First, how my name explained ties into Judigail’s Blog name.
Judith, that’s my first name. People usually want to call anyone named Judith, Judy. Since I prefer to be called Judith, I will accept the other if it’s spelled correctly. Like in…
Judi with an I, Not Judy with a Y. That’s the way my mother spelled it. I changed it, because my given first name Judith, which I love.
When shortened, taking off the “th,” Judith becomes Judi with an I on the end, not a Y. Mom adored Judy Garland, the beautiful and talented 1940’s singer/actress. That was why she named me Judy. So Judy I stayed.
Till I became Judi.
When I realized that Judith shortened should be Judi with an i, not Judy with a y. Removing the letters ‘th’ at the end of Judith, produced Judi, not Judy. I changed the spelling. My parents didn’t mind that I made the change. Or, at least they never said they did.
Then I married to a man whose last name began with hard G sound. At about the same time, I saw a gorgeous airline attendant they called ‘Gail.’
I thought, “Gail’s my middle name, think I’ll start using it. Not that I’ll EVER look like her, gorgeous blonde creature that she is.”
Alliterations, that is same first letters of words fascinate me. Gail Gilley, nice ring to it, I thought.
Another metamorphosis came about when my sweet North Carolinian friend called me Judigail. Now there’s an original winner!
When Educated, We Think of Things Differently, Sometimes Even Create a New Environment.
“Think out-of-the-box!”
That’s what we often hear, while being educated.So, we try doing just that. Sometimes it works, and a new product’s invented. However, mostly it fails, and we’re left feeling embarrased that we even tried.
“Never give up!”
This one happens being my favorite, for its meaning has nothing to do with passing or failing.
Try, try, again and again. And we’re just practicing all the time. Never failing. We never have to feel like a failure. We’re just being educated.
“I have to study, and can’t go out or do anything else.”
This can be heard on any campus, or from any student around the world. They would rather do anything else. But leaving the studying to later, means perhaps it won’t be done at all. Or, it’ll be done poorly, because of lack of time.
Students who manage their study, work, and play times effectively get the best grades. There are a few students, with high intelligence, who might get by. But, those students realize their need to work at keeping their standards high.
The high achievers usually are the ones who manage to “think out of the box.” That’s how the next invention or innovation becomes born.
Educators rarely see a student like this. Because they’re rare. Statistics say about one fourth to one third of the population is considered gifted or above average. Therefore, a large majority of people are average orbelow. Of the gifted people, an even smaller percentage are even more blessed intellectually.
Make a Decision! Choosing from these two niches proved more than a chess move.
Becoming an educator seemed right for me, though it wasn’t what I really wanted then. Now it’s a different story. I’m very happy to teach young and old a subject I know and love. Helping people learn makes me a better person. The education profession suits and fits me perfectly.
My choice of profession would’ve been anything else. Alas, in my generation, college educated women became a nurses or teachers. Blood made me squirm, so teaching became my only alternative.
My teaching experiences varied in student age, subject, and locale. Some locations happened by choice. Others, to follow husband’s job transfers.
Both sides of my family have education as their profession.
Dad’s Family:
Earl Kipp
Superintendent/ Public Schools Orange County, Florida
Dr. Robbie Kipp Earl’s son, English Professor, Brevard College in Orlando, Florida
Dr. OrvalKipp
Art Department Chair, Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Who’s Who of Pittsburgh Artists
Marion Johnson Kipp, Orval’s Wife, English Professor, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Kathy Kipp McKelvey, Daughter of Orval & Marion, Math Professor, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Dr. ______ McKelvey, Kathy’s husband, Math Professor, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Wade Kipp
Principal of Hyndman High School in Pennsylvania
Mirium Johnson Kipp, Wade’s Wife, English Teacher, Hyndman High School
Carol Kipp Clulee
Speech Pathology/ Started a small business after teaching, sold itmany years later for $1 million dollars.Died at 67 from Cerebral Palsy.
Nicole Clulee Cutter
Educational Consultant, Akron, Ohio
Mom’s Family:
JaneZimmerman Lloyd
Kindergarten and First Grade Teacher
Barb Kearney Callahan
Second GradeTeacher
Judith Kipp Norris (Me)
Music, Reading, English Teacher
Education’s a family tradition. So, I guess there wasn’t any choice for me. I’m glad it worked out that way.
Helping. That’s the thrill of education. Education, teaching, and helping fit, hand-in-a-glove knowing how to help others discover what I know excites me. I love watching others learn asubject that fascinates me.
Education’s appeal goes way beyond me loving to help or teach something to someone. It transcends space, time, and logic.
Education facilitates learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits. Educational methods include storytelling, discussion, teaching, training, and directed research.Wikipedia
Education is an important part of our beings. It helps us live with happiness and prosperity by empowering our minds to discover excellent ideas and thoughts. The personal, social, and economic development of our nation depends on educating young people.
Teachers of our young are underpaid. As former President of a local Education Association, I became painfully aware of how political that process is. Not only political, but seemingly impossible. Perhaps it’s improved in recent years. Hope reigns supreme!
There’ll always be the element of society that chooses to exploit givers. Educators are givers. They give themselves, their resources, sometimes it seems their very souls to help children entrusted to their care.
Teaching, a noble calling, is as old as time itself. Some people always want to help others learn. Educators need to be paid more.Teachers’ unions helpedbridge the monetary gap. That’s a good thing.
Teaching’s a wonderful profession. It’s highly regarded by many. Though the money game has improved, though teachers remain underpaid.Their worth to society, difficult to measure accurately, improves as teaching’s structure becomes more like a business.
Education Has More Ways to Learn
Bill Gates, famous multi-billionaire college drop-out would say that there are other ways to be educated. And he would be correct.
Some choose a trade school, wanting to work with their hands rather than spend countless hours sitting in a chair listening to what some would call a “boring lecture.”
She’s dressed well, most teachers wear jeans these days.
Everyone in America has a right and privilege to be educated. But not all people think they want or need to have an education.
Streetwise boys and girls think education’s for wimps. And they’re better than that.They’ll get rich the old fashioned way…steal it.This eventually, if not before, gives them a forced vacation in the Big House or prison.
There are exceptions to every rule, as we know.Famous college drop-outs, like Bill Gates, make a huge fortune using only their intellect.
Becoming an educator seemed right for me, though it wasn’t what I really wanted then. Now it’s a different story. I’m very happy to be a teacher. Helping people learn makes me a better person.
My choice of profession would’ve been anything else. Alas, in my generation, college educated women became a nurse or a teacher. Blood made me squirm, so teaching became my only alternative.
My teaching experiences varied in student age, subject, and locale. Some locations happened by choice. Others, following my husband’s job transfers, gave me opportunities that would never be found otherwise.
Both sides of my family have education as their profession. Dad’s family had many educators. A few cousins on Mom’s family teach or are employed in education. It’s a family tradition.
That’s the thrill of education. Education, teaching, and helping fit hand-in-hand. Knowing how to help others discover what I know excites me. I love teaching others to learn a subject that fascinates me.
Education’s appeal goes way beyond me loving to help or teach something to someone. It transcends space, time, and logic.
Education facilitates learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits. Educational methods include storytelling, discussion, teaching, training, and directed research.Wikipedia
Education is an important part of our beings. It helps us live with happiness and prosperity by empowering our minds to discover excellent ideas and thoughts. The personal, social, and economic development of our nation depends on educating young people.
Teachers of our young are underpaid. As former President of a local Education Association, I became painfully aware of how political that process is. Not only political, but seemingly impossible. Perhaps it’s improved in recent years. Hope reigns supreme!
There’ll always be the element of society that chooses to exploit givers. Educators are givers. They give themselves, their resources, sometimes it seems their very souls to help the children entrusted to their care.
Teaching, a noble calling, as old as time itself. Some people always want to help others learn. Teachers’ unions helped bridge the monetary gap. That’s a good thing.
Teaching’s a wonderful profession. It’s highly regarded by many. Though the money game has improved, teacher’s remain underpaid.Their worth to society, difficult to measure accurately, improves as teaching’s structure becomes more like a business.
Money drives most everything. Therefore, it’s reasonable to assume that a commodity that’s valuable as education should be given the amount ofdollars it deserves.
Education; a right and a privilege. Free for all in America!
Education entered my life early. My dad taught industrial arts, (shop,) at Shade Township High School. Becoming an educator seemed right for me, though it wasn’t really what I thought would be best for me. What did I know? Not much apparently. That was then…
Now it’s a different story. I’m very happy having been a fulltime teacher; for now and future part-time. Helping people learn a subject I know well makes me a better person. I love the education profession for that reason only.
My choice of profession would’ve been anything else. Alas, in my generation, college educated women became a nurse or a teacher. Blood made me squeamish, so teaching became my only alternative.
My teaching experiences varied in student age, subject, and locale. Some locations happened by choice. Others, to follow husband’s job transfers.
Both sides of my family have education as their profession. Dad’s family had many educators. A few cousins on Mom’s family teach or are employed in education. It’s a family tradition.
Helping. That’s the thrill of education. Education, teaching, and helping fit hand-in-hand. Knowing how to help others discover what I know excites me. I love teaching others to learn a subject that fascinates me; music, reading, writing.
Education’s Thrill Takes Me To Other Places
Education’s appeal goes way beyond me loving to help or teach something to someone. It transcends space, time, and logic.
Education facilitates learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits. Educational methods include storytelling, discussion, teaching, training, and directed research. Wikipedia
Education is an important part of our beings. It helps us live with happiness and prosperity by empowering our minds to discover excellent ideas and thoughts. The personal, social, and economic development of our nation depends on educating young people.
Teachers of our young are underpaid. As former President of a local Education Association, I became painfully aware of how political that process is. Not only political, but seemingly impossible. Perhaps it’s improved in recent years. Hope reigns supreme!It’s happening, teachers have much higher salaries!
There’ll always be the element of society that chooses to exploit givers. Educators are givers. They give themselves, their resources, sometimes it seems their very souls to help children entrusted to their care.
Teaching, a noble calling, is as old as time itself. Some people always want to help others learn. Educators need to be paid more. Teachers’ unions helpedbridge the monetary gap. That’s one good thing that has come from unions.
Teaching’s a wonderful profession. It’s highly regarded by many. Though the money game has improved, teachers remain underpaid.Their worth to society, difficult to measure accurately, improves as teaching’s structure becomes more like a business.
Improving something in your own personal life qualifies as Self-Development.You are developing some aspect of your own person. The types of Personal Development are Emotional Development, Mental Development, Physical Development, and Spiritual Development.
Emotional Self-Development
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Health and Healthcare Are Similar; When Health Has Been Compromised We Need Healthcare
Who needs it and why do they need it?
People need healthcare at all stages of their lives. Getting born, giving birth, sickness, operations, end-of-life. Any time a person has an illness or circumstance whenever they’re unable to care for themselves, they need healthcare.
I’ve given and received much healthcare throughout my life. That’s the reason for choosing healthcare. Now deceased, my parents loved and cared for their only child through health struggles.
That’s not unusual. That’s what parents do. Parents care for their children. They have worldwide for centuries. Halfway through my seventeen year, my dear parents got shocking news!
Too Soon For Something We Don’t Understand
“There’s no kind way to say this. Your spinal tap fluid we took two weeks ago came back from Pittsburgh Diagnostic Lab.”
He hesitated for a few seconds. Then in his kind doctor voice said,
“You have Multiple Sclerosis.”
Dr. Thomas Dugan, Nueropsychologist, looked at me as he spoke that sweltering mid-July day in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
The keystone state of Pennsylvania has two seasons, some say in jest; Winter and the Fourth of July.Summer’s heat sometimes lingers for a few days or weeks. That day turned out hotter for us than temperature.
Doctor Dugan looked serious, so it wasn’t a joke as his face registered concern. None of us had ever heard of Multiple Sclerosis.
Mother started crying anyway.
Daddy looked stoic.
My thoughts wandered.
Not too much though.Recent high school graduate emotions lingered making me a happy camper. Thoughts of college in a month raced through my mind. Clothes to choose and pack.
Who would be there?
Making new friends.
Different people fascinated me.
Would classes be difficult?
On my own.
Away from home.
Now, a strange doctor told me an incurable disease ravaged my body. He also said that having children wasn’t a good idea. It could be harmful to me.
Who cared or even thought about having children? Or even getting married? In the late fifties, marriage BEFORE children most people thought proper.
I thought,
“They must know something about whatever Dr. Dugan said.
What was it? Multiple something that started with an S.”
In a few months, I would discover the awful truth of Multiple Sclerosis or MS. Stress of final exams made MS rear its ugly head. I relapsed into numbness, paralysis, or both.
A sharp stabbing pain behind usually my left ear feels like something inside my head attacks with a sharp knife.My primary care doctor prescribed an 800 mg tablet every twelve hours.Pain stops.
But it returns. Then leaves as quickly as it began.
Multiple Sclerosis symptoms go from almost nothing to full paralysis with total numbness. Mine usually limited themselves to numbness and/or paralysis in one or several body parts.
Always a surprise.
Never a pleasure.
Dr. Dugan prescribed a five milligram tablet of nicotinic acid with eight ounces of water after every meal. That flushes blood vessels. Disease Modifying Drugs weren’t on the market in 1958.
Total rest for two weeks taking nicotinic acidafter each meal. Numbness and/or paralysis all gone. I returned to college. Just one week of work to make up because of the week between semesters.
Giving Healthcare
Mother’s care came when she reached a relatively young sixty-four. Lung cancer developed in an amazing woman who never smoked a cigarette in her life.I moved home to help with her care. She saw how emotionally difficult a task I found it.
My being there to care for Mom enabled Dad to have a day or few hours break from care taking.He freelyadmitted to me that my relief helped him a lot. I felt happy to do that forhim.
I loved being with Mom. However, seeing her debilitating condition sometimes made me cry. Mom soothed me. Again. Over forty, yet still her baby.
Fortunately, I’d enrolled in a counseling class at a nearby college. Graduate students practiced grief counseling. The woman taught me breathing techniques to help control those crying urges.
As a trained singer, slow controlled diaphragmatic breathing came easily to me.These breathing strategies helped me in public. However, when Mother and I were alone together, my crying jags often got hold of me.
My MS research and talking with others acquainted with MS told me how it often controls emotions. My soft-heart nature causes me to cry at the drop-of-a-hat so MS adds to that aspect of my personality.
My breath catches when seeing something utterly beautiful, grand beyond belief, a distressed animal or person. My throat tightens. Tears flow freely.
Dad remarried within the year after Mother died. It seemed much too soon to me. He assured me that he spent more than a year knowing that Mother would die. She wanted him to find someone.
And he did.
He discovered a former college classmate. He had dated Jeannie’s roommate. They married. Five years later, she got sick and died.
Daddy hired a live-in housekeeper who also managed his medicine, cooked, cleaned, washed clothes. She had time off each weekand vacations.
My fondest memory happened the summer she and family took a two week vacation. We flew from Arizona to Florida to help him. I loved helping Daddy, read to him, talked to him, brought his meals that my husband prepared. I enjoyed being “Daddy’s girl” once more.
His gentle, loving, giving nature with buoyant charm endeared him to many. One of the fabulous good fortunes of my life that I called him Daddy. Caring for him, that’s a pleasure I’ll remember for my lifetime.
Other times, I gave healthcare to folks I didn’t know. Interim jobs during school vacations saw me working for a Home Health Agency. This humbling experience taught me there’s no exemption from needing healthcare.
We WILL ALL need healthcare sometime during our lives. Be prepared to accept it graciously and gracefully.
Education | Health| Self-Development
Three Niches To Which I Am Most Closely Associated. Which One will Prevail?
She looked average, an every day, garden-variety duck. She had a
wide body;
not fat,
not skinny,
looked just right to me.
probably weighed ten to fifteen pounds. Shades of brown withgreen and white feathers around her long neck and a large head graced her body.All of this made her a very interesting duck.
She had to be a duck. I’d seen pictures of ducks and this duck looked identical to them. At the zoo were many ducks. My family had been there with me
It wasn’t too surprising to see her. She was at the right place, where lots of ducks gather.
You could be thinking, “Why are you telling me this?”
You also might wonder why I keep calling duck ‘she.’ Don’t know an answer to that, this duck just looked like a she. And…
Sheacted strangely, that’s why. She kept looking back and forth toward the lake and me, while quacking wildly!
“Hi there Duck,” I called cheerfully, with a wide grin on my face.I thought it would make her happy if I looked happy.
“Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack,” she quackily replied loudly!
“You seem upset. Are you all right? I asked.
“Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack,” she responded. Again, she kept looking at the lake and back to me.
“Whatever’s wrong must be by or in the lake,” I thought. “Come on, Duck, let’s go see what it is.”
She acted much calmer waddling along beside me. It felt good helping a duck in distress!
We walked some distance. So I thought it might be helpful if I sang a duck song.
I sang, hoping the music would calm her.
“Little Ducky Wuddle
Went wading ina puddle,
Went wading in a puddle
Quite small.
Said she, “It doesn’t matter
How much I splash and splatter,
I’m only a ducky
After all.”
That seemed to calm her a little bit.
“Wow, you really liked that one didn’t you?”
“I’ll sing it again. Wish you could sing it with me!”
No response, so…
I sang again,
“Little Ducky Wuddle
Went wading in a puddle,
Went wading in a puddle
Quite small.
Said she, “It doesn’t matter
How much I splash and splatter,
I’m only ducky
After all.”
We were almost at the lake. Obviously, she didn’t want to be there. She became more and more nervous with each step we took. She slowed her waddling. It seemed as though she wanted to return to where we started.
At the edge of the water, I looked around trees by the lake or flew in the sky. Three geese splashed water at each other. I couldn’t see anything that would be so upsetting to my friend, Ducky.
“What is it? I asked her. I don’t see anything unusual to upset you so.”
Just then, she began quacking loud and long, much louder than before!
“Okay, Okay,” I said patiently.
“I know you see or sensesomething, but I don’t see it yet.”
But she had seen the water move. Now I saw a form movingtoward us from the center of the lake.
“What is it?” I wondered.
“Could it be a Loch Ness monster? Surely not here in our Florida lake!”
These silent thoughts kept from alarming my friend Duck.
The clear water in the lake allowed me to see the object coming closer.
An alligator! No wonder Duck’s excitement reached fever pitch!
“You’re right,” I stated. “Alligators need to have our healthyrespect. I don’t want to be in water around them. But, I also know they can be easily frightened.
Flap your wings and splash like those geese over there, that ole gator won’t bother you at all.”
“Quack, quack, quack,”she honked.
I waved my arms, yelling and splashing water in thedirection of the alligator. He turned and started gliding toward the opposite shore! Duck and I breathed a sigh of relief!
She looked up at me with heavy ducky eyes and went, “Quack, quack.”
It sounded very much like “thank you” to me.
I smiled at her and said affectionately, “You’re very welcome, Duck. Let me know if I can help you again. I come here often. Maybe we’ll see each other soon.”
Another duck waddled toward us. They seemed to know each other and moved closer. “My” duck kept looking back at me, as she quacked and quacked.
I know she told her friend the entire story, in duck language of course!
Authors Note:
This story gave me the idea for Glitzy Series, an adventurous rabbit who gets into more jams than a bowl full of jello.
My entire adult life I’ve lived with a Multiple Sclerosis Diagnosis. Best known as MS it often goes badly for some of those afflictedwith it.
Since MS affects everyone differently, then each person who has MS has their own disease.
I think most doctors say putting MS in a box would be too simple a statement. The disease holds too many mysteries, it’s complications and diversity are too complex.
My graduation from high school at 17 happened two months before I heard what some would call dreadful news. It had no effect on me at the time for I felt and looked fine.
As years went by and I grew older, more lesions developed on my spine and brain. That happens within MS; lesions, demyelination (where disease destroys and damages nerve coatings called myelin.)
Different neurologists have said that my MS ismild. A famous neuro in Minneapolis labeled it benign. The definition of benign is kind; MS treated me most unkind at times.
She looked average, an every day, garden-variety duck. She had a wide body; not fat, not skinny, looking just right to me. She probably weighed ten to fifteen pounds. Shades of brown withgreen and white feathers around her long neck and a large head graced her body.All of this made her a very interesting duck.
She had to be a duck because I’d seen pictures of ducks and this duck looked identical to them. At the zoo were many ducks, and my family had been there with me, as well.
It wasn’t too surprising to see her. She was at the right place, where lots of ducks gather.
You could be thinking, “Why are you telling me this?”
You also might wonder why I keep calling duck ‘she.’ Don’t know an answer to that, this duck just looked like a she. And…
Sheacted strangely, that’s why. She kept looking back and forth toward the lake and me, while quacking wildly!
“Hi there Duck,” I called cheerfully, with a wide grin on my face.I thought it would make her happy if I looked happy.
“Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack,” she quackily replied loudly!
“You seem upset. Are you all right? I asked.
“Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack,” she responded. Again, she kept looking at the lake and back to me.
“Whatever’s wrong must be by or in the lake,” I thought. “Come on, Duck, let’s go see what it is.”
She acted much calmer waddling along beside me. It felt good helping a duck in distress!
We walked some distance. So I thought it might be helpful if I sang a duck song.
I sang, hoping the music would calm her.
“Little Ducky Wuddle
Went wading ina puddle,
Went wading in a puddle
Quite small.
Said she, “It doesn’t matter
How much I splash and splatter,
I’m only a ducky
After all.”
That seemed to calm her a little bit.
“Wow, you really liked that one didn’t you?”
“I’ll sing it again. Wish you could sing it with me!”
No response, so…
I sang again,
“Little Ducky Wuddle
Went wading in a puddle,
Went wading in a puddle
Quite small.
Said she, “It doesn’t matter
How much I splash and splatter,
I’m only ducky
After all.”
We were almost at the lake. Obviously, she didn’t want to be there. She became more and more nervous with each step we took. She slowed her waddling. It seemed as though she wanted to return to where we started.
At the edge of the water, I looked around trees by the lake or flew in the sky. Three geese splashed water at each other. I couldn’t see anything that would be so upsetting to my friend, Ducky.
“What is it? I asked her. I don’t see anything unusual to upset you so.”
Just then, she began quacking loud and long, much louder than before!
“Okay, Okay,” I said patiently.
“I know you see or sensesomething, but I don’t see it yet.”
But she had seen the water move. Now I saw a form movingtoward us from the center of the lake.
“What is it?” I wondered.
“Could it be a Loch Ness monster? Surely not here in our Florida lake!”
These silent thoughts kept from alarming my friend Duck.
The clear water in the lake allowed me to see the object coming closer.
An alligator! No wonder Duck’s excitement reached fever pitch!
“You’re right,” I stated. “Alligators need to have our healthyrespect. I don’t want to be in water around them. But, I also know they can be easily frightened.
Flap your wings and splash like those geese over there, that ole gator won’t bother you at all.”
“Quack, quack, quack,”she honked.
I waved my arms, yelling and splashing water in thedirection of the alligator. He turned and started gliding toward the opposite shore! Duck and I breathed a sigh of relief!
She looked up at me with heavy ducky eyes and went, “Quack, quack.”
It sounded very much like “thank you” to me.
I smiled at her and said affectionately, “You’re very welcome, Duck. Let me know if I can help you again. I come here often. Maybe we’ll see each other soon.”
Another duck waddled toward us. They seemed to know the each other and moved closer. “My” duck kept looking back at me, as she quacked and quacked.
I know she told her friend the entire story!
Authors Note:
This story gave me the idea for Glitzy Series, an adventurous rabbit who gets into more jams than a bowl full of jello.
State governments set overall educational standards, often mandate standardized tests for K–12 public school systems and supervise, usually through a board of regents, state colleges, and universities. The bulk of the $1.3 trillion in funding comes from state and local governments, with federal funding accounting for only about $200 billion.[1] Private schools are generally free to determine their own curriculum and staffing policies, with voluntary accreditation available through independent regional accreditation authorities, although some state regulation can apply.
In 2013, about 87% of school-age children (those below higher education) attended state funded public schools, about 10% attended tuition- and foundation-funded private schools,[8] and roughly 3% were home-schooled.[9]
There are also a large number and wide variety of publicly and privately administered institutions of higher education throughout the country. Post-secondary education, divided into college, as the first tertiary degree, and graduate school, is described in a separate section below. Higher education includes elite private colleges like Harvard University, Stanford University, MIT, and Caltech, large state flagship universities, private liberal arts schools, historically-black colleges and universities, community colleges, and for-profit colleges like the University of Phoenix. College enrollment rates in the United States have increased over the long term.[11] At the same time, student loan debt has also risen to $1.5 trillion. According to a report published by the U.S. News & World Report, of the top ten colleges and universities in the world, eight are American (the other two are Oxford and Cambridge, in the United Kingdom).[12]
The United States spends more per student on education than any other country.[13] In 2014, the Pearson/Economist Intelligence Unit rated US education as 14th best in the world. The Programme for International Student Assessment coordinated by the OECD currently ranks the overall knowledge and skills of American 15-year-olds as 31st in the world in reading literacy, mathematics, and science with the average American student scoring 487.7, compared with the OECD average of 493.[14][15] In 2014, the country spent 6.2 percent of its GDP on all levels of education – 1.0 percentage points above the OECD average of 5.2 percent.[16] In 2017, 46.4 percent of Americans aged 25 to 64 attained some form of post-secondary education.[3][4] 48 percent of Americans aged 25 to 34 attained some form of tertiary education, about 4 percent above the OECD average of 44 percent.[17][18][19] 35 percent of Americans aged 25 and over have achieved a bachelor’s degree or higher.[20] The United States ranks 3rd from the bottom among OECD nations in terms of its poverty gap, and 4th from the bottom in terms of poverty rate.[21][22]Jonathan Kozol has described these inequalities in K–12 education in Savage Inequalities and The Shame of a Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America.[23]
Riverplace, an office complex co-located with LaRive Condominium, held a series of offices, shops, and apartments. They published a monthly newsletter that ran my column, “Meet Your Neighbor.”
Mississippi Mud
The inhouse newsletter of LaRive Condominium editors Marvin and Pat Tromp asked me to help them with writing and editing the newsletter. I interviewed residents and wrote articles.
We lived in Minneapolis six years. I applied for teaching positions, substituted, and taught a night course. Finally, I landed a reading position. Meanwhile, this writing opportunity and teaching a few private piano students occupied my time.
The past six months a whirlwind of writing activity swired around me. Starting with Guest Blogging in December 2018, a break from Guest Blogging to take Freelance Writing course in March 2019 kept me a busy gal. It’ll keep going for a long time! Busy is good.
Becoming a Guest Blogging Graduate filled my dreams since I started that course in December 2018. Jon presented a Black Book of Blogs during the course. I learned about Freelance Writing and Carol Tice, owner/writer of Make A Living Writing Blog.
Guest Blogging taught me many ways of writing; free writing, blogging, researching, freelancing, interviewing, just a few examples.Awesome Jon built a million dollar website in Smart Blogger. He lives in a wheelchair as a Muscular Dystrophy patient while moving only his mind and mouth.
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) currently puts me into a wheelchair. However, I’m able to do many daily activities for myself. Working with a Doctorate Physical Therapist specialist with MS who agrees that walking unassisted again is in my near future.
Being a Freelance Writer has it all.
“That’s it for me,” I decided.
Carol Tice, owner of Make A Living Writing, presented “Get More Freelance Writing Jobs” course. That month long course in Marchconvinced me that Freelance Writing would lead my future endeavors
Call on me when you need someone else to tell your story, type it, and get it published. I’ll be your ghost!
Ghostwriting has nothing to do with the characters above, or anything else associated with Halloween!
Don’t mean too shout at you with the capital letters, just wanted to get your complete attention.
Listening ismy best quality.
I’m your gal, when you need someone to tell your story, type it, then get it published.
I’ll listen to you,
Gather all the facts,
Put together your momentos,
We’ll outline your story.
The outline is an important part of starting the story. Getting that done helps the writing process to flow much more easily. It also saves on the rewriting.We’ll have fewer times going back-and-forth editing.
Helping your writer with the outline may also trigger additional thoughts or memories in your story telling.After the outline, your writer starts working on the first draft. When you have the first draft in hand, read it carefully and make any corrections in the margins for your writer to add to the second draft. You and your writer will need to collaborate many times, so your finished product reads the way you envision it.
Judith Norris 