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maggiet's comments:

on The Health of Our Bees

As a homeowner and a parent involved with my children's elementary school, what can I do to help? We don't use pesticides at our home, and have installed some bee-friendly plants at home and at the school. My biggest hurdle at the school is an unfounded fear of bees. I understand that from people who are allergic, but the teachers and parents tend to think that bees are dangerous. Any good resources out there for teaching about pollinators to elementary age kids (and their parents!)? I think I also need to learn more about mason bees. It sounds like installing a mason bee house in my yard might help? I do not have the time to actually 'keep bees' though. Would a mason bee house at the school be appropriate?

posted 3 years, 10 months ago
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on Grow Your Own

Hi Carl,

METRO has been doing a great job educating people about gardening, and the Gardens of Natural Delights tour is lots of fun. Thanks for continuing this good work!

Maggie Thornton/ProGrass Landscape

posted 4 years, 1 month ago
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on Grow Your Own

Last year, the company I work for, ProGrass Landscape Care & Design, started a program we call Gardens For Kids. We offer up to $10,000 in labor to create or expand gardens or nature spaces in public elementary schools. So far, we have worked with 4 schools in the Portland area. As far as we know, ProGrass' program is the first of its kind in the nation. Our goal is to work with two schools each year. What our crews can do in a day takes parent volunteers literally months to accomplish. We do this as part of our mission to encourage what we call 'natural solutions for a healthy landscape'-the starting point of everything in our business (organic fertilizers, soil ammendments, water conservation, proper landscape design and construction practices). I would encourage anyone interested in the Gardens For Kids program to visit our website at www.prograss.com and request an application, or email me directly at mthornton@prograss.com. We will be looking for 2 new schools for the 2009-2010 school year! Happy gardening, Maggie Thornton

posted 4 years, 1 month ago
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on Rethinking Schools

You make some very good points. I am also the parent of a TAG student and have had some struggles with getting any real challenges for my daughter. And, I could not agree more that parents need to be involved; they need to say 'no' sometimes; they need to realize that academics are more important than soccer and dance lessons. I heard a recent suggestion referring to why Asian families seem to have high-achieving kids.This idea was that Asian families value education and often promote academics at home by having a 'family hour' when the entire family sits down after dinner. The kids do their homework, or another 'academic' activity, parents read (not People magazine either). Can you imagine what would happen in our schools if even half the families did this?

posted 4 years, 2 months ago
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on Rethinking Schools

Thank you for defending standards of grammar! I recently saw an advertisement from the National Education Assoc. promoting reading week, and the word 'less' was used instead of 'fewer'! Arrghhh! I must say that in general, I think teachers are very hard-working and dedicated. But, let's keep our standards high.

posted 4 years, 2 months ago
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on Rethinking Schools

Yes, let's remember that our kids need to be prepared for 'the real world' in a different way than we were 30-40 years ago. Just think how different our world has become. Our kids will not work in the same model we do. They need to learn 'global' skills and collaberation. We need to think ahead.

posted 4 years, 2 months ago
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on Rethinking Schools

The arts can be combined with 'left brain' learning. It has been done well in many schools. Unfortunately, each school and district seems to reinvent the wheel. While every school community does need to have its own identity, there are some things which are just 'universal'. And, the parents of those first graders should be reading with their kids 30 minutes a day, minimum. If each child received that one-on-one parental attention, they would all learn to read  by the end of first grade.

posted 4 years, 2 months ago
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on Rethinking Schools

I think the greatest influence President Obama could have would be to his best to influence parents to take more responsibility for their children's education. As a parent volunteer, I see the teachers in my daughter's elementary school doing a fantastic job...giving 110%. However, that doesn't have much of an effect on the child who had Skittles for breakfast, or the one who was allowed to stay up late watching an R-rated movie. And these are kids from 'good' families. We need community leaders, starting from President Obama at the top, to help educate the parents along with our kids. And although it's unpopular to say this, the parents of ELL kids need to understand that if they want their kids to suceed, they too need to learn English. We need to recapture the sense of working together to create educational communities in which no child, or family, is allowed to fail. There is really no time to lose.

posted 4 years, 2 months ago
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on Stayin' In

Yes, I do think our children are suffering from 'nature deficiency syndrome'. My own child is the expection in her class in that she plays outside pretty much every day. I was spurred by her experience to think about how I could help. After all, I work in the horticulture field. I'm happy to say that the company I work for, ProGrass Landscape Care & Design, has launched a program to donate the labor for creating gardens and nature spaces at public elementary schools. ProGrass completed the first project in April and is looking for more schools to help. The average labor donation will be about $6000-$7000. In putting together this program, I realized I couldn't much influence what a child does at home, but I could make sure that child is able to learn firsthand about plants and animals at school. I'm very proud of this program and I really hope schools take advantage of it. It's designed to eliminate the major roadblocks to creating nature spaces for parents and educators. At the first school, Concord Elementary in Milwaukie, I saw immediate results with the kids. It was both thrilling and crushing to see the kids' excitement over getting to dig in the dirt. I saw some real 'ah ha' moments right before my eyes--a deeper understanding of what it takes to nuture our environment.

posted 5 years ago
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on Publicly Financed Questions

Last May, I was in the Rep. of Ireland during their national elections. The Irish system relies heavily on public debates among the different party candidates. Newspapers carry coverage (generally front page) every day during the election cycle (which is much shorter than ours-about 3 months instead of 12-18). Likewise, TV and radio give extensive coverage to the party candidates. There is NO ADVERTISING by the candidates, save for a uniform size and format poster which parties post on light and utility poles. No TV ads, no radio...it was great. In speaking to about a dozen Irish citizens about the elections, they were always surprised that the American system relied on advertising. Again and again, we heard comments showing concern that the American system just comes down to money, not the candidates and their positions on the issues. Obviously, I am no expert on the Irish system, and I can't say that it's completely better than the American voting system. However, I have long thought that money needs to be taken out of the equation. How about this...ONLY public funding. Give every candidate a set amount of citizen-financed money and see what they can do with it. Perhaps it would force the media to cover real issues, in depth, and we could get away from the sound bite system.

posted 5 years, 1 month ago
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