I am now a writer for the Teachers’ Lounge at The Daily Kos. My first Teachers’ Lounge diary went up yesterday, and was even rescued overnight! In DKos-atopia, that’s a singular honor. So, go read it.
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JISHOU, HUNAN — Recently, I wrote a reaction to the Christian rightwing hijacking of the Texas Board of Education, and the anti-public education views of one of its members. A visitor named Joey swung by this week, and left this comment:
You will note that Joey has nothing directly to say about the Texas BOE, but definitely agrees that public education is a Bad Thing. I don’t, though I am a critic of public education. My reply was this: Possibly related posts:
JISHOU, HUNAN — It was only a matter of time before swine flu would penetrate into the Chinese heartland. Within a week of classes starting at the university, a student was diagnosed with H1N1. Then another a day later. According to some (unverified) reports, perhaps eight more students may be infected as well. Jishou University has four campuses. The first student diagnosed with H1N1 lives at the old campus, near downtown. The second lives here at the new campus. Their roommates are being monitored as we speak. Our students have had the fear of God (or something like it, since China is officially atheist) put into them at meetings earlier this week. Wash your hands. Cover your nose and mouth when you sneeze or cough. Throw your tissues away immediately. Don’t touch your eyes, nose or mouth. If you feel ill or feverish, go directly to the school clinic, do not pass go, do not collect $200. My foreign affairs officer, Cyril Hu, called me to his office this morning to give me an oral thermometer (A mercury one! The USA has all but abolished those.) and two sheets of instructions (in Chinese!?) about what precautions to take against the swine flu. Meanwhile, rumors and fears are bubbling through the student community. One girl texted me to say there were “several” people down with the flu. Another student on QQ told me she had heard the uni would ban any travel during the upcoming eight-day National Holiday break. Both rumors proved to be false. Possibly related posts:
I have blogged about parents squawking about teachers who used to be porn actresses, about teachers taking kids to art museum to see statues of nude people, about schools allowing creationism to be taught in science classes, about students talking about God and Jesus in commencement addresses. These concerns are understandable, even if I don’t always agree with the parents doing the complaining. Sex and religion are after all touchy subjects. But to object to their children hearing the President of the United States talk about the importance of education? I just don’t get it. They must be crazy. Hey, people! He’s the fucking President of the USA! He won by majority vote. He’s YOUR president. It’s not like he’s Charles Manson or that whacko who held a girl hostage for 18 years in his backyard. Barack Obama, a guy who rose from a low-income, single-parent family to become the leader of the Free World, wants to talk to schoolchildren on Sept. 8 on the importance of staying in school and getting an education. It apparently worked for him just fine. Some parents, the kind who hang on every word Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Bachmann, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin utter, the kind who use WorldNetDaily as their primary source of information, believe, however, that Obama will “indoctrinate” their children into becoming socialists, Marxists, Muslims, or I don’t what else. Possibly related posts:
JISHOU, HUNAN — Today marks the first anniversary of my arriving here, exhausted and bleary-eyed after a long trek from Hong Kong to the Chinese interior. I’ve been reflecting on the past year for several days now. Before I get started on those reflections, I want to say that I don’t regret coming here at all. In many ways, my leap across the ocean is the best thing to have happened to me in several years. I am happier, more relaxed, less hefty, and more sure of myself than I was before. As I have said before, I am one lucky fellow. Many Chinese who meet me for the first time are surprised that a man my age would decide to leave his children behind and live far from his hometown. They fear I am lonely and unhappy. It’s a cultural misapprehension, though, stemming from the difference in our cultures. In China, people can retire at 50. They also tend to stay in one place, usually their hometown, for most of their lives. Children are expected either to live with their parents, or at least be a stone’s throw away from them. So, for Chinese unfamiliar with American customs, I should be living somewhere on Long Island with one of my kids, taking care (as many Chinese grandparents do) of the grandchildren, playing majiang or chess, and watching TV. Possibly related posts:
JISHOU, HUNAN — Yesterday, I read a Washington Post column by Sarah Fine, a young, idealistic teacher who was quitting the profession after four years. It’s a well written, poignant piece, and I wanted to write some reaction to it here. I had trouble working up a sufficient head of steam to get started. I had lots of things to say, but nothing was gelling in my mind. So, figuring reading something else would help, I swung over to the Daily Kos to see what was up there. Amid all the political commentary was this excellent response to Fine’s column by teacherken (Ken Bernstein), which at this writing has received more than 350 comments, some sympathetic, some critical. If you read teacherken’s response to Sarah Fine’s confessional, you will pretty much read be reading my reactions, too. He and I share several characteristics: we both got liberal arts educations at renowned northeastern institutions (he, Haverford; me, Princeton), we both worked in other professions before becoming teachers later in life (he much later than I), we’re both Quakers, both liberal Democrats, both socially liberal, both love teaching. But I have a few other things to say, now that it’s a day later and I’ve had more time to mull over Fine’s column. Some of my readers already know my background, but for the benefit of the one or two people who are not members of my family, friends, colleagues or present and former students, here’s a quick recap. Possibly related posts:
JISHOU, HUNAN — A Christian group plans to hand out 1,000 copies of “The Charles Darwin Bible” to teachers attending the National Education Association (NEA) convention in San Diego this week. The Charles Darwin Bible is a copy of the New Testament, with annotations referring to Christian and creationist beliefs. It’s the latest attempt by creationists to wiggle their religious non-science into the public schools. There is also a creationist edition of Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species available. Since the original text of 150 years ago is not copyrighted, evangelist Ray Comfort slapped a 50-page “special introduction” onto the work and is selling it for a mere 99 cents. Comfort’s plan is for fellow believers to hand the bastardized copies of Origin of Species to their teacher and professor friends. The Charles Darwin Bible is another brainchild of Comfort’s. It’s being distributed by Holman Bible Outreach, which is selling the curiously named book for $3.99 (or $1.75 by the case). Someone ponied up the money to hand a thousand of them out to NEA members. The NEA is one of two professional organizations that represent public school teachers. Its annual convention began June 26 and runs through Friday. Here’s a description of the CDB: Possibly related posts:
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