Wispy clouds above the town of Cedar Park on January 11th

 

At the pond on Discovery Boulevard in suburban Cedar Park on the morning of January 11th wispy clouds enhanced the seed heads of the native grass called bushy bluestem, Andropogon tenuispatheus, as shown below. The clouds were so attractive that I figuratively and then literally looked up to them and had them sit (or rather float and drift) for portraits in their own right, as you see above.

 

 

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I recently read Andrew Sullivan’s January 27th article “The Other Black Lives That Matter.” After describing the big push by the school district in Washington, D.C., to make “equity” the supreme goal of education, Sullivan returns to reality:

Now check out the data on how the DC Public School system is faring. A key metric is what they call “proficiency rates” — a test of whether the kids are passing the essentials of reading and math at every stage of their education. Overall, only 31 percent of DC students have proficiency in reading and just 19 percent have proficiency in math. Drill down further in the racial demographics and the picture is even worse: among African-American kids, the numbers are 20 percent and 9 percent, respectively. Among black boys, it’s 15 percent and 9 percent. Which means to say that DC Public Schools graduate kids who are overwhelmingly unable to do the most basic reading and math that any employer would need.

This is not a function of money. In the most recent federal analysis: DC spends far more per student — $30,000 a year — than any other state, double the amount in many states across the country.

Let’s put it this way: if this were a corporation, it would be in liquidation. If it were a house, it would be condemned. But since it’s a public school system, it can avoid this catastrophic failure by emphasizing “equity”!

Yup, just as long as the kids are woke, it doesn’t matter that most of them are illiterate and innumerate. You’re welcome to read the full article.

 

© 2023 Steven Schwartzman

 

 

 

Maximilian sunflower time

As September approached its end, erect stalks of Maximilian sunflowers (Helianthus maximiliani) became an increasingly common sight in central Texas. In a field along TX 71 in Spicewood on October 3rd I took advantage of the morning’s wispy clouds to photograph a good stand of those sunflowers. The maximum Maximilian in the field towered over me and could well have climbed above 10 ft. (3m):

© 2021 Steven Schwartzman

Paloverde tree with great wispy clouds

Parkinsonia aculeata; Roy G. Guerrero Park; December 21, 2020.

© 2021 Steven Schwartzman

Two ways of being wispy

Alongside a convenience store at the intersection of FM 306 and Star Grass Dr. in Comal County on September 29th I photographed some flowering poverty weed, Baccharis neglecta, against that morning’s layers of wispy clouds. Throughout the day, as I drove through the Texas Hill Country on what turned out to be a 230-mile journey, I saw lots of these delicate trees looking similarly fluffy in their flowering and often swarmed by insects.

© 2016 Steven Schwartzman