Serious question: Is it a good idea to email a job application at 2:40 in the morning?

They might notice the timing.

But these jobs for which I'm applying are political jobs, in which the ability to work odd hours will probably prove useful.

Tea Party Group Wants To 'Soften' Slavery In Textbooks

Some political groups are asking Tennessee lawmakers to re-write history, or at least how it is taught. Some members of the Tea Party say what's in your kid's textbook may be giving them a negative opinion about our nation's founding history.

What do you remember about American History class? Chances are you took away the basics; the birth of a democracy and a roller-coaster of ups-and-downs. But some Tea Party members say those basics are flawed when it comes to textbooks.

"My biggest concern is that important information is being omitted, which creates a negative light on our Founding Fathers," said Tea Party activist Brian Rieck.

Many members of the group are asking Tennessee lawmakers to tweak textbooks so that doesn't happen. Notably, they're hoping to make changes in how slavery and encroachment on Native Americans are portrayed to students. "Slavery is of course portrayed in the textbooks nowadays I'm sure as a totally negative thing. Had there not been slavery in the South, the economy would've fallen," Rieck said.

Tea Party Group Wants To 'Soften' Slavery In Textbooks

Some political groups are asking Tennessee lawmakers to re-write history, or at least how it is taught. Some members of the Tea Party say what's in your kid's textbook may be giving them a negative opinion about our nation's founding history.

What do you remember about American History class? Chances are you took away the basics; the birth of a democracy and a roller-coaster of ups-and-downs. But some Tea Party members say those basics are flawed when it comes to textbooks.

"My biggest concern is that important information is being omitted, which creates a negative light on our Founding Fathers," said Tea Party activist Brian Rieck.

Many members of the group are asking Tennessee lawmakers to tweak textbooks so that doesn't happen. Notably, they're hoping to make changes in how slavery and encroachment on Native Americans are portrayed to students. "Slavery is of course portrayed in the textbooks nowadays I'm sure as a totally negative thing. Had there not been slavery in the South, the economy would've fallen," Rieck said.

Ann Arbor, MI: Students, others line up for tickets to Obama's speech

Ann Arbor, MI: Students, others line up for tickets to Obama's speech

Two of John Tyler's grandchildren still alive (Tyler born in 1790)

How is this possible? Pfeiffer explains that the Tyler men were fathers late in life.

John Tyler was born in 1790. He became the 10th president of the United States in 1841 after William Henry Harrison died in office. Tyler fathered Lyon Gardiner Tyler in 1853, at age 63. Then, at the age of 71, Lyon Gardiner Tyler fathered Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr. in 1924 and four years later at age 75, Harrison Ruffin Tyler. Both men are still alive today.

That means just three generations of the Tyler family are spread out over more than 200 years. President Tyler was also a prolific father, having 15 children (8 boys and 7 girls) with two wives.

Pfeiffer points out that the next president who has a still living grandchild is James Garfield the 20th president, who took office forty years after Tyler.

Get your State of the Union word cloud right here!

The Onion: Critics Slam Obama For "Just Standing There" During Photo Op

Why the DC Impact system Bloomberg wants NYC schools to emulate caused me to leave teaching

Students who had me in 2009 would hardly have recognized the teacher I was last year. The new teacher-me was a warped version of my former teacher-self; I still brought the rigor and expectations I had previously brought, but there was no Happy Birthday singing hamster, no Freaky Friday Free-write, and no partnerships with the American Ballet Theater. And it wasn’t that I stopped caring about these things, I just found myself so consumed with trying to survive within the new system that they fell by the wayside. I had to choose my priorities, and even though supporters of accountability systems based on test scores will try to convince you that this doesn’t have to be the case, I had little time or energy to think about anything other than test data and how to get my students’ scores higher.

By the end of last year, my students had made tremendous gains in math. Here are the graphs, straight from the DCPS site to prove it:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QXw8JJhUXqc/TxYxfEaVPJI/AAAAAAAACgY/vNCfosrIyiM/s1600/Stephanie+black+scores.jpg

Before last school year, I had worked crazy hours and given up much of my life for work, but only because I loved my job and really believed in what I was doing. Last year, my mindset was completely different. I started doing everything I was doing because I was scared of what would happen if I didn’t do those things. I was no longer motivated by a passion for teaching and learning, nor was I trying to develop myself into the great teacher I had once dreamed of becoming; I was motivated by a fear of being stigmatized a loser, and I was trying to do whatever it would take not to be considered one.

Not to give away the ending to my story, but in this process I burnt out and lost faith in what I was doing in teaching. I grew tired of caring so much about a test that I didn’t really care that much about. I became frustrated with having to pass up opportunities to teach skills and concepts that I really thought my students needed to learn in order to teach them things I knew they were going to be tested on. I couldn’t stand the taskmaster role I had to take on as a teacher. Basically, I became sick of caring too much about all of the wrong things, and not enough about the things that really mattered.

An Open Letter to Newt Gingrich From the Pastors of Poor Children

We, the students and faculty of the Delaware Annual Conference Ministerial Institute of the AME Church, representing over 34 congregations and their constituents throughout Delaware and southern Pennsylvania are outraged at your continued demeaning of poor children and their families.

As a candidate vying for the Republican Presidential nomination, to suggest that poor children collectively lack a work ethic and drive for legal and productive work is entirely classist. Your national platform is no place for such irresponsible remarks. Our children deserve better than your degrading rhetoric.

In fact, they deserve an apology, and we -- their pastors and advocates -- demand one.

Mr. Gingrich, what your remarks have demonstrated is a failure to acknowledge the resilience of many who work daily and yet are unable to escape poverty. For many, low wages, a poor economy, and sparse full time employment opportunities have landed many families into the category of what the U.S. Department of Labor & Labor Statistics call the working poor. Contrary to what your remarks propagate, a significant number of children in households below the American poverty line (and those one paycheck away from it) are in homes with working family members; many of them are in our congregations weekly and are active citizens.