Category Archives: Home & Family

Just for fun, here our two of our pets, Valentino and Garbo.
Tino is one of the prettiest and friendliest cats we have ever
had but he is also very dumb. He purrs when you turn him over
to rub his tummy. His sister Garbo is much smarter but does
not like to be picked up. Both are grey
and white with green eyes.

Valentino and Garbo:

Tino at the Window:

Images by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher (Copyright 2006)

While my daughter is one set of final exams (next week) away from
being a Senior in High School, my 13-year-old son
is almost a High School Freshman. Jessica is going to
Harker, a private college prep school
but Paul will go to Palo Alto High School
or “Paly”, an excellent public school. Paly is better able to
support Paul’s learning disabilities than Harker would be.

We are in the middle of Paul’s IEP (Individualized Education Plan) discussions
now. The IEP is set of documents in which the school, parents, teachers,
school administrators, and the student himself write down their needs,
expectations, and the support needed for a disabled student. Since we will
be moving from a superb 3-year special day class
at Jordan Middle School into a
new school in September, we want to be sure that we put together the
best possible set of classes and services so that Paul can succeed at Paly.

The discussions about classes next year for Jessica and for Paul could not
be more different. For Jessica, we have passionate talks about whether taking
Solo Vocal Performance or AP Biology-Environmental would be more interesting. That is, discussions are about how many hard classes Jessica can squeeze
into her Senior year.

For Paul, we are trying to balance his social and behavioral needs
against his academic and intellectual needs. Our discussions for Paul
are around whether he should take 1.1 Algebra
(the first half of Algebra I, a much smaller class), or Algebra I (closer to
his academic capabilities but a bigger and faster-paced class). Harker’s
Freshman High School math class is Algebra II (most Harker students having
completed Algebra I in 8th grade), so even if Paul takes Paly’s harder
Freshman math alternative, he will start High School a year behind his
Harker peers. If he takes the recommended math class (1.1 Algebra), Paul
will only be able to complete three years of Math in High School unless
he takes a summer school course. Math is Paul’s best subject,
where his test scores are in the Superior range. Imagine our discussions
about writing and spelling, where Paul is still working toward grade level.

Paul himself does not seem very interested in these discussions. His
focus this summer is getting confirmed in the Episcopal church,
reading as many books as fast as he can (he is currently
finishing Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring), trying to talk
me into allowing him to play video games all day (no way!), and growing
taller than me. Paul and I are almost exactly the same height today so
that last achievement will come all too soon.

My 17-year-old daughter Jessica is taking her SAT-II tests
right now in Math and Biology. I dropped her off at 7:45 a.m.
at Lincoln High School here in San Jose. The Junior year of High
School at Harker is all
about creating objective evidence of who you
are and how good you are so that you can have your choice of
universities. So far, Jessica has taken Advance Placement (AP)
European History, the SAT-I (Writing, Reading, Math), the SAT-II
in U.S. History and English Literature. After today, she has
one more big test this year, in AP U.S. History (or “A-Push” as
she calls it). She will take her SAT-II in Latin and maybe
Chemistry too next year, plus two more APs.

When I was Jessica’s age, I too went to a good college prep. school
(Burke’s in San Francisco)
but there were fewer standardized tests available. I only took
SATs (like the SAT-I today – in Math and English) and one
AP (in English). I think it was the only AP class my school had.
Harker offers AP courses in at least a dozen subjects, plus as
many honors classes.

Jessica (who takes mostly honors classes) tells me that the
material for an AP class and an honors class is about the same
level of difficulty but that an honors class has tests all through the
year while an AP class is aimed at one test given by the

College Board national testing company. Ironically, many
colleges have started treating High School honors and AP classes as
the same. Because of this, some students take the AP course but
not the test. In my own case, my high SAT and AP scores got me
out of at least a year of boring Freshman year survey courses at
the University of
California, so the tests were well worth the trouble.

I know I never studied as hard as Jessica does. She has a stack of
large format SAT and AP prep manuals that she carries around. At
most meals lately, she has one in her lap unless I take it away from her.
She has gotten very high scores on the tests so far but the pressure
and expectations are still intense. If Jessica wants to go to Princeton,
Georgetown, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Brown, Tufts, Oberlin, or any other
top school, high standardized test scores seem to be an unavoidable
entry requirement. It is a painful and stressful process and I can only
admire how well she is handling it.

[Jessica came back from taking the SAT-II tests on Saturday and said they
went well. She also patiently reminded me that she had already taken her
A-Push exam. She is waiting to take the first of her four
final exams at Harker this morning. After the last exam on Wednesday,
Jessica is done for this year!]

We have a new niece! My husband John’s youngest brother Marty is now
the thankful father to his 4th child and 1st daughter, Mashayla Catherine
Plocher, born on Tuesday night. Mashayla and her mother Jill are
healthy and home in Peridot, Arizona with big brothers Malachi,
Zachariah, and Isaiah.

My own daughter Jessica at 17 is the oldest in her generation of
14 children (on both sides of the family). Mashayla is now the youngest
and one of only 4 girls.

Jessica at 17:

Mashayla at birth:

Mashayla’s Image by Martin Plocher (Copyright 2006)

Jessica’s Image by Katy Dickinson (Copyright 2006)

Our family went to college night at Sacred Heart school in Atherton
yesterday. Parents and soon-to-be-college-applicants from local
high schools met with about 100 college admissions representatives
from schools all over the USA (and a few from outside). Our
daughter Jessica is a Junior in High School at
Harker in Saratoga and is
deep into considerations of where she
will apply next year.

During the first hour, the hundreds of parents and students were batched into groups to work with college admissions staff on
a sorting exercise.
Each group had to decide about three applicants (Mike, Emily, Lucy)
as to whether to accept, waitlist, or deny their application to a
fictional college. We reviewed their transcripts, test scores, letters
of recommendation, and personal backgrounds. It was an interesting way
to teach everyone the vocabulary and point of view of college admissions.
Our group voted to admit Lucy, waitlist Mike, and deny Emily but it was
a close race between Lucy and Mike. At the end, one of our two
college admissions staff said she was there for Mills in Oakland (a
women’s college) so for her Mike just wasn’t qualified!

Since I run SEED mentoring program admissions on much the same lines
as college admissions, it was fascinating to see how their systems
worked. I might do some informal benchmarking with the schools my
daughter applies to next year.

When we were done with the exercise, everyone went to the gym to talk
with the admissions staff. Jessica is currently interested in about
ten schools, not all of which sent reps to this event. For the schools in our sights, key questions were about their music
program, their international studies program, and whether they had
a women’s wrestling team. Sadly, no one admitted to having a
women’s wrestling team. Some had music programs in theory only, not
performance (University of Chicago dropped of the list with that
answer), some offered international studies but not as a major
(for example, Wesleyan University offers only a certificate). George
Washington University offers a “Presidential Arts Program in
Theatre, Dance, Music, and Fine Arts” which looked very interesting.

We filled in lots of “send me more info” postcards and collected
heaps of brochures and catalogues for further study. We have our
summer’s work cut out for us!

My Father is having his 80th birthday in six months so my brothers
and I have been negotiating with our parents for several weeks on how
to celebrate. After
much discussion, we have settled on renting two houses at
Sea Ranch near Mendocino on
California’s northern coast for a long weekend. Other options were:
Lake Tahoe, Provence (France), Yosemite, Mexico, or Monterey Bay.

For his 70th birthday, the whole family rented a cabin at Fallen Leaf lake,
near Lake Tahoe. For my Mother’s 70th birthday, we all dressed up in
evening gowns and tuxedos and took a night dome car ride on the

Napa Valley Wine Train. Everyone ends up having a good time at these
events but the advance negotiations require time and diplomacy.

My two brothers and I have worked out that the best way of handling family
negotiations is a brief three-way conference call. It cuts out most of
the noise and confusion of playing the
telephone game.
That is, a series of phone calls during which everyone makes small unspoken
decisions and assumptions which result in general misdirection and irritation.

Everyone has agreed that my husband John is going to be the
cook (no contest there!). Now, all we have to do is figure out which
families will bunk together in which house. We have six months to work this
out. I hope that is time enough!