Magnet Lottery System

Dear School Board Members; (email: davisph@cps-k12.org )

Please do not ruin your successful magnet programs by changing to a straight lottery enrollment system. My children are already in our chosen CPS magnet programs, so your decision will not directly effect my family. However, I do think the introduction of the lottery could result in young families leaving the City.

Seven years ago we were facing this decision of which school would be best for our oldest son. Our neighborhood school was Washington Park Elementary, a struggling school that was rumoured to be scheduled for closure. We considered private schools like Mercy Montessori but we could not afford them. It seemed to us that our options were either a CPS magnet program, or move out of the City. We visited several of the CPS magnet programs and we were completely thrilled with what we saw at each of them. In the end we decided the closest magnet program, Fairview was best for us and our son.

At that time we did not have to wait in line, but merely took a tour and then added our names to a waiting list a year before school would start for our child. The system was simple and painless. Also as you know, at that time, the school used the Tauber index to admit children partially based on race and gender. This system worked well for us as it kept the diversity of the student population, yet required some commitment by the parents to think ahead and at least visit the school and learn about it before applying. However, as you well know, because of court decisions, CPS's use of the Tauber Index's use was ended in 2007.

At about the same time the racial quotas were removed, CPS told Fairview administration to end the waiting list method of enrollment and made them go to the first-come first-serve method which resulted in a 24 hour camp out the first year. This has now grown into several nights of camping.

Now, I don't like the idea of making parents camp out, but the only worse enrollment method would be a straight lottery. The parents must keep some control. They cannot be left to the pure chance of a random drawing. If I can think back to when I was a younger parent, the one thing that kept us here, was the knowledge that we had the power to choose. We could do things like visit early and talk with the principal so we would have a reasonable chance of getting the school that fit our particular child's needs. The fact that we had these choices made us strong supporters of CPS.

If the Board insist on moving to a lottery system, then please at least keep the requirement that the parents physically visit and learn about the school before they are qualified to enter the lottery. Also it is only common sense that siblings continue to have enrollment priority. To make parents endure a lottery for every child would surely be demoralizing not to mention that the results could be a transportation disaster with kids from one family attending several elementary schools.

Remember that parents know what is best for their child. If you keep as much power in their hands you will end up with a much stronger school district.

Sincerely;

West Half of Mt Airy Forest

I've been meaning to take some hikes with my son on the western side of Mt Airy park, for a while. It is an interesting area, because it seems like it is somewhat forgotten. For example, if you go to the Cincinnati Park's website you will see that west of I-74 they show no trails:

And whereas the eastern side has a nature center, an arboretum, a treehouse, marked trails and lots of picnic shelters, the western side is hardly marked. I've hiked much of the eastern side, and one interesting loop is the one that follows close to the highway described here. here are some good photos of the eastern side

The western side of the park has several access points on Westwood Northern Boulevard including a very nice Maple Ridge Lodge on Lucas Road. The other access points here are the McFarlan Ridge shelter, which has a locked gate, and the popular dog park:

McFarlan Ridge Road, Location in Google Maps

This side of the park is bordered by Montana, Westwood Northern, Diehl, Shepherd Creek and Interstate 74. It is quite a large area, and despite the website showing no trails, there are extensive trails though the area:

There is an old trail map mounted on the Maple Ridge Lodge if you feel you need it, and here is a website that describes trail "E".

Here are some photos from our hike:

Typical trail with fallen trees and mostly dry creek below trail

son finds a hollow Sycamore

old trail marker

orange blazes mark one of the trails:

Lower trail, the creek is flowing. This is one reason it is good to go in the late winter or early spring. In the summer, all this could be dry, and less exciting for a kid, although when dry there is good fossil hunting in the stream bed:

On the northern edge of the park, along Diehl Road, Green township is developing a huge new park with more structured activities. The new park, called Bicentennial Park has been under construction for the past year or so and should open soon. The old house on Diehl in which Marge Unnewehr lived before she became Marge Schott, is actually a very early farmhouse built by pioneer farmer Peter Diehl in 1835. Green Township has rehabbed the house and will offer it for rental use.

In the map below you can see the old farmhouse and how a few years ago, it was surrounded by woods:

In a more recent aerial, you can see how much earth must be moved to create some flat playing fields in this very hilly area. The Diehl house is in the upper center of construction, along the road:

The Case for Play

The Case for Play
How a handful of researchers are trying to save childhood.

...The emphasis on standardized testing, on attempting to constantly monitor, measure, and quantify what students learn, has forced teachers to spend more of the school day engaged in so-called direct instruction and has substantially reduced or eliminated opportunities that children have for exploring, interacting, and learning on their own. Recess has, in many districts, vanished from the schedule entirely. After school, parents shuttle their kids from activity to activity, depriving them of unstructured time alone or with friends.

That matters, according to researchers, not just because play reduces stress and makes children more socially competent—which evidence suggests that it does. It matters also because play supposedly improves working memory and self-regulation; in other words, it makes kids sharper and better-behaved. So, ironically, by shortchanging them on play in favor of academics, we may actually be inhibiting their development....

....Within the world of those who take play seriously, there are multiple camps, each with its own dearly held tenets. There are the Free Players, who argue that play is a human right and that adults should more or less leave kids alone. There are the Play Skeptics, who see play as useful for blowing off steam but are dubious about its cognitive upside. And there are Play Moderates, who advocate a mix of free play, adult-guided play, and traditional classroom instruction.

...Vygotsky viewed play, particularly pretend play, as a critical part of childhood, allowing a child, as he said in one oft-repeated quote, to stand "a head taller than himself." His biggest theoretical contribution may have been the Zone of Proximal Development: the idea that children are capable of a range of achievement during each stage of their lives. In the right environment, and with the right guidance (which was later dubbed "scaffolding"), children can perform at the top of that range.

...The students in the play-based school scored better on cognitive flexibility, self-control, and working memory—attributes of "executive function," which has been consistently linked to academic achievement....

....Whether children play enough isn't an obscure debate among developmental psychologists. If it's true that children who spend too little time playing struggle with executive function, then we may be raising a generation of kids with less self-control, shorter attention spans, and poorer memory skills...

..."The right answer is less programming and more opportunities for kids to make up things on their own."

...40 cities have expressed interest in holding their own Ultimate Block Parties. She and her colleagues will soon unveil a Web site to promote play research, and more books are on the way. Their goal, she says, is to restore play to its rightful, respected place in the lives of children. "Even if we don't understand it perfectly, it's silly to take play away from society," she says. "It's like taking love away. It's crazy."

Mike Reynolds - Earthships

An old classmate of my wife's has been in New Mexico for many years building houses out of recycled materials with Mike Reynolds. I have never been very interested with their work, because Mike's philosophy is anti-urban, however this past year they have started work in Haiti, and their proposal is to build denser clusters of these self-sustaining "earthships". Now I am interested. We just rented the movie "Garbage Warrior" from the library. It is a documentary about their struggle to be allowed to legally build houses without water, sewer and electric supplies. It is fascinating, and I hope to be able to go out west next year and visit.