That's the message of the superintendent of the Copley-Fairlawn school district, Brian Poe, when he said, "If you're paying taxes on a home here ... those dollars need to stay home with our students."
In case you aren't aware, Williams-Bolar falsified records to get her kids in a better school district. She lives in the projects so I'll just take a wild guess that her school district is the equivalent of our Birmingham City schools where students bring guns to school so they can shoot fellow students on the bus ride home. She was also pursuing a teaching degree and was classes away from finishing when the judge handed down a felony conviction which, if not overturned, will bar her from teaching in Ohio (and likely any other state). Currently, she continues to work as a teaching assistant.
In all fairness, the Prosecutor in the case did point out that Williams-Bolar had options: She could remove her kids from school; pay the $30,000 tuition; or move into the school district. I assume you see the problems with all these "options." While the last "option" may seem viable, it likely isn't. If someone qualifies to live in government subsidized housing, they probably can't afford the cheapest apartment in a decent part of town, especially not when bringing home big bucks as a teaching assistant.
Now I do understand the problem. If lots of kids not zoned for a school attend that school, then the residents in that school district pay for everyone. I mean, the residents of Mountain Brook are not paying huge property taxes so poor children from our projects can attend Brook Forest Elementary. The essential problem is that poor children cannot expect a decent education in this country. This is a structural problem with our society. We ought to be ashamed. The communists didn't even have this problem. (Okay, they had lots of problems but providing a quality education to everyone wasn't one of them.)
What bothers me is not that Williams-Bolar had to be punished. She did. It's sad and pathetic but it had to happen. What bothers me is the meanness and maliciousness with which this case was pursued. The judge gave her a felony conviction, intent on making an example of her. (The judge seemed to attempt to backtrack later saying her hands were tied by the jury.) But 10 days in jail, three years probation, 80 hours community service and never being able to make a better life for yourself?* Not only do her kids get to return to their crappy school district but their mother now has spent years and thousands of dollars on an education she cannot use.
The message sent by the Prosecutor, Superintendent Poe and Judge Patricia Cosgrove (who happens to be white) is poor people should stay put and quit trying to better themselves.
*The judge did commute the sentence so Williams-Bolar only served 10 days. Still, I am not convinced by this half-hearted attempt at charity.
http://newsone.com/nation/boycewatkins/kelly-bolar-jailed-akron-white-school-district-black-student/
http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/local_news/akron_canton_news/akron-schools-release-statement-on-kelley-williams-bolar
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Another day in the trenches - The Sequel
The Sequel, by the way, is never ending.
The point of the last entry was to emphasize my need to work. I am an attorney. I have worked as an attorney. I have spent a lot of time in court, argued with judges, argued with clients, argued with everyone. Sometimes I even won.I have written legal articles. I think some people read them. Other people used to ask me legal questions, presumably because they thought I possessed knowledge they did not.
But now, you see how my day goes. I rush to do ANYTHING that involves time to myself. There is no guarantee on any given day that said time will materialize in this particular space-time continuum.
No, let me rephrase. What I mean by "time to myself" is doing those things which make you feel like you contribute to society, not reading a good book or taking a bubble bath. Yeah, yeah, I know - raising a child is contributing to society. But it's really hard to see it that way when day after day I am in tornadic cycle of washing dishes, cleaning up, feeding, wrangling on another diaper and wondering if this trip to Walmart will be successful or if I'll have to cut and run halfway through due to Ancy Baby Syndrome.
These are my daily struggles now. Once more, my time up. Adio!
The point of the last entry was to emphasize my need to work. I am an attorney. I have worked as an attorney. I have spent a lot of time in court, argued with judges, argued with clients, argued with everyone. Sometimes I even won.I have written legal articles. I think some people read them. Other people used to ask me legal questions, presumably because they thought I possessed knowledge they did not.
But now, you see how my day goes. I rush to do ANYTHING that involves time to myself. There is no guarantee on any given day that said time will materialize in this particular space-time continuum.
No, let me rephrase. What I mean by "time to myself" is doing those things which make you feel like you contribute to society, not reading a good book or taking a bubble bath. Yeah, yeah, I know - raising a child is contributing to society. But it's really hard to see it that way when day after day I am in tornadic cycle of washing dishes, cleaning up, feeding, wrangling on another diaper and wondering if this trip to Walmart will be successful or if I'll have to cut and run halfway through due to Ancy Baby Syndrome.
These are my daily struggles now. Once more, my time up. Adio!
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Another day in the trenches
I have to write quick. I don't know how long I have. Special Agent Baby is near me, on the other side of the bed, looking out the window. He is, in other words, distracted.
It has taken me a week to find time to return to this blog. I feel like a Bond Girl on a special mission anytime I try to do anything for myself. It requires cunning, craftiness and coordination. There are other times I feel less like a stay-at-home mom and more like a Bond Girl. For example, when I drive with my Isotoner gloves on in the 2-door Accord coupe, I feel like I am really driving a hip sportster down a sleek, curvy road in the Alps. (Driving with the gloves in the Chevy Lumina minivan doesn't have quite the same effect on me.)
Alas, I only drive with my Isotoners in the Accord so often. (You may have guessed that the Accord does not rank high as a family vehicle.) In the meantime, back at the farm, the ice storm we recently experienced has melted my enthusiam. I try to remain optimistic about job hunting in a bad economy with a degree that is useless, but, somehow, I am falling short today. I miss using my brain. I love my baby, but I miss creating complex neural pathways.
My time is up. Special Agent Baby is on to me.
It has taken me a week to find time to return to this blog. I feel like a Bond Girl on a special mission anytime I try to do anything for myself. It requires cunning, craftiness and coordination. There are other times I feel less like a stay-at-home mom and more like a Bond Girl. For example, when I drive with my Isotoner gloves on in the 2-door Accord coupe, I feel like I am really driving a hip sportster down a sleek, curvy road in the Alps. (Driving with the gloves in the Chevy Lumina minivan doesn't have quite the same effect on me.)
Alas, I only drive with my Isotoners in the Accord so often. (You may have guessed that the Accord does not rank high as a family vehicle.) In the meantime, back at the farm, the ice storm we recently experienced has melted my enthusiam. I try to remain optimistic about job hunting in a bad economy with a degree that is useless, but, somehow, I am falling short today. I miss using my brain. I love my baby, but I miss creating complex neural pathways.
My time is up. Special Agent Baby is on to me.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Job tips
I assume that you have used your superior reasoning skills to deduce that, since I started looking for work in June 2010 and started a blog about being a housewife in Dec. 2010, I have not succeeded in finding a job. In fact, I have had only 5 interviews (2 at the same place).
Yes, I realize the economy sucks and, in Alabama, there are 4 people applying for every 1 job opening. Nonetheless, in my adult life, I have seen the job market wane and wax and I have never had any difficulty getting a job. I'm not saying I always got every job I applied for. I have, however, weaseled my way into many jobs I was capable of performing but was definitely not qualified for, technically speaking. The legal job market, at least here, has been poor for several years now. Still, I managed to get a job right out of law school when many gifted students did not. You see, I have but a few talents and selling myself to potential employers is one of them.
Why then can I suddenly not get interviews, much less job offers? Frustration, anger, resentment (at unknown forces) plagued me for months. Then I discovered the term "maternal wall." The maternal wall is like the glass ceiling except it applies specifically to mothers. The EEOC informs us that the maternal wall can really stand in the way of any primary caregiver. A sad reflection on our society when people try to take care of those who can't care for themselves whether they be children, elderly or handicapped.
Now you must know I am not completely full of myself. I do not believe the maternal wall is entirely responsible for my new predicament. It could be my age, although I choose to believe I look younger than 40. (Wait, I'm 39. It's my husband who keeps shoving me into a new decade.) Anyway, I know the economy is a problem and I know the legal market is an issue no matter the economy. Of course, any number of additional factors that could have been thrown into the mix as well. But still, it strikes me as odd that in all the jobs I applied for and for which I was very well suited, I didn't even get an interview. I mean, it's not like I don't have good qualifications and it's not like I haven't added on to my professional credentials since I've been out of work. What gives?
There are studies and articles on the maternal wall. I don't think it's really discrimination against women per se. I think it's greediness. We want our society to reproduce (you can't have a strong nation if you have no citizens and you can't make money if there's no one to spend it). But we don't want to have to pay the price of obtaining new consumers (I mean, citizens) by letting a mother or a father leave work for the afternoon to pick up a sick child. I mean, my goodness, that data entry couldn't possibly be done later and certainly, in the age of laptops and internet, no attorney is capable of working up those billable hours from home. What employers don't realize is that happy employees are good and efficient employees and they will get the job done well and on time. How, though, can you expect someone to work accurately and efficiently when they are worried about their sick child?
Oh, yeah, employers don't have to concern themselves with such trivial matters. They just don't hire primary caregivers in the first place.
So I love all the "job tip" newsletters I get. I know the biggest tip of all - don't let on that you're a primary caregiver. Unfortunately, I can't hide it. If I don't disclose my motherhood status, I can't account for being out of work for a year. Oh, and don't think you won't be automatically be pegged as the primary caregiver if you're a woman. You will.
Sadly, my crystal ball has been out of order for quite some time. Therefore, I have no way of knowing to what extent the maternal wall has limited my job possibilities. Maybe it hasn't at all. Maybe it is just the economy or maybe the problem is me. After all, I've changed a lot since the last time I looked for a job - I'm older, I'm a mother and I'm more qualified.
Still, while I am quite concerned with my job situation and rather distraught, my use of "maternal wall" is a little different. I refer to my maternal wall the way a marathon runner would refer to hitting the brick wall. As you will see in blogs to come, being a stay at home mom has tested me mentally and physically in many ways. Like Madonna, I must reinvent myself if I am to stay true and relevant to my adoring public (i.e. my husband and baby). In the big scheme of things, dealing with the job hunt is only one aspect of my life as a mother.
* For a good beginning on the maternal wall, see these links:
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/05/13/news_pf/Opinion/On_the_job__moms_are_.shtml
http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/caregiving.html
Yes, I realize the economy sucks and, in Alabama, there are 4 people applying for every 1 job opening. Nonetheless, in my adult life, I have seen the job market wane and wax and I have never had any difficulty getting a job. I'm not saying I always got every job I applied for. I have, however, weaseled my way into many jobs I was capable of performing but was definitely not qualified for, technically speaking. The legal job market, at least here, has been poor for several years now. Still, I managed to get a job right out of law school when many gifted students did not. You see, I have but a few talents and selling myself to potential employers is one of them.
Why then can I suddenly not get interviews, much less job offers? Frustration, anger, resentment (at unknown forces) plagued me for months. Then I discovered the term "maternal wall." The maternal wall is like the glass ceiling except it applies specifically to mothers. The EEOC informs us that the maternal wall can really stand in the way of any primary caregiver. A sad reflection on our society when people try to take care of those who can't care for themselves whether they be children, elderly or handicapped.
Now you must know I am not completely full of myself. I do not believe the maternal wall is entirely responsible for my new predicament. It could be my age, although I choose to believe I look younger than 40. (Wait, I'm 39. It's my husband who keeps shoving me into a new decade.) Anyway, I know the economy is a problem and I know the legal market is an issue no matter the economy. Of course, any number of additional factors that could have been thrown into the mix as well. But still, it strikes me as odd that in all the jobs I applied for and for which I was very well suited, I didn't even get an interview. I mean, it's not like I don't have good qualifications and it's not like I haven't added on to my professional credentials since I've been out of work. What gives?
There are studies and articles on the maternal wall. I don't think it's really discrimination against women per se. I think it's greediness. We want our society to reproduce (you can't have a strong nation if you have no citizens and you can't make money if there's no one to spend it). But we don't want to have to pay the price of obtaining new consumers (I mean, citizens) by letting a mother or a father leave work for the afternoon to pick up a sick child. I mean, my goodness, that data entry couldn't possibly be done later and certainly, in the age of laptops and internet, no attorney is capable of working up those billable hours from home. What employers don't realize is that happy employees are good and efficient employees and they will get the job done well and on time. How, though, can you expect someone to work accurately and efficiently when they are worried about their sick child?
Oh, yeah, employers don't have to concern themselves with such trivial matters. They just don't hire primary caregivers in the first place.
So I love all the "job tip" newsletters I get. I know the biggest tip of all - don't let on that you're a primary caregiver. Unfortunately, I can't hide it. If I don't disclose my motherhood status, I can't account for being out of work for a year. Oh, and don't think you won't be automatically be pegged as the primary caregiver if you're a woman. You will.
Sadly, my crystal ball has been out of order for quite some time. Therefore, I have no way of knowing to what extent the maternal wall has limited my job possibilities. Maybe it hasn't at all. Maybe it is just the economy or maybe the problem is me. After all, I've changed a lot since the last time I looked for a job - I'm older, I'm a mother and I'm more qualified.
Still, while I am quite concerned with my job situation and rather distraught, my use of "maternal wall" is a little different. I refer to my maternal wall the way a marathon runner would refer to hitting the brick wall. As you will see in blogs to come, being a stay at home mom has tested me mentally and physically in many ways. Like Madonna, I must reinvent myself if I am to stay true and relevant to my adoring public (i.e. my husband and baby). In the big scheme of things, dealing with the job hunt is only one aspect of my life as a mother.
* For a good beginning on the maternal wall, see these links:
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/05/13/news_pf/Opinion/On_the_job__moms_are_.shtml
http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/caregiving.html
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
The Beginning
I did not intend to be a stay-at-home mom. For reasons I won't bore you with, I had to leave my job just before I began my last trimeseter of pregnancy. I thought, "Ok, no problem. I'll use my pregnancy as an excuse for leaving so I won't burn any bridges with my old boss, stay home for a year and then go back to work." In any case, I had to quit because two weeks after I left my job, my doctor put me on bed rest. It all seemed perfect because, ideally, I would stay home for that first precious year. How lucky I was that it all came together.
No, I never deluded myself into thinking I wanted to be a stay-at-home mother forever. A year, though. That's not so long. Plus, how hard could living off one income be? My husband made a good salary and we are frugal.
Babies, it turns out, are not frugal. They don't care how many times a day their diapers have to be changed and the good formula never goes on sale. So back in June 2010, I realized I had to go back to work. That was okay by me because 4 weeks after my son was born, I yearned to go to work. I watched my husband leave each morning with a feeling not unlike homesickness. My husband, I thought with great envy, got to go to an office building each day. He got to deal coworkers and a boss and traffic. Most of all, he produced work. He used his brain. He didn't just sit on the sofa 23 out of 24 hours of the day watching t.v. while feeding a baby or trying to coax said baby into sleep.
My envy, I believed, would soon be satisfied as I began my job hunt last June. Soon, I would re-enter the rat race and hustle along with everyone else.
Or would I?
No, I never deluded myself into thinking I wanted to be a stay-at-home mother forever. A year, though. That's not so long. Plus, how hard could living off one income be? My husband made a good salary and we are frugal.
Babies, it turns out, are not frugal. They don't care how many times a day their diapers have to be changed and the good formula never goes on sale. So back in June 2010, I realized I had to go back to work. That was okay by me because 4 weeks after my son was born, I yearned to go to work. I watched my husband leave each morning with a feeling not unlike homesickness. My husband, I thought with great envy, got to go to an office building each day. He got to deal coworkers and a boss and traffic. Most of all, he produced work. He used his brain. He didn't just sit on the sofa 23 out of 24 hours of the day watching t.v. while feeding a baby or trying to coax said baby into sleep.
My envy, I believed, would soon be satisfied as I began my job hunt last June. Soon, I would re-enter the rat race and hustle along with everyone else.
Or would I?
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