Month: February 2026

THE DROPOUT RATE

/ janpriddyoregon / 3 Comments

In the UK, what we call private schools are called “public schools,” and they cost many thousands to attend. In the US, a private education can cost four times what a public college education costs, even more than Harvard costs, in tuition and fees. When people complain about failing public schools, it’s well to consider that you get what you pay for. It’s well to look at what wealthy people have tried to convince the rest of us about public education. The insistence over the past fifty years that public education is failing is a self-fulfilling prophecy promoted by wealthy people who feel have no stake in quality education for other people’s children. The rest of us do have a stake, because we care about our children, and maybe we should care about all children as future citizens. I won’t pretend the issues are simple.

Yes, a rainbow right down onto Castle Rock, and just the other day. We could see both ends, north and south.

The other alternative is home-schooling.

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LET THE BUCKET GO

/ janpriddyoregon / 12 Comments

This is not my day to post, but today, just now, a frighting event.

That is a young bull Roosevelt elk on the sand, what is called locally a spike because he has his first antlers. The orange object to person’s left (your right) is a bucket belonging to the woman. The elk is interested in that bucket. Whether she was aware of it or not, she challenged that elk. The person is texting and taking photos. Do I need to explain that getting this close to an elk, even one that is on the low end of 700 to 1100 pounds, is what we would call “dangerous.” Stupid comes to mind.
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LAB RATS

/ janpriddyoregon / 3 Comments

Years ago, as a “starving student” who worked every hour I could get, I also participated in psychology experiments that paid volunteers. I only did the safe ones, the sitting-in-a-sound-proof-room and repeating back numbers sort of experiment. I had thought I might major in Psych but Behaviorism was big, and behaviorists were very big on animal experiments and generalizing behaviors of animals in a lab to judge human behavior. I saw flaws in their logic. But I took classes and paid attention.

Winter finally arrived with temperatures in the high 30s. It was 37° on our walk yesterday. We’ve learned from our experience that our 4-mile morning walk leads to a better night’s sleep.
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RESTORE

/ janpriddyoregon / 4 Comments

If you’ve been reading my blog or my Facebook page, you might know that we have been restoring our rental, a duplex attached to our home. It’s just off the beach at the end of a dead end street, and the only long-term rental that I know of locally.

Just now we’ve been at work on the downstairs unit. Renting long term makes it possible for us to afford to care for the property and pay taxes. It’s why my grandfather first constructed the building in the mid-1930s. My family had a summer house then, dating back to 1911. We’d hoped to replace our dysfunctional garage door this year and take a few days on a vacation, but life had other plans.

This is probably 1954 before my brother was born, and Castle Rock behind me is 0.6 nautical miles offshore. My mother spent all her summers here and my grandfather retired here in the 1940s. Some of my earliest memories are from this place and Gary and I have lived here full time since 1979.

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ASSIGNING BLAME

/ janpriddyoregon / 1 Comment

The scenario I detailed in class was based on a true story. It happened in the last century in a city back east. Baltimore, maybe. Brooklyn?

A walk to the park. Daphne blooming outside the Washington Park Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon..

A single mother has kept her sick child at home for three days. The little boy has the flu with a fever and coughing and listlessness. She’s fed him soup and crackers, whatever he would swallow and could keep down. He seems a little better this morning, the fever has dropped, but is not well enough to go to school. She has no one she can call to watch her child, but her boss has warned her that if she fails to come in today, she will be fired. Maybe he’s had to cover for her and is desperate for time with his own family or maybe he’s being a heartless jerk. I don’t know about that.

Mom sleeps on the couch in their one-bedroom, third-floor walk-up apartment. It’s payday and the rent is due. She can’t afford to lose her job, so she tucks her son into bed, warns him to stay in his room. She’s left him water and juice and crackers—all she has in her kitchen until she’s paid and can get to the store. The child seems sleepy enough to stay put. She rests her hand on his forehead and tells him she loves him. “You be good.”

Mom goes to work. She will run home at lunch to check on her boy.

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