Jilly_in_VA
Jilly_in_VA's JournalTeacher quits mid-semester and calls for change
NASHVILLE, Tenn-- She quit her teaching job in the middle of the semester, and now she’s calling for change.
It wasn’t an easy decision for Camille Fox, a former second grade teacher. She reached her breaking point just two weeks ago.
“I reached a point where I could not take another step forward into the piles of paper. And that’s the way I felt. I refused to step into this mountain of work another day,” said Fox.
After seven years in the profession, she walked out on a Friday and didn’t come back.
“I had to get out immediately for everyone’s good. For, for my students, for myself, for my kids, my husband, I had to make a selfish choice for once,” she said.
In an honest conversation with News 2’s Alex Denis, she explained the stress she felt was overwhelming from the pressure from state and district mandates as well as texting expectations, canned lessons, meetings, gradings, lesson planning, individual student time and parent conferences.
Read the rest here:
https://www.wate.com/news/education/former-teacher-reaches-breaking-point-calls-for-change/
This is why, people.
Deaf America's Team: the rise of the Gallaudet University Bison
At first glance, it’s not obvious that nearly everyone on Gallaudet University’s football team, the Bison, is deaf or hard of hearing. In most ways, the game proceeds exactly as it would on a fall Saturday at any other small university in the US. Players bump chests animatedly after important plays. Cheerleaders try to pump up the crowd during timeouts. A fan of the away team loudly swears over the more polite cheers of those around him.
Certain differences, however, eventually emerge. Five strikes of a resonant bass drum alert Gallaudet’s special teams units (many of whom are busy having sideline discussions with coaches) to upcoming punts and kicks. In lieu of using a headset, offensive lineman John Scarboro communicates with a coach standing far away atop the crowded stands via American Sign Language (ASL). And, instead of having someone sing the national anthem before kick-off, the cheerleading team performs it in ASL while standing at midfield.
Gallaudet (pronounced GAL-a-DET, as if the ‘u’ were silent) is the world’s only liberal arts university explicitly devoted to educating deaf and hard of hearing students. Established during the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, Gallaudet is older than (American) football itself and, in fact, played an important role in the sport’s development. In 1894, concerned that other teams might interpret his team’s ASL play calls if they were signed in the open, Gallaudet quarterback Paul Hubbard circled his teammates a few yards from the line of scrimmage to discuss strategy. Thus was born the huddle. (There are a few competing claims to the huddle’s origin, but Gallaudet seems to have the strongest case. Even hall-of-fame University of Illinois coach Robert Zuppke, who is himself sometimes credited as the inventor of the huddle, admitted that he got the idea from a deaf football team.)
Sporting innovation is just one small part of Gallaudet’s legacy. The university has served as a hub for America’s deaf community for more than 150 years, intentionally fostering a community in which deafness is a given, rather than an exception. With that in mind, it’s worthwhile to go over some of the terminology surrounding deafness.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/sep/21/deaf-americas-team-the-rise-of-the-gallaudet-university-bison
I love this! My former DIL's dad coached football at Tennessee School for the Deaf and a couple of his players went on to Gallaudet. His other daughter also went there.
Deaf America's Team: the rise of the Gallaudet University Bison
At first glance, it’s not obvious that nearly everyone on Gallaudet University’s football team, the Bison, is deaf or hard of hearing. In most ways, the game proceeds exactly as it would on a fall Saturday at any other small university in the US. Players bump chests animatedly after important plays. Cheerleaders try to pump up the crowd during timeouts. A fan of the away team loudly swears over the more polite cheers of those around him.
Certain differences, however, eventually emerge. Five strikes of a resonant bass drum alert Gallaudet’s special teams units (many of whom are busy having sideline discussions with coaches) to upcoming punts and kicks. In lieu of using a headset, offensive lineman John Scarboro communicates with a coach standing far away atop the crowded stands via American Sign Language (ASL). And, instead of having someone sing the national anthem before kick-off, the cheerleading team performs it in ASL while standing at midfield.
Gallaudet (pronounced GAL-a-DET, as if the ‘u’ were silent) is the world’s only liberal arts university explicitly devoted to educating deaf and hard of hearing students. Established during the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, Gallaudet is older than (American) football itself and, in fact, played an important role in the sport’s development. In 1894, concerned that other teams might interpret his team’s ASL play calls if they were signed in the open, Gallaudet quarterback Paul Hubbard circled his teammates a few yards from the line of scrimmage to discuss strategy. Thus was born the huddle. (There are a few competing claims to the huddle’s origin, but Gallaudet seems to have the strongest case. Even hall-of-fame University of Illinois coach Robert Zuppke, who is himself sometimes credited as the inventor of the huddle, admitted that he got the idea from a deaf football team.)
Sporting innovation is just one small part of Gallaudet’s legacy. The university has served as a hub for America’s deaf community for more than 150 years, intentionally fostering a community in which deafness is a given, rather than an exception. With that in mind, it’s worthwhile to go over some of the terminology surrounding deafness.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/sep/21/deaf-americas-team-the-rise-of-the-gallaudet-university-bison
I love this! My former DIL's dad coached football at Tennessee School for the Deaf and a couple of his players went on to Gallaudet. His other daughter also went there.
Riotsville, USA: the shocking story of fake army towns that militarised police
“Welcome to Riotsville,” says a raincoat-clad ABC news correspondent with a noisy, placard-waving crowd and row of what appear to be shops behind him. “This is a simulated riot in a simulated city. But as another summer approaches, it might be Anywhere, USA.”
The news clip resurfaces in Riotsville, USA, a documentary about the stagecraft of state coercion. It tells how the army built fake towns, or “riotsvilles”, on its bases and used soldiers as actors to stage huge theatrical re-enactments of civil unrest. The military response was filmed to help with the training of law enforcement.
A still from The Youth Governor
The Youth Governor: the inspiring students hoping to be future politicians
Read more
It sounds like a dark sequel to The Truman Show or the creepy, mannequin-filled mock towns used for nuclear tests in the 1950s. The riotsvilles were buried in obscurity for half a century until Sierra Pettengill, an archival researcher and film-maker, read about them in Nixonland, historian Rick Perlstein’s book about the tumultuous 1960s and 1970s.
“I immediately looked to see what I could find, which was very little, and then eventually found a record in the National Archives that sounded about right and got that film transferred and sent over,” the director of Riotsville, USA recalls via Zoom from Brooklyn, New York.
“I then began a long process of trying to contextualise what this meant – literally within a historical context, but also where this fits in a metaphorical sense in how America treats race and equality, what choices it makes for allocation of resources, and the eternal loop we seem to be on.”
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/sep/21/riotsville-usa-the-shocking-story-of-fake-army-towns-that-militarised-police
I really struggled with where to put this. It's an important story. Forgive me if it's in the wrong place.
Revealed: the 'shocking' levels of toxic lead in Chicago tap water
One in 20 tap water tests performed for thousands of Chicago residents found lead, a neurotoxin, at or above US government limits, according to a Guardian analysis of a City of Chicago data trove.
And one-third had more lead than is permitted in bottled water.
A lead water service line from 1927 lies on the surface of a residential street after being removed in Denver.
This means that out of the 24,000 tests, approximately 1,000 homes had lead exceeding federal standards. Experts and locals say these results raise broader concerns, because there are an estimated 400,000 lead pipes supplying water to homes in the city, and the vast majority were not tested as part of the program.
Moreover, they say the city is not moving fast enough to eliminate the potential danger.
The Guardian worked with water engineer Elin Betanzo – who helped uncover the Flint water crisis that resulted in many, mostly Black residents being poisoned by lead in the Michigan city – to review the results of water tests conducted for Chicago residents between 2016 and 2021. Chicago itself has never released an analysis of the results.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/21/lead-contamination-chicago-tap-water-revealed
Welp, not just Jackson, Flint and Newark. Pretty much everywhere....
The cheating scandal roiling the chess world has a new wrinkle
The cheating controversy gripping the world of elite chess was already enigmatic — but it deepened even more this week, when world champion Magnus Carlsen abruptly resigned after making a single move in his highly anticipated rematch with Hans Niemann.
Carlsen, 31, and Niemann, 19, were facing off in the Julius Baer Generation Cup roughly two weeks after Niemann defeated Carlsen — a win that was immediately thrown into question by a cryptic tweet from Carlsen that seemed to suggest Niemann was cheating.
The drama threw chess into a tizzy, and fueled anticipation for Monday's match between Carlsen and Niemann in the online tournament. But after Niemann made his first move as white, Carlsen responded with a single move as black and then quit.
"What?!" numerous commentators said in unison on video streams, as they struggled to grasp what had just happened. Carlsen offered no explanation, as he promptly turned off his video camera. But his resignation was quickly seen as a protest and a refusal to play Niemann, of the U.S.
https://www.npr.org/2022/09/21/1124082877/chess-cheating-scandal-niemann-carlsen
I have no understanding. Perhaps someone can explain this to me.
Marc Wilson Was Just Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison
Marc Wilson—the Black man convicted for shooting a 17-year-old in Georgia, despite claims of self-defense—will spend a decade in prison.
Judge Ronnie Thompson handed down the maximum sentence for felony involuntary manslaughter on Tuesday, although Wilson will be credited for his time spent awaiting trial. The decision brings closure to more than two years of litigation in a case widely seen as a test for Black Americans’ right to “stand their ground.”
The 23-year-old Georgia native was convicted on Aug. 31 for the death of Haley Hutcheson. The judge decided against invoking a provision of Georgia law which allowed him to sentence Wilson as if the charge was a misdemeanor instead of a felony, as many of Wilson’s supporters had hoped.
Wilson said that he was harassed, called racial epithets, and nearly run off the road in his car by three male teens in a pickup truck on June 14, 2020. Fearing for his life and that of his then-girlfriend who was sitting in the passenger seat, Wilson fired his legally-owned handgun at the truck hoping to scare them off.
But as he found out a day later, one of his three shots struck and killed Hutcheson, who he didn’t know was sitting in the vehicle. He eventually turned himself in to police and was charged with felony murder and aggravated assault.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/epza84/georgia-marc-wilson-verdict
You are only allowed to stand your ground if you are a white male.
Texas Sheriff Getting Threats After Saying He'd Investigate DeSantis for Migrant Plane Stunt
A Texas sheriff announced Monday that he would investigate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s administration flying Venezuelan migrants from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard last week.
And now, his office says, it’s received “numerous threats.”
Sheriff Javier Salazar of Bexar County, where the flight last week originated, announced Monday that he was opening an investigation into the flight. The sheriff told reporters that he believes the migrants were “lured” to Martha’s Vineyard under “false pretenses” for a “photo-op and stranded,” and that both county and federal laws were broken.
On Tuesday, a spokesperson from the Bexar County Sheriff’s office told VICE News in an email that “there have been numerous threats, an influx of calls to our dispatch and administrative offices, along with hateful emails received” since the investigation was announced.
“Additionally, as in any instance when our office receives threats precautionary measures will be made for safety of all personnel,” the spokesperson said.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjkzn7/texas-sheriff-javier-salazar-threats-desantis
I didn't understand why he was the one doing it until I saw him on TV last night, but I sure do now. You go, Sheriff!
Why Won't DeSantis Ship Cuban Refugees to Martha's Vineyard?
Michael Daly
The 15 Cuban refugees whose makeshift boat chanced to land on Florida’s largest nude beach on Labor Day would have been convenient “unauthorized aliens” for Gov. Ron DeSantis to place aboard the two charter jets he had fly into into Martha’s Vineyard last week.
Had some of those 15 been aboard, DeSantis likely could have filled both of the 30-seat Fairchild Dornier 328 jets from among the 100 other Cuban refugees who arrived over Labor Day weekend. And if DeSantis wanted to go through with his threat to fly and bus more “unauthorized aliens” into “sanctuary states,” he could recruit from among the 1,300 who have arrived directly from Cuba to his state since last October. That number is up more than 600 percent over last year.
But Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez triggered a political furor back in August when she suggested on a radio program that Florida might bus newly arrived Cuban refugees from Florida to President Joe Biden’s home state of Delaware.
So, rather than displease the formidable Cuban American community in Florida, DeSantis went to the trouble and expense of hiring a contractor to hustle migrants into boarding his charter planes in San Antonio, Texas. And, lest the passengers include some of the record 176,000 Cubans who have arrived at the southern border by land over the past year, the contractor appears to have targeted only Venezuelans and a few Colombians.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-doesnt-ron-desantis-ship-cuban-refugees-to-marthas-vineyard?ref=home
Didn't have any problem including kids, though 
23 Banned Book Quotes to Fire You Up
For almost 2000 years, people have been banning books in one way or another—the history of book burning goes at least as far back as 213 BCE. And while we've come quite a long way from those times, people still continue to ban books today.
That's why each September we celebrate our freedom to read with Banned Books Week, an event hosted by the American Library Association. To help get you in the spirit year round, below are 23 powerful quotes about the futility of banning books.
1. “Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance.” ―Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak
2. "What I tell kids is, Don't get mad, get even. Don't spend time waving signs or carrying petitions around the neighborhood. Instead, run, don't walk, to the nearest nonschool library or to the local bookstore and get whatever it was that they banned. Read whatever they're trying to keep out of your eyes and your brain, because that's exactly what you need to know.” ―Stephen King
3. “There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.” ―Joseph Brodsky
(just a few to get you started. Read the rest at the link.)
https://earlybirdbooks.com/banned-books-quotes
Profile Information
Gender: Do not displayCurrent location: Virginia
Member since: Wed Jun 1, 2011, 07:34 PM
Number of posts: 10,008