Education By Example

As a teacher, I have often wondered how best to involve parents in the education of their children.  In my school experience, I’ve often heard that children learn from what we do, as well as what we say.  And a couple of recent experiences in my own home, with my own children, have shown me exactly how important it is to be actively teaching my children, as my parents did for me, by being the type of involved parent in their curricular and extracurricular education: I need to educate them by my example.

A few days ago, in conjunction with the national observance of Columbus Day, my children were exposed to what I felt was a one-sided, celebratory portrayal of Colón. For reasons too numerous to mention here, it was important to me to address the presentation with the person who spoke, and to speak with and teach my own children that evening.  I talked to them both about what was missing from the presentation they witnessed, and about my speaking up and meeting with the presenter.

The lessons I hoped to impart were at least two-fold: first, that Columbus was an explorer who brought knowledge of the new continents back to Europe at a time when they could exploit that information, and then took slavery, disease and oppression back with him on his second journey to colonize in the name of Christianity; second, and more important, is that I taught them how to speak up, even to people who have authority over them, when they believe that something is wrong, or someone is wrong.

I’ve written before about the importance of teaching children that they can change the world only if they speak up, and that they have a moral responsibility to make the world a better place by speaking truth to power when necessary.  As a parent, it’s imperative that I make this lesson clear by acting in the same way I expect them to act.

The second event was a sixth-grade science project which landed (to my surprise) on our dining room table late the night before it was due. Tired as I and my wife both were, we both realized that this was an assignment that our son would need our assistance to complete, a truth that was confirmed by the title of the assignment, “The Family MythBusting Project”.

Knowing nothing about the project (my wife had a little more information that I did), I had to read the directions and help him navigate his academic work. By working with him – running to get supplies, asking him questions to see what he had learned, having him teach me what he knew, letting him stay up a little past his bedtime to finish and staying up with him working – we showed him that his education, that his work was important. While the veracity of Power Balance Bracelets isn’t life-changing (he determined that they don’t really work), the memory and impression of his parents spending the time with him, challenging and learning with him, supporting him as he educated himself will.

I started this blogpost by saying that I am a teacher.  Todos los padres son maestros.  All parents are teachers.  We teach children by our example what is important, what they should focus on, how they should interact with each other and others, and how they impact and affect the world.

If we complain about teachers, but don’t speak to the teachers themselves, then we are teaching them cowardice. If we have issues with their schools, and we take those issues to the schools, we are teaching them to be assertive and have an impact. If we speak Spanish at home but make sure they learn English, we are teaching them to have more tools in their toolbox. By speaking up for bilingual education in schools, for smaller class sizes, for qualified teachers, for equitable distribution of education resources and attention from local and national governments, for Mexican American Studies Departments and Curriculum, for Indigenous People Day and whole host of other issues, we are teaching our children that they have value, that their education has value, and they should raise their voices to secure their birthrights.

When we do that, that is the moment they learn. Es el momento en el cual entienden. We are educating them by example.

Related articles

• Toronto Schools Promote Multicultural Teaching and Learning (indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com)
• Barack Obama on Education (education.com)

The Bottom of the Barrel

The GOP is failing in spectacular fashion lately. Three of its stalwart proponents are attempting to advance their personal agendas on the backs of others by lying with straight faces to anyone with a camera and a microphone.  In no particular order, since their thoughts and words come out that way, are the bottom of the political barrel:

Senator John Kyl.  The mis-titled “junior” senator from Arizona brought some of his state’s hateful deception to the floor of the United States Senate when he asserted that “90% of what Planned Parenthood does is perform abortions.” Beyond demonizing another organization whose services are provided primarily to the economically challenged, Senator Kyl lied into the Congressional Record in order to advance a socially conservative agenda during an economic debate.  Not only is this disingenuous, but his lie, which he said “was not intended to be a factual statement,” was easily proved false and left him looking stupid. UPDATE: Senator Kyl has blamed his ridiculous assertion that his statement was #notintendedtobeafactualstatement on his press secretary.

Representative Paul Ryan.  The Republican Congressman from Wisconsin’s 1st District, is next on the list of ridiculous with his “Path to Prosperity”. A draconian boondoggle which simultaneously 1) plays to the ignorance of the Tea Party movement by simultaneously claiming to address the deficit while maintaining tax breaks for the wealthy which contribute to it, 2) cuts services to the poorest and most economically challenged citizens in the United States, and 3) FORCES SENIOR CITIZENS TO USE INSUFFICIENT VOUCHERS TO PAY FOR HEALTHCARE which means that those with the most limited means and greatest need will be forced to pay the highest costs to stay well.

Last and least on the list. Donald Trump. Should keep his day job. Another example where wealth and excess reflect a poverty of spirit. Used to be the funny, quirky business mogul. Now he’s creating an aura of racial mystification bathed in pseudo-economic savvy in order to promote his reality television show by exploiting the most ignorant example of racial profiling aimed at the President of the United States. There are people ignorant of the constitutional requirements for the presidency, though I don’t believe he is one of them.  He is however playing on their fears by claiming that Barack Obama is not eligible to be President in order to gain viewership and make more money on advertising. Capitalism at its worst – do whatever you can to get paid. I’d call him a prostitute, but I don’t want to insult those men and women who ply the world’s oldest profession.

Amazing that these three are involved in the political conversation of the nation when there is so much work to be done.

Related Articles

• Kyl revises Congressional Record to omit ‘well over 90% of what Planned Parenthood does’ is abortion (dailykos.com)
• Best New Party Game 51: #NotIntendedToBeAFactualStatement (videogum.com)
• What a United States Senator Sounds Like (mydd.com)
• Senator Jon Kyl Purges His Lie About Planned Parenthood From Official Records (slog.thestranger.com)
• Donald Trump? (gesvol.wordpress.com)

Yo ho, Yo ho, A Pirate’s Life for Me!

I took my son and his friend to the movies last week. Ticket price – $29.50. It was right after school, so they were a little hungry. My son ordered a hot dog. His friend a small popcorn. They both got small drinks because the larger sizes frightened them. Concessions – $18.00. My eleven-year-old looked at the receipt, frowned, and uttered, “that’s ridiculous.” And he was right. Especially since it was one of those times I had paid to take a nap (his eleven year old movie choices didn’t interest his father all that much).
It made me want to become a pirate. You know, somebody who buys the latest movie for five bucks on dvd from a guy outside Chuck E. Cheese’s, or uses Limewire to ‘acquire’ a digital copy opening weekend. I’m not saying it’s the right thing to do, but I understand.
I feel like Chris Rock or Sam Kinison, talking about understanding something that I don’t agree with or endorse. In a personal economy that has fewer “extra” dollars to spend on entertainment, this $47.50 for an afternoon was too high a price to pay. And the argument about studios losing money doesn’t mean much to me. I’m not asking studios and movie conglomerates to spend millions making movies. Was Avatar visually amazing and worth the ticket? Yes. Maybe. The same story was told before with Kevin Costner. It was called Dances with Wolves.
Yes, we could not go to the movies. We can wait months for the dvd release on Redbox or Netflix. Yes, we can rent them on iTunes and watch them on the iPad. We already do all of these things. We’ve even managed to get on the list where they call us to see screenings of movies for free before their release in theaters. But I’m more than a little frustrated that taking my kids to the movies costs so much. The ability to see these online, or on dvd from the local eatery, for literally one-tenth the cost begins to be a smart economic decision. Piracy is beginning to look like a legitimate alternative to seeing movies on the big screen.
And that’s one adult and two kids…when it’s the four of us, plus dinner, we have to apply for credit before we go out for the evening. If you don’t see me at the theater next weekend, just assume I’m growing out my beard and looking for an eye patch. Yo ho!

 

A Radical Notion

In ancient China, women’s feet were bound as a symbol of wealth and status. They were effectively crippled so they wouldn’t be able to work, forced to be trophies for the men in their lives.

In Pakistan, girls are not educated by the government. They are educated (sometimes) by the generosity of strangers like Greg Mortenson, and elementary school students in the United States through Pennies for Peace.

In Afghanistan, where bombed-out schools teach in three shifts to accommodate the students, girls sit outside in swirling sand clutching notebooks and burkas to learn.

In Saudi Arabia, it is illegal for an unmarried woman to travel outside her home with a man to whom she is not blood related.

In Iran, under the cover of Islamic principles, women are cloistered, abused and stoned to death for allowing it happen.

In England, the reigning monarch is a woman, and they elected a woman to run the country, too, way back in the 1980s.

In Liberia, they’ve elected their first woman president, as have the Republic of Chile, and Argentina, in South America.

In 2008, Hillary Clinton came closer to “cracking that highest, hardest glass ceiling,” becoming the first serious woman candidate for President of the United States, with Sarah Palin also poised to gain historic political office.

March is Women’s History Month in the United States by congressional and presidential decree. But the necessity of paying attention to the rights and the accomplishments of women nationally and internationally is more important now than ever. At this moment in time, many many gains have been made to bring women into equal partnership, from the WNBA to EBay; from the United States’ Senate to the laboratories at JPL; from the elementary school head’s office to American Idol. But, today’s version of equality is the fruit of yesterday’s struggles.

The protest for women’s rights has been going on in the United States longer than the United States has been a country. Abigail Adams wrote a letter to her husband John, one of the men writing the Constitution who would go on to become the second president of the United States. “I long to hear that you have declared an independency,” she wrote, “and by the way, in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies…”

The recognition of women’s history and accomplishments in the United States does not make us unique, but it does place upon us a responsibility to talk and act in a way that remakes the world in a more just and balanced manner. “Feminism is the radical notion that women are people.” And because things are getting better doesn’t mean everything is fair and we should stop paying attention. Our country was founded on the idea that everyone is created equal, even if Thomas Jefferson messed up the words a little bit. We have to work, each and every person, to make sure that women and men get the opportunities to be whatever they want to be, from a point guard to the captain of the space shuttle.

March is Women’s History Month because we should all know what women have done to make our country and our planet the wonderful place that it is. But it is also women’s history month because we should all help today’s women make tomorrow’s history.

Filing Bankruptcy

The title is a double-entendre.

What with mounting credit card debt, missed lease payments on the cars, more expensive groceries, private school tuitions (with financial aid, mind you), rent – not mortgage, gas for the lease collateral, clothes for the children, and fewer deductions on our w-2s so we don’t end up with a “surprise note” and balloon payment from the IRS when we file in April, I feel like my wife and I should file for bankruptcy.  This economy sucks.  And we keep trying to pay stuff off without making more debt, but there’s simply too much month at the end of the money.  And my kids are spoiled – they like to eat at least three times a day, have a warm and dry place to sleep, shirts AND jackets AND underwear AND socks AND shoes when they go out of the house – I don’t know how they got that out of control.

Then there is the Republican Party.  Bereft of an economic theory that holds water, a chairman without ethical issues, a majority to ram through their “stimulative” tax cuts, a minority that likes or listens to each other, any credibility on foreign policy, infrastructure, small government, big government, any familiarity with the actual text of the Constitution, respect for the Bill of Rights, or any articulation besides the man who stole the presidency, Justice Scalia, I feel like they should file for bankruptcy, too.

From Ron Paul, who claims to be a Republican even though he can’t win anything even within the party; to John McCain, who managed to win only the right to be gobsmacked by the American populace for saying, “the fundamentals of the economy are strong,” (John, see above) and making the rest of us deal with that sad woman from the upper one; to Michael Steele, who’s proved that even black Republicans are ethically challenged; to John Boehner and Richard Shelby, who don’t have good ideas, but oppose everything like your foot kicks out when the doctor hits your knee with a hammer – by reflex; this sad crew is now turning on those members who actually want to help those of us in the first paragraph by passing the stimulus package sometime this year.

A little online research told me all I need to know about what happens when someone files bankruptcy:

The bankruptcy trustee will then begin the process of selling off your assets to pay your creditors.  You will likely be informed at this meeting that you are prohibited from selling, giving away or throwing away any of your property without the permission of the bankruptcy court.

This means that the Republicans won’t be able to stand there and distribute more bushlit about tax cuts and free markets righting themselves.  They don’t get to rename a stimulus bill a spending bill, when obviously the spending is what is supposed to stimulate the economy.  They don’t get to pretend they’re an inclusive party just because they’ve got one black friend, one female friend, one Indian friend and somebody in a log cabin.

There are a lot of people who are aching with the first paragraph, and unfortunately too many elephants bloated with the second.  The American people urged the Republicans to file for bankruptcy last year in November.

I hope they file before I have to.

Debate on stimulus to resume Monday

Payments to sister’s company were legitimate, Steele says

Stimulus will lead to ‘disaster’, Republican says

Indiana mayor says he’d put stimulus money to good use

Foreclosure fix: Obama’s options

SC Governor: We’re moving close to a ‘savior-based’ economy

Obama to stump for stimulus in Indiana

Florida Gov. to join Obama at stimulus town hall

The New Business of Politics

President Obama’s Inaugural Address codified his desire to set the tone in and for the United States of respect, discussion and action.  Both domestically and internationally, his actions have followed his words to the letter.  Despite the continued recalcitrance of individuals like John Boehner and Hamid Karazi who actually have some participatory relevance, and Rush Limbaugh who doesn’t, President Obama has reached not only across the aisle to listen to and engage Republicans with different ideas about how to stimulate the economy, but he’s gone all the way across the street.

It’s sad and funny at the same time, watching the GOP “leaders” deal with this new way of doing business.  I’m sure that across the nation and across the globe, part of the HOPE that was held tight like baited breath was that CHANGE would actually come to the White House.  It has.

Whether beginning his administration by ordering the closing of Guantanamo Bay, the forbiddance of torture, calling bumbling CEOs to account, stimulating the economy despite Republican obstacles, going to listen to the Republican obstacles, speaking for the American people directly to the Muslim and Arab and Middle Eastern populations around the world, speaking to the American people about our national attitudes toward Muslims and others around the world, President Obama is proving that he can do what Senator McCain couldn’t – walk and chew gum concurrently, I mean, do more than one thing at the same time.

And while I am loathe to frame President Obama with negatives, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that he is not what President Bush was: arrogant, ignorant, insulated, perjorative, aggressive or engaging in perfidy.

“There’s a new sheriff in town, and his name is Barack Obama.”

Obama: ‘We don’t have a moment to spare’

How Al-Arabiya got the Obama interview

Obama envoy arrives for talks with Israelis

The GOP grapples with Obama’s charm offensive

Obama tells GOP no compromise on tax rebates

The Real Patriot Act

Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense, and Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence.  I reference these two patriots who not only questioned their government but advocated CHANGE because their example is timely.  Under the previous presidential administration, under a cloak of protecting US during the “war on terror,” speaking up was seen as an act of disloyalty.  To ask questions of the government was to be a coward, a communist, and told in no uncertain terms to pack up and leave the country.  The faux patriot act passed by the United States Congress at the insistence of the Bush Administration, which led to silence, spying on each other and citizens, repression of free speech, and questioning of loyalty reminisced of red scares and Joe McCarthy and Nazi Germany.

But the true act of patriotism, like the First Lady so eloquently put it, is to speak the truth about your country, even when it is critical, unpleasant or unpopular.  President Obama has already signed some ethics and transparency guidelines into law as executive orders.  He has already begun to open up the government to be accountable to the people whom it was created to serve.  Cornell West said earlier this year that if Obama won he would, “celebrate on November 4^th, and be questioning and critical of him on November 5^th.”

While I abhor Chris Wallace (this man actually questioned whether President Obama was president because the Chief Justice flubbed the Oath of Office), Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Anne Coulter, Greta Van Sustern, Rush Limbaugh and their ilk, there is a purpose to have a foil, to having an active and loyal opposition.

As an educated and informed electorate, working and supporting President Obama, Vice President Biden and our government as it pursues their policies and practices, it is not only our right but it is OUR RESPONSIBILITY to question, to ascertain, to learn what our government is doing.

That is a true Patriot Act.

The Content of My Character

Today is the anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birth.  In watching and listening to him speak, I am constantly reminded of the message he delivered, of the path he walked, of the dream he offered.  He basically spoke of two things, though they were cloaked in the political necessities of his time.

First, he spoke of love, of the golden rule, of equality, of doing unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Second, he spoke of character, of honor, of doing the right thing, of making the world a better place.

He didn’t speak of being a large human being, of being famous, of seeking attention.  He didn’t speak of being special, of being honored, of being different.

He spoke and speaks of the sameness of humanity.

Obviously the anniversary of his birth and the celebration of his life takes on a deeper richness, a tangible energy, a fullness this year.  Just as Barack Obama’s acceptance of the Democratic nomination, which fell on the forty-fifth anniversary of King’s “I have a dream” speech, echoed forward and back in time, so does King’s birthday and birthday celebration precede Obama’s inauguration like a proposal leads to a marriage, like a seed planted leads to a rose, like consummation of a blessed union leads to the beauty of a new life.

A short poem I read on the Daily Kos went a little something like this:

Rosa sat so that Martin could walk

Martin walked so that Barack can run

Barack ran so that our children will fly

Martin Luther King, Jr. didn’t change the world by himself, though.  He did a yeoman’s share, but he didn’t do it by himself.  There were thousands of people whose name I don’t know, whose name you don’t know, who followed the golden rule, who dreamed of equality, who wanted to do unto others as they wished was done unto them.  There were (and are) thousands of people who lived honorably, trying to change the world by doing the right thing as they saw it.

The marriage of these two messages is the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.  The legacy of his dream is the inauguration of Barack Obama.  And Barack isn’t the only one being inaugurated on January 20^th.

The responsibility to continue the work is Ours.