COFFEE BREAK
Saturday, September 12, 2015
PARENTS TALK BACK
Finding my
daughter’s
doppelganger
in Karachi
T
he newspaper editor seated next to
me at a trendy Lahore restaurant
spoke soberly about the pressures
faced by the Pakistani media.
Despite the fact that Pakistan remains
one of the most dangerous countries in
the world for journalists, it has a vibrant
press, explained Kamal Siddiqi. He is the
editor-in-chief of the Express Tribune, one
of the country’s largest English-language
dailies.
But his demeanor
changed when we
discovered we both
have daughters roughly
the same age. In that
perplexed way that
middle-aged parents talk
about their children’s
musical tastes, he
Aisha
mentioned that his
Sultan
13-year-old is a fan
Parents talk back
of Fall Out Boy, an
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band.
My daughter loves Fall Out Boy, I
informed him.
His girl also follows British YouTube
stars Dan and Phil, he said, unsure of who
exactly they were.
Mine is similarly obsessed. (Neither
Siddiqi nor I have watched an episode
yet, although we agreed that we fully
intend to monitor what has our children so
enraptured.)
It wasn’t just the girls’ shared pop
cultural interests that amused us. It was
their boundary-testing attitudes; their
verbal sparring with siblings and parents;
their common language of Tumblr and
Instagram posts.
“I thought this was somewhat unique to
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“No, this is what she and all her friends
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The West has long exported its
culture to the rest of the world. But the
proliferation of social media has given
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beyond singing the same song lyrics and
watching the same movies. The hyper-
connected, post-millennial generation is
part of a pan-digital culture. Of course, a
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in common with one being educated in a
Pakistani madrassa. But one of Lahore’s
most conservative madrassas broadcasts
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global.
Meanwhile, a teen punk in Pakistan is
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I rattled off the names of a few other
bands that Siddiqi’s daughter might
appreciate, having been educated on
several occasions by my own 12-year-old.
He texted his daughter in Karachi about his
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him about songs, suspicious in the way
teenagers are when their parents profess to
liking anything cool. She stopped texting
after a short exchange.
I empathized. I had been away from
home on a journalism seminar for more
than two weeks at this point, and I had
sent my daughter lengthy texts to which
I received short replies, if they were
acknowledged at all.
One of my traveling companions, a
young +XI¿QJWRQ3RVW reporter, nodded
sympathetically when I showed her the
one-sided text conversations.
“It’s like you’re in a relationship with a
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It did feel like trying a bit too hard to get
someone’s attention. I shared the analogy
with Siddiqi, who agreed that it was apt.
I wondered why I felt so giddy at
the thought of parents across the globe
suffering the same teenager-related
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parenting lays so much blame at the feet of
parents: We are too permissive; we are too
hovering; we are overly involved; we are
too self-involved.
Mostly, we are guilt-ridden and
time-starved.
Every aspect of parenting is picked
apart and diagnosed as a symptom of any
number of societal ills, from consumerism
WRQDUFLVVLVPWRDWWHQWLRQGH¿FLWV
No wonder it was such a relief to hear
a Pakistani parent describe an adolescent
who sounded so familiar.
Siddiqi’s daughter called me to ask if I
had really taken my daughter to a Fall Out
Boy concert this summer. Yes, I told her,
it’s true.
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I could not resist texting my daughter
afterwards and sharing that tidbit.
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back, adding a sly smiley face emoji.
She must be missing me after all, I
thought.
Siddiqi and I pledged to keep in touch
after our meeting, which was ostensibly
about the ways in which our professional
worlds overlapped and diverged.
He and I became Facebook friends. We
virtually introduced our daughters, who
connected through Instagram.
The distance between Karachi and St.
Louis: now a bit shorter.
Ŷ
Aisha Sultan is a St. Louis-based
journalist who studies parenting in the
digital age while trying to keep up with her
tech-savvy children. Find her on Twitter:
@AishaS.
East Oregonian
Page 9C
Many children return to school
without Common Core results
No Child Left Behind
By JENNIFER C. KERR
Associated Press
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new backpacks, pens and pencils
and clothes, millions of children
are back in school. Many are
excited, some are anxious — and
still waiting for the results of the
new tests they took last spring
aligned to the Common Core
academic standards.
Congress returns from its
summer vacation after Labor Day
and on its agenda is a rewrite to
the No Child Left Behind educa-
tion law that requires the annual
academic testing. The House
AP Photo/Mark Lennihan
and Senate passed competing Students arrive for the first day of school at Stuyvesant
High
versions, and congressional nego- School, Wednesday in New York.
tiators need to reconcile them.
Some things to know as Common Core tests
Standardized tests
students, parents and teachers
This past spring saw the rollout
Many in the country question
embark on a new school year.
of new tests based on the Common the idea of rating a teacher based
Enrollment
Core standards. The reading and partly on how students perform
$ERXW PLOOLRQ VWXGHQWV math tests replace traditional on standardized tests — some-
will attend public elementary VSULQJ VWDQGDUGL]HG WHVWV $ERXW thing supported and encouraged
and secondary schools this 12 million students in 29 states and by the Education Department as
fall. Enrollment is expected to the District of Columbia took the part of the No Child Left Behind
be slightly higher than a year tests developed by two groups — education law.
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ago, when 50 million students WKH6PDUWHU%DODQFHG$VVHVVPHQW
were enrolled in public schools, Consortium and the Partnership 55 percent of those questioned
linking
teacher
according to the Department of IRU$VVHVVPHQW RI 5HDGLQHVV IRU opposed
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evaluations to their students’
Education.
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Balanced,
only
a
few
states
have children in public schools,
students are expected to attend
released scores from the spring opposition was stronger, at 63
private schools this fall.
The National Center for — Connecticut, Idaho, Wash- percent.
More than 40 states are
Education Statistics estimates that ington, Oregon, Missouri, West
3.3 million students will graduate Virginia, and Vermont. Most moving forward with plans to
from high schools, public and states have not been able to put evaluate teachers and princi-
private, at the end of the school out test scores before the start of pals in part on how well their
classes. The delay was expected students perform on standard-
year.
ized tests, according to the
Enrollment is also growing at LQWKHH[DP¶V¿UVW\HDU
Scores for the almost 5 department. It says other factors,
the nation’s colleges and univer-
sities, with 7 million students million students who took the such as student work and parent
at two-year colleges and 13.2 3$5&&WHVWVVWLOOKDYH\HWWREH feedback, should be considered,
million at four-year schools, UHOHDVHG 3$$5& LV VWLOO VHWWLQJ too. Teachers, unions and
benchmarks for each perfor- others worry there’s too much
according to the center.
It says colleges and universities mance level. The partnership emphasis on test scores.
The survey was funded by
are expected to award 952,000 says they’re due for release this
fall,
and
that
the
goal
in
future
Phi
Delta Kappa International,
associate’s degrees, 1.8 million
bachelor’s degrees, 802,000 years of the tests is to release the an association for educators that
master’s degrees and 179,000 results as close to the end of the supports teachers and educa-
school year as possible.
tional research.
doctor’s degrees in 2015-16.
Congressional
negotiators
will have to iron out differences
between House and Senate bills
rewriting the much-criticized and
outdated No Child Left Behind
education law from 2002.
Both bills would maintain the
annual testing requirements in
reading and math in third grade
through eighth grade, and once
in high school. But they would
allow the states to determine
whether and how to use those
tests to assess the performance
of schools, teachers and students.
The bills would bar the Education
Department from mandating or
giving states incentives to adopt
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standards, such as Common Core.
The House measure would
allow federal money to follow
low-income children to public
schools of their choice.
The Obama administration
has made clear it won’t back the
House bill.
Sleepy teens
Most teenagers aren’t getting
the kind of sleep they need as
they begin a new school year.
Fewer than 1 in 5 middle and
high schools began the day at
the recommended 8:30 a.m. start
time or later during the 2011-
2012 school year, according to
the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention.
CDC and Education Depart-
ment researchers looked at nearly
40,000 public middle and high
schools, and found that the average
start time for school was 8:03
a.m. Forty-two states reported
that 75 percent to 100 percent of
the public schools in their states
started before 8:30 a.m.
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Pediatrics recommends that
middle and high schools start the
day no earlier than 8:30 a.m., so
teenagers get the sleep they need
to be successful in school.
OUT OF THE VAULT
Legendary cowboy, actor earned name accidentally
Y
akima Canutt is a legend.
But he got his famous
moniker by mistake,
according to a 1977 interview
with the East Oregonian.
The four-time all-around
winner at the Pendleton
Round-Up (1917, 1919, 1920
and 1923) was born Enos
Edward Canutt on Nov 29,
1896, in the Snake River Hills
near Colfax, Wash. He rode his
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of 16, but only after he got his
father’s permission. “If he bucks
you off, your riding is through
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told him. Canutt rode the bronc
to a standstill, and his rodeo
career was off like a rocket.
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Pendleton Round-Up in 1914
with a group of cowboys from
Yakima, Wash. The group was
trying out bucking horses and
Pendleton photographer Walter
Bowman captured Canutt on one
of his attempts. Not knowing
the cowboy’s name, he asked
around and was told, “Oh,
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Bowman labeled the picture
for a newspaper article, Yakima
Canutt was re-christened — a
name that stuck with him for the
Renee
Struthers
Out of the vault
Yakima Canutt
competes
in the 1918
Pendleton
Round-Up
in his sailor
whites.
EO file photo
rest of his life.
Yak, as his friends called
him, continued to compete in
rodeos even while serving in
the U.S. Navy. In 1918, while
on a three-week furlough, he
showed up at the Round-Up in
his sailor’s uniform “that just
didn’t seem to match his cowboy
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competitor in bulldogging that
year, Canutt wrestled a longhorn
steer halfway around the arena
before subduing it, though he
ran over the two-minute time
the two began working together
in 1932. Canutt later became
a director for action scenes,
most notably the 20-minute
chariot racing scene in the 1959
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Yak earned a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame for
his contributions to the motion
picture industry, and an honorary
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his achievements as a stunt
man and for developing safety
devices to protect stunt men. He
was inducted into the National
Cowboy & Western Heritage
Museum Hall of Fame in 1959,
and into the Round-Up and
Happy Canyon Hall of Fame in
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limit. He still received a standing WKHPRYLH³<DN¶V%HVW5LGH´LQ
1985.
ovation.
Yakima Canutt, “... the most
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famous person NOT from
all-around title in 1923, Canutt
took his skills to Hollywood. He <DNLPD:DVKLQJWRQ´DFFRUGLQJ
appeared in 48 silent movies, all to author Elizabeth Gibson, died
westerns, but moved to stock and May 24, 1986, at the age of 90 at
his home in North Hollywood.
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Ŷ
introduced in 1928 (his voice
Renee Struthers is the
KDGEHHQGDPDJHGE\WKHÀX
ZKLOHLQWKH1DY\$QGPXFKRI Community Records Editor for
John Wayne’s on-screen persona, the East Oregonian. See the
complete collection of Out of
including the drawling, hesitant
the Vault columns at eovault.
speech and the hip-rolling walk,
blogspot.com
was copied from Canutt after
ODDS & ENDS
NYC millionaire bequeaths
$100,000 to 32 cockatiels
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cannot request the results of a Tennessee
Bureau of Investigation report because of a
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law that says such records should be released
City millionaire who died this summer has
“only in compliance with a subpoena or an
bequeathed a $100,000 trust fund to care for
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her 32 pet cockatiels.
7KH1HZ<RUN3RVW reported Saturday that reports.
Slatery said the lack of a comma after
/HVOLH$QQ0DQGHO¶VZLOODVNVWKDWWKHVPDOO
parrots continue living in an aviary at her $4 WKHZRUG³VXESRHQD´PHDQVWKDWHLWKHUD
subpoena or an order must come from a
million East Hampton home.
court. If there were a comma present, the
The will names each bird, from Margie
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and Nicki to Zara and Zack 12.
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With Mandel’s stepson as trustee, the
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fund also will care for a cat named Kiki and
D-Memphis, said he asked the attorney
a rescue dog named Frosty.
general to weigh in because of ongoing
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discussions about how to balance
amassed a $5.3 million fortune. She died in
transparency and investigative needs,
June at age 69.
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Other wills also have provided for pets.
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Hotel magnate Leona Helmsley left $12
PLOOLRQWRKHUGRJ7URXEOH$MXGJHWULPPHG Memphis and other cities around the nation.
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the bequest to $2 million.
people have the right to know what
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Missing comma means
the need to make sure the
certain records are off-limits understand
investigations are not tainted, and that the
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Josh DeVine, spokesman for TBI, said
WKH7HQQHVVHH$WWRUQH\*HQHUDOVD\VWKH
according to the staff in the bureau’s legal
argument all comes down to the lack of a
department, the agency has never received
comma.
a subpoena from a city council. Nashville
Metro Council Jon Cooper said that action
has been threatened by council members but
never used.
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refusing to cut woman’s hair
:$6+,1*7213D$3²$
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$750 for refusing to cut a woman’s hair.
Barbiere advertises itself as a high-end
gentlemen’s barbershop and offers
complimentary beers and spirits. The
Washington barbershop was recently
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discrimination.
Owner John Interval tells the
(Washington) Observer-Reporter WKH¿QH
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Interval says, “Guys come here as a kind of a
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The female customer had booked hair
appointments online for herself and her
boyfriend. She asked for a short haircut
known as a wave but was turned away.
Interval says his staff recommended other
shops and even offered to pay for a haircut
at someplace else to compensate for the
inconvenience.