Time to Move on With It

Before I start to vent about a few things, Stephen and I had something cool happen yesterday. We got a call from a pair of missionaries that live farther north than us. They said they had a meeting with a Russian woman and needed help translating. We were both excited, but very nervous. As much as we would like to pretend that we still both speak fluently, we don't. We went and it turned out OK. She understands English OK, so she understood what they said. Every now and then we would have to translate something. She doesn't speak English well so she would speak in Russian and we would tell the missionaries what she said in English. That part we did very well, but when we had to speak in Russian we both realized how rusty we are. As a result we have rededicated ourselves to practicing Russian more. We are going to pray in Russian, see if we can dig up Stephen's Russian Book of Mormon (mine is in Minnesota), and talk more. 

Now, first thing that I am frustrated is about our new car. Last Thursday we paid our down payment, signed all the papers, and "got" a loan for the rest. Well, we got a letter in the mail yesterday say we were denied the loan. What is stupid is the reason we were rejected for the loan is because of the length of time I have worked for Granite School District, and how long we have lived in our apartment. This is so stupid because we have rockin' credit scores, but we don't get it because I have been a teacher for only a year. I'm sorry, I have only been graduated from college a year. How stupid is this! We're not sure what will happen with the car yet. Stephen is going to go in and talk to them.

Secondly, I know that people are not going to agree with me on this, because parents always have crap to say about public schools, but here it goes. I am so sick of all the complaning I hear about schools: the teacher isn't doing this, my student doesn't have that. I'm sorry that your are not happy with us, but look for a moment from a teacher in Utah's perspective. The average class size is 27 kids. 27 very different kids, with different needs, different backgrounds, different challenges, and different attitudes. In my class alone I have reading levels ranging from first to eighth grade. And I as the teacher am expected to teach all of these kids at grade level, all day long, in every subject, ALONE! Yes, in Utah they didn't have much money before, in the country we have the lowest amount of money per student in the country, but now because of the economy my school alone is losing $35,ooo for the school year. If we didn't have the money for aids, or specialist before, we cetainly don't now. I am not trying to say that this means teachers shouldn't be accountable for what is going on in class, they should, but give them some slack if you don't feel your child isn't getting the indiviualized attention it deserves all day. 

I need to be done talking about schools, I could go on forever, and I need to get ready for church.