“No child left behind”  Sounds good doesn’t it? After all shouldn’t every child be treated the same? Shouldn’t every child go to college? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all 300,000,000 of us Americans were either college graduates or future college graduates? But wait… Who’s going to work on your cars? Pave your streets? Drive the taxi? Paint the houses? Collect the garbage? The truth is, “No child left behind” really means no child excels. It really means, lets all be average. The hard cold facts are, that children have different learning capabilities. We aren’t all cut out to be doctors or lawyers.

   I coached youth sports for 21 years, and the biggest lesson I learned was  that I couldn’t treat all the kids the same. I realized after a couple tough years, that I had to take advantage of what each of those kids brought to the table. Let’s look at soccer. You got em. You can’t cut em. You gotta play em. By the third practice, you have a good enough Idea of skill level to divide them up into two teams and let them scrimmage. Don’t bother them. Just let them play. The defensive minded players will gravitate automatically to defense. The offensive players will gravitate to the offense. Then you’ll have the ones who are all over the place. Those are your midfielders. Once you’ve figured out where they need to play, then you better figure out which ones are going to help you and which are going to hurt you. Once you do that you can place them in position to make the most of their talents.

   By the 9th grade you can pretty much separate  out the kids that are college material from the ones that are destined to be manual laborers. So take what the child brings to the table and expand upon it. Place them in schools according to ability in the 9th grade. Put these kids in an atmosphere where they can be successful. I can tell you from personal experience that theirs nothing more frustrating than sitting next to someone a lot smarter than you. Lets face the realities of life, kids drop out of school because they can’t compete. Most youth soccer leagues have multiple under 6 teams. The league I coached in usually had about eight. By the time you got to under 19 soccer, you were struggling to find enough kids to have one. The kids that can’t compete drop out. That’s a hard cold fact of life.

   Let the smarter children, as well as the less smart children be all they can be. Do not hold one group of kids back so the others can keep up. Teach kids according to their ability. I promise, the cream always rises to the top.

   Why in the world would you move on to algebra before a child grasps basic arithmetic? Why would you try to teach a child to break down a sentence, when you’ve not taught him to read? Guess what. It’s not working people. I don’t care how much you push barely get by Joe, he’s never going to keep up with straight A Johnny unless you put him in a position more Identifiable with his abilities.

   Divide these children according to ability. Teach them what they need to be successful. Get businesses involved in education. Have apprenticeships for high school kids.  Teach those that aren’t as fortunate the basic reading, writing and arithmetic. But also teach them a trade. Don’t keep sending them out into the real world unlearned and unskilled. You aren’t helping anyone.

Recommended reading this month: Flags Of Our Fathers by James Bradley

Have a good un

    How do we do it? How can people in their mid-20′s, fresh out of school, and with no trust fund in hand travel for ~18 months to places that most people only dream about? The truth is: It’s not that difficult. Who here picked out their clothes this morning? Decisions, decisions. That’s what this life is all about. We made a decision that this trip would happen and let that decision lead all of our other decisions for the next 2 years. It all starts with one little decision. That decision leads to a couple questions: How can we make more money? How can we spend less money? Let’s look at these questions one at a time:

1.    How can we make more money? ANSWER: At this point in our lives, making more money is a combination of three things. The first is as it always is, God’s will. I am under no illusion that we have afforded this trip all on our own. To be truthful, some things worked out for us that would not have if not for divine intervention. We were both working regular jobs, making pretty decent money one day and then it happened: Both of us got a call from new employers on the same day offering us new jobs and a total of $13,000 worth of extra pay over the next year. We took the jobs one year before we left for our trip. We also had pretty amazing part-time jobs. I worked as a psychologists assistant for 20 or so hours per week extra and my wife worked as a pharmacy tech. for the same number of hours. That leads me to the second thing that helped us to make more money: HARD HARD WORK! Some of you just cringed. I felt it. You know what though? We looked at one another about a month into our trip and said “It was all worth it. All of the weeks working 60+ hours per week over the past two years were worth it.” That means that the last 7 months have been bonus and that the next 8 or so will be bonus as well. How’s that for return on your investment? The third thing is a little thing I like to call the “Great American Yard Sale”. That’s right folks! Yard sales are no longer just your grandmother’s Saturday hobby. They are a tool. A tool to get out of debt, get rid of clutter, and even help pay for a trip around the world. We had several yard sales over the past couple years. We actually had so many that we had to start taking family donations in order to fill all of our tables. We sold a car at a yard sale (!!!). We dumped all of our useless junk off on someone who could appreciate it. We did not win the lottery, didn’t rob a bank, didn’t have a rich relative pass away. If you bank your future on any of those things, you’ll be quite disappointed in life.

2.    How can we spend less money? ANSWER: I recently read a magazine article (btw, reading is very good for you, do it and do it often) that showed the average weekly grocery expenditures for typical families from around the country. The lowest amount spent on food for a one week period was over $250 USD. We budgeted (Dave Ramsey’s Monthly Cash Flow Planning Form) $150 per month for the last two years that we saved and planned for this trip. Now, I know you are saying one of a few things, so let’s look at those: 1) The two of you don’t have kids, so it’s easier for you to spend less on food. Do your children really eat $850 worth of food each month and you only eat $150? Or are you making up excuses for not living the life you dream of? 2) But you must have eaten Ramen noodles every night and we can’t do that. Wrong. We had fish, chicken, shrimp, turkey, pasta, rice, vegetables, and a lot of other good stuff. We had all our favorite foods. We cooked them at home, bought large packs that would last longer and split them up to freeze, took sandwiches for lunch, bought the store brand of everything (almost everything…Jen wouldn’t give on the ranch dressing), cut down on snack foods (which simultaneously made us more healthy), and used coupons. 3) Budget? We can’t agree on a budget! Evaluate some things. Quickly! The majority of all marital discord comes because of the inability to agree on money. Change this pattern. Sit down and come up with a do-able budget TOGETHER. Today. The rest of our expenses also went on a written budget which we completed prior to the beginning of each new month. In the words of Dave Ramsey, “Every dollar, on paper, on purpose.” It is hard at first, but after a couple months of going through the motions, the expenses really start to shrink and the savings really start to add up. When you start seeing extra money in the bank, the budget gets easier and easier.  

    Now I don’t mean to make it seem too simple to anyone or to put you down for not living your dreams before this point in your life. I am just a very strong believer in intrinsic motivation. The kind that comes from within. If you want something in life (and I believe that we all do) you have to motivate yourself to reach that goal. You have to wakeup daily saying “I want that today. I want to be there. That is the best me! How can I get there?”. Too often, people sit and wait for their prince charming, unicorn, place in the sun, or journey around the world instead of stepping out in faith and courage in the direction of that dream in order to meet it halfway. You know what? If you sit and wait all your life, you will have been halfway the whole time, only needing to do your part. Your dreams will come to you if they are dreamed with good intent. But only halfway.

    Craig Alsup is a fellow blogger, world traveler, and first and foremost, loving Hubby. He has written in and maintained he and his wife’s blog at www.alsupsworldtravels.com over the past couple years. Future plans include book writing, a Ph.D. and private psychological practice, and babies!!!    

After eight years, it’s once again time to say goodbye to another president. Looking back at George W. Bush the 43^rd president of the United States of America, I have to wonder how history will view his presidency. In my personal life, the last eight years weren’t that different than the previous eight. I went to work everyday, paid my bills and fed my family. So why is Bush’s approval rating the lowest of any outgoing president in history?

 Okay, here goes. This is the point where all of you far left liberals might want to stop reading. Your time would be better spent out marching for gay rights or perhaps trying to figure out a way to take God out of something else. Go to Pita’s web-site, you can read about the plight of whichever poor mistreated animal they are highlighting today. While you’re at it, take a little time to complain about the evil conservatives who fight to take away those 13 year old girls right to “choose” without parental approval whether or not to abort those unwanted babies. I just wonder how many of you would have been born, had your parents felt as you do.

George Bush, was a victim. Yes, you heard me right, a victim. Less than nine months into his presidency The United States came under an attack that would define his two terms in office forever. As Bush said in his farewell speech last week, “most of your lives were back to normal for the most part within a few months, but for himself (Bush), that wasn’t the case. His never got back to normal.” I don’t believe he ever got over it. I believe he took it personally and felt responsible. So much so that everything else, including the economy became secondary. He went after Osama Bin laden in Afghanistan. He managed to weaken Alkita tremendously, but was unable to get the mastermind behind the attacks. Then he, with the help of a congressional vote took us into Iraq. Obviously his advisers underestimated the difficulty we would face on both fronts. But more than anything George Bush underestimated the resolve of the American people when it comes to war and seeing their sons die on the battlefield. What’s the old saying? Something to the effect of if you don’t learn from history, you’re doomed to repeat it? I think Viet Nam should have been a little bit of a warning sign.

We won’t know in my lifetime how history will see George Bush. We don’t know and may never know all of the facts about Iraq. A president can’t tell his people everything for obvious reasons. But here’s what we do know. There hasn’t been another attack on American soil since 9/11/01. And our economy was good for seven of the eight years. A little something to think about, our economy went to hell in the middle of an election year. Coincidence? Perhaps.

To George Bush I say, (y’all didn’t know he read my blog did you?) thank you for taking on the hardest job in the world and keeping us safe. Thank you for not giving into pressure and staying true to your conservative values. I didn’t like all of your decisions or methods but I do applaud your courage.

Have a good un

Philosophers throughout history have pondered morality. What is it? But more importantly what determines it? Morality as I see it, is the behavior of man and how it’s viewed by themselves and those around them. Who decides what’s acceptable behavior? God? Society? Governments? Individuals? My first inclanation as a believer in god is to say that my moral standards are those outlined in the ten commandments and the rest of the written word. But after long thought, I realize my beliefs do not represent the beliefs of most of the world. And in every part of the world their are moral standards, laws, and codes by which people live.

Surely God plays a large part in in the moral values of alot of people. But the Ten Comandments are laws laid down by God, rather than morals of individuals. Individuals are free to adopt those and let them be an outline for their morals or not. Governments too must take some responsibility for the morals of its people. But does it dictate ones own personal morals or simply affect how those morals are expressed? Afterall as things allowed by governments, over time become acceptable, the morals of the people do tend to change. Society without question plays a large part in the way all of us live our lives. But again, does society dictate morals, or simply approve or disapprove of them?

In some parts of the world today it is morally unacceptable for a woman to go out in public with their head uncovered. Even in our own country women did not wear pants until recently (within the last hundred years or so). When I was younger, the Idea of people living together was morally unacceptable by a large majority of the country. Today, a large percentage of people think little of it. Abortion was not even debatable a few short decades ago. Now it’s legal and on the rise.  Do I have a moral obligation to pay  my bills? Whats my moral obligation to the poor and needy of the world? At what point does moral resposiblity and acountability come face to face?

It is my belief that morality is an individual thing, influenced  by society, God, government, upbringing, and circumstance. I do not expect everyone who reads this to agree with everything I’ve said. I do hope that this makes each of you think.

Have a good un

This being my first post, I’ll keep it simple where even Mississippi State University people can understand.  I won’t go into long drawn out detail about how our two party political system has become more about serving the better good of the party than about principal. I’ll not mention anything about senate seats being sold to the highest bidder in the state of Illinois or how it’s no longer safe to go to a public restroom if certain political figures are in there. Nope, I’m keeping this first post simple and light hearted.

For those of you who don’t know who I am, I’ll at this time give you a brief history:

I was born January 27th, 1956 in Sikeston, Missouri to a couple of the most wonderfull people on earth. Not long after my birth my family, in search of a better life (more money) moved to Houston, Texas, where dad found work driving a milk truck and mom as a waitress. We were on our way! But dad got homesick for his home, Mississippi and a simpler, less hectic way of life. So we packed our belongings in a small trailor and headed out to Mississippi. Dad ended up buying a small farm 10 miles outside of Kosciusko, Mississippi. There I spent the rest of my youth. At 17 I married a country girl (mary) from the big city of Kosciusko and started my own family. Mary and I had and raised two fine sons, Tony and Craig. Both are married and on their own now. (please God let them realize they are on their own).

Through the years I’ve spent quite alot of my time thinking and studying on the world and more specifically the things that affect my personal world. These thoughts are the things I hope to share with you in future blogs.

Have a good un

Neal Alsup