Day 10: Wasps, Socialists and Fries

I have the day off work today. In San Antonio it is Fiesta Week, and the schools are out today for the big Battle of Flowers Parade downtown. Fiesta is kind of like Mardi Gras, but with tortillas.

I started the day by mowing the lawn. In the winter we spread some winter seed and the grass looks beautiful, but requires mowing once a week because it is like grass on steroids. I got stung on my skull by a wasp. Or a hornet. Or some nasty, angry flying creature. I had a hat on, so the bastard had to land on my head, and get its stinger through the hat, my hair, and into my skull and through my brain. It still hurts.

I spent the rest of the day touring and interviewing Day Care facilities. My daughter attends a fantastic Day Care at one of these mega-churches nearby (I can de-program her later, not to worry). But they are closing their program at the beginning of the summer, so we need to find a new place for her to start in August. At one place I visited today they have a lunch menu and don't want you bringing your own food. I looked over the menu, searching for the fruits and veggies, and noticed that on several days there were no veggies. When I asked about that, the lady pointed to the french fries and said "there are some potatoes." Reminds me of the Reagan Administration, when they were responding to complaints about food served to students at public schools, and some official claimed that using ketchup on burgers constituted a vegetable portion. Anyway, she won't be attending that one.

Over the past few months I've gone to about 15 Day Cares. I've gotten it down to two of them that I like. They are the ones with the strongest curriculums.

I am reading Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. It is a controversial but popular "alternate" history of the United States, told from the perspective of the Indians, slaves, factory workers, women and minorities. Obviously the guy is a socialist, and he does try to debunk history told from the perspective of the victors. But he is also honest about his perspective, and explains it thoroughly in the first chapter. I am on some listserve, e-mail group of AP History teachers around the country, and the debate rages over the legitimacy or illegitimacy of Zinn's history. It would be interesting to give the students a chapter of the book about something that we cover more conventionally, and then get into a discussion of ideology in the writing of history.