Deep Thoughts

Have Europeans Out-Evolved Us?

2009-07-11T23:37:00.000-07:00

Never fails to entertain me.

Nicholas Kristof, columnist for the NY Times, had an interesting little article a couple of weeks ago. (I love, love, LOVE the Times columnists... they seriously are the best in the business!) In it, he wonders if it is our brains' prehistoric wiring that renders us useless to ponder such long term issues as climate change. His reasoning, based on the interesting genre of evolutionary psychology, is that our brains are programed to deal with instant threat, like snakes or animals, a throwback to our less civilized days. The whole fight or flight thing. Therefore, we tend to prioritize our big ticket issues by place those that seem the most imminent threat to our safety ahead of long-term goals that are equally as threatening, just not immediately.

He lists, for example, the hoopla that started when Pres. Obama announced that he would be shutting Guantanamo and potentially moving detainees into super-max prisons in the States. I'll admit, when I first heard this, my instinct was "WTF?!" However, as I looked beyond that initial emotional reaction, I was able to reason why this isn't as crazy of an idea as it sounds. Yet, "housing terrorists in our nations prisons" is a phrase with a lot of emotional grab and a lot of people don't give much thought after that first gut feeling.

He's got some interesting facts thrown in the mix and he also talks to a couple of evolutionary psychologists. (The U.S. spends about $700 billion on military expenses a year but only $3 billion on the Food and Drug Administration, despite the fact that more people die a year of food poisoning than by terrorist/foreign army attack).

Now, after reading this, my next thought (and the thought of several of the commenters, I noticed) is that since many of the European countries have already adopted cap and trade systems, advanced environment legislation, and universal health care (not to mention better schooling!), does that mean that they are more highly evolved than Americans? Not to sound anti-American, but I do think they are. With the risk of sounding Euro-centric, I will say that the Europeans are ahead of the game when it comes to rising and falling civilizations... They've been around the block quite a few more times than we have. And though we may have participated in both world wars, we weren't exactly at ground zero like the Germans, French, British, etc, etc. So I think it's natural to assume that they might come to such conclusions that are more long term sooner than we would. I mean, we are only just now learning the dangers of colonialism, hegemony and interventionism, a lesson that the British learned the very hard way not so long ago.

You can also see such divides in the ways of thinking of the rural American population versus the suburban and urban areas... Those who live in rural areas are more likely to exhibit acts of tribalism... i.e. regular worship services, territorial, resistant to change, afraid/threatened by outsiders. (Hey, I grew up there, I've seen it firsthand)(I also think that there's a tendency with a lot of people to take for granted that we are the same species that we study in history... anthropology doesn't stop just because we're in post-modern society.) Those that live in cities adhere to more communal ways of life-- open to diversity, not as resistant to change, use public systems such as transportation and parks. I think suburban areas offer a mixture erring to the ways of the rural areas.

So I didn't mean to run off into a big discussion of sociology/anthropology. I just thought that Kristoff raised some interesting points that could be built upon...

God bless America, right? So maybe this one is slightly anti-American. Doesn't mean it's not true

Culture Rap

2009-07-08T22:07:00.000-07:00

My second class started this week. It's social studies technology and, of course, it's awesome! We discuss topics on a forum and complete activities and it's all about social studies. swoon! For tomorrow's lesson, we had to choose one of the themes in social studies and make up a poem, song, jingle, advertisement, etc explaining why it's important. I've already been assigned culture for another activity so that's what I stuck to... I give you... My culture rap.

Culture: People develop, learn, and adapt culture. Students develop an appreciation and respect for the variety of human cultures in the community and around the world by exploring the similarities and differences among people.

Ever since the beginning of man
People started living by their own distinct plan.
As time went on, tribes went on the move,
People began to carve out their own unique grooves.
The stories they told, to what they ate,
All began to evolve at a generational rate.
Now it’s the way we live, none’s quite like another
It’s what makes people special, we call it culture.

From Canada to Arabia, all the way to Scandinavia,
All has their own particular way of life.
It’s food, it’s tradition, it’s holidays,
It’s how people work and how people play.
If you’re the type of person that thinks what you don’t know is outrageous,
You better watch out cause culture’s contagious

Culture affects every part of our game,
It’s the ways that we’re different, though we’re all the same.
The god that you worship, how you say what you say,
The job that you work, the place where you stay.
What’s normal to me might be crazy to you.
It doesn’t mean one’s better, it’s just the things that we do.

Hollywood, Bollywood, all the way down to your neighborhood.
Respect all cultures just like you’d hope others would.
It’s food, it’s tradition, it’s holidays,
It’s how people work and how people play.
If you’re the type of person that thinks what you don’t know is outrageous,
You better watch out cause culture’s contagious.

Yeah. Culture. Don’t hate, learn to appreciate!

I'm out.

Pit bull Euthanized

2009-07-06T21:34:00.000-07:00

From Vanity Fair, the hunter gets scoped out and it ain't pretty!

Anybody who has even the slightest idea of who the hell Sarah Palin is MUST check out this article in the August 2009 Vanity Fair. As VF isn't exactly Cosmo, you can trust that this isn't just some fashion magazine half-assed reporting; Todd Purdum dug deep to get the goods on Sarah. I have to say, for a woman who still remains somewhat of a mystery to most of the country (even if you're a supporter, you have to admit, how much do you really know about her?), Purdum is very effective at shining the light into those darker cracks of the pre-McCain Sarah Palin career.

The result left a particularly bad taste in my mouth. Say what you want about "leftist" media, the man did his homework, calling up anyone and everyone who ever worked with her. He goes behind the "barracuda" name to reveal a women almost drunk on power. Still, there were moments when I was reading this that I almost felt sorry for her, especially when he talks about her during her V.P. run. Palin seemed naive to what the national scene really entailed. However, at the same time she remained arrogant about her short(long)comings and was uncooperative towards those who tried to help her. As I watched The View earlier I noticed that even Elizabeth had backed down from enthusiastically supporting Palin and she hardly countered any one's argument against the soon to be ex governor.

Now, I absolutely abhor this woman. I thought that I would give her a chance at first, but she did nothing but disappoint and disgust. What's more (and this is pointed out in the article as well), she stands for everything that I don't and she revels in her ignorance as if to say that being stupid and culturally ignorant is a good thing. It's not. We live in a highly globalized society and we can't afford to have "leaders" who shelter themselves from the rest of the world in important decision making positions. Say what you want about Obama using a teleprompter to deliver speeches, but watching Palin give interviews is downright uncomfortable. Personally, I wouldn't even let her overseas in the name of "brushing up on her foreign policy" for fear of the stupid things that she might say.

(I realize that Joe Biden is a one man gaffe machine, but at least I know that behind those stupid comments is a brain that has legitimate political experience)

It should be noted that I am thinking about this woman as I read over the National Social Studies Curriculum Standards, which strongly advocates for more thoughtful social studies teaching that includes emphasis on discussion, real world relatability, cultural education, and civics. I highly recommend this article. For someone who thought she had heard all there was to hear about Sarah Palin, it was definitely a shocker.

America... F*ck yeah!

2009-07-03T10:47:00.000-07:00

Only in America can you openly mock the people and still make millions. Hilarious movie, btw, and I might just have to go rent it later...

Like a lot of people these days, I often find myself thinking about what it means to be an American and what the future has in store for our country. Ok, scratch that first part. Like some people. More often than not, people in this country seem to hold themselves in high esteem because they happened to be born here and, as far as they are concerned, everyone else can kiss their ass, right or wrong. These are the same types of people who feel that Obama is spinelessly apologizing for our selfish and imperialistic ways.

Personally, I'm all about patriotism in that USA! USA! Olympic spirit kind of way. There's nothing wrong with healthy competition at the World Cup and I want my team of compatriots to win just as much as the fat guy in red, white, and blue sitting next to me. But when you get the ridiculous and pompous idea in your head that we are Americans, we can do no wrong, that's where I draw the line. Most people glean this borderline fascist view of country and self from what little they remember of their high school history class. Unfortunately, up to a certain point, these textbooks were really good at glossing over all of the country's shortcomings, making the era entitled "Rise of American Imperialism" seem like a healthy pit stop on the road to greatness instead of the beginning of an arrogant attitude of interventionism and jingoism similar to the one that eventually brought down the British Empire.

Last fall I read an interesting book about such glossing in textbooks in Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen. Loewen originally published in the mid-nineties and what he found after surveying a dozen of the most popular textbooks in the country was pretty appalling as far as the twisting of history goes. After I read the first edition, I compared what he found to the textbook used by the 11th grade U.S. history classes in CISD and found that many of the things that Loewen had pointed out had actually been taken to heart. Still, most people don't realize that history is a fluid study and what is considered cold fact today might be outdated tomorrow if new evidence is found that counters the story.

I'm not saying that we all need to dwell on the horrible things that our countrymen have done. I'm saying that we should acknowledge these things as the mistakes that they are and actively try to learn from these errors now and the future. After all, a country is only as good as the humans who run it. And isn't progress and prosperity the American way?

P.S. Click here for interesting thoughts on the ways the American government could have gone back in the day. :) Happy Independence Day! (Dad, sell lots of fireworks! And be thinking of something awesome to get me for my birthday!! ;)

School Daze

2009-07-01T23:33:00.000-07:00

So, the good news is that I think I've finally narrowed down what I want to write my term paper over for my Teacher Research class. The bad (or just more stress inducing) news is that I have already received an email from my other teacher reminding the class that Social Studies Technology begins on Monday... arrrggghhh. Looks like July is going to be a lot less laid back than June.

Oh, well, I'm still kind of excited/relieved that I've figured out what to write my research paper about... In class we've kind of gone over several different data collecting methods including interview and observation. I had already mentioned that I would like to use my subbing experience as part of my research. Last week we began to talk about providing the context of a situation when presenting the findings, as well as using teacher reflection as a means of teachers collecting data on their own practices... I shall attempt to combine most of these methods for my own research paper. I give you....

Sam's Observational Narrative Illustrating the Evolution of Her Teaching Philosophy Through a Year in the Classroom (that's the working title)

So basically it will be how my experience in education growing up provides the context of what I expected teaching to be and what I expect of students and how being out in the field has turned me into a cynical bitch. Hah. Kidding on the last part. Seriously though, my own education cast a long shadow over how I view a classroom should be run and a course designed, a view that a lot of teachers might call unrealistic. However, I think mine is a very realistic idea for me and one that I think will be very successful in practice. To a degree, it already has been. Continuing on this idea, I'll reflect on my teacher training courses and how some of the work seemed to make me feel less prepared for the classroom as well as how the book The Students Are Watching helped me evolve my teaching philosophy shortly before I began substitute teaching.

That's part one.

The second part will be a more practical discussion of the lessons learned and applied in day to day work as well as how I had to come to terms with "the real teaching world" not living up to my expectations. I want to chronicle what I learned from a year in the classroom as an active observer and how this will serve as a concrete base from which I will be able to build a solid teaching career.

So, that's the idea, in a nutshell. I began working on an outline earlier that's a bit more meaty. To some, this may seem a bit too personal to write a formal research paper over, but our teacher encourages us to include personal stories that will help better explain what it is that we are trying to show. After all, we tend to write better about those things that we have the most passion for. Should be an interesting month.

Philosophically Speaking...

2009-06-26T15:12:00.000-07:00

Shheessh, I'm not as good at keeping up with this thing as I thought I would be. I guess I've been processing a lot of information lately (nothing major, just ideas), so it's been hard to whittle it down or even settle down long enough to get back to this. But there is one thing I have been thinking about a lot lately... and that's philosophy!

Last Friday during class, we were discussing different research approaches (qualitative versus quantitative) and one of my classmates kept referencing a book called Sophie's World. He noted that it had to do with philosophy and history and since the topic that I am going to be presenting next week kind of touches on both in relation to "scholarship" in America (too complicated to get into, but not complex at all), I thought it would be worth the read. Plus, the only philosophy course that I took in college was Critical Thinking, which I think is pretty important now but I definitely did not have this appreciation in the summer of 2005.

I popped into Barnes and Noble, my least favorite place to buy books, btw, and 15 minutes later I had my very own copy. Now, in case you didn't click over and read a summary, it's a history of western philosophy told in a narrative format about a 14-year-old Norwegian girl. I'm only up to the Middle Ages, but so far this book has definitely given me A LOT to think about, not just philosophically, but also in relation to teaching.

First, I have finally found my soul mate. Unfortunately, he lived several thousand years ago and wasn't so easy on the eyes. I'm talking about Socrates, one of the first great Greek philosophers and teacher of Plato. What I like most about Socrates is his methods; see, Socrates did not inhabit some ivory tower, far away from the every day lives of the lesser mortals. Oh no. Ole Socrates, in search of knowledge, would approach random passersby in the middle of Athens' town square and attempt to engage them in conversation so that he might learn from others. Now, Socrates had been prophesied to be the smartest man in Athens and he humbly lived up to this expectation. I say humbly because Socrates did not consider himself to be some kind of genius. Socrates is he of the quote "The one thing only I know is that I know nothing." He stood in the middle of town square trying to appease his insatiable appetite for knowledge.

Socrates also had what we would call today a more sophisticated view of knowledge in that he believed that true knowledge comes from within. He felt that it was his pedagogical duty to lead people to bring this knowledge out via discussion. However, this did not sit too well with many Athenians and Socrates was ultimately sentenced to death for introducing scary new ideas to the townspeople. Sentenced to death for making people think.... Hmmm....

We could have made it work... This is what Socrates is believed to have looked like.

Why do I love Socrates so much? For one, we share similar views on education. I think that everyone is capable of learning complex ideas and it drives me crazy when students aren't able to hold at least a basic discussion about what a given lecture topic. In the real world, it drives me even crazier that people around me aren't able to carry on conversations and I usually come off looking like I have something to prove. Truth is, I'm not trying to prove anything. Like Socrates, I'm just looking for someone to bounce ideas off of and who will give me fairly reasoned criticism in return.

Studying philosophy has also reaffirmed my atheism, with nothing being more telling (for me anyway) than the regression of civilization that took place in the first few centuries of the Middle/Dark Ages, when Christianity began it's death grip of Europe. Alas, that is a warpath better covered in it's own post.

The Perils of too Much Downtime

2009-06-24T09:35:00.000-07:00

Last week Time magazine added a new word to their lexicon: Funemployed. Definition- noun. people who have found they enjoy being out of work. Usage: "The funemployed write blogs, issue regular updates on social-networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter and devote entire websites to helpful advice and encouragement on how to make the most of the U.S. government's $475 weekly dole check."

Hmm. Sounds quite familiar. Actually, that is my life minus the government check, which I would be thrilled to receive in lieu of my less than glamorous substitute teaching checks. However, even though I don't have regular employment, my life isn't all funemployment and games. The lack of a schedule actually kills me work-wise. Despite having all of this free time to plug away at the book review and presentation that I'm supposed to be presenting on Friday, I still am only just now making significant headway. That's mostly because my brief work periods are punctuated with frequent Ava interruptions and it is almost impossible to concentrate on graduate level reading to a soundtrack of Elmo's World or Dora. Unfortunately, shutting her out completely would be begging for a call from CPS and I would work during nap time, but she's boycotting those as well.

What's a poor girl to do? I've already started to hide all of her noisier toys so that they don't add to the problem. The worst is that I'm caught between being a "good parent" and actually getting work done. It's so easy to prop a kid in front of the television for a couple of hours, long enough for me to produce something, but I just feel morally against it. Every time the television is on for more than an hour, even if Ava isn't paying attention to it, I feel a sense of guilt creep into my stomach that starts to eat at me. So I turn it off. And then have to endure a monstrous fit as a result. Which knocks my stress level up another notch and makes everything even less efficient. Who knew that staying at home with my kid would actually make me a worse parent?

And this week I downloaded a bunch of yoga workouts from iTunes. Turns out, yoga can really help your concentration. After finishing a 20 minute session yesterday, I could already notice that I seemed to be taking longer and deeper breaths and I seemed less apt to be distracted. It's so cheesey/yuppi-new ager sounding, but it actually works. I'm also pretty sore today, so it looks like I might actually get into a little better shape.

Anyway, back to the lack of schedule thing. Despite being fairly spontaneous by nature and subject to acting on whims, when it comes to day to day life, I'm a pretty big creature of habit. Especially when it comes to things like morning routines. I get pretty grumpy when I don't do little things the same way every day. So I'm thinking that if I start to structure my days a little better, I'll be more likely to get some things done. And maybe even be motivated enough to clean up? hmm. Maybe not.

The Fridge is the Window to the Soul

2009-06-23T11:03:00.000-07:00

What, that's not the saying? During the school year, I loved to listen to the teacher talk that went on in the department room. Social studies teachers seem to have the most random conversations and it doesn't help that they are hard wired to seek out the strange and interesting. Two of the guy teachers spent at least one of their off periods scouring the web for randomness to send to each other. Among their finds was a website that collected pictures of people's refrigerators from around the world.

Random leftovers and Snack Packs don't seem like such a novel idea until you think of it like a social scientist. What people eat is often a direct reflection of a person's lifestyle and socio-economic standing. It's no secret that cheaper food tends to be bad for you and there seems to be a higher concentration of obesity in the lower middle class groups than others. But how does that theory play out around the world? What does a lower class Chinese fridge look like as opposed to a German family's? Just interesting food for thought. Pun intended.

Unfortunately I couldn't find the exact website that the teacher was talking about but I did find artist Mark Menjivar's collection of American refrigerators that has a similar concept. Check it out here.

Here's my camera phone fridge. There's strawberries, blue berries, sandwich stuff, beer that's been in there for longer than I'd like to think about, yogurt, coke zero, brocoli and carrots, while up top there's frozen chicken and ground turkey. And birthday cake ice cream. Every one's gotta splurge once in a while.

Of course what got me thinking about this is the fact that I went to the grocery store today. I always hate going grocery shopping, mostly because I pick the worst times to go. However, it hasn't been that bad lately since I've been going during the day. Anyway, I've been trying to make better choices of food lately. I'm not as active as I used to be so I have to compensate for that in the way that I eat. Plus, with a little one who copies my every single move, it's important to model good eating habits so that she'll pick that up. I have no intentions of my family joining the obesity statistics any time soon.

So, for us it's all about fresh fruits and veggies and lean meats. My philosophy is if you don't buy it, you won't eat it so the closest thing to junk that I buy these days are chocolate chip granola bars and Coke Zero. Just doing my part to combat obesity!

... And I am a Pretentious A-hole.

2009-06-22T11:44:00.000-07:00

Open to interpretation

Maybe yesterday's little diatribe against the unintelligent was a little too much. I guess I just get frustrated when I can't find anyone who will willingly engage me in a conversation that interests me. Sure, every once in a while I can find a captive audience in a random friend, but I can either see the boredom behind their eyes or they offer almost no challenge to my ideas, which I don't find beneficial to shaping my opinion or argument at all. At the end of the day, I come off looking like a pretentious and self important asshole who thinks she has something to prove. And that's kind of far off of my reality.

The truth is, I talk read and talk about the things that I do because I genuinely care about them. I find politics, history, science, psychology, literature, everything in general fascinating. To a certain extent, I've always been this way, I've just toned it down at various points because I thought that being "nerdy" wasn't cool. However, since moving by myself for the past year and studying deeper into issues than I've ever done before has brought out a new fervor for information and has allowed me the time to explore new areas of interest and form new ideas of my own. If I ever come off as sounding a bit extreme on some lines of thinking, it's only because my opinions have formed and generally go unchecked for error or fallacy.

It's also led me to develop some pretty pretentious habits... Ones that no doubt will not help when it finally comes down to finding a husband ;) The stupid things that I do, which I'll get to in a moment, always remind me of a Sex and the City episode where Carrie contemplates sharing her apartment with Aiden. While she likes the idea of having him around, she worries about what will happen to her "single girl behavior," which includes standing in the kitchen and eating jam covered saltines while flipping through fashion magazines. Habits that you know are weird but you do shamelessly... until another human being is around. Here are some of mine.

- Browsing iTunes U(niversity) for courses or lectures that might be interesting. I downloaded an entire child psychology class a couple of months ago... and listened to the entire thing. I also just found 20 minute yoga sessions with printable position guides. It's time Ava and I got back in shape.

- Recording documentaries and independent films on IFC and Sundance and/or National Geographic. I created a special list of favorite channels called "Nerd List." I'm going through an obsession with non-fiction for some reason, and there always seems to be something interesting on. (For teachers, I recommend the movie "Chalk," which was made by film makers in Austin and set in a Texas high school. It's a "mockumentary," styled like The Office, but about real issues in teaching and is actually VERY accurate.)

-This is probably the worst....Recording BookTV events on CSPAN2. Like I mentioned, I've been kind of obsessed with non-fiction books for a while now. Not helping the situation is the fact that the Daily Show/Colbert Report only features non-fiction authors and the topics are pretty interesting. So on Saturdays and Sundays, CSPAN2 usually runs specials on authors doing readings or giving lectures as part of their book tours. I don't exactly sit around and watch all of it, but I have it on in the background while doing other things... After listening to author David Grann give a presentation on his book The Lost City of Z (about Victorian Era explorer and his obsession with charting the Amazon... and a potential lost civilization), I bought it for my dad for Father's Day.

So, there. I confessed to my antisocial behavior and the habits that support it. I know the term "elitist" is thrown around to condemn people like me who value education and learning. However, I think that's a misuse of the term as "elitist" implies someone who has an advantage over others in having access to such resources and all of the things that I have mentioned, with the exception of DVR, I get for free. As a teacher, I expect my (future) students to work hard and seek out new information and it would be hypocritical of me to have this expectation without doing it myself. Is justifying pretentiousness even legitimate? I can hope.

Grievance of the Day

2009-06-21T13:26:00.000-07:00

Ah, the American view of politics. However, if more of the public paid attention to what's really going on, maybe we'd get more accomplished?

I don't know how often I hear people say "I HATE politics." Naturally, I find this to be an annoying declaration because I don't think anyone really hates politics; they hate politicians. I find hating politics to be a bit detrimental to the society that we live in. A hatred of politics seems to discourage people from learning about what is going on in the world or issues that might affect them and those in the community on a day to day basis. Political scientist Harold Lasswell once defined politics as "who gets what, when, and how." That's a pretty broad definition that covers some very important things.

I bring this up for a couple of reasons. For one, I have a nasty little habit of browsing the comment section of the news articles on the Houston Chronicle website. Given the chance to spout opinion pretty much anonymously, peoples' true colors really come out and it's quite discouraging/disturbing. And the rhetoric they spout is, more often than not, baseless and full of fallacy. Second, I challenged my sister earlier today when she told me that she "hates politics." When I pointed out that things in politics are all around her, she began to tell me why she didn't like universal health care. Her argument was simple enough to counter, yet she did not listen to any of the reasons that I counter her with when she replied back and simply restated her half-truths that I'm going to assume(and hope) that she got from someone else.

My point is, love politics or hate them, everyone seems to still have an opinion, even if they have absolutely no freaking clue what it is their opinion is about or how they came to that opinion in the first place. Politics are a whole lot more complex than simply voting red or blue, but many people seem to only decide with what people around them are telling them to, without putting very much thought into it.

During TAKS review, I saw a review question for the 8th grade social studies test that went something like this: Which of the following is a modern issue concerning democracy: A) those in power tend to be the wealthier citizens, B)asinine option that I don't really remember, C) that issues span a broad spectrum and it is almost impossible for anyone to keep up with everything going on. Now, if you were a rational person looking at this question, you'd probably pick A. That's exactly what the kids answered because when you turn on CSPAN, you aren't exactly looking at a Diversity Day recreation. However, the correct answer would be C.

I realize that all of the subtle nuances of a complex issue such as universal health care or free market reform or foreign policy. However, with the amount that people understand about what is going on around them these days, it's no wonder all it takes is a commercial or "re branding" of the way things are presented to the sway public opinion. I guess I just don't understand how the general population doesn't take more pride in the level of their intelligence. Sometimes (all of the time) we can really be our own worst enemy.

Again with the Daily Show? This billboard was put up in Minneapolis just in time for the 2008 Republican National Convention.

Texas... A Primer

2009-06-20T10:20:00.000-07:00

Where every thing's bigger... except this flag pic.

At first I was kind of disappointed that my dad signed up for a subscription to Texas Monthly. I mean, how hip could a magazine about Texas really be? However, I've since realized that those in charge of running the magazine are not of the same breed as those who post all of the ignorant hate comments on Chron.com and now I look forward to jacking it from Dad's mail box every month. July's issue, featuring a cover shot of the always creepy looking Ted Nugent, is also a break down of the best and worst legislators in Texas, as judged on their performance in this year's legislative session. Considering the fact that they are having to call a special extended session in order to actually get things done, I'd say they pretty much all belong on the worst end of that scale. Alas, the magazine did find some who possessed enough redeeming qualities for a "best" list.

Anywho, with that in mind, it's time for the social studies lesson o' the week, Texas edition. As a social studies enthusiast, I feel like it's my job to get people just as enthused as I am about fun things like government. However, the average citizen isn't to savvy when it comes to knowledge of how their own state is run. Yes, I know, it can be easy to get caught up in the glamour that is national politics, but what's going on closer to home is what is going to have the most effect on you. So, here we go...

The state of Texas is run much like the U.S..... We have a governor, who is kind of like the executive branch (and if you're Rick Perry, you actually think you're president), a bicameral (two chamber)legislative branch consisting of the 150 member House of Representatives and the 31 member Senate, and a judicial system that has two separate "supreme" branches, the Texas Supreme Court, for civil cases, and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, for well, criminal cases.

For the sake of entertainment, we'll just stick to the first two branches, as they grab the most headlines.

Contrary to the current governor's belief, the duty of the office is more along the lines of figurehead than actual man of power. The governor commands the state militia, vetoes bills that he doesn't like, and can call the legislature into special session. He also gets to make appointments to various committees around the state, so if you're friends with a potential governor, start sucking up now. Governors also get to make outlandish statements in order to pander to your base, while pissing off a vast majority of Texans and making your state a late night joke and name random jerks "honorary Texans." Luckily, we get to elect a new governor very, very soon.

On to the Legislature, aka the Cultural Battleground of Texas. As I mentioned, it is a two chamber system, with the Lieutenant Governor presiding over the Senate, while the House of Representatives elects its own Speaker. The Lege is in session every two years for 140 consecutive days when they all travel to Austin in order to tackle important topics, such as naming a new state dinosaur. (The old one apparently wasn't actually from Texas. Coincidentally, some members of the State Board of Education aren't too keen on science. Raising the standards might prevent future mix ups. I digress...) Senators must be at least 26 and are elected for four years while Reps must be at least 21 and serve two year terms.

You know what that means..... I'm eligible for the Texas State House of Representatives! Oh Yeeah!

However, Texas legislatures are not paid for their wonderful service, so those elected tend to be in jobs that will allow them 140+ days of paid vacay so that they can serve their communities. The current House of Reps is pretty split as far as Republicans and Democrats. However, the GOP does hold a significant advantage in the Senate.

I now conclude my intro to Texas politics. If you have any further questions, you can click here for the official website of the legislature. You can also use that to look up who your local Rep or Senator is just in case you might have a wonderful idea that you want to see on the books. That's all for now, fine citizens!

Just your average day on the floor of the Texas Legislature... For those of you who have ever eaten at Tuffy's in Mauriceville, TX, that would be the owner of that establishment in the purple.

School/work

2009-06-19T20:09:00.000-07:00

Word.

Ever since I've started school at U of H, I've felt like my thinking has received a big breath of fresh air. It's been a total 180 on the way I feel towards school and that's crazy considering I've only been to two classes. I'm so excited to be focusing on strictly education, though I still want to eventually advance some in history. When I was taking Ed classes through SHSU, I constantly doubted my choice of becoming a teacher and several times I thought about scratching the idea all together. It wasn't until I started subbing and getting really positive feedback from other teachers, administrators, and students that I really felt that I was on to something.

See, in my Ed classes at Sam, I always felt kind of restricted in what I was supposed to be thinking about in the classroom. It seemed like they were giving us a formula to fill and ends that we had to justify. There was room for creativity, but you were held accountable for every lesson plan that you created... Every activity had to be justified by the TEKS... and that's all you heard were TEKS, TEKS, TEKS. Every practice scenario you were given to deal with was supposed to be handled as if you were in Pleasentville and the "right" answer would hardly work in the real world.

Fuck that.

My first day of class in Teacher Research was an eye opener. Not because it taught me things that I didn't already know. Because it didn't. However, the teacher gave a presentation that put into context everything that I have witnessed over the past year in the field and explained what we can do to help TEACHERS, which ultimately benefits students better than any kind of standardized testing/curriculum ever could. This is a class that overthrows the idea that the administration needs to govern because the administration is, more often than not, out of touch with the classroom life and legislators are even more clueless.

For an assignment, we were each given a sub-topic of "teacher research" to define. I chose scholarship in teaching and learning because it sounded like it would be close to my research interest, teacher training. And I was right. Teacher scholarship is the idea that we can make public education, well, public, meaning teachers can be researchers themselves, much like college professors, and present their own methods to their colleagues for review and in order to share new ideas. It's kind of a different system of accountability that doesn't work on quantitative statistics and that factors in the teacher, students, and school environment and settings. The idea is also to open the doors to the public in a way that will let taxpayers see what they are paying for which, in turn, will motivate teachers to step their game up so that they won't be at risk of losing their jobs.

I really like this idea because it goes against the notion that making good grades in school and on standardized tests mean that students are learning meaningful things. Because it doesn't. I've seen this first hand, particularly in The Woodlands schools, where there is a lot of tax payer money being spent but students still don't know how to take notes from a lecture or how to answer a basic essay question, among larger problems. It also discourages conforming to what every other teacher is doing in favor of forming individualized lessons with each teacher. Again, another thing that I'm a fan of.

Still, we have our work cut out for us when it comes to teacher training and reshaping the American school system, particularly in Texas, where "if it ain't broke (too much), don't fix it" is the rule, even when knowledgeable people agree that it is broken. We also have to work on seeing the schools as "agents of the state," with teachers who try to impose their own beliefs on students. I'll note that while I am unabashedly liberal outside of school, when it comes to teaching, I play both sides of the coin in order to get students to think critically about their own beliefs. I've seen teachers who air their policy in the classroom and I, as well as other teachers that I've talked to, think it's a tacky thing to do.

I guess the moral of this post is that I'm very excited to see where this class will go and I wish that more teachers would become interested in the scholarship that goes into their career choice. ;)

I searched "teacher." It was either this, or a slutty teacher Halloween costume. I didn't want to perpetuate the stereotype. So..this.

Go Green

2009-06-16T15:24:00.000-07:00

Today was the kind of day that is pretty much a total waste... I had to have my tires rotated and oil changed since I've been putting both services off and, as usual, my procrastination came back too bite me in the ass. I had to have my back two tires replaced. Grr. Luckily, the warranty knocked about 1000 bucks off of the cost (no lie!). Still, annoying because it took two hours, which I spent chasing Ava around a waiting room while she tried to make friends with EVERYONE. Argh.

On to my social studies duty of today. If Iran wasn't batshit crazy enough already, the elections have upped the ante. With the declaration that incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won unanimously over challenger (and more moderate) Mir Hussein Moussavi has come an explosion of protests and accusations of it being a tainted election. Ahmadinejad, he of the "there are no gay Iranians" persuasion, even claims landslide victory in Moussavi's hometown. Now, considering all of the things that come out of Ahmadinejad's mouth (no gays in Iran, the Holocaust as a conspiracy), I, and millions of others, find it very difficult to believe that he should be claiming victory.

Now Moussavi's supporters have taken to the streets in protest of the alleged victory. While the protests have become violent, they initially began as peaceful marches of opposition-- until the police have come in to throw tear gas and run motorcycles into the crowds. Dorms at the University of Tehran have also been seized and many rooms ransacked. The government has also attempted to shut down all means of communication, including Internet access and text messages. Foreign reporters are also being asked to leave and converge is being censored.
However, reports are making their way out of the country through sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Iranians are able to access the Internet through outside servers who cater to citizens of oppressive governments.

Most Americans would never be able to fathom this kind of government reaction to citizen protest. Can you imagine if the Million Man March had been busted up like this? To those who participated in the April "Tea Parties" and protested against so called tyranny... This sort of thing makes our little bitch fests look silly. Those people don't know what real tyranny is. Ahmadinejad is a REAL tyrant. These people aren't even being allowed to legitimately voice their opinion. Can you imagine if our government actually attempted to completely shut off the voice of dissent in the country? Again, we should be grateful that we can complain in the first place.

However, out of this crazy situation, there is hope. Those who voted for reformer Moussavi are mostly younger citizens which could mean that Iran will eventually move towards a more pro-West attitude. We can only hope.

Protesters gather in support of opposition candidate Moussavi in Tehran, Iran.

For more info, check out:
Photo Gallery
Change_for_Iran Twitterfeed
Moussavi's Facebook Page

Schooled

2009-06-15T08:42:00.000-07:00

Did you know that this douchebag flunked out of college after only one year? With credentials like that, it's no wonder he can't be trusted to talk facts!

With the Holocaust Museum shooting last week and the death of Dr. Tiller before that, opinion writers everywhere are taking it upon themselves to try to take a stand against all of the inflammatory hate that seems to be blaring from the far right conservatives. What bothers me the most about all of this hate, especially as someone schooled in history, is how laughably baseless it is and what great liberties the speakers take in rewriting history. So I'm going to take the time to try to resolve some of the more prevalent myths that seem be circulating now that we actually have someone with an IQ higher than a potato in the White House.

1. Calling the Obama Administration fascist.
First off, it has always been my understanding that FASCISM is an extreme form of conservatism. That is why I have always lovingly referred to my family as fascists. It relies on extreme nationalism. The leader is the center of the government. It serves to make the country strong and vital so that it can seek out conflict with other weaker countries.

Hummm, extreme nationalism... A government with a powerful center figurehead. That sounds a whole lot like what was going on during the Bush Administration, where executive powers were extended so that fun little conflicts such as the war in Iraq could be managed in the first place and cool stuff like unwarranted wiretapping could take place.

Considering most Americans will not be able to name the most famous fascist of all, the argument is beyond tired.

2. Equating modern "socialism" with Hitler's version and/or Stalin's communism.

Let's get one thing straight: The socialism that we think of today as in the European model is NOT what it was in the World War II era. For one thing, Hitler DESPISED communism and wanted his system to be the furthest thing from it. The only way that Nazi socialism and modern socialism are the same is in name.

Similarly, you can stop referring to Obama and Geitner as "comrade." Please go crack a history book and look up Joseph Stalin. The man was an egomaniac. He could easily be the villain in a thousand different Bond movies. What many people(students) are shocked to hear is that Stalin was just as bad, if not worse, than Adolf Hitler. He sentenced people to labor camps left and right. He not only wiped out the competition, he had them exterminated and then he assassinated anyone in his own party who posed a threat to his power. His attempt to modernize the Soviet Union resulted in the death of millions of citizens who he claimed he would be helping. Upon his death, which many believe to be from neglect by his nurses because he was such a dick, the next leader, Kruschev denounced him and his "Stalinism" to the legislative committee.

Until you can define and correctly use in a sentence the word "gulag," please leave the communism references to the people who understand them in the first place.

3. Comparing the country today to the novel 1984.

Ok, so many cases can be argued about how the world today resembles the one George Orwell predicted in his 1949 masterpiece 1984. However, not for the reasons that some right-wing-nuts would like to believe. The best proof of this is the fact that these crazies are allowed to continue preaching their insanity in the first place. If you lived in Oceania, you would be shipped off to the Ministry of Love in a heartbeat.

Also, the concept of "double think" runs counter to the liberal mission of truth and fact. Honestly, the first thing that comes to mind with double think is religion in that it encourages you to accept things that run in opposition to what the rational part of your mind holds to be true, and all on the basis of "faith."

So, as anyone who actually paid attention during high school history or literature will surely be aware of, the arguments coming from the right are dangerously untrue. Personally, if I were a conservative who listened to Fox and the rest, I would be quite offended that these talking heads take for granted my intelligence and spout off half-truths that undermine my ability to think for myself. They seem to be creating an alternate reality, complete with its own history for those who refuse to move on to live in and it's coming at the expense of everyone else.

To see how the media is trying to combat the stupidity, check out Frank Rich, Paul Krugman, and this Chronicle blogger. The last guy is local to Houston.

Speed Dating: Public Education Edition

2009-06-13T17:12:00.000-07:00

The people at my job fair were much better prepared than Michael Scott.

Today was possibly the busiest that I've had in a while, although, compared with what I have been doing these past two weeks, that's not really saying very much. Still, it was exhausting, to say the least.

After a 5:30a.m. wake up call (and a night plagued with insomnia-- I don't keep office hours anymore), I left Conroe by 7 for the Aldine ISD Invite Only Job Fair. Now, for those of you who remember last year, I did this whole job fair bit to the extreme and to no avail. Week after week I trekked to Houston and got absolutely nothing. So I thought that I'd get there early and make sure that I got my foot in.... Turns out, I finally cracked the code to these stupid job fairs.

When they say doors open at 8a.m., that means be there at 8a.m. in order to sign up for interviews with different administrators and department chairs--as many as you think you can handle. Around 9, the musical chairs begin and you make your way to your various interviews at 30 minute intervals. If they like you, they make note and will extend an offer later that day or, if you're like me and were too exhausted to stay, they hold over until human resources calls on Monday.

There were about 200 people there and all had been pre-screened by human resources in order to attend (I did too! I actually got the process right for once!). These guys were from all over the country-Aldine recruits a lot of out of staters-and there were quite a few Teach For America teachers in the mix as well. The reason I like Aldine is because they are GREAT about working with alternative certification teachers. In fact, my certification really didn't come up too often because they give you the benefit of the doubt that you're working on it. Plus, when you mention that you're in graduate school for education, they let it slide. I also like Aldine because of the kids that I would get to work with. I won't get into it too much here as I'll save expanding upon it for later, but I just think that it would be more gratifying to be successful with kids who don't have very much to begin with than to have to push suburban kids to do their best. Just an opinion.

Anyway, my first interview was at 9 and I pretty much booked solid until around 1 that afternoon. I started off kind of slow with an intermediate school and I'm glad I shook the lead out before I got to the high schools. By the time I was talking to them, I hit my stride. I almost couldn't believe the things that I was saying. Or that they agreed with me so much, for that matter. However, I've been doing a lot of reflection and writing on the past year of subbing so that I can use it for my research paper this summer and that definitely helped me form my opinions more clearly.

Alas, I hit a snag with the third high school interviewer. He was an economics teacher and I guess we just kind of didn't mesh very well. There were a lot of awkward pauses and me struggling to explain my comments. He also seemed to take offense that I'm not too big on the TEKS or TAKS, something that the other interviewers found refreshing. I rebounded a bit with the fourth high school, but ran out of steam for the last two interviews which, again, seemed kind of awkward.

Still, I'm hopeful that some of these people will keep me in mind. One interviewer was ready to introduce me to practically the entire staff on hand and said that I was definitely the most knowledgeable person he'd talked to all day.

After I finished up there, I still needed to run to the library at U of H to pick up a book that I'm going to review for class. After a bit of traffic (damn you 610 construction!), I finally made it to campus only to get totally LOST in the frickin library. While it can't be no bigger than SHSU's, it's full of twisty, turny wings and segments. They even have TONS of different study enclaves. I always thought that having sex in the stacks was a college urban legend because there's no way that you could have gotten away with it in Sam's shelves. But that's totally the first thing that came to mind as I scoured three different floors for my one measley book.

I finally made it home to discover the awesome job of babysitting that my dad had done. And by awesome, I mean that in order to keep Ava occupied, he let her drag EVERY SINGLE TOY that she owns into the living room and then eat me out of house and home. Thanks.

Overall, a bitter sweet day. Oh, btw, the WORST question to be asked in an interview is "What are your strengths and weaknesses?" I said my strength was enthusiasm, which I think carries over into a lot of things, but for weaknesses I blanked-- and said classroom management. Eek! Luckily I only said this to one person!

From the Mother 'Hood

2009-06-12T10:26:00.000-07:00

Kidtropolis at Children's Museum, where being an adult seems so much more fun than it actually is. I want to move here!

These last couple of days have been busy parenting-wise for me. Yesterday Ava and I went to the newly remodeled Children's Museum of Houston, which was insanely cool, btw. I would advise anyone, age 0-99 (well, maybe not 99...) to check it out because it's pretty awesome... They've expanded big time and now include an entire kid city where kids can learn how fun it is to be an adult. Why do exhibits like these make it seem more fun than it actually is to grow up? I mean, sure, getting money out of an ATM is exciting, but making sure you have enough in there that you don't overdraft isn't.

And this morning, I had a potty-training epiphany: it's time to go cold turkey. So I drug Ava through Target where I let her pick out her very own "big girl panties" (she went with Elmo, in case you're wondering), and picked up a couple of bags of M&M's for rewards. That's right, no more using "Go Ago" (Go Diego) diapers as a crutch. It's all or nothing now. I probably should have picked up some vodka as well because I might need it...

Just this morning, a topic on the New York Times mommy blog Motherlode caught my eye. A 22-year-old soon to be graduate student has found out that she is a soon to be mother as well... She really wants to keep her baby but at the same time is questioning whether she can handle an intense graduate program at a prestigious college and raise an infant at the same time. Read her email here.

Of course I identify with and feel for this girl. You generally hear about single parenting in three forms: teen pregnancy, divorced parents, or women who opt to have children later on in life by themselves. Girls who get knocked up sans husband while in college are kind of left out of the mix. I guess it's just assumed that they drop out of school and become part of that statistic that says that young moms are ridiculously less likely to finish any form of post-secondary education.

But what about us type-A personality girls who abso-freaking-lutely refuse to give up on our big time dreams? The ones who feel that it's not enough to simply have a bachelors degree because we have our eyes on an even bigger prize? We're generally told that we have to give up what we want for the sake of our child because we're being selfish, selfish, selfish if we don't.

Of course I see it totally opposite. It would be selfish and detrimental to Ava for me not to go after my dreams because what kind of example is that setting for her? That once you're faced with a challenge that everyone else deems too big you simply give up? Pssh, NO! If anything, my kid is ten times better off living alone with me with us doing our own thing than if we lived back with my parents. It's made us both stronger and more self reliant. Sure, I'm not living alone in NYC as was the original plan, but I'm still not ruling it out (I got a phone call from the NYC Dept of Ed just the other day, actually...) And I'm still plugging away at my masters degree, which I will finish on my own terms.

In doing this, I want to some day set a positive example to the girls that I will teach. No, not that you shouldn't worry about getting knocked up because you can still be successful(I'm looking at you, Bristol Palin). But that you should make good decisions first, but if life gets in the way, quitting shouldn't be an option.

Note: This is NOT my method of potty training. I just searched Photobucket and this what came up. Doesn't mean it's not funny ;)

What to Watch When TV Sucks

2009-06-11T11:02:00.000-07:00

The Summer 2009 Top 20 finalists for So You Think You Can Dance. The first couple will be eliminated tonight! Yikes!

Those last couple of posts were kind of on intense topics so I guess it's time to lighten up a bit... It's summer time and students aren't the only ones who go on hiatus... So has quality television!!! I am a big time fan of TV... And with good reason. In recent years, the quality has gotten ten times better (hello, Lost? The Office? 30 Rock? Just my favs but there are others that could easily beat out movies). Plus, the 30 minute to 60 minute format is easy on my crazed attention span. And if an episode sucks but is key to the overarching season plot, you're not wasting as much of your time like sitting in an expensive 2 hour movie... I'm just saying...

Alas, the summer has become a wasteland of reality TV shows, a few crappy scripted ones, and a whole lotta repeats. So what's out there that's worth watching? Here's my list of faves....

1. So You Think You Can Dance

Let me start out by saying that I am totally over reality television. In fact, I hate it. And I have never, ever been into American Idol. But I LOVE SYTYCD. I don't know what it is. Maybe the fact that I will never, ever be able to do what these people do? But every time I watch it, it makes me want to sign up for contemporary dance lessons. I'll probably just stick to watching the professionals though. Oh and this one is so much better if you have TiVo... The commercials are very annoying.

2. Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien

I've always loved Conan. Well, at least since the 8th grade when Meridith first introduced him to me... Somehow, I think he's gotten even better since he's moved to an earlier time slot. He's grown up a bit. What's so funny? Conan is self-deprecating. He isn't afraid to put him self out there. And he's smart. And he got Bryan Williams to get the President to give him a shout out in his first week. Can you do that?
Didn't think so.
Also, I think I'm going to have to start watching Jimmy Fallon... His interview with Mark Paul...errr Zack Morris was pretty awesome.

3. The View

Ok, if you're male, you're probably not going to agree with me here. And, honestly, I could take or leave the celebrity couch interviews. They're very awkward to watch. Still, the ladies are at the top of their game when they're at the table discussing the Hot Topics. It's a great way to get a different take on what's going on in the world. And for those of you who missed the great Rosie/Elizabeth Smackdown of 2007, let me just say to you one word: EPIC.

4. Greek

Well, technically this one won't be a summer show much longer because I think next week is the season finale. Still, this show is my guilty pleasure and I will miss it during the hiatus. Why is it good? Sure it's about the college Greek system, and that would annoy most people, but the campy party scenes... aren't so campy. They get college life pretty right without have to water it down too, too much for television. And at least once per show a character slips in a zippy one-liner that makes you realize how smart and in touch with reality Greek is. It definitely leaves me pining for my undergraduate days... Well, the ones before the kid anyway.

5. Gilmore Girls (re-runs of the final season)

ABC Family is finally airing the final season of Gilmore Girls. Yay! I that I had seen just about every episode before I got pregnant and I have re-watched all of them since then because it just takes on a whole new meaning. Simply put, Lorelei and I have a lot in common. Bonus: It's implied that Luke and Lorelei end up together after all... Happy endings abound.

Any other stuff that I'm missing?

In Defense of Media

2009-06-10T10:19:00.000-07:00

Jon Stewart has lately made it his mission to point out comedically ridiculous news coverage on the major cable news channels. And, yes, I admit... I am biased towards him. Watch Stewart bust up the news here.

Ok, let me clarify that title there a bit. This will be in defense of the news, reporting, fact finding media, the kind that I think of in the traditional sense and the kind that seems to be disappearing from the internets and television. I can't tell you how annoyed I get whenever journalism comes under attack. As a double major in history and print journalism (the second one was definitely a bad investment), I hold a soft spot in my heart for those hardcore newshounds out there who are doing the job as it was intended.

However, in this day and age of instantaneous media via the internet and 24 hours news networks, as soon as a factual piece comes off of the wire it becomes editorialized to suit whoever happens to be footing the bills. This is especially true of the television networks where even the slightest smirk on the face of a talking head conveys their disdain for a person of a certain political affiliation. Of course it's easiest to single out Fox News for their unabashed bias against the current administration, but CNN and MSNBC can be just as guilty. At times. The internet is even worse for clear cut news with sites such as Drudge Report and the Huffington Post running sensationalized headlines that could rival the National Enquirer.

I ran across an interesting quote on a website. A random poster made the observation, "Truth has a liberal bias." Now, I don't just find that interesting because I tend to lean towards the liberal way of thinking. I say that because the search for the truth is at the core of excellent journalism. J-School, when done right, is a pretty intense experience. Even I only got a taste of it because to be really really great, you pretty much have to immerse yourself in the life style and be able to go out to where the story is whenever possible. You are taught to seek out the facts, as many as possible because, without them, you don't have a story. And, if new facts emerge at a later time, you have to report on those too in order to provide the truth.

Toward the end of journalism training, students take media law and ethics, which basically dives into all of the nuances of the First Amendment, including slander and libel and why it is important NOT to editorialize as a part of the news reporting. After taking that class, I basically feel that it is immoral and unethical to editorialize the news when you claim to be a legitimate source for it. There are too many people in this world who are too f*cking lazy to seek out the actual facts behind a story when a reporter has been irresponsible and not done their job.

In my opinion, the BEST place to get the news is in print, be it internet or newspaper. If you look under the byline and see ASSOCIATED PRESS or REUTERS, chances are you are reading that story at it's most unfiltered as far as bias goes. Those reporters work for no newspaper in particular but instead are experts at their own beat and provide their service to hundreds of papers and television stations.

Further complicating the people's opinions is the fact that with such specialized news services (Drudge, HuffPo, among others), people are more able to hone in to exactly the kind of news that they want to hear and shut out all others. This greatly stifles how well they are able to see an issue because they never see the other side of it. And, with the way the media acts these days, you aren't getting all the facts either.

So, when it comes to digesting the news, remember that knowledge is power. Shop around to get the whole story. And make sure that you're always spouting off your own opinion and not someone else's.

Prison Broke

2009-06-09T12:00:00.000-07:00

Meet Gitmo, Elmo's crazy Western-hating cousin. Who says Ava and I can't enjoy current events together?

Back in January, before they could even clean up the mall in D.C. from the inauguration, Barack Obama was already signing off to close Dick Cheney's dream vacation resort aka the facility at Guantanamo Bay. However, it seems that those plans have already hit a road block as Congress isn't gonna pony up the cash needed to close the base. Even more pressing, America has gone crazy with hysteria over where exactly the military plans to move these guys. Cause they sure as hell ain't coming on our soil.

But really?! Anyone who went to college at Sam Houston State University sure as hell better not be part of that crowd saying that they don't want to house the alleged and convicted terrorists on American soil. Are ya f'ing kidding me?! I went for afternoon walks by the Walls Unit aka Death Row. For a good year, I slept DOWN THE STREET; I could see it from my dorm room. And after that, I still lived within walking distance of a major prison facility. This is the college that tells you, no lie, in orientation that you should rest assured, if there is ever a prison break, those guys are going to be more concerned with getting the hell OUT of town than staying in it.

Still, let's play a little worst case scenario, shall we? Say Abdul (sorry, I'm not too well versed in my Arab names) does happen to escape into the piney woods of Southeast Texas (or vast prairies of Kansas or rugged Montana mountains). Then what? These guys have lived all of their lives in an arid desert climate only to be plopped down in Cuba for the past few years. You really think they're gonna be able to handle it? Further, most of these guys don't exactly speak fluent English. And while getting their hands on a stray AK47 is an actual threat (this is America after all), what the hell kind of black market crazy is going to sell it to them? Because even if that black market salesman is breaking a hardcore law, he's still the infidel to a Muslim extremist.

Ok, so that last argument is pretty faulty. I digress...The chances of a transplanted terrorist escaping and then reeking havoc on society are slim to none. If anything, we should be more afraid of the current prison population. And the benefits of bringing the detainees up the the States are enough to outweigh those slim odds. This prison facility in Montana is brand new and completely empty and bringing prisoners to it would spark a revitalization of the rural area's economy.

So, before you go forming opinions based upon the shock and awe of the statement "terrorists housed in America," take the time to weigh the options. Then see where you stand.

Ms. Mom

2009-06-08T19:03:00.000-07:00

Lebron and Kobe feel my pain. They had to babysit Lil Dez in a new commercial and he's as crazy as Ava!
See Kobe/LeBron commercial here.

This week marks my second as a stay at home mom. Thanks to about a month delay in pay scale, I'll still get paid for subbing until July, at which point my grad school financial aide should kick in and float me for the rest of the summer. To save cash, I've pulled Ava from day care. So that means LOTS of QT with my 2-year-old. Great.

Not that I don't love her, but little kids are a difficult thing for me to handle. Especially one that is as crazy as she is. Case in point: I took her to the Conroe library today so we could spend some time reading... I turn my head for two seconds and the next thing I know, she's scaling the front of a mini school bus that they have set up for the kids to sit inside. All of the other kids are inside of it. Mine is climbing the front. Great.

She's also hit the age where she's discovered EVERYTHING. I'm pretty cool with her curiosity (an insatiable appetite for learning is a sign of giftedness ;), but when I'm trying to satisfy my own curiosity via educational research for class, it's very, very difficult to concentrate, let alone answer every single "What's this? What's this?" thrown my way. The papers that I have to read are too dry to be distracted by a musical caterpillar singing the ABC's for the 12th time.

And I just can't bring myself to rely on the television for entertainment. Since I'm studying education in depth, I know personal interaction is sooooo much more important. The difference between vocabularies of a child born to professional class parents and those born "at risk" is staggering. I try to talk to Ava like I would any other adult as much as possible and, not to brag or anything, but it shows. She's got a huge vocab already, she can count to at least 15, recognizes all of her single digit numbers, and is about 18/26 in the alphabet.

Alas, this does not make it any easier on me. I am now the sole provider of knowledge for her and, as I've mentioned, she's demanding. And I'm going insane. Don't get me wrong, I am 100% devoted to my kid and love her with all my heart (hello, didn't you see my bragging). I'm just saying that I wasn't as hardwired for mommying as most women so it's a lot harder for me to maintain sanity and actually get some kind of work done.

Still, I do get to dance with Ava to the (edited) "I'm on a Boat" video (we change "I f*cked a mermaid" to "like"-- Ava's into mermaids right now). How many moms can say that?

Obama-rama Drama

2009-06-07T19:36:00.000-07:00

Is Obama really Spiderman and not Peter Parker?! It's possible...

As anyone not living under a rock may know, last week the Prez gave a very important address to the Muslim world from Cairo University yesterday. This was the opening to his whirl wind Middle East tour and an attempt to extend the olive branch to signify a new beginning after a long period of animosity under the Bush administration. I, for one, think it's an admirable attempt and I don't think it will be ignored by the Islamic community.

I was reading an interesting opinion piece by New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman(Obama on Obama) and I gave me even more prospective on the President's outlook. Friedman is apparently on the "phone chat" level with Obama and in the article, he details the president's intentions with his Middle East/Islamic world speech. What he shows is a man who is really going out of his way to understand the people that a big part of the U.S. thinks of as violent enemies. He attempts to paint a clearer picture of "extremist" versus the more moderate Muslims who mirror our own moderate Christian population.

One of the more controversial things, at least in our country, has been that some feel like Obama has been going around apologizing for Americans and that's just wrong because we're the United States, by god. If you are one of these people that feels this way, chances are, you are probably a part of the population that the president is apologizing for. See, the Middle East is a very complicated piece of geography that spent much of the 20th Century overrun with colonialism. I'm not talking colonization in the traditional sense that we think of with the U.S., but there is a different kind that was invented by the British and perfected by Americans that basically consists of planting military interests in strategic parts of the world in order to ensure that your country's business goes on as usual. While the all of the intervention in the area hasn't been entirely our fault, we've kind of cornered the market over there for the last 50 years so we're the ones to blame. So, an apology is kind of a nice gesture.

I'm kind of fascinated by the Middle East/Afghanistan situation. I don't think Americans realize how different from our culture that it really is over there. I often read the Believe Out Loud forums (its part of the Houston Chronicle) and one poster made the interesting observation that Islam has yet to undergo any major reformation like Christianity did with Martin Luther (I'm not counting the Sunni/Shiite split as a reformation). Further, all of that colonialism that I mentioned kind of does a number on a region's economic and social progress. Africa would be a similar situation. Even still, many people don't understand the nature of the war in both areas... I could go on and on....

So, I guess the moral of my story is that this speech was not only important overseas, it is also a good icebreaker for Americans to learn more about our "enemy." It might not be as hostile as they expected.

Sex and Evolution: My two favorite things!

2009-06-02T09:09:00.000-07:00

One work day, I wandered into the teachers' lounge at an intermediate school in search of a caffeine fix when I instead got sidetracked by the stack of magazines piled on a table. I'm a print media junkie so anytime I see anything to read that might include pictures, I pounce. Well, while flipping through the fashion magazine ELLE, I stumbled upon an interesting article on biological anthropologist Helen Fisher. Check out the article here.

Whoah, before you fall asleep, let me explain why she's interesting... See, she partnered up with the dating website Chemistry.com as part of her research and she wrote a book called Why Him, Why Her? on what she found. When you sign up at Chemistry, you take a approx. 35 question long quiz that asks you all sorts of questions, ranging from your finger lengths to how well you read people's faces. The site then tallies up your score and puts you into one of four different categories as well as gives you a secondary category that also suits you.

How is this different from your average personality quiz? Well, since she's an anthropologist, most of what Fisher is dealing with are evolutionary traits. She wants to see how we choose mates based upon instinctual reactions and it's her hope that in knowing how you stack up biologically you might find someone whose a good biological match. Hence "chemistry."

Now, I know to the more romantic types, this might be taking some of the fun and mystery out of the dating process. However, Fisher points out that this is more empowering, if anything. See, her "types," while based in chemistry (she argues that each type is run by one of four hormones- testosterone, estrogen, serotonin, or dopamine), you might click better with someone who is more your type. I.E. an "explorer" is someone who likes adventure, probably prefers living in a city, and might be kind of flakey so they might not be such a great fit for a director, who is bossy and my way or the highway.

So I realize that it's kind of weird coming from a dating site. I guess I was just intrigued by the science behind it. I'm down the the introspection part of it and I thought it would be kind of cool to learn more about how we have evolved to find certain parts attractive in potential mates. For the record, I'm a mix of the explorer and director, which is right on target. The other two are the negeotiator and (I think)nester. The explorer is responds to dopamine, the director testosterone(a good indicator is if your ring finger is longer than your pointer... it means more testosterone washed over your brain while you were in the womb), the negeotiator serotonin(women tend to read faces better and are better able to judge emotions, making them better able to talk through things), and the nester(?) estrogen...

I searched "evolution" and this is what I got.... Pretty accurate, if ya ask me ;)

Cheap is the New Chic

2009-06-01T15:55:00.000-07:00

I guess if I had to give this blog a misson statement or a goal (besides a means of entertaining myself), it would have to be that I hope that I can open the eyes and minds of anyone who happens to stumble across it to the world around them. I just hope that I can make people see that history, current events, culture, etc are really fun and maybe, just maybe I can undo the damage of all of those horrible social studies coaches err teachers who have ruined generations on these subjects.

Also, I recently caught the movie Idiocracy on Comedy Central and it just hit a little too close to home.

Cosmo! P.S. I love Leighton Meister. Blair Waldorf is scary!

Anyway, on to what I'll be discussing today.... When you think of Cosmopolitan magazine, the first impression isn't usually one of frugality. But recently, the New York Times ran a timely little tidbit about former editor and super saver Helen Gurley Brown. Check it out here. See, it seems that Ms. Brown, while running a magazine that can often play up female excesses, was actually super thrifty. Some of her tips are pretty sensible, such as never buying the newspaper (I'm an addict and try to justify it by thinking that I'm somehow helping out the fledgling industry) and some are a bit more off the wall. For example, to save on undies and to keep them from wearing out, consider going naked while at home or, if you can get away with it, go braless.

Why do I bring this up? Well, since this fun little thing called a recession has started, there has been a lot of talk about us entering into a "new era of responsibility." Yeah, America hasn't always been this great land of entitlement and more, more, more (ok, at least not to the extreme it is now. see "Manifest Destiny"). Let's get a brief history.....

While the U.S. was not founded as a "Christian" nation (seriously, it wasn't), it has been theorized, by co-founder of socialism Friedrich Engels no less, that the "Protestant work ethic" provides the backbone of thought for capitalism. What does that mean exactly? Well, that you put your nose to the grindstone, work your ass off without complaint, and at the end of the day you save more of your paycheck than you spend. Those Pilgrims that came over and colonized New England? Yeah, they were Protestants and their descendants were the ones who dreamed up that magical thing we call the Constitution (Interesting fact: G. dub Bush and John Kerry can trace their roots back to the Mayflower).

So, as you continued to put your all into your work, you were progressively getting wealthier and wealthier, only sensibly and without a lot of excess and you would pass along that wealth to your children, who would presumably have a better life than you did. It's the original American dream. And you try to work efficiently and honestly so that you can maximize output but keep your integrity.

So, where did we go wrong? Well, inventing credit for one thing. The invention of the suburb didn't help either. And the evolution of the American Dream. Instead of this idea that you could make yourself into anything that you wanted, it became about having what everyone else did...

Ok, so I could seriously go on for days with this but I won't because it's not that exciting to be preached at. But just know, it's more American to save and pay cash than to pay interest.

Engels used Benjamin Franklin as his numero uno example of the influence of Protestant values on capitalism in the U.S. Franklin was a diest but his father was a devout Protestant and it left it's mark.

Now, don't you feel smarter?

Harry Potter: My First Love

2009-05-31T14:59:00.000-07:00

How I spent my Saturday night... Celebrating Katie's wedding. Katie used to make fun of me for leaving my Harry Potter book around the house.

I'll never forget the when we first met. I was in 7th grade and had moved to Buna only months before. I was still reserved and instead of going out and making tons of friends I went to the library and racked up a serious amount of Accelerated Reader points. It didn't help that my homeroom teacher, Mrs. Demontmollin, also happened to be the Literature teacher. One day about halfway into the second semester she announced that during homeroom she would be reading to us from a new book that she had discovered.

She pulled out a hardback with a vibrantly illustrated slipcover and began to read the tale of a boy who finds out on his 11th birthday that he is a wizard. From that point on, I looked forward to our daily 2o minute installments of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

Alas, the school year expired before we could ever find out what happened to Harry, but I never forgot about him and his magical world. It was a year later when I was in the 8th grade that the same brightly colored book caught my eye as I was browsing the yearly book fair. I immediately snatched it up and I can remember gushing to my friends about how amazing this book was. They looked at me like I was crazy. Harry Potter mania had yet to hit the small town circuit in the year 2000.

As I grew up, so did Harry. It wasn't long after I finished the first that I found the second and third and then had to endure months of anguished suspense (and half a dozen re-readings) while I waited for the fourth and fifth. I can remember waking up after a very long night out in college to retrieve my car from god knows where only so that I could drive to Wal-Mart to buy #6. By the time the 7th came out, I was already a mother but that didn't stop me from going to the midnight release. Sure I was one of the oldest people there but it was worth it. And I definately felt like a small part of my life was coming to a close as I finished the epilouge of the final book.

I don't know what drew me back to those books time after time. Maybe it was the feeling of not really belonging that I Harry and I seemed to share. Or the fact that any time things didn't seem to go my way, I could always escape to Hogwarts where there seemed to be something better than my reality going on. Escapism at it's finest. Still, I can't wait until I get to share this wonderful world with Ava.

Is it silly to stake so much sentiment in a children's book series? Probably. But then again, millions of other people find comfort in the bible, and the writings not even half as good. ;)

My first love :) Note: this post was inspired by it being a "Harry Potter Weekend" on ABC Family

Let's Talk

2009-05-29T07:25:00.000-07:00

<I started class today! This is the beautiful U of H campus and the Farish Education Building aka my new turf :)

So, before this blog goes any further, I think we need to get something off of our chests. I'm talking, of course, about politics. WAIT!! Where are you going??! I promise this isn't going to hurt! I just think that a lot of people shy away from things because they don't know what to think about certain issues.... and it has a lot to do with not knowing exactly what they think about themselves.

So.... I present to you... The Political Compass. This site is great. It's a quiz filled with non-biased questions that, at the end, should give you a pretty accurate look at where you stand on the political scale. I took it several months ago and found that I'm somewhere along the lines of Ghandi ;)

Now, why is this important? Well, I'm pretty big on introspection, aka knowing youself so that you can focus on your strengths and work on your weaknesses. And I think knowing how you feel about issues in the world around you is a great way to get to know yourself....

However, politics and how you feel towards certain issues are very fluid things.... Just look at what the Republican Party is going through right now. The different parties kind of have to adapt to whatever is going on in the world today in order to stay relevent... Which means they might have to be flexible on where they stand on certain issues (gay rights, torture).

Simularly, the experiences that you have as an individual greatly shape how you see the world. I was a pretty big hardass about a lot of stuff until I became a mother... Now I can't stomach any kind of movie about genocide, the Holocaust, human suffering, etc because I just do not want to imagine that in my own life. It's made me more empathetic towards others and definately shaped my position on issues. This same sort of arguement is going on right now in connection with Obama's nomination for the Supreme Court.

Again, personally, I used to identify with the Republicans, mostly because that's what my family claims. I voted Democratic in the last election because, like many, I became disillusioned with what the right stands for. I know I've claimed to be a Democrat before, but I would like to revoke that and return to being an Independent who leans progressively. While our country has a long history of the two party system, I think that individually, it's best that we keep from identifying one way or the other and then vote based upon the issues at hand in the present, based upon present facts and how we feel in the now instead of doing so just out of party loyalty.

So... Take the quiz and see where you stand! That wasn't so bad now, was it?

Do Better

2009-05-28T18:30:00.000-07:00

I'm a big fan of the opinions page in the newspaper. I think you can learn a lot from reading what other people have to say about things, whether you agree with it or not. (mostly I've learned that George Will from the Washington Post is a grumpy old man.) However, one opinion in particular caught my eye today.... It was a piece by Kathleen Parker, also of the Post. In it, she argues that without the fear that comes with uncertainty, humans become afraid of leaving the status quo... Read the entire thing here.

This piece kind of gave me a lot to think about because for the past year or so of my life, that's kind of been my life philosophy... No, not live by the same ol, same ol... But keep a healthy bit of uncertainty in your life so that you always have something to work for. Parker reasons that humans are constantly seeking the comfort of knowing how things are going to turn out... We want to know that things are going to be OK so we can keep on keepin' on without putting much thought into our daily lives.... But this isn't a good thing. She says(and I agree) that without the hardships and troubled times, we'd miss out on all the things that feeling crappy bring about... namely art and culture and new innovation to solve all of those pesky problems that are making us miserable.... Basically our misery is the great catalyst to innovation.

Think about it... Exactly how many songs on the radio do you hear about love actually going right? Sure, they're there, but there are waaaaaaay more love songs about the broken hearted and down on their lucky... Misery loves company. Just last night I was watching So You Think You Can Dance.... A judge told a contestant who had lost her father to channel her pain through her dancing....

Parker ties it all together by saying that in order for politicians to be successful (aka win us over), they must be quotable in a way that makes us feel safe and secure. And while Parker kind of hints at being against a government that provides safety and security and a boring status quo, I'll do one better via a neat little conservative parable, I'll do one better and much easier to remember... When times are hard and nothing seems to be going right... just do better.

Reboot

2009-05-25T18:08:00.000-07:00

Well, I have decided once again to return to regularly spilling my guts about random topics to the masses. So, welcome to my new and improved attempt at blogging! Confession: Summer is fast approaching and I’ll out of a full time job except for school which means lots of “free time” spent in front of a computer. And since my major is now officially “social studies education,” I’ll definitely be talking a lot about… social studies. But in an as-not-boring way as possible.

You know, random things I stumble upon as I browse the Net, fun things in the news, some stuff going on in Texas that will have a bit more of an effect on us, and, you know, the whole quarter-life experience that we all love so much. I’ll try to keep up to date and to make sure to be on the lookout for new stuff to share so that I can help people procrastinate to the best of my ability. I should know, I'm pretty good at it.

While this is mostly something that I do for my own entertainment, it’s my hope that I will offer someone out there a healthy bit of distraction and maybe something to think about. I guess that’s just the teacher talking. So bear with me as I indulge in my shameless narcissism. Sit back, relax, and maybe you’ll learn something. It won’t hurt too much.

Bored? Crossword application :)