matching tracksuits

Turned Upside Down

Wednesday 07 August 2024

Our school district has a way of jostling teachers out of their comfort zones. Take this year, for example. We've known for a long time that we'll have new standards for English. The logical way to let teachers transition to these new standards is to let them take their existing lesson plans and retool them as necessary to meet the new standards. True, they are, by and large, almost the same standards, but there are some new items on that list which will take some time to unpack and figure out how to teach. Perhaps letting us focus on that during the first year would be a good move.

We're also getting new textbooks this year. This means that a lot of the stuff we've done in the past might not necessarily work with the new selections in the new textbook. A lot of it will, but not everything. The logical way to transition to this new textbook would be to give teachers a year or two to make the move over. After all, we'll likely be using these books for six or eight years. We can take our time with transitioning and make sure we do a good job.

Or our district could manage these transitions as they actually chose to this year:

Provide new standards (actually the state did that, but...)
Provide a new text book
Provide a detailed unit pacing guide that we must follow to the letter
Provide a 35-question, 18-page mandatory test for the end of that unit, a test that has some questions that are not even covered in the unit
Demand all teachers make the transition immediately
And best of all, do all this the day before students return for their first day of the school year.

There are a lot of stressed teachers today. I had to talk an experienced teacher out of walking out and simply quitting today. This is her last year before retirement, and it's not how she wanted to end her career. If she'd walked out, I wouldn't have blamed her.

Reflections

Tuesday 06 August 2024

Why would there be any way to see hate in a text written by a completely benevolent deity?

Why would there be any way to see prejudice in a text written by a completely benevolent deity?

Why would there be any way to see malice in a text written by a completely benevolent deity?

Meet the Teacher 2024

Monday 05 August 2024

"Last year's kids were a real challenge," the seventh-grade teachers all admitted. And to be fair, they warned us about them this time last year: "This is some group!" We hear that a lot, and we put it down to a typical exaggeration: they're never as troublesome as last year's teachers make them out to be.

But last year, they were right. One-hundred percent accurate. Last year's group was exhausting.

"This year is going to be so much calmer for you guys!" all the seventh-grade teachers have been reassuring us during these first days back. Today we met a lot of them.

It's hard to tell after such a short exchange, but we are, indeed hopeful.

Band concert

Sunday 04 August 2024

Here's a video of the Boy's spring band concert.

Camping as a Teen

Saturday 03 August 2024

Supporters

Friday 02 August 2024

Before Biden bowed out, a meme was going around among Trump supporters.

I'm not going to label his followers as this meme does, but anyone who can look at Trump and not see how completely unhinged he is almost all of the time, how uneducated he appears to be, how incapable of critical thought he seems to be -- I just don't understand.

I freely admitted that Biden was showing some mental deterioration. I never worshipped the man: I was only support him to do a job. Many Trump supporters, however, seem almost to worship the man. He literally can do no wrong.

And even if he does wrong they overlook it.

Nationals

Thursday 01 August 2024

Today, the Girl competed in AAU Nationals in high jump for the first time in her life, but it's the fourth or fifth time she's competed in AAU Nationals in general. It's just that before today, it had always been in volleyball.

Unlike volleyball, though, these nationals did not take place a day's drive away. Instead, they were a mere three hours away.

It was also by far the biggest track meet she's ever participated in: three high jump mats with over 50 girls participating.

How did she do? She'd say "Meh" if you asked her that question.

But she placed twelfth out of fifty-one girls.

And of course, no matter how it ended, we're all proud of her and her accomplishments this year.

Dinner

Wednesday 31 July 2024

The Girl has decided she needs to be cooking more, to learn how to cook more than mac and cheese and quesadillas. She’s done chicken alfredo a couple of times, but when K asked L to cook dinner tonight and suggested she just make the tried-and-true chicken alfredo, the Girl demurred. She wanted to try something new. Something different.

Something Asian.

Long, long ago, when K and I were dating, she wanted to do the same thing — try something new, something different. She decided on something decidedly non-Polish, something from southern Europe. She chose lasagna.

Mother and daughter both chose pasta. They both had similar issues with the pasta. And in both cases, those they cooked for ate the dish with enthusiasm.

Signs 3

Tuesday 30 July 2024

During our three trips to Florida this summer, I noticed a lot of interesting billboards. I also saw a sign on the the trailer of several semi trucks.

I'm not sure what that image is supposed to evoke. There are hints of Uncle Sam draft posters in the overall design, but the wording would have been something like "I want you to pray." Additionally, given the right's strong feelings about the necessity for clear gender boundaries, this person seems unexpectedly androgynous. Finally, there's the feeling of aggression inherent in the shadows and pointing finger. It's like it's daring you not to pray.

Christian Virtue Signals

Monday 29 July 2024

The bruhaha about the opening ceremony in Paris offers an instructive insight into the minds of fundamentalist Christians. It was everywhere. On friends' feeds:

Post A

Post B

It was on public figures' streams:

Post C

Post D

It was on Polish streams:

Post E

Even the parish K attends got into the action:

And those public figures not posting about it were commenting to the media.

Robert Barron, a Catholic bishop with a large online platform, said,

France felt evidently as it's trying to put its best cultural foot forward, that the right thing to do is to mock this very central moment in Christianity where Jesus at his last supper gives his body and blood in anticipation of the cross.

It's presented through this gross or flippant mockery. France which used to be called the oldest daughter of the church. [...]

France has sent Catholic visionaries all over the world. France whose culture and I mean the honouring of the individual, in human rights and of freedom is grounded very much in Christianity. [...]

What's interesting here is this deeply secularist, post-modern society knows who its enemy is, they're naming them, and we should believe them, because this is who they are.

But furthermore we Christians, Catholics, should not be sheepish. We should resist, we should make our voices heard.'
Daily Mail

Trust me, Mr. Barron, your voices are heard. Some of us are just a little bemused at the ignorance behind it all.

What makes more sense? That the organizers would choose to satirize a Renaissance painting or portray something distinctly Greek, specifically the Feast of Dyonisus?

Whatever their intent, the

[o]rganizers of the Paris Olympics have apologized for any offense caused by a skit in the games' opening ceremony Friday that featured drag stars in what many viewers saw as a parody of Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous “The Last Supper" masterpiece, a similarity that drew the ire of Catholic leaders and conservatives like Elon Musk and Donald Trump Jr.
Forbes

They also pointed out that

[r]ecreations of “Last Supper” are not uncommon and have not often been met with the same kind of backlash as what followed the Olympic opening ceremony. Popular TV shows like “Lost,” “House,” “Battlestar Galactica,” “The Sopranos” and “The Simpsons,” among others, have posed their actors in similar photos, and art with celebrities like Marilyn Monroe, Freddie Mercury and Bill Murray portraying Jesus are readily available online.
Forbes

Heck, the MAGA people who are so upset were decidedly less upset about a different recreation of the painting:

At its heart, though, I can't help but see this as an example of Christian fundamentalist ignorance and hypocrisy. They are all "America first!" in everything else, but here they're willing to refuse to support American athletes who had nothing to do with the planning of the opening ceremony because in their ignorance they've confused the Feast of Dyonisus and a Renaissance painting which isn't even part of any religious canon at all. Davinci's painting was itself a derivative and unrealistic interpretation.