End of April Update

So my life has been fairly insane lately, but I thought I'd update in this brief period when I should be paying attention to my co-ed literary fraternity's poetry meter workshop (they're analyzing the meter of Lady GaGa's Bad Romance, it's pretty epic).

THINGS I HAVE DONE/AM DOING:
- Continue to volunteer for Betsy Dennigan, going to be assigned press releases to write closer to the primary in September.  Tomorrow I'll be representing Betsy at a peace conference in Roger Williams Park's Botanical Gardens (Click on the brochure in the top portion of the page to see details.)  She can't go because she has a different event to attend, but she is a sponsor of the event, so I've been appointed to go in her place.
- Attended escort training for Planned Parenthood, where I will help women pass through crouwds of protesters on scheduled abortion days to get from the parking lot to the building across the street.
- I'm meeting with Carolyn Mark, president of RI NOW, to discuss my being their Political Action Committee intern.  This will involve a lot of lobbying, researching laws, and testifying at bill hearings.
- Been completely inspired by James Forman Jr., who spoke at a Careers in the Common Good informal info session about Public Interest Law at Brown earlier this week.  Hearing his story made me feel far better about my decision to pursue law school, that I won't lose my entire soul or my reasons for attending, and that I can really make a difference one day.  I just need to remind myself why I'm there and avoid the herd.  Basically, I need to find awesome friends at a good school so we can keep each other's morale up against the suits that dominate the field.  I can do that.  I'm doing it at Brown, I did it in high school, and I have faith that I can continue to do so in the future.  I'm going to see if I'll be able to volunteer a few hours a week at the Public Defenders office.  I think that's the best way to get real experience with the law and, as I always strive to do, with ground myself to understand the people that laws not only affect, but should be built around.
- Trying to get back into Brown following my leave.  I'm getting some of my friends to edit the letter I've written, and I already have the letters of recommendation I need done.  I'm pretty excited to go back--leave has been a priceless experience, but I need to graduate.

That's all for now.  Take care.

Educational Rant of the Day

Did you know that getting a child into an elementary school in Providence is a complete crap shoot?  Whether it's getting into an awesome Charter school or the worst of the public schools, it's done based on lottery and not by location or merit.  I really don't understand how education came to be cultivated in this way, but it's pretty broken.  Not that all students shouldn't be given a chance to achieve, but the way the current system is, without required pre-K or full-day kindergarten, students are thrown together in first grade, a large portion not understanding the basics of reading or mathematics, even speaking English, let alone social skills.

I found this out from talking with my boss about trying to get her 3-year-old into kindergarten soon, and how much of a challenge finding a decent public school in Providence is.  I knew this about the high schools, in particular Hope High School, which has some of the lowest test scores and passing rates in the state and is ironically down the block from the Brown University campus.  I did not realize how poorly the elementary schools are organized, which should have occurred to me, as education is cumulative.  Being surrounded by professors that live on the East Side and send their children to expensive private prep schools, however, has shifted my understanding of elementary school learning in the area.  I think it is important that at the very least, we fund full-day kindergarten, and understand why the state is spending so much money per student on a failing education system.