On Boys and Girls
No, this isn't about the differences between boys and girls, heh heh. If you guys and gals haven't figured the differences out by now, well....
Anyway, this post is about the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Man, do they rawk.
My sister on Long Island is a single mom raising a wonderful and smart little girl of eight. My sister works hard for a living and can't be home with my niece after school although she'd like to be. So my sister enrolled my niece in the local B&GC.
Can I just say that my niece is excelling there and this program is the best thing ever?? My niece is now playing softball (and rawking it!) and is most especially enjoying the Science Club (she also excels at math, so Obama would be very pleased to know that there's at least one little girl out there who loves math and science the most out of all her classes both at school and at the Club).
My sister is fortunate enough to live in a wealthy area, and her specific B&GC gets some pretty nice donations. It's my hope that all of them do -- or will. The Club my niece goes to pays attention to school schedules, and will open early when school closes early. They also provide bussing from the school to their facility, and summer courses. A parent's dream come true, truly.
I urge all of you to look up your local B&GC and either enroll your kids in the program, or donate or volunteer.
Cute side story my sister just told me on the phone tonight: During Science class, my niece's teacher was discussing evolution. A little boy in the class raised his hand and announced to the teacher, "You are wrong. My dad says that God created us." My niece then raised her hand, and turned to the boy and politely said, "I'm sorry, but your father is confusing religion with science."
Eight years old. Go figure.
Heh heh.....that's my niece. Damn proud of her, too, I am. Can you tell?
Anyway, this post is about the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Man, do they rawk.
My sister on Long Island is a single mom raising a wonderful and smart little girl of eight. My sister works hard for a living and can't be home with my niece after school although she'd like to be. So my sister enrolled my niece in the local B&GC.
Can I just say that my niece is excelling there and this program is the best thing ever?? My niece is now playing softball (and rawking it!) and is most especially enjoying the Science Club (she also excels at math, so Obama would be very pleased to know that there's at least one little girl out there who loves math and science the most out of all her classes both at school and at the Club).
My sister is fortunate enough to live in a wealthy area, and her specific B&GC gets some pretty nice donations. It's my hope that all of them do -- or will. The Club my niece goes to pays attention to school schedules, and will open early when school closes early. They also provide bussing from the school to their facility, and summer courses. A parent's dream come true, truly.
I urge all of you to look up your local B&GC and either enroll your kids in the program, or donate or volunteer.
Cute side story my sister just told me on the phone tonight: During Science class, my niece's teacher was discussing evolution. A little boy in the class raised his hand and announced to the teacher, "You are wrong. My dad says that God created us." My niece then raised her hand, and turned to the boy and politely said, "I'm sorry, but your father is confusing religion with science."
Eight years old. Go figure.
Heh heh.....that's my niece. Damn proud of her, too, I am. Can you tell?
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You are doin just fine in the niece department LisB. Just fine.
I am really happy for you and when they are eight and that smart; WATCH OUT. And this Boys and Girl
Clubs group seems really good. Never heard of it
June 13, 2009 10:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
DD, ya gotta hyave an award somewhere in your magic box of words and awards to give to the niece. Dig deep, Man, it's in there. hehehehehe
June 14, 2009 2:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
Right? Word!
June 14, 2009 5:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
Beautiful.
=D
June 13, 2009 10:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
I can tell how proud you are, Aunt Lis. I am proud of her too. Wish I had been good in math and science - alas I am still poor with numbers. My granddaughter puts me to shame.
The Boys and Girls Club is a great place and I am very happy Elisabeth is in such good hands after school.
June 13, 2009 10:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
I loved science but did poorly in math. My favorite classes were History, English (Lit), and Government & Social Sciences.
Took three years of Espanol and all I can remember is "tengo de lor de cabeza" (en engles, I have a headache).
And I sucked at Home Economics.
Gawd, no wonder I've never married, LOL...
June 13, 2009 10:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Math was always one of my favorite subjects, although not all the complicated formulas and graphs. I love the singular honesty of the "black and white" aspect of numbers - it's the gray area of decimal points that will drive you insane.
Nice, warm post, Lis. A lovely blend of family and description of a good and worthy means of encouraging children. Your niece sounds like a wonderful young (in years) woman.
June 13, 2009 10:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks, Missy. Gosh, I wish I could've understood math, but to this day I still have to count on my fingers. I was okay with fractions, but the minute we moved to decimals I just froze up and stopped learning. Algebra was a nightmare of a guessing game to me. Got to the point where I didn't give a rat's ass what a and b let alone x and y were.
And yes, my niece is following suit with the rest of my nieces and becoming a right smart young lady in her own right. It's my hope she'll go left, if you know what I mean.
June 13, 2009 11:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
great story, smart niece.
June 13, 2009 10:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you, thank you.
June 13, 2009 11:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks LisB for the nice post and the link, signed up and sent to friends, promise to donate soon.
June 13, 2009 11:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Awesome! I'm so glad to hear that, DonDi. And again, I strongly urge parents everywhere to look up the link and see if there's a Club in their area.
June 13, 2009 11:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, w a y back when I was growin up, they had Y's (which seemed mostly for the alcohol dependent) and were all YMCAs in my area. But there was scouts, and I got into Girl Scouting with a vengeance - but then I've always been an overachiever. Being in Girl Scouts was a life saver for me (along with summer camp and softball - all of which got me away from home). 'Course there's folks who would say that Girl Scouts was my down fall as I ended up gay - or that Girl Scouts perverts our young - since it "nurtured" me.
Anywho, I checked on the Boys and Girls Clubs within my area and there are 15 within 25 miles of me. Had no idea there were that many around.
June 14, 2009 12:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm glad to hear that there are so many. Wow!
Yeah, I learned how to swim at the local YMCA and we didn't have a girls' only YWCA so it was years before I even knew they existed.
My older sisters were Brownies/GC's and I was jealous of their uniforms and badges, but they didn't really stick with it.
Mum put me in summer camp each year and I enjoyed it, and I'm grateful to the volunteers who kept it going. It's my hope these types of things continue and that they get donations.
June 14, 2009 12:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
You know Liz those are experiences she will treasure all her life.As a leader for a year of a boys group I saw how happy and excited they were to get to do activities together.We helped them build a little wooden tote tool chest complete with hammer, ruler and pencil.With that we helped them build a birdhouse and paint it, then a little roller derby race car.Then one weekend we took them camping in a field with a lake,looked at the stars with a telescope and slept in tents around a huge campfire. They are all teenagers now but they wont forget those times,and what they built is sitting on shelves in their homes or hanging from a tree in the yard, reminding them of those times.It was hard work at times preparing, trying to finance it,but a small price to pay for experiences and friends these young men wont forget.
June 14, 2009 12:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
Excellent! I truly get depressed when I see kids today getting their kicks from Wii and X-Box and whatever else they sit on their asses and play with.
When I was a kid I was outdoors more than in. I had a vivid imagination and could wander through the woods pretending it was my castle, or walking amidst weeds pretending to be a cowboy, or riding my bike and learning to let go of the handlebars while rolling downhill.
At summer camp I learned how to make leather art, beaded bracelets, popsicle stick gingerbread houses...all a bunch of worseless stuff, I suppose, but it engaged me and made me realize you can do just about anything with...anything.
I'd hate to see kids just waste away with a video game when there's so much more they could be doing. Thanks for doing your part, DonDi.
June 14, 2009 12:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
More years ago than I want to admit, I was part of a group of young hams who taught preadolescent kids (mostly boys, but there was one girl) how to build crystal sets. You had to be there when they hooked their completed radios up to a rain gutter antenna and a water faucet ground and actually heard radio broadcasts. Talk about lighting up like a Christmas tree.
Unfortunately, I can't/won't do that anymore. Crystal sets, for the most part, are confined to receiving signals on the AM broadcast band.
And we all know who lives on the AM broadcast band . . .
June 14, 2009 8:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
You have a very cool niece, Lis. Science...cool.
June 14, 2009 1:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks, Grouch. I'm very impressed by her smarts. She's a very outspoken and impressive little thing so far (well, not so little, she takes after her tall Aunt Lis) and I think she's gonna go places. She has, since early childhood, had a keen interest in how things work, including people, and she comes out with the most uncanny observations I've ever heard a kid utter.
And I'll bet there are a lot of kids out there like her, and it's my hope their parents take advantage of every program they can get their hands on in order to help nurture and shape and encourage their kids' thoughts.
June 14, 2009 1:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
Rec'd for the story about your niece.
However, the tragedy of that story is were the teacher to say exactly what your niece did, it's possible her job would have been at risk.
June 14, 2009 1:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
My sister said the same thing, CT. She said that the teacher wished he could've uttered that statement himself, but knew he couldn't.
June 14, 2009 1:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
And THAT is how we win. Teach the kids. The boy was taught one thing and then he was confronted with another. he may still take the no-one-but God path, but her classmates will likely not.
June 14, 2009 2:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, but as was pointed out, the teacher couldn't teach the kids. Part of this issue is related to that companies want to sell their textbooks so that very large states (like TX) with very large markets have a lot of sway over what goes in the textbook. It's an example of capitalism corrupting things -- anything for a sale? Uh, huh.
June 14, 2009 3:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
Good point yet again, CT, because I haven't laid my eyes on the text books that kids get nowadays, but what I hear about their schooling makes my blood boil.
And when I hear that some schools are still using old text books because they can't afford new ones, that makes my blood boil too.
Education ain't what it used to be. And as Grouch taught me with his Yogi Berra quote: "The future just ain't what it used to be".
The more I read that quote, the more I understand it's irony.
June 14, 2009 5:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
In many cases the older textbooks are better as they haven't been written for a misguided notion of political correctness.
Take a look at the modern literature textbook: you barely read anything. No stories, just a few excerpts. Most of the literature is in the context of its historical background. Now, while that is important, it's an issue of balance. Instead of reading Charles Dickens, for example, you spend more time discussing Victorian England -- in literature class. American literature courses are even worse. So the literature never gets a chance to speak for itself, students don't understand what it is to actually read a novel, and things look a lot more boring.
Education should be a process of guided self-discovery, but in this wacky litigious age of ours, we now spoon feed social agendas (both sides vie to do this). Little wonder kids tune out.
Sounds like this is a whole 'nother blog topic!
June 14, 2009 12:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nice post, Lis.
Have to admit I was a math loser as well. I did fine in geometry, it made sense. The only reason I ever got through algebra is because my teacher had a crush on me (I swear he changed my answers on tests...there's no other way I could have passed, let alone w/ a "B.") And I was a Girl Scout for like, ever... AND, home ec was one of my favorite classes, all that, you know, creative stuff.
Anyway, sounds like your niece is getting through B&GC many of the things parents used to have time to do. What a gift!
June 14, 2009 1:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
It IS a gift, yes! And it's my hope more parents take advantage of it.
Who knew that our own communities had so many of these Clubs available, and they could be so good?
Very good point you make, btw, about them taking on what parents themselves used to be able to do themselves.
June 14, 2009 1:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hey LisB,
I raised my daughter by myself and I signed her up for a BigSis when she was 12 because I felt she needed other adults in her life to talk about things with and to learn from. The woman was much older(because she was older she wasn't up for sports and some things like that) than me and we had a few differences of opinion about some things regarding raising a child but overall it was a really great thing for my daughter to have the additional adult relationship.
June 14, 2009 1:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
There is something magical in the discussion between a child and an elder. Both seem to learn empathy. Meaning that both put themselves in the others' shoes, when it's done right. And both get so much out of it.
June 14, 2009 1:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
:)
June 14, 2009 4:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
Nice smile, Frizzeh.
June 14, 2009 4:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
WoW! Your niece is one smart cookie. Thanks for a big laugh.
June 14, 2009 3:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
"...she also excels at math, so Obama would be very pleased to know that there's at least one little girl out there who loves math and science the most out of all her classes both at school and at the Club)."
Actually, there are a lot of little girls, big girls, and women out there who are good at math and science. There are ton of other females who would have been good at math and science except our culture for quite a long time encouraged the myth that math and science were for males.
June 14, 2009 6:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
True, very true.
June 14, 2009 6:36 PM | Reply | Permalink