U.S. Teachers Spend, On Average, Approximately 1,097 Hours Per Year on (Only) Instruction. →
That means approximately 7,663 hours in the year are left unaccounted for.
Let’s assume parents don’t see their kids until 5pm. This might not be a proper assumption in a world where so many parents have to work two jobs just to make ends meet, but let’s assume. So, two hours a day, for 6 days a week, for 52 weeks. That leaves 7,039 hours.
And we’ll be nice and subtract hours that the children are sleeping and aren’t necessarily aware of their surroundings. Assuming healthy kids, 8 hours of sleep…that leaves 4,119.
Let’s assume those are hours spent around their family. It’s a faulty assumption I know. So we’ll adjust again - let’s say the students are also accounted for in the summer by babysitters or summer camp. Three months, five days a week, 8 to 3 (we already accounted for the hours until five for the whole year with the working-till-five equation), that’s subtracting another 420 hours. That’s 3,699 hours.
I’m feeling so generous and realistic that I’m going to assume that parents work until seven, which with subtraction and rounding down leaves about 3,000 hours.
So if parents spend nearly three times as much time with their children as teachers do…
Why are teachers expected to be saints with no personal lives or shortcomings while parents can do whatever they’d like and be whatever they are without criticism?
Parents can have sex in the room down the hall. Parents can watch violent television with their kids playing in the same room. Parents can drink or smoke. Parents can cuss.
But teachers, or anyone who works or volunteers with kids, can’t do anything in their private lives without the assumption that it will spill into the classroom. If a teacher is sexually active the kids will come home talking about orgies. If a teacher has a same-sex partner the kids will come home talking about sexuality. If a teacher is spotted in a bar they must be coming in drunk to class.
Someone explain to me why there is such an unfair double-standard. I’d like to know, so that I can one day be both a teacher and a human being without it leading to scandal.
Police use of force at Berkeley draws fierce nationwide condemnation
For UC Berkeley graduate student Alex Barnard, the most disempowering moment of Wednesday night was not when he was repeatedly hit with a police baton, cracking one of his ribs. Instead, the most disturbing moment of his experience came afterward, when he says an officer told him he had “no rights.”
According to Barnard, who was arrested along 31 others as part of Wednesday night’s Occupy Cal demonstration, after he was handcuffed with a zip tie and taken into Sproul Hall, a police officer asked him for identifying information. Rather than immediately answering, Barnard said he asked the officer about his rights and when he would be allowed to speak to a lawyer. It was then that the officer told him he had no rights and, after Barnard disputed the statement, said he would be recorded as “uncooperative” on his police forms, according to Barnard.
“You didn’t have a voice,” Barnard said.
The experience described by Barnard and his fellow protesters’ violent treatment at the hands of the police — supported by video footage taken at the demonstration — has led to wide-spread condemnation of the police response. Critics ranging from campus student groups to members of the UC Berkeley faculty and even the national media have spoken out against the police officers’ use of force.
Conspiracy News: Australian Police to start frisking children →
What started with the TSA under the pretense of anti-terrorism security is now being adopted by Police.
State Government committee recommends police child frisk measures
POLICE will be granted the power to frisk teenagers or children for alcohol after a State Government committee…
(Source: couriermail.com.au)
Will this Red Planet rover send groundbreaking data over? The Mars Science Laboratory − nicknamed Curiosity − was developed at JPL and will be the fourth rover to traverse the planet’s harsh terrain. But unlike the earlier Martian vehicles, Curiosity will do more than look for evidence of water.
Image: This artist concept shows NASA’s Curiosity rover, a mobile robot for investigating Mars’ past or present ability to sustain microbial life. Credit: NASA
(Source: Los Angeles Times)
This is the truth about Peaceful assembly and when the people of this nation realize that they have had enough!!! This is what happens when they try to exercise their FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS!!! Beatings, Shot, and Tear Gassed!!!
The powers at be are scared because of this movement!!! THIS MOVEMENT WILL CONTINUE!!!
*Thanks to J.P. Dobrin for the photography.
Oakland Police Beat a Woman at Occupy Oakland
Why Saimin is Beneficial to your Health: Teacherʻs Salaries →
..Teachers’ hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or 10 months a year! It’s time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do - babysit! We can get that for minimum wage. That’s right. Let’s give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that…
(Source: h0meizwuticallit)
Dia De Los Muertos Is Not Your Halloween by Nuestra Hermana
As we all know, Halloween in America is right around the corner. Kids & adults alike will be dressed up in costumes, consuming candy, attending parties, navigating through haunted houses and thoroughly enjoying their night. Think about your last Halloween and look at the images above.
These are still shots of Dia De Los Muertos in Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, California & Arizona. They are small snippets of a vibrant, important and REAL holiday for Latin@s. This is not your Halloween.
Dia De Los Muertos developed out of over 2,500 years of indigenous ritual celebrating death and paying respects to loved ones who have passed away. Scholars state that the Aztecs originally held a month long festival dedicated to the goddess Mictecacihuatl, the ruler of the afterlife.
After Spanish colonization and many attempts to eradicate the rituals & festival, a new merging with the Catholic holidays All Souls Day & All Saints Day developed over time to what is now Dia De Los Muertos.
Dia De Los Muertos is celebrated November 1st & 2nd (in alignment with All Saints Day & All Souls Day respectively). It is NOT celebrated on October 31st, it is not tied in with Halloween in America at all.
In Mexico, November 1st is dedicated as Dia De Los Inocentes, a day to honor and respect the innocents, children & infants to be more specific. November 2nd is Dia De Los Muertos, the day to honor deceased adults.
On these days, altars are made in honor of them. People build them on their loved ones graves, at home or anywhere they find rightful to honor their loved ones. They make ofrendas (offerings) to the dead of their favorite foods, toys (for children), pictures, pan de muertos, sugar skulls and many other things that help guide the spirits of the dead safely to the altars. Marigolds, known as the flowers of the dead, are usually prominent in the altars.
In Mexico, many people sleep overnight at the graves. Every ritual & altar is not the same everywhere. Many places have their own traditions and ways of honoring the dead. One thing is for sure, Dia De Los Muertos is not Halloween. It is a sacred time and holiday for Latin@s everywhere.
So, when you’re dressing up for Halloween remember: doing this, this, this or this is not only disrespectful but it is also a erasure of someone’s real life culture. Think before you walk out of that door.
The issue is that there is a difference between the “pagan” holidays surrounding this time of year. While America may have adapted a specific set of views and developed it’s own cultural celebration, Halloween is not the same as any of the other holidays. Celebrate Halloween how you will, but know that dressing up as a sexy sugar skull, or in full headdress is every bit as racist as going to a party as your favorite racial stereotype.
There is a difference between wearing normative skull face paint on Halloween, and wearing culturally specific Dia de los muertos face paint. It’s not your culture stop trying to steal it. If you don’t understand the difference between the two holidays then educate yourself. All of these holidays are unique, and though they may share some similarities, it is offensive when you try to blur the lines between them and pretend that they are the same as what you grew up with.
Please, stop!
Border agency’s rapid growth accompanied by rise in corruption: Since October 2004, 132 U.S. Customs and Border Protection employees have been indicted or convicted on corruption-related charges. Rapid expansion and lack of funds for background checks are blamed.
This is a joint examination by The Times and the Center for Investigative Reporting. Check out CIR’s interactive on recent targets of corruption investigations.
Photo: an officer directs trucks entering the United States from Mexico through the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego. Credit: David Maung / Bloomberg
(Source: Los Angeles Times)
The disenfranchised thoughts, hopeful musings, and angry ramblings of a young educator.
