The Things That Make Me Different Are the Things That Make Me Me

Happy Friday, everyone!  It's a bit overcast and chilly here, with highs in the low 70's the next few days.  Ahhhh, actual Fall weather.  I'm heading down Springfield-way this afternoon before spending all of my upcoming off days preparing for the big move to my apartment.  I will be calling my friendly landlord for an official move-in date on Monday.

I opened the store as shift manager twice this week.  Both days things went wrong, but were able to be fixed.  Yesterday I had to switch a few breakers to get things up and running!  Good thing too, it was National Coffee Day and combined with the cooler weather, we had a line to the door from 6am on, and only four people behind the counter.  It was absolutely nuts, but we survived!

School is still going well.  I got a high B on my Economics test that I was really nervous about, which is better than I expected.  And now I know how to study for the next one so hopefully I'll do even better!  I got into a discussion with the teacher last night about how standards-based education makes electives like art, music, and gym, almost obsolete.  His opinion was that if the elective teacher can't explain how their class supports the standards, they shouldn't be teaching.  I explained that the standards sometimes pander to the lowest forms of thought and that electives not only encourage innovative learning and creativity, but allow students a break in an otherwise boring day.

I think that having specific standards for students to achieve is a good thing, but the entire world is not based on math and english knowledge, especially since almost everyone I know as an adult can't remember how to do anything more than the most basic algebra and misuse your and you're all the time.  The other point in this argument is that electives like home-ec, sewing, and shop are much more valuable life skills, especially in this time when traditional college isn't always the best option post high-school.  I think it would be a disservice to our future society to discontinue elective courses just because they might not support some pre-laid out, limited standards of knowledge.

Anyway, maybe I'll break out my chalk pastels in the next few days!  I haven't taken any pictures recently so today's posts included recent Instagram findings; I hope you enjoyed them!

(photos collected from theprettycities, lovespringfield, geninne, urbanoutfitters, sausagedogcentral)