Recently my social life has consisted of not being at work or going out to dinner with one group or another of old hens that I've known forever. This is not working. There are never any men. One grows dull for the lack of men to talk to. And all this eating out is turning me into one hefty grandma. I thought that Walk Away the Pounds was helping me, but even Leslie can't overcome lasagna and fajita nachos with a couple of frozen 'ritas.
Being with most of the people I know right now is a test of holding my jaw clamped while they bemoan our fate if "That One" gets elected. They all know that socialism is lying in wait and their vast estates are going to be commandeered by the government to feed the raggedy-ass masses which they so deplore. I have no patience.
People that I have known and loved for years suddenly seem suspicious of me because deep down inside they sense that I don't agree with them and I'm going to vote for the black guy.
I do have a lunch group at school that is sympatico. A whole table full of old teachers who know what the rest of America is going through because we've been having a hard time making ends meet for our entire careers!
But this is the red state that gave the world W., so it stands to reason that I might feel like a voice in the wilderness. Most of my friends don't know who Christopher Buckley is, so they haven't gotten the idea that being a conservative doesn't mean that you have to follow the Rovians into the abyss.
So, I'm not getting out much. Retail therapy is down due to the financial crisis. I tipped the mariachis a $5 Friday night because I haven't had that much attention from men since August. No one has even written on my Facebook wall this week. It might be time to explore some other options for meeting interesting people.
There is a bright spot on the calendar at the end of the month. The Munchkin is coming for a Halloween visit. I haven't seen her except on Skype since Labor Day, so she has lots of new tricks to watch, and hopefully I can capture two months worth of hugs and kisses in only two days.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Depression 101
Yesterday my students had an assignment due, big project, test grade and all that.
When the first class started to roll in, the excuses rolled in with them. I knew in advance that many of them had waited nearly six weeks to begin working on the research. You can tell by the questions they ask where they are in the process.
The first "problem" I encountered was a student who had emailed me the assignment.I promise you that if I had asked him to email it, he would have gone to Kinko's and printed it out and put it in a five dollar binder. But, since I asked him to print out three pages, he just sent it electronically. The school district doesn't provide me with in class printing, so this makes an extra trip somewhere for me to print this out for grading...you get the picture. The kid screws with you and makes it more difficult than it needs to be.
Next is Miss Technology who has her assignment on a key chain. She just needs to pop it into my computer and print it out. THERE IS NO PRINTER IN THIS CLASSROOM!!!! These kids come from homes in a very upper middle class suburb. Some live in McMansions and have BMW's in the school parking lot. The least of them have a higher standard of living than 95% of the world's population, but they can't afford paper and ink for a damned printer.
In each class period all day long, I had around 5 or 6 out of 30 to 35 who just didn't do the assignment at all. Those are the ones who tell you they left it on the computer table at home. If they had done it, they'd have just said they forgot it. But the computer table ploy is supposed to make you believe that it must really be done, or it wouldn't be right there beside the old Dell.
It is the same every time you ask these kids to do any assignment more involved than filling in the blanks.
Speaking of which. I also gave a quiz yesterday. The material was very limited. One chapter, one worksheet. Correct answers provided by way of review the day before the quiz. Grades on quiz...either 100 or 50. It's so easy that if you are trying at all you get them all right, but the problem is so few are trying.
We can't dumb this down any further, and inflate the grades any more. And the scary part is these kids all think that they are challenged and prepared to go to college.
No Child Left Behind, my sweet Aunt Fanny!!
Speaking of Congress...I suggest that we vote out the entire House of Representatives and such members of the Senate as will stand for re-election in November. They seem to have lost track of the "for the people" aspect of our government. They've been working for Goldman Sachs and AIG for so long, they have had to take a brief recess to regroup and figure out how to respond to the loss of the American economy.Thank God for a Yom Kippur or they'd have had to work a full week.
W. came out in the yard to assure concerned Americans yesterday. It was no fireside chat. He just isn't able to pull off concerned, it isn't in his repertoire. You know what I'd like to hear him say? "Hey ya'll, I'm really sorry that I haven't paid attention. I know now that the President of the United States can't be on the bike trail while Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld and Wall Street Bankers call the shots. I see now that what they mean about the wrong war and about the Bill of Rights and about the Constitution, and about telling the truth." I never intended to collapse the whole world economy. I just wanted to help a few rich buddies insure that they got richer and that we set things up where we'd just get you used to being lied to by the government and be afraid of anyone that doesn't look like you."
Yeah, I'd like to hear him cop to some of the blame for the dogpile we're in.
And how about that John McCain. Yesterday, he actually got booed by his own supporters for denying their irrational claims about Obama. It made me feel a little better about Senator McCain that he is willing to stop short of total indecency and say the truth about his opponent, even if it means that he might lose the election. I don't think the Palin woman will stop no matter what catastrophe her lying hyperbole causes.
I read a blog by some older lady who was writing about Palin the other day. Significant-other in-law sent it to me, and it made me laugh outloud to read this 82 year old woman's rant against Palin. In my experience great grandmothers don't use those words!
So what's the upside? It's Saturday morning and most of the household chores are done. It's OU weekend and Texas has a team with at least an outside chance of coming away with a win. Monday there is no school, so I have three entire days to luxuriate in time away from the ne'er-do-well adolescents. And Obama is way up in the polls.
When the first class started to roll in, the excuses rolled in with them. I knew in advance that many of them had waited nearly six weeks to begin working on the research. You can tell by the questions they ask where they are in the process.
The first "problem" I encountered was a student who had emailed me the assignment.I promise you that if I had asked him to email it, he would have gone to Kinko's and printed it out and put it in a five dollar binder. But, since I asked him to print out three pages, he just sent it electronically. The school district doesn't provide me with in class printing, so this makes an extra trip somewhere for me to print this out for grading...you get the picture. The kid screws with you and makes it more difficult than it needs to be.
Next is Miss Technology who has her assignment on a key chain. She just needs to pop it into my computer and print it out. THERE IS NO PRINTER IN THIS CLASSROOM!!!! These kids come from homes in a very upper middle class suburb. Some live in McMansions and have BMW's in the school parking lot. The least of them have a higher standard of living than 95% of the world's population, but they can't afford paper and ink for a damned printer.
In each class period all day long, I had around 5 or 6 out of 30 to 35 who just didn't do the assignment at all. Those are the ones who tell you they left it on the computer table at home. If they had done it, they'd have just said they forgot it. But the computer table ploy is supposed to make you believe that it must really be done, or it wouldn't be right there beside the old Dell.
It is the same every time you ask these kids to do any assignment more involved than filling in the blanks.
Speaking of which. I also gave a quiz yesterday. The material was very limited. One chapter, one worksheet. Correct answers provided by way of review the day before the quiz. Grades on quiz...either 100 or 50. It's so easy that if you are trying at all you get them all right, but the problem is so few are trying.
We can't dumb this down any further, and inflate the grades any more. And the scary part is these kids all think that they are challenged and prepared to go to college.
No Child Left Behind, my sweet Aunt Fanny!!
Speaking of Congress...I suggest that we vote out the entire House of Representatives and such members of the Senate as will stand for re-election in November. They seem to have lost track of the "for the people" aspect of our government. They've been working for Goldman Sachs and AIG for so long, they have had to take a brief recess to regroup and figure out how to respond to the loss of the American economy.Thank God for a Yom Kippur or they'd have had to work a full week.
W. came out in the yard to assure concerned Americans yesterday. It was no fireside chat. He just isn't able to pull off concerned, it isn't in his repertoire. You know what I'd like to hear him say? "Hey ya'll, I'm really sorry that I haven't paid attention. I know now that the President of the United States can't be on the bike trail while Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld and Wall Street Bankers call the shots. I see now that what they mean about the wrong war and about the Bill of Rights and about the Constitution, and about telling the truth." I never intended to collapse the whole world economy. I just wanted to help a few rich buddies insure that they got richer and that we set things up where we'd just get you used to being lied to by the government and be afraid of anyone that doesn't look like you."
Yeah, I'd like to hear him cop to some of the blame for the dogpile we're in.
And how about that John McCain. Yesterday, he actually got booed by his own supporters for denying their irrational claims about Obama. It made me feel a little better about Senator McCain that he is willing to stop short of total indecency and say the truth about his opponent, even if it means that he might lose the election. I don't think the Palin woman will stop no matter what catastrophe her lying hyperbole causes.
I read a blog by some older lady who was writing about Palin the other day. Significant-other in-law sent it to me, and it made me laugh outloud to read this 82 year old woman's rant against Palin. In my experience great grandmothers don't use those words!
So what's the upside? It's Saturday morning and most of the household chores are done. It's OU weekend and Texas has a team with at least an outside chance of coming away with a win. Monday there is no school, so I have three entire days to luxuriate in time away from the ne'er-do-well adolescents. And Obama is way up in the polls.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Winners and Losers
I am disheartened by the number of people I've heard or read saying that Sarah Palin "won" the vice-presidential debate. Governor Palin read prepared answers, staying on her message, even when it wasn't prudent to do so. She didn't call any Iranian leaders by the wrong name. She looked "radiant" and "perky" and "fun" compared to worn out old Joe Biden. My God, the American people are just as stupid as the Republican Party thinks we are.
I am not Joe Sixpack, whatever the hell that means. I am a public school teacher who has read the Constitution and knows what it says about the office of the vice-president. I also know how Dick Cheney has tried to alter what the Constitution says.
As far as I can tell from reading and listening to economists, our nation is in pretty dire straits. The world is a dangerous place right now and our military is spread way too thin. We are just beginning a long slow slide into a social order we won't recognize.
After eight years of anti-intellectual leadership, I believe that Americans better get their fill of celebrities from Entertainment Tonight. We need to set aside our need to be amused and recognize the need for intelligent leadership. With the outlook on our horizon,it's going to be critical for those in charge to be able to look at a great many variables and sort out the best possible solutions. Those who are worried about paying too much in taxes, need to confront the possibility of not having anything to tax. We are at the point of no return and I don't think we'd be smart to have a flight attendant come up and take over the cockpit.
There's no guarantee that Barack Obama and Joe Biden are going to be able to turn this mess around, but but Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are doing their best to poison the possibility by keeping so called conservatives misinformed about the facts.
I teach in a very upper middle class neighborhood in a very red state, and I notice that the kids look at me askance when I try to examine both sides of an issue. They've been raised on the dinner table opinions of faithful followers of the unbiased, no spin FOX News network, and they are fully indoctrinated.
Yep, Sarah Palin won the debate, she winked and "goshdarned" her way into the hearts and minds of Americans, and kept John McCain's maverick status intact. We were ecstatic about her ability to read her script without losing her place, except for her little foray into vice-presidential power. We know she would never let Iran go nuke-you-lur. And a McCain - Palin administration will lower our taxes.
So come on all you hocky moms, put on your lipstick and grab your wolf gun. The environment is just in a bad cycle, and everyone can choose their own life partner as long as they don't want any civil rights. Those mavericks are not going to be looking back, they're looking at the future when they are going to remake American government so we are protected from the special interests they've been protecting for so long.
No losers here.
I am not Joe Sixpack, whatever the hell that means. I am a public school teacher who has read the Constitution and knows what it says about the office of the vice-president. I also know how Dick Cheney has tried to alter what the Constitution says.
As far as I can tell from reading and listening to economists, our nation is in pretty dire straits. The world is a dangerous place right now and our military is spread way too thin. We are just beginning a long slow slide into a social order we won't recognize.
After eight years of anti-intellectual leadership, I believe that Americans better get their fill of celebrities from Entertainment Tonight. We need to set aside our need to be amused and recognize the need for intelligent leadership. With the outlook on our horizon,it's going to be critical for those in charge to be able to look at a great many variables and sort out the best possible solutions. Those who are worried about paying too much in taxes, need to confront the possibility of not having anything to tax. We are at the point of no return and I don't think we'd be smart to have a flight attendant come up and take over the cockpit.
There's no guarantee that Barack Obama and Joe Biden are going to be able to turn this mess around, but but Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are doing their best to poison the possibility by keeping so called conservatives misinformed about the facts.
I teach in a very upper middle class neighborhood in a very red state, and I notice that the kids look at me askance when I try to examine both sides of an issue. They've been raised on the dinner table opinions of faithful followers of the unbiased, no spin FOX News network, and they are fully indoctrinated.
Yep, Sarah Palin won the debate, she winked and "goshdarned" her way into the hearts and minds of Americans, and kept John McCain's maverick status intact. We were ecstatic about her ability to read her script without losing her place, except for her little foray into vice-presidential power. We know she would never let Iran go nuke-you-lur. And a McCain - Palin administration will lower our taxes.
So come on all you hocky moms, put on your lipstick and grab your wolf gun. The environment is just in a bad cycle, and everyone can choose their own life partner as long as they don't want any civil rights. Those mavericks are not going to be looking back, they're looking at the future when they are going to remake American government so we are protected from the special interests they've been protecting for so long.
No losers here.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
