Another 'New Year'

There is a hazy recollection of late night conversation in a college dorm room about how one "visualizes" the calendar: straight line; circle; spiral? And what was the starting point of one's personal, visual timeline: January 1; Spring; Birthday; Post Labor Day/Back to School; or something more traditional as in the Jewish Calendar?

The theory of a "new year/fresh start" has great appeal to the American psyche and one could suggest that after 12-16 or more school years that begin in September that we "turn the page" on a new year then. The laid back summer daze draw to an end. Schedules adjust to back to business, books and such. Shorts only appear on weekends, long pants are the dress of the day.

We get "serious" about our work/studies. We buckle down for 10 or 12 weeks of work before the year end holidays set in and we once again become grateful hedonists.

Of course, the revelation that Trenton Central High School students have returned to the books with no class schedules to greet them indicates that some people may have been a little too laid back this summer. Reportedly, an administrator who formerly oversaw the scheduling process was not rehired for this year. The company retained to straighten out the district's computer system and work on student scheduling spent too much time on the former and the latter was overlooked.

And so the students' "new year" starts off in the hole. Nothing new here.

As the business at hand beckons, the posts on this blog may come with a little less frequency. There may be a little less railing at the inadequacies and excesses of our local government. Hopefully because our leaders will also "buckle down" to tackle the tasks before them effectively. But that's not a given.

Hopefully, too, there will be more positives things to chat about. The Thunder have won the first in their "Best of Five" Conference Championship series against Portland. Maybe this is the year that we'll make it past the first round of playoffs. The local hockey team has a new moniker (Trenton Devils) honoring their shared ownership with the NHL's New Jersey Devils.

The arts scene in Trenton is readying a harvest of events: watercolors at Ellarslie; Photography at Gallery 125; "Dangerous Woman" at the Mercer County College Gallery in West Windsor; and more.

Let's hope the scheduling snafu (and you do remember the derivation of that term as an old armed forces acronym for Situation Normal: All F****d Up)gets corrected before the Christmas decorations appear in the stores and the turkeys are displaying their oven roasted tans on our dining room tables.

Happy New Year!

Not What I Had Expected

The original purpose of this blog was to post musings on life in and around Trenton. The idea was to be a digital representation of what one might be thinking about while observing the world. Hopefully there would be some discussion (via comments), but mostly just an expression of those rambling ideas and fleeting inspirations that come from everyday experience.

The blog was never intended to be as political as it has gotten. And it wasn't meant to dwell on the ample negatives and sometimes preposterous situations that seem to arise every few minutes.

So it isn't really surprising that there was an unsettling sense of disappointment sitting on my shoulders after reading this morning's newspapers. No murders overnight (thankfully!); no additional Newark Police Department refugee retirees landing lucrative gigs here in T-town (so far); and no new revelations about underhanded doings in the school system or city hall. Even our city council members seem to be at peace with each other for the moment.

There were also no ads of public apology from outspoken citizens to thin-skinned public officials in either of the local dailies (but there is a very clever advertisement for placing one in the September Downtowner). We're all waiting with baited breath for that next development.

There was a dog-baiting incident in Mill Hill Park last evening that left one animal seriously wounded (and reportedly it had to be euthanized) and could probably be expounded upon in this space. Certainly that is fodder for thought and commentary, but we don't want to rile up one of Trenton's "most decorated scribes" and get another sermon on how Trenton (especially here in "toney" Mill Hill) don't care about the right things or the right people.

Maybe inspiration can be found elsewhere this morning.

Let's Finish What We've Started

Trenton’s model Daylight/Twilight School is being constructed on East Hanover Street opposite the historic Trenton Friends Meeting House. The complex will utilize newly constructed buildings to connect two existing ones. The architecture will tie together in a harmonious way that gives the appearance of an intact city streetscape.

But it’s not just how the complex looks that is so good.

For those not familiar, the Daylight/Twilight school is a “non-traditional” (the term preferred by Principal Bill Tracy) institution that allows individuals to complete their high school education after an “interruption.” The idea is that regardless of the reason for the interruption, the students can take this opportunity to more than just pass a GED (General Education Development) test, but can actually get that High School Diploma. For the most part the returning students, who can range in age from 16 to 60+ are considered highly motivated to successfully complete the program despite the obstacles that life throws in their path.

The new facility will bring together under one roof the courses, faculty and students from the two existing campuses in the West and South Wards respectively. Operating with morning and afternoon sessions each day, the school will accommodate roughly 1000 students per 10 week session. Another 400-500 can be served through the on-line school with testing being conducted at the downtown location.

The proximity to Mercer County Community College’s Kearney campus will hopefully allow students graduating from Daylight/Twilight to seamlessly move into college level courses.

In putting together the Daylight/Twilight school puzzle, various vocational education pieces will be fit into the picture in order to prepare graduates for real jobs in the real world. This is perhaps the most exciting facet of the model school being built.

For some time now activists and advocates have decried the lack of honest to goodness vocational training in our city schools. With no way to prepare the skills needed to succeed in the real world, is it any wonder that so many of our Trenton’s youth forsake their education for the streets. Bringing real job skill development and training into the mix for the students who are returning from their educational hiatus is smart.

Shouldn’t we consider doing the same for traditional high-school students with an eye towards preventing them from leaving the system to begin with?