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My father (who just turned 74 on Saturday) has always
insisted that there is no such season as spring
in
Colorado.
In other parts of the northern temperate zone, there may
be a season of gentle warming and soft rains with gamboling
lambs and cooing birds as the flowers bloom and the meadows
grow verdant. But in Colorado, it can be pushing 90
degrees one sunny May day and the next morning you might be
shoveling snow. We do not enjoy a smooth transition
from winter to summer. From March through June, we
alternate between frostbite and sunburn, parkas and
T-shirts, sometimes on the same day. Eventually, we get to
summer, but no one can predict exactly when that will
happen. Even though we don't have a spring, we still
have the associated rituals -- such as the end of the
school year, which is always accompanied by proposals for
educational reform. This year offers even more
proposals than usual because we've got an unusual
Republican in the White House. The traditional Republican
view of the federal role in education is none,
but
Bush the Younger campaigned last year as an educational
refor
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