April 2024 – Whoopsie Piggle

It all started with the Roper stovetop

I own two side-by-side houses and I’m slowly remodeling the one we call Dreisbach House, an Arts and Crafts home built in 1909. Meanwhile, I live in Cressler House, which underwent significant modernizing in the 1960s, including the installation of that Roper stovetop.

With two parallel rows of burners mounted into the countertop, the Roper was a romantic throw back, sexy even. After all, it produced visible fire and tangible heat. The busiest burner, on the front right corner, sometimes required assistance to ignite its flame. There’s a singular satisfaction in seeing a robust round of fire erupt in the presence of a lit match.

The Roper’s pilot lights ran high. Plates set on burners I wasn’t using, while cooking on others, quickly became too hot to touch with bare hands. The slightest wind would extinguish the Roper’s pilot lights, which, given its proximity to the back door, was frequent

Charming but dangerous, effective but inefficient, the Roper needed to retire. Rather than gas, I chose an induction stovetop. Induction stovetops heat cookware electromagnetically, thus, only cookware made with magnetic materials work. Caste iron is a go, caste aluminum is not. Most of the cookware I already own works just fine.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, induction stovetops are up to three times more efficient than gas stoves. Other perks include no release of the pollutants related to gas stovetops and shockingly fast heating times —induction stovetops boil water up to 40% faster than gas or conventional electric stovetops.

In researching which stovetop to buy, I looked at the website Wirecutter, which reliably reviews just about everything. I chose a GE Profile, which was more than I’d planned to spend. Like the Barbra Streisand song, I’m a second-hand rose. Most of my clothing (and that of my children) is thrifted, my car was used when I bought it and I’ve never been the first owner of a home. But with some purchases, particularly appliances, it is wise to spend more for better. Also, I found some kickbacks.

Before purchasing the stovetop at Lowe’s, I went to Get-Go, the gas station owned by Giant Eagle, and bought gift certificates for the hardware store using a credit card that gives me 3% back on gas station purchases. And because I have a Giant Eagle rewards card, I also earned a lot of free gas.

Not so fast. The induction stovetop is made of tempered glass and the kitchen’s copper-tile backsplash, which is probably as old as the Roper, was embedded with years of stains no amount of elbow grease and Pink Stuff (or Bar Keeper’s Friend, steel wool, etc.) could remove. In order to avoid damaging the new stovetop, the backsplash needed replaced first. But a new backsplash would accentuate how deeply worn the countertops were.

Which meant before the counters, backsplash and stovetop, I needed to pick new flooring as I use the floor to dictate the color of the other components. And that’s when I learned how out of sync I am with seemingly everyone else in America.

I will never install a tile floor in a kitchen. For someone who stands in the kitchen everyday, tile is too cold in the winter, too hard on joints everyday and when you drop something in a room with a tile floor, kiss it goodbye because whether it’s glass, plastic or a small creature, it’s going to break when it lands.

I love linoleum that unapologetically looks like linoleum. Akron’s First Flooring & Tile can order Marmoleum by Forbo, which is old-school vegetable linoleum. The patterns are beautiful, the material is both environmental and durable, while also gentle on the legs. In 10 minutes I chose Asian Tiger, an orange swirl with reds and grays that, yes, would be a perfect floor for children to play hot lava.

I then ordered a quartz countertop that looks like white marble with subtle streaks of grey and brown to complement the busy flooring. So, too, does the white subway tile backsplash with flecks of terra cotta.

The countertop, backsplash and induction stovetop have all been installed. When I walk into the kitchen and look at them, I feel a small trill in my chest, so long as I don’t look at the floor.

Home decor styles come and go. Thirteen years ago, when I put a new floor in Dreisbach House’s kitchen, First Flooring & Tile’s showroom had rows of vinyl linoleum on 12-foot rolls. Today they have none. It’s all ceramic tile and floating floor planks (think Pergo). There are appropriate places for both types of flooring, but not in my kitchen.

With the loss of sheet linoleum so, too, has gone the people who can install it. Two flooring companies and Home Depot have not been able find anyone who will install Marmoleum. At the suggestion of the flooring companies, I emailed Forbo and asked for help finding an installer. They responded by telling me to contact the flooring companies. Sigh.

Perhaps soon floating laminate and tile floors will peak and make way for the return of sheet linoleum. Until that time, my newly refurbished kitchen will include the old flooring with throw rugs strategically placed to hide wear and tear.

This column was first published in the Akron Beacon Journal on Sunday, March 31, 2024.

Since publication, Akron architect Hallie Bowie contacted me with this very useful information:

“I want to be sure you know that you can get a tax credit if you had any electrical panel upgrades done to help with the installation of the cooktop. And you could mention that those earning less than 150% of the median income in our area will soon be able to get rebates on the cooktop itself, up to 100% of the cost of the appliance or $840 max. https://pearlcertification.com/news/electric-cooktop-rebates-and-tax-credits“

In his first month as mayor, Shammas Malik asked Akron Public Schools to prioritize launching a universal pre-K program. The district has wasted no time boosting its commitment to early learning.

Next fall, Akron schools will offer full-day programming for Akron children ages 4 and up.

Why is funding a public school program for preschoolers so important and what results can be expected? Luckily, numerous long-term studies of preschool programs exist, yielding an abundance of data supporting their many benefits, particularly for the most underserved children.

Head Start, a federal-to-local pre-school program, was launched in the 1960s as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty.” It wasn’t mandated, so not all school districts adopted it. However, nearly 60 years later, research on the first groups of Head Start students show the impactful, life-long and even multi-generational benefits of attending preschool.

According to a recent Brookings Institute report, when compared to their older siblings who were preschool age before Head Start existed, students who attended three years of Head Start were “3% more likely to finish high school, 8.5% more likely to attend college, and 39% more likely to finish college.”

The financial benefit, both to the people who attended Head Start and taxpayers, is also notable. Again from the Brookings Institute, “Female students were 32% less likely to live in poverty as adults, and male students saw a 42% decrease in the likelihood of receiving public assistance.”

Early programming is an investment with long-term payoffs — in other words, it is not politically expedient. Also, as children do not vote, politicians often cater less to their needs than they do citizens at the other end of the age spectrum, the elderly, who not only can vote, but reliably do in large numbers.

Before entering kindergarten, students who have attended preschool will have learned many educational building blocks — things like the alphabet, numbers, colors, shapes. They also gain exposure to vocabulary that may not exist at home.

But equally important, students learn how to be in school. I’ve seen first-hand how consequential this is because my daughter, Lyra, who has Down syndrome, attended APS’s existing preschool programming, the Early Learning Program (ELP).

In Ohio, state support for children with disabilities is provided for the first three years of life through county developmental disability boards. Then, from ages three to 22, state support is delivered through the public schools, which is why Akron has an ELP.

Lyra attended Akron’s ELP for three years and when she began kindergarten, just after her sixth birthday, she could read, had basic math skills and knew her colors, shapes and more. She also knew how to behave in a classroom. Unfortunately, the same was not true for many of her more than 20 kindergarten classmates, most of whom were attending school for the first time. When the Akron Education Association negotiated a new contract with the district in 2022, student violence was a primary concern. Halfway through the 2022-2023 school year, kindergartners accounted for 24% of student “assaults” on staff and teachers.

Even with a fantastic kindergarten teacher, given the chaos of the classroom, Lyra did not learn the skills for first-grade readiness. We had her repeat kindergarten, this time with an aid to help her stay on task no matter what was happening in the classroom.

Children who are kindergarten ready when they start school are more likely to be first-grade ready at the end of the year. It’s reasonable to expect that the implementation of all-day pre-K means more Akron students will perform at grade-level. The accumulation of age-appropriate education, or the lack thereof, has exponential impact. Each year a student is promoted without the skills needed for their current grade level, the harder it becomes to acquire the skills of the next grade. But when a child has mastered grade-level curriculum, they are poised for success the next year.

The rate of return on the investment in preschool programming is eye-popping. For every dollar spent, communities gain $4 to $9 in return because students who\’ve attended pre-K are more likely to graduate and contribute to the economy and less likely to need public assistance or become incarcerated.

All-day kindergarten is a good step, but Akron still needs universal pre-k, which ensures any family that wants to enroll their preschool-aged child in a publicly funded program has the opportunity.

Foundations in Akron and Summit County should eagerly participate with the city and the school district to fully fund universal pre-K programming in because it is a direly needed game changer. The only problem with universal pre-K is that APS didn’t launch it many years ago.

This column was first published in the Akron Beacon Journal on Sunday, March 17, 2024.

For further reading of recent research on universal pre-K, see this NPR article.