Tag Archives: South Coast Beacon

Building blocks of Hanukkah tradition

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Lego Menorah by Elijah, flickr.com.

Lego Menorah by Elijah, flickr.com.

Santa Barbara’s Hanukkah festivities began a new way Tuesday night, when many families gathered at La Cumbre Plaza to build a six-foot-tall menorah out of Legos.

Young and old alike had a great time celebrating by lighting the candles for the first night of Hanukkah, playing the dreidel game to earn chocolate coins or gelt, and eating traditional foods like latkes and doughnuts.

Both latkes (potato pancakes) and doughnuts are eaten on Hanukkah because they are fried in oil, which symbolizes the miracle of the oil found in a lamp in a decimated temple. It seemed to be only enough to burn for one night yet, miraculously, it burned for eight days. This is why the menorah is lighted for eight nights and Hanukkah is also known as the Festival of Lights.

Throughout the eight-day holiday, families play the dreidel game and eat traditional foods. Most families also exchange gifts, although in some families, only the children receive presents.

“We celebrate Hanukkah by lighting the candles each night, singing the traditional songs and reading books. Of course, there is always a little gift attached to the celebration. Mostly, it is just being together and enjoying this very festive holiday,” said Shaunah Smith.

With so many mixed marriages, many families create their own, modified versions of the Hanukkah celebration.

Tisha Levy was raised a Catholic, but her husband is Jewish and they are raising their two sons to be Jewish. When Hanukkah comes around she decorates her entire house in blue and white, including a tree with only Hanukkah ornaments. “We have this Merry Hanukkah Troll doll on the top,” she laughed.

Her sister also made her a stunning silver wreath with blue glass dreidels and Jewish stars, which decorates her front door each December.

Like most families, every night the Levys light the candles and say the Hanukkah prayers. “It’s really interesting to try to teach the kids not to blow out the candles (like birthday candles),” she said. She also reads Hanukkah books to her sons, like “My Merry Hanukkah” and “Jalapeño Bagel.”

Other popular children’s titles include “A Confused Hanukkah;” “Hanukkah, oh Hanukkah;” “Spin the Dreidel;” and “Papa’s Latkes.”

Levy noted there actually are some positive aspects to Hanukkah becoming a more commercial holiday. “My mother-in-law told me when her kids were growing up it was really hard-to-find Hanukkah wrapping paper and toys and books and stuff,” she said.

That’s certainly not the case anymore.

To join in the Hanukkah celebration and learn more about the traditions, why not participate in some of these free, upcoming events:

Erev Shabbat/Hanukkah with the Congregation B’nail B’rith Band Friday, 7- 8:15 p.m.; Congregation B’nai B’rith, 1000 San Antonio Creek Road; 964.7869 x16.

Hanukkah Children’s Book Reading Sunday, 10-11:30 a.m.; Borders, 7000 Marketplace Drive; 683.1544.

Family Hanukkah Celebration and Concert featuring storyteller Michael Katz Sunday, 4-5:30 p.m.; Congregation B’nai B’rith, 1000 San Antonio Creek Road; 964.7869 x16.

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Rolling the Dreidel

Playing the dreidel game is a lot of fun for children of all ages. The four letters that appear on the four corners of a dreidel allude to the miracle of Hanukkah. They spell out Nes (N-miracle), Gimel (G-great), Hay (H-happened) and Shin (S-there, meaning in Israel).

To begin the game, each player should have about 20 items (chocolate coins, or gelt, peppermint candies, chips, etc.).

Each person puts one piece of candy in the middle of the table. Then each person takes a turn at spinning the dreidel. The Hebrew letter on each side of the dreidel tell you what to do:

= If you roll a Nun you neither pay nor gain anything.

= If you roll a Gimel you win everything.

= If you roll a Hay you win half.

= If you roll a Shin you lose everything.

When only one piece of candy or no candy is left in the middle each player adds another piece of candy. When a player has all the candy, that person wins!

To play online visit www1.sbchabad.org/holidays/chanukah/Games/dreidel/default.asp

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on December 9, 2004.

Coalition gets creative with commerce

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Alliance recasts creativity in terms of economic, educational opportunities

About 40 local creative professionals, including key players from the business, political and nonprofit communities, gathered recently to kick off a fundraising and awareness-raising campaign for the Alliance for Creative Commerce. The alliance is working to change the focus of the local economy to develop educational and economic opportunities based on creativity, communications and commerce.

“We want to change the economic basis for this region to rely on what comes out people’s heads instead of what comes out of the ground,” said Patrick Gregston, executive director of the alliance, explaining that much of the group’s philosophy comes from a book called The Rise of the Creative Class, by Richard Florida.

“Our vision is to take this creative class, which we can say encompasses virtually all of the people that do academic research, all the people that write, all the people that do graphics … and how do we generate that as a synergy that will make more of this business,” Gregston said.

One of the things the alliance would like to do is brand Santa Barbara as an area known for creativity, art and ideas, similar to Santa Fe, N.M., where people travel specifically to enjoy the vibrant art scene and culture of the area.

Another goal of the group is to create a strong enough network within the community to allow the people who commute to Los Angeles and elsewhere for jobs in the entertainment industry to work here.

One of the group’s first tasks will be to conduct a survey to discover the scope and economic impact of the creative community and establish a database of members, said Mark Sylvester, owner of Mixed Grill.

The creative commerce sector, according to the alliance, would come not just from traditional arts and entertainment, but also from other creative enterprises such as fashion, graphics, music, software, telephony and academic research.

With a fund-raising goal of $250,000 for the year, the money would enable the alliance to hire Gregston, currently a volunteer, as a full-time employee as well as to hold a brainstorming summit with members of the creative community. Right now the alliance is primarily supported by partnerships with the city and county of Santa Barbara, UCSB, SBCC and a few local businesses.

Membership costs $50 per year and includes regular networking mixers. The next one is scheduled from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at Restaurant Nu, 1129 State St. It is free to members and $10 for nonmembers. For more information, visit www.thealliance.us or email info@thealliance.us.

Originally published in South Coast Beacon

Cottage pushes for chance to spring into action

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Pending environmental review, hospital renovation could start in a few months

Warning a project delay will ultimately cost the community more money and may threaten health-care services, Cottage Health System officials last week pushed the city Planning Commission to move quickly to approve a new, $407 million regional hospital.

The rebuilding program, due to begin in 2005 with completion by 2012, involves replacing the existing hospital, to meet new seismic standards. It also includes the construction of three nursing pavilions, a new entrance at Castillo and Pueblo streets, and a diagnostic and therapeutic wing on the Junipero Street side of the complex.

Cottage plans to use a combination of hospital reserves, a tax-exempt bond issue, foundation assets, and a major community fund-raising effort to pay for the project, but will not rely on tax dollars.

Construction could begin in the spring, but first it must get past an environmental review, the first phase of which was heard Dec. 2.

About 70 people attended the meeting but many left early as the discussion stretched to nearly five hours. It was clear there was strong support for the state-of-the-art hospital but also many concerns about the effects on the surrounding neighborhood. Speakers expressed concerns about construction, traffic and environmental impacts.

“Given that the purpose of the hospital is to improve our community’s health and given that Santa Barbara is often a front-runner in implementing proactive environmental practices that often exceed the requirements of law, the redesign of Cottage Hospital should be viewed as an opportunity to implement the best possible protections of health and environment,” said Kira Schmidt, executive director of Santa Barbara Channelkeeper.

Her sentiments were echoed by representatives from the Citizen’s Planning Association and Heal the Ocean, both of whom also suggested a closer look at the sewage system and possible development of a sewage treatment plant for the hospital.

This was the first public meeting in which the project’s draft environmental impact report was discussed. Public comment ends Dec. 15 and the matter must return to the commission for final approval early next year.

For a copy of the report visit www.santabarbaraca.gov/Resident/Community/Planning/cottage.htm. Comments may be sent to Irma Unzueta, the project planner for the city, via e-mail to iunzueta@SantaBarbaraCA.gov or P.O. Box 1990, Santa Barbara 93102.

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on December 9, 2004.

Hope principals set goals high

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Students aren’t the only ones that have to make the grade to be successful. Last week principals from the three Hope District schools presented their goals and plans to the Board of Trustees.

One of the themes that resonated throughout all of the presentations was the desire, as Monte Vista principal Judy Stettler put it, “to better address the individual needs of each child by challenging all students while meeting the academic needs of the high, average and low achievers and also teaching and valuing the whole child through the cultural arts, technology and health and fitness.”

That includes addressing the special needs of English learners, students with disabilities, those who are economically challenged, as well as GATE (gifted and talented education) students.

“It’s really a mandate that comes out of our data. It has to do with making sure that we are able to fulfill the performance goals for our significant subgroups,” said Vieja Valley principal Barbara LaCorte, who is working with staff to create a new model for the school’s GATE program.

To develop and promote moral and character education is another priority for the schools. While both Vieja Valley and Monte Vista plan to address concerns about bullying on campus this year, Hope School principal Patrick Plamondon said, “I don’t feel we have a bullying problem. I attribute a lot of behavior on the playground to the Character Counts program.”

Plamondon also said Hope School has a school-wide commitment to “every child a reader,” a program he attributed in part to librarian Mary Jo Chrestenson. “We have more volumes at Hope Library than at La Colina Junior High School,” he said.

All three principals praised their teaching staffs and gave kudos to parents for being involved in the schools both in terms of working in the classrooms and helping to fund many of the enrichment programs.

These presentations are part of a comprehensive process to better inform the Trustees and the community about each school’s yearly progress and goals, said Board President Joseph Liebman. The next board meeting will be on Monday at 7 p.m. in the Hope District Board Room, 3970 La Colina Road.

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on December 2, 2004.

Judy, Judy, Judy

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Are you there God? It’s me Leslie (or Andrea, or Susie or Jacqueline …).

I’d venture to guess there’s hardly a woman out there, who was once a 12-year-old girl, who hasn’t poured over Are you there God? It’s me Margaret and at least considered trying out the exercises that Margaret and her friends attempted with, “we must, we must, we must increase our bust.”

With more than 75 million books sold and translated into 20 different languages, nobody speaks “girl” better than Judy Blume, which is why diehard fans, myself included, cheered last week when she received the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

This is one highfalutin award, normally given to those who grace the literature section at Borders. People like Arthur Miller, Toni Morrison, John Updike and Eudora Welty, not exactly the company that Blume usually keeps.

For those men out there who grew up under a rock or never had a sister, Judy Blume is to 12-year-old girls as the Three Stooges are to 12-year-old … well really all … guys. Sorry, but it’s a fact of life that girls mature faster and they stay that way, thanks in part to all of the advice we’ve received over the years from people like Blume, Helen Gurley Brown, and, of course, Marsha Brady.

Blume is real treasure to those of us who grew up as girls. She writes frankly about the lives of kids and particularly girls, going through puberty, which Blume calls “the great equalizer.”

Training bras, menstruation, first kisses, zits, bratty little brothers — her books are the real classics. Unlike the books that are better to have read than to actually read, (the ones you suffer through to pass an English test or to not be ostracized out of future cocktail party conversations), from Blume you learn important stuff, like “all boys of 14 are disgusting — They’re only interested in two things — pictures of naked girls and dirty books,” and “If you ask me, being a teenager is pretty rotten — between pimples and worry about how you smell!”

See, she gets us!

Which is why I’m so happy that the National Book Foundation finally gets her.

Judy Blume was the big sister I’ve always wished I had. How cool would it be if I could come home after school and ask Judy to help with all the big decisions of life?

As a fourth grader at Harding School, when I was freakishly tall and forever trying to fit in, Judy could have told me: “It’s very foolish to laugh if you don’t know what’s funny in the first place.” (Blubber) And later that year, when I discovered boys weren’t so bad after all, if only she could have told me, “I don’t believe in cooties anymore.” (Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing)

Even as a sophomore at San Marcos, when I finally figured out the difference between a real friend and someone you hang out with, it would have been nice to have Blume there to reinforce it with, “You know at first I wanted you to like me, but now I really don’t care if you do or you don’t.” (As Long as We’re Together)

Or when contemplating a major at UCLA. “It’s important to experiment, so when the time comes you’re all ready.” (Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret)

Okay, so Margaret and her friend were talking about practicing kissing on a pillow, but really it applies to a lot of things, not just kissing.

If only I had Blume there when my little sister bugged me incessantly and my parents drove me crazy, she would have understood just how I felt.

If only Judy were there to help me, the knowing voice of another girl who had actually survived growing up.

Huh … I guess she was there for me after all.

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on November 25, 2004.

An Incredibles imagination

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Our Leslie Dinaberg sure gets animated when it comes to fantasizing about superpowers

Ah, to be a super. Is it too much to fantasize about? For the five of you who weren’t at the Metro Theatre last weekend, The Incredibles follows the adventures of a family of former superheroes trying to fit in with the rest of the world by not using their powers. Until one day ….

6:33 a.m.: my alarm goes off. Aargh! Time for my daily dilemma, do I hit the snooze button or hit the gym? A light bulb illuminates above my pillow. With a few superwoman stretches, I am finally the right height for my weight. I can skip the gym and snooze a little bit longer. If only my feet weren’t hanging off the bed.

6:47 a.m.: I hit the snooze again. Now that I’m a superwoman, I can simply jump into my closet/phone booth and jump out perfectly coifed and ready for work. Ka-sweet!

6:49 a.m.: I don’t like this outfit. Sha-hooey! Wrong color. Sha-bizzle! Does my super butt look big? Sha-Channel! Ahh, perfect!

7:32 a.m.: wake up son for school. Use my mind control powers to convince him that he wants Wheat Germ instead of Cocoa Puffs for breakfast. Sha-psyche!

8:03 a.m.: driving to school, it looks a little cloudy. Mmmpf! I send those clouds away with a flick of my fingers, and then teleport that suburban right out of my favorite parking spot at Vieja Valley.

10:45 a.m.: I’ve already completed all my interviews for three stories. It’s amazing the quotes you get when you can read people’s minds. I always thought Marty Blum liked kittens. Meow!

11:37 a.m.: the construction next door to the office is driving me crazy. Yaarg! I use my x-ray vision to see what’s going on. They’re moving way too slowly on the new Walter Claudio spa. I use my mind control ability to convince them to work nights from now on and to give me free facials forever for this cheap plug. Ka-score!

1:15 p.m.: on my way to an interview, a silver Porsche cuts me off to get out of the “exit only” lane of the 101 at Milpas. His mid-life crisis in not my problem. Kapow! He’s got a flat tire.

1:53 p.m.: I’ve only got 45 minutes till my next appointment and my stomach’s growling. Sha-gurgle! I decide to fly over to La Superica and make the line disappear till I’ve got my lunch.

2:17: p.m.: on my way back to the office I fly by Ortega Park. A small child chases a ball onto the street. Mom is nowhere to be found, and the oncoming car doesn’t see the kid. Yowza! I stretch my arms extra long to bring child and ball back to safety. No need to thank me, it’s all in a day’s work. Now I have to write a story about myself.

3:09 p.m.: my meeting is dragging. Zzzz! I go invisible and leave for a while to run some errands. A lady with 14 items in the “10 items or less” line at Vons. Shazam! Learn to count next time! When she gets out to her car a bird will have just done his business on the windshield.

4:30 p.m.: I’ve got one hour to write my story, return seven phone calls and read 57 emails. The phone rings and its my husband reminding me about soccer practice. Holy AYSO Batman! As I calculate ways that my superpowers can help me out of this situation, I spy an ad for The Polar Express, where Tom Hanks plays six different characters in the same movie. Since I only need to do four things simultaneously — write, read, call and kick — my fifth persona goes to see the movie and the sixth one goes home to make dinner.

Me? Make dinner? Rats, I’ve gone too far. Clearly, it was all a fantasy.

Mild-mannered Leslie Dinaberg possesses superhero powers as a wife, mom and reporter. If you’re in trouble, contact her at email

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on November 18, 2004.

GERMS

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Green Microbes Bacteria Pathogen Germs Infection, courtesy maxpixvel.freegreatpicture.com.

Green Microbes Bacteria Pathogen Germs Infection, courtesy maxpixvel.freegreatpicture.com.

Attached to the most adorable carriers, how can anyone turn them away? The truth is, you can’t–and it’s enough to make you sick.

There’s a fine line between obsessive-compulsive disorder and healthy hygiene. When it comes to avoiding colds and flu, experts say we can learn from the example of a certain germ-obsessed television detective.

While Monk’s obsession with keeping surfaces as clean as possible may seem extreme, experts agree that cleanliness is next to flu-lessness, especially when it comes to your hands.

As Susan Perkins, a nurse with the Santa Barbara Elementary and High School Districts, put it, “Wash your hands. Wash your hands. Wash your hands.”

School children are taught to sing “Happy Birthday to You” twice while washing their hands. Scientists from the Environmental Protection Agency are even giving lessons to North Carolina kindergarteners on “Why We Wash Our Hands,” visually aided by an ample supply of purple glitter, which any victim knows, spreads faster than any germ ever invented.

But other than rinse and repeat, what can you do to stay healthy?

Cleaning expert Cheryl Mendelson, who literally wrote the book on housecleaning — Home Comforts — counsels the more obsessed among us to relax.

“Many people have mild tendencies this way (to clean compulsively). If you are one of them, it may help to keep in mind that nothing that lives in your kitchen sink or on your toilet handle can compare to what thrives in a healthy person’s nose — an ecosystem that no one can or should do anything about,” said Mendelson. “Nor have there been any epidemics arising from poor housekeeping practices.”

With our wealth of antibiotics, vaccines and antibacterial products available, some experts think we may have even gone too far in protecting ourselves. For example, antibiotics are sometimes prescribed to treat a common cold, which is a viral infection and not affected by antibiotics.

Instead of making us healthier, these antibiotics and antibacterials can do us harm, according to Dr. Howard Markel, author of When Germs Travel. The more ubiquitous these bacteria killers become, the more opportunities that germs have to adapt to them.

A recent Columbia University study suggested antibacterial products don’t cut the overall risk of contracting a cold, a runny nose, a fever, a sore throat or diarrhea because these will destroy all the bacteria in their paths (including the friendly ones) leaving only the sturdiest — and often the most dangerous — germs in their wake. Regular soap, plain bleach and water, as well as alcohol-based products, dislodge harmful bacteria just as well as antibacterials do, without spawning more dangerous germs.

Unfortunately germs from other people aren’t as easily controlled as cleaning our environments. Proper flu etiquette is nothing to sneeze at.

A recent letter sent to La Patera School parents offered these common sense guidelines:

= Don’t send your child to school with an illness that could spread.

= Don’t send your child to school if he or she would be miserable all day or would distract the other children.

= Have “just in case” care arrangements for your child in the event you are unable to stay home with a sick child.

Perkins also emphasized the latter.

“It can be very difficult for parents because employers are not always understanding of parents’ need to stay home with sick children,” she said.

“Even more important, if you’ve got a sick child at school, they’ve gone to school, don’t feel well during the course of the day, it’s important that a parent pick them up within an hour of being called because there isn’t really any place for kids to sit and rest in the health office.”

With vaccines in short supply this year, the second line of defense against cold and flu germs is “respiratory etiquette,” which means keeping our germs to ourselves. Covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze, using a tissue and throwing that tissue away when you use it.

And, of course it’s important to practice prevention as much as possible.

“We encourage parents and students to get enough rest, eat a healthy diet,” Perkins said. “Its kind of inevitable that they will get sick at some point … the first few days of a cold, if a child’s really not feeling well, has a lot of symptoms, coughing, sneezing, fever especially, we encourage parents to keep them home … for at least 24 hours after their temperature is back to normal.

“It’s not realistic that they’re going to stay home for entire duration of a cold because you can have that runny nose for five to 10 days probably and then you can have a residual cough for even up to three to four weeks. But if kids are acutely sick, we encourage them to stay home a day or two.”

Not to obsess about it … but that advice goes for grownups, too.

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Stopping the Spread of Germs Illnesses like influenza and colds are caused by viruses that infect the nose, throat and lungs. The flu and colds usually spread from person to person when an infected person coughs or sneezes.

Here are some tips from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help stop the spread of germs.

Take Care

= Cover your mouth and nose when you sneeze or cough.

= Cough or sneeze into a tissue and then throw it away. Cover your cough or sneeze if you do not have a tissue. Then, clean your hands.

= Clean your hands often.

= When available, wash your hands — with soap and warm water — and rub your hands vigorously together and scrub all surfaces. Wash for 15 to 20 seconds. Soap and the scrubbing action dislodge and remove germs.

= Alcohol-based disposable hand wipes or gel sanitizers also may be used.

= Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth. Germs are often spread when a person touches something that is contaminated with germs and then touches his or her eyes, nose or mouth.

= Stay home when you are sick and check with a health-care provider when needed.

= When you are sick or have flu symptoms, stay home, get plenty of rest, and check with a health-care provider.

Common Flu Symptoms

= Fever (usually high)

= Headache

= Extreme tiredness

= Cough

= Sore throat

= Runny or stuffy nose

= Muscle aches

= Nausea, vomiting and diarrhea (much more common among children than adults).

What You Can Do

= Practice other good health habits

= Get plenty of sleep, be physically active, manage your stress, drink plenty of fluids, and eat nutritious food. Practicing healthy habits will help you stay healthy.

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on November 18, 2004. 

Sansum gets $90,000 diabetes grant

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Sansum Diabetes Research Institute (SDRI) received a $90,000 multi-year grant from the Santa Barbara Foundation to support the construction of a new Diabetes Research & Care Center, said Rochelle Rose, Director of Development.

The grant brings the total amount raised to date to $1.8 million toward the $2.7 million capital campaign goal.

Phase 1 of the renovation of the 5,000 square-foot patient care facility at 2219 Bath St. began in October and is scheduled for completion at the end of 2005. The state-of-the-art center will include a new community education center, metabolic training kitchen, medical procedure/surgical laboratory, and offices for a new diabetes educator, nutritionist, and pediatric endocrinologist.

Approximately 17,000 people in the Santa Barbara area have diabetes, Rose said.

One of the research projects in progress at SDRI involves identifying risk factors for Type 2 diabetes in local youth. With the increase in obesity and inactivity among teens, this type of diabetes (which involves resistance to the normal action of insulin by body tissues) is becoming more prevalent.

“We are seeing if we can develop a very simple test using a finger-stick blood sample …. to select out those high school students who look like they’re at particular risk of having the disease,” said Dr. David Pettitt, who heads up the project team.

Eating healthy food and living a healthy lifestyle are the best ways to prevent diabetes at any age. “Every invention of mankind is designed to let us do something with a lower energy expenditure. And it’s just getting to the point where we’re doing less and less,” said Pettitt.

“People can develop little tricks, like instead of driving all the way to work or all the way to school, they can park a mile away like I do and walk a mile twice a day,” he said.

SDRI offers free community education and diabetes prevention classes year-round. For more information on programs or to donate to the capital campaign call 682.7638 or visit www.sansum.org/research.htm.

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on November 18, 2004.

Policies throw wrench into school programs

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The charms of a one-size-fits-all approach to high school education are obvious. Parents – especially middle-class parents – want to believe their children are destined for college and white-collar careers. But not everyone is suited for the academic world, and society and our economy depend on the skills of people who build things, make things and fix things.

The challenges of providing a comprehensive high school education that truly meets the needs of all students have become even greater with the passage of federal legislation like the No Child Left Behind Act, or NCLB. Local leaders in education and business recently gathered to discuss ways to strengthen technical education offerings while continuing to meet academic requirements.

“Comprehensive high school used to be, in some sense, a shopping mall high school, where students would go from class to class (with) not much connection in between … Teachers didn’t really even talk about what was being offered from department to department – that’s gone,” said Jan Zettel, assistant superintendent secondary education for the Santa Barbara School Districts.

“With the stringent accountability measures that we’re finding in NCLB … no longer can we have those individual teachers in the classrooms not talking, not sharing and not working together,” he continued.

Zettel recently attended the state’s first High School Summit in Sacramento and shared some of the highlights.

“Career technical skill attainment is an empty victory without the mastery of academic skills. So a student who is able to set up an excel spreadsheet but has never mastered percentages, has no idea how to write a formula to calculate a sale price when you have mark-up percentages, that doesn’t work,” Zettel said.

“Students who are in those academic classes master those skills at both the knowledge level and the comprehensive level that will get you a diploma but it won’t get you a job. Not in today’s market.

“… We need to continue to push for small learning communities … your academies, your magnet programs, working together with business partnerships, those are key,” said Zettel. “… Because if we don’t educate all kids to the highest level, college preparatory level, our economy is going to tank.”

A broad coalition of California business and education organizations – including the California Chamber of Commerce, California Building Industry Association, California Restaurant Association, and California Industrial & Technology Education Association, among others – recently banded together to relay to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger their concerns about career and technical education.

“The impacts of a weakened career and technical education system have been felt by both our students who are increasingly leaving our public schools without employable skills and employers who face significant challenges in recruiting and retaining skilled workers to meet the needs of the marketplace,” wrote the coalition.

Among the group’s recommended guidelines for education policy: Greater flexibility and choices for the student learning experience; a stronger emphasis on hands-on skills training and education; and attention to the relevancy of education to the economy.

Along those same lines is the TRADART Foundation, formed in Santa Barbara about four years ago to support the skilled trades and career technical education. The group advises the Dos Pueblos High Construction Academy, provides continuing education classes for employed construction workers and summer internships for high school students.

TRADART board member Frank Schipper summed it up: “Expecting all high school students to complete a college preparatory curriculum ignores the range of skills and education required by the labor market today. … High school programs need to engage all students, be relevant to their futures and be academically rigorous. … Career technical education can and must be an integral part of this effort.”

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on November 11, 2004.

Great expectations not always timely

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Courtesy pexels.com.

Courtesy pexels.com.

Sometimes with childbirth, the real labor part comes at the beginning and not the end

Driving across town with a vial of my husband’s freshly spun sperm staying warm beneath my blouse, I thought, “I must really want to have a baby.”

After almost three years of trying to conceive, I would have hopped down State Street on stilts and squawked like a chicken if I thought it would help us have a baby.

I practically did.

At least that’s the way it felt during the almost three years it took for my husband’s stubborn sperm to finally stop and ask for directions to my “playing hard to get” eggs.

Only the “baby making challenged” can truly understand the lengths one will go to get pregnant. When I think of all the years I spent trying NOT to get pregnant, and then all of the late nights spent talking about whether the time was right, not being able to have a baby on board felt like the ultimate indignity.

Anyone who thinks that trying to have a baby sounds romantic and fun should “try” for a few years. We “baby making challenged” people know that too much of a good thing can be awful!

And we were amongst the lucky ones. We both had minor little problems that rated us a B- rather than an A+ on the baby-making scorecard, but according to all of the experts, there was no definitive medical reason why we couldn’t conceive.

Hence the years of poking, prodding, testing and temperature taking. I was buying early pregnancy tests in bulk at Costco, and after dozens of false alarms, believe me, one-liners are NOT as funny as you think. I could almost feel my biological clock going tick-tock as the weeks of trying turned into months and then years.

Meanwhile my eggs were getting older and I saw babies and pregnant women everywhere I went. They seemed to be multiplying by the minute as my childless friends dwindled.

The sperm cleaning procedures and subsequent intrauterine inseminations were but a few of the medical interventions we tried to get pregnant. I was seeing the doctor so often that feet in the stirrups felt like my normal seated position and sitting upright felt kind of weird.

When plain old prayers didn’t work, we turned to the spirit world. My friends Ramey and Debbi Echt sent me a Kokopelli necklace (a Hopi fertility symbol) they swore had safeguarded their pregnancies. I wore it religiously even though its flute scratched my chest and it didn’t go with half my clothes.

I “stirred with a fork to expect the stork” and ate all kinds of disgusting food combinations to encourage fertility.

When my mom swore that cleansing our house with a sage and smudge ritual would “purify the atmosphere for us to conceive,” my husband and I (who are normally first in line to mock this sort of thing) giggled our way through the house with burning twigs and even smoked up our cars for good measure.

We were willing to try just about anything, but we were starting to run out of options.

With no solid medical explanation for why I couldn’t conceive, I came close to exchanging my dream of becoming pregnant for the dream of adopting a baby.

Then we decided to take some time off and relax.

No more taking my temperature and checking my ovulation cycle. No more answering “day 15,” when someone asked me what that day’s date was. No more hallucinations that the entire world was populated with pregnant women and every time I picked up the phone it was someone else calling to tell me their good news.

When I was just about ready to write the book on “What to expect when you’re NOT expecting” something unexpected happened.

There were two blue lines on my pregnancy test. The most beautiful blue color I’ve ever seen. I swear my heart skipped a beat, and I thought to myself, “I must really want to have a baby.”

Leslie, proud mom of a 7-year-old boy, can be reached at email

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on November 4, 2004.