The Washington Post has a major article today about the 200+ area
schools that did not meet the No Child Left Behind standards this
year. WaPo asks principals Why Is Your School On This List?,
March 12, 2006). As an important public service, there is a sidebar
piece entitled “No Reader Left Behind: A Guide to the Law,” by Jay
Matthews. Since I learned a lot (and have already forgotten a lot) from
the column, I’m posting a link here for my future reference, and for the
edification of other readers and lawyers who have no idea of the intri-
cacies of this legislation (and the resultant regulations, state-by-state)
According to Matthews, the three key letters in any
dicussion of NCLB are AYP: adequate yearly progress.
Envy has never been part of my personal make-up (I don’t think). So, the
many achievements of my many talented friends do not evoke the green-
eye monster in me. Nonetheless, occasionally, I see what Larry Rohter
gets to do for a living, and wish I had headed for journalism school instead
of law school, after we left Georgetown in 1971. See, e.g., New York Times,
“Chile Inaugurates First Woman to Serve as Its President, March 12, 2006.
Catholic Bishops are apparently easing the consciences of a lot of the
faithful this week, so that St. Patrick’s revelers can have guiltless corned beef on
Friday, March 17, despite it being Lent. My local Sunday paper (The [Schen-
ectady, NY] Gazette, March 12, 2006, $ub. only) has one theologist, Tom
Dickens at Siena College, explaining:
“More theologically, Catholics believe God is not legalistic.
God does not insist on strict obervance of rules strictly for
the sake of observing rules. The point of fasting and doing
without is to make room in our hearts for the love of God and
the love of neighbor.”
Note, though, that not all bishops are being so flexible. According to The
Saginaw [MI] News, March 11, 2006:
“No such luck, however, in Brownsville, Texas. Bishop Raymundo
Pena, who heads the diocese, which is 85 percent Hispanic, is
sticking with the penitence.
“In Portland, Maine, Bishop Richard J. Malone, has given the OK
but is requiring parishioners to fast the Wednesday prior to the
holiday if they consume meat, says diocese spokeswoman Sue
Bernard, director of communications.”
As an ex-Catholic and born skeptic, I really don’t believe that a large per-
centage of American Catholics would have skipped their corned beef, if
the local bishop failed to offer his [not, or her] dispensation. I’m also a
little bemused by the statement from Siena’s Dickens. After noting that
abstaining from meat should be seen by Catholics as serving a larger
end, Dickens says:
“It ought not be onerous; it should be a joy to fulfill.”
In my experience, watching some very serious Catholics close-up,
abstaining from meat on certain prescribed days has very often been
done with much joy — resulting in some of the most savory fish, sea
food and vegan meals I have ever shared.
Back to envy. If I ever were to get caught up
in the cardinal sin of envy, it would probably happen after
seeing that Andrew Riutta can achieve so much haiku
excellence on just one page of Simply Haiku:
a soldier’s burial—
the first leaves to fall
still green
the slow ferment
of a darker beer—
summer solstice
countless stars—
my daughter paints herself
alone
infinite stars—
a brown toad rests
at the doorstep
fall colors—
the distant asylum
black and white
Simply Haiku 3:4 (Winter 2005)
“blackboard ABCN”
March 12, 2006
no lawyer left behind (no corned beef, either)
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