2006
Birthdays and Set Points
Tomorrow is my birthday, or more appropriately, in about an hour it"ll be my birthday. I’m turning 34 this year and there will be grand festivities for sure. I’m taking the day off of work and spending it with my wonderful wife and daughter. I never made that much of birthdays until I met Tammy. She really considers it a big deal, and likes to go all out for the day. If it’s your birthday, it is your day without exception.
This birthday has me thinking of the concept of set points. Not familiar? A set point is just a position that objects or systems target. You can nudge it, and it will swing back and forth, but eventually it will return to it"s set point. Your thermostat in your house is always working to achieve a set point. I think, that in a unique way, people have an age set point.
You see, I"ve always felt older than I was, at least once I got to a “real” age (i.e., past being a teenager). Throughout my 20s I looked upon every birthday as a marker to get to where I felt I should be. I’ve never looked back, always eager to move forward. I think I’m slowly approaching my “set point”, somewhere in the late 30s. I’m just a little less eager to see the this birthday click by than the past. Perhaps we can start to slow down a bit now.
My wife says her “set point” was 27. If I surveyed my friends I’m sure I would get a variety of responses from people that are still waiting to get to theirs and those that past it a dozen years ago. It"s not bad to be past this, but I think it is a life marker of some sort. I suppose you could just jumble this rambling in wife my Fractional Life theory.
Perhaps it’s just my first birthday as a father, which in odd ways that I cannot describe, is different. Happy Birthday to Me!
Open Letter to Hopkins School Board
We recently were notified by the Hopkins School Board that our school district finished the year in statutory operating debt. I’m not sure if it is as bad as the newsletter made it seem, but I felt compelled to send them a letter on the proposal.
Hopkins School Board,
Last week we received the 2006-07 Proposed Budget newsletter. I will keep my comments brief and to-the-point.
Your communication portrayed an environment without adequate financial controls, and a lack of transparency and accountability. I appreciate the complexity of funding for a school makes this a complicated task. However, as a taxpayer, I think that I can appropriately expect that our dollars are being used knowingly.
I encourage you to remedy these problems and make sure that the appropriate controls exist. However, I’m concerned by a budget proposal that shows significant cuts in teachers, programs and other activities for students, and increased investment in information systems, audit and other administrative tasks. Let us not forget the critical role and mission that our schools provide to our children and our community!
As the father of a young daughter, and hoping for more in the future, the quality of public education in my community is of critical concern. I live where I live in part because of the quality of the schools, and the national renown that the Hopkins School District has maintained. I finished your newsletter concerned that the quality of education was being lessened in a meaningful way.
I realize that it’s not “something for nothing”, but please do everything in your power to make sure that our schools do not sacrifice the quality of education provided.
It stuns me that funding education properly, and fully, is a controversial topic. It is the single most important thing that we can do for our country, society and the well-being of our children.