I guess the fire never dies.

My day job is just that. A day job. My roles and responsibilities are definitely NOT those that I hope will remain my career. Fortunately for me, I am extremely passionate about what my division does as a whole. Tolerating a mundane desk job is a little bit easier when I can see the bigger picture and I fully support the endeavors of this company.

Here's a bit of personal history before I continue: upon graduating high school, I attended CSU Sacramento as a Liberal Studies (elementary education) major. This was right smack dab in the middle of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. If you were living under a rock during that time, you can educate yourself here: http://www2.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml I am intensely passionate about the growth and education of young kids and attending a school where the majority of my professors were against the NCLB act soured me greatly on the politics that drive public schools. I was a young girl looking to change the world one student at a time...I wasn't okay being restricted to specific "standards and criteria", I wasn't okay limiting the creativity of my future students. The changes being made to help education were being taught to me as a hinderance and there came a point where I no longer wanted anything to do with it. [among other reasons] I dropped out of college, opting to begin working full time instead, and have since considered other career avenues. I know my passion for kids and their well being still remains, it's obvious in at least my coaching, but it amazes me to find out just how attached to this topic I am.

I work for the State of California > Department of Corrections (CDCR) > Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) > Court Compliance Unit (CCU). Four, maybe five years back, DJJ was sued on the premise that their treatment of the youth fell short of acceptable. My unit is responsible for overseeing the 6 Remedial Plans, plans put in place to remedy the problems in different areas, and to see that they meet the court mandates. My job, specifically, consists of menial office tasks: taking meeting minutes, making copies, organizing birthday luncheons... Luckily for me, I am able to see the bigger picture of what our unit and division contribute. Many people envision our facilities as cold cement buildings with emaciated children clanking tin cups against steel bars. Growing up with a father in CDCR, even I didn't think much else. Our youth have rooms, with beds and windows. They have mandated "out of room" time, they are served 3 meals a day. They earn the equivalent of money and can "purchase" items from the Cantina (top ramen is a favorite buy). Each facility has a high school that the youth are required to attend. We offer GED programs and hold graduations yearly. I believe most, if not all, of our facilities offer college and vocational courses. We have medical and psychiatric staff on site. While it's true that the adult side of the department has long since lost their "rehabilitation" image, DJJ plugs along, mainstreaming youth back into society with a lesser chance of reoffense. I am so proud to be (even a minute) part of that! DJJ is fully and solely commited to the youth and their well being and I LOVE that.

I have recently been required to dive deeper into the world of Cheerleading and different programs offered in our area. There is a program offered at every high school that is directly related to that high school. Those cheerleaders are held to the same athletic standards as all other sports on campus, as well as rules and criteria set forth by their coordinator/head coach and coaching staff, they cheer at sporting events and perform at rallies. All-Star programs are a different story. These are independent businesses that are not affiliated with a school, they do not cheer at sporting events but are strictly for competition. While high school cheerleaders learn several routines for halftimes and other performances, all-star cheerleaders learn and perfect only one. Some high schools offer a competition team as well as a regular season team. High school competition rules are quite different from all-star competition rules in terms of what's required and what's allowed. There are pluses and minuses to both programs, including cost differentiation and time commitments. I'm not even going to go there today...

I've been (minimally) researching local all-star programs for a concerned mother of a cheerleader I coached. I've found endless complaints, pages and pages of myspace and facebook drama, lack of business licenses (is that legal?) and have been throwing reason after reason at this mother on why she should avoid any all-star program and bring her daughter to cheer for me. I told her that CR (my head coach) and I kept drama to a minimum in our program this year, which is a huge leap from the year prior, and then it dawned on me...CR and I are ALL about our girls and them having the greatest time possible. I had been arguing high school cheer over all-star cheer with this mother, but when I said to her "it really takes an active effort on the coaches part to quell the gossip and the drama...and keeping THAT out of a program can really be reflected in performances and participant attitude", I realized that even if CR and I were to open our own all-star gym we'd have the same results. My personal thoughts on why a program would be drenched in gossip and drama: they are opened in the poorest of intentions. I feel like it's become a battle between coaches/owners. Programs are being established under the pretense that they "can do better than that". The whole idea that these are school children (some as young as 4!) has gone out the window. I once coached for an adult woman who made girls on our team of 9 to 13-year-olds cry nightly by telling them that they just weren't good enough to do something, or that their motions were ugly or some other demeaning thing in front of their peers. I stopped coaching for this woman for this very reason.

The other day, during my less-than-exciting day job, I stumbled across a blog on this very website. [http://www.fedupwithschoollunch.blogspot.com] An anonymous school teacher in Illinois began a project to eat school lunch with her students every day of the calendar year. It is a thought provoking article to say the least. It was intended to raise awareness of the lack of nutrition our students are faced with being that a large majority of children apply for and are granted reduced or free lunches. (meaning they don't have the means to pack a lunch, and are required to eat whatever is served) I'd like to suggest you read her posts to date and follow her.

It is because of this article that I've become aware of my near obsession with children. Before you make some inappropriate joke, hear me out: I was a 3rd grader who would spend her recess in the kindergarten classrooms helping with the younger kids, I started coaching pop warner cheerleaders when I was a sophomore in high school, I went to college to become and elementary school teacher, I am working for the Division of Juvenile Justice currently...kids, their early education, their growth and development: it's SO important to me.

Since leaving Sac State, I've explored several different avenues of a future career. Most of them involve owning a business of my own, the most prominent being a salon. I thoroughly enjoy coloring and styling hair and am interested to learn about cutting and the science behind coloring and other techniques. However, I don't think that omitting child development and elementary education from my future career is an option. I don't think becoming a teacher is the job for me and what I want to do with our current policies/procedures...but I just CAN'T see me living a life without involving myself in matters concerning the youth of the nation. It's intriguing...I'm so interested to know what I'm going to do with this burning passion to help give kids the best possible chance.

Happy Monday!