A popular, long-lived feature in New Mexico Magazine is called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153One of Our 50 is Missing.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a collection of anecdotes submitted by readers whose state got short-changed by some non-New Mexican.<\/p>\n
In this \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Missing\u00e2\u20ac\u009d column, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll read, for example, about a flatland tourister visiting this state and expecting to pay in pesos rather than dollars, or of some phone rep, trapped in a cube somewhere, who tells the New Mexico caller that the company doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ship to foreign countries.<\/p>\n
You get the picture.<\/p>\n
My time in the Midwest invariably was spent explaining that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mexico City is farther away from my hometown in New Mexico than we are, right here in Aurora, Ill.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d And people often wanted to see my driver\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s license, to test their Spanish-reading ability. Otherwise, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d simply refuse to believe there was such a state with such a name.<\/p>\n
Someone ought to hurry and send one of the latest New Mexico omissions to our state magazine. In this case, the University of New Mexico Lobos \u00e2\u20ac\u201d yes, those guys who play great basketball \u00e2\u20ac\u201d got slighted in an Associated Press poll. You probably realize by now that the Lobos, winners of their conference, are currently ranked 14th in the U.S.<\/p>\n
However, the Lobos still fail to get respect in this wide country. Indiana leads the poll, followed by Gonzaga, Duke, Michigan, and a slew of powerhouses. And who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in 14th place? UNM? No. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s apparently some team from Mexico. Nothing New at all. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the way they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re listed.<\/p>\n
And all this time we thought the NCAA members, including the 25 and 4 Lobos, winners of the Mountain West Confer ence, were all United States teams.<\/p>\n
When the Lobos enter the Big Dance, in just a few weeks, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll probably be a number of fans showing up out of curiosity, to see how our serape-draped, sombrero-wearing players handle the round pelota.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2\u00e2\u20ac\u201a\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2\u00e2\u20ac\u201a\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to leave this topic alone. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve already given my opinion on Gov. Susana Martinez\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s insistence on retaining third-graders who can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t read at grade level.<\/p>\n
Millions of words have been written on this topic, with a liberal sprinkling of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153social promotion\u00e2\u20ac\u009d included in the discussion. And we hear about \u00e2\u20ac\u0153intervention,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to help the poor reader along. The first dictionary definition of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153intervention\u00e2\u20ac\u009d relates to interference, usually among countries. The second, more relevant definition regards attempts to improve a condition. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the goal of public education.<\/p>\n
But in the debates on whether to retain kids in third grade, nobody appears to be able to explain what the intervention will consist of. Does jettisoning social promotion require those affected to repeat the entire school year in third grade? Whatever happened to summer school? Why can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the school districts\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 best teachers sign a summer contract in order to bring the slower readers up to speed?<\/p>\n
My quite distant memories of two boys who repeated an elementary grade at Immaculate Conception School include having both boys repeating the entire curriculum, and that included sitting through arithmetic, catechism, social studies, geography, and \u00e2\u20ac\u201d yes \u00e2\u20ac\u201d reading. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d already passed most of the courses.<\/p>\n
As for morale, self-esteem and self-confidence, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what the boys must have felt, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure that the fact that they were a year older than their new classmates meant that they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tolerate too much ridicule from others.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2\u00e2\u20ac\u201a\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2\u00e2\u20ac\u201a\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
How many times have you heard politicians refer to themselves as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153public servants\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? Lots of times. But doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it follow logically that servants are supposed to clean up the mess, not create one?<\/p>\n
Let me explain:<\/p>\n
It was a simple case of bullying at an Albuquerque school. The bully, a senior wrestling champ, at Rio Grande High School, was observed taking a billfold from a smaller schoolmate, removing $15 and punctuating his actions with a slap to the smaller kid\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s face.<\/p>\n
Of course, some parse the action as mere boys-will-be-boys horseplay, even when witnessed by a deputy sheriff. School officials did not. The slapper, Nicolas Chavez, got suspended from school, and with that, he lost his ability to compete in the state wresting tournament the next day.<\/p>\n
Not to worry. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get help. The star wrestler\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s parents got involved and enlisted the assistance of a county commissioner, Art de la Cruz, a state senator, Michael Padilla, and a school board member, Analee Maestas.<\/p>\n
Subtle pressure? A district judge, Clay Campbell, granted a temporary restraining order, which let Chavez compete a mere 24 hours later. He won in his weight class. Now all of this had nothing to do with the pressure of the politicians. They contacted the Albuquerque Public Schools administrators merely to remind them that they be fair in their handling of the matter.<\/p>\n
Yeah right!<\/p>\n
APS Superintendent Winston Brooks must have gotten up that morning focused on just one mission: I plan to be unfair to our star wrestler, Nick Chavez.<\/p>\n
Of course, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the tack de la Cruz, Padilla and Maestas used: let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s make sure the school officials handle the thing fairly, but don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t construe our involvement as pressure, even if we all know there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a chance the student will get a scholarship if he wins tomorrow.<\/p>\n
The Albuquerque Journal ran a page full of letters to the editor the following day, most of which deplored the actions of the judge, who gave the kid a pass, and of the three politicos who urged that the issue \u00e2\u20ac\u0153be fair.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
All this takes place at a time when we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re trying so hard to eliminate bullying. Thank you, public servants, for setting things back.<\/p>\n
Way back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A popular, long-lived feature in New Mexico Magazine is called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153One of Our 50 is Missing.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a collection of anecdotes submitted by readers whose state got short-changed by some non-New Mexican. In this \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Missing\u00e2\u20ac\u009d column, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll read, for example, about a flatland tourister visiting this state and expecting to pay in pesos rather than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1045"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1045"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1046,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1045\/revisions\/1046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}