is there any logical reason that be- cause some pupils are college- bound, that a school district shouldn't teach non-college bound pupils how to play the clarinet? This isn't the stuff that we talk about much at the State- house...where high concepts like qualified admissions were passed and nobody much thought of what happens a few years down the road when times are tight and the fields from which the college-bound Kansans are grown start playing out. Is there an answer? Well, probably several. Nobody knows whether the little school districts are being run tightly and economically, or whether there's waste out there. Or whether there are little school districts that ought to merge, get rid of one superintendent and load up on French teachers. Or whether this is the time for community coUeges to do a little pros- pecting for studentS. There's a lot out there that isn't known, but right now, it doesn't feel right, does it? Martin Hawver is publisher of Hawver's Capitol Report. To see about that, call (785] 267-5500 or visit the website at www. h a__wy_e_cnews, cam it up this Hm 1111111111 Sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and your State Highway Salety Office Payless ShoeSource, the nation's #1 footwear retailer, is currently seeking warehouse associates for our Topeka Distribution Center. * Successful applicants will join us as General Warehouse Associates in our state-of-the- art distribution center, the primary distribution center for our 4900 store chain, with stores in the U.S., Canada, Guam, Puerto Rico, and Central American. w Starting pay between $9.15 and $10.50 per hour. , Employees work 12 hour shifts Saturday through Monday, or 10 hour shifts Tuesday through Friday. All shifts will be assigned. w Duties may include handling cases, packing and unpacking shoe boxes, and working with advanced warehouse equipment. • Applicants must be 18 and have a HS Diploma or equivalent. 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