Can I tell you something. Got to tell you one thing. If you expect the freedom that you say is yours prove that you deserve it. Help us to preserve it or being free will just be words and nothing more.
Kansas, 1974
From NPR earlier today:
Are College Degrees a Waste of Money?
Author and career coach Marty Nemko argues that when kids are not adequately prepared for college, they are simply wasting their time and money on four years of college-level course work. "College is a wise choice for far fewer people than are currently encouraged to consider it," he writes in his article, America's Most Overrated Product: the Bachelor's Degree.
The majority of students entering college today are unprepared, Nemko explains, "When you hop into a cab or walk into a restaurant, you're likely to meet workers who spent years and their family's life savings on college, only to end up with a job they could have done as a high-school dropout."
It's a good question to ask. Taken together with this,
College students stumped by X + 2 = 4, it really makes you wonder about the value of education these days.
One thing that a college degree is guaranteed to get you is a mountain of debt. Everything else is up in the air. A few callers to the NPR show noted that taking up a trade (instead of spending significant amounts of time and money on college) is nothing to sneeze at. Indeed, just think about the amount of money college educated folk shell out to the likes of the mechanic and the plumber. But if you can't solve X + 2 = 4 you're not likely to be any good at either trade.
In addition to my computer being on the blink I've also been contending with a stomach bug. That's bad enough in itself but having a little being vigorously thumping me in all of the relevant bits (in addition to the other kids trying to pounce on me) is doubly unpleasant.
My computer has gone off so my impromptu blog fast has been extended a bit longer than I had intended. I don't know when/if it will be fixed. For the moment hubby and I are sharing a computer.
Cross posted at Say Anything: Reader blogs.
The cold weather and the recent remarks by Jeremiah Wright have enticed me to break my blog fast. The short version of my thoughts is that Wright is trying to hijack Christianity for his own purposes and he is trying tar and feather black Christians in America specifically with his views.
The long version is thus. The things that Wright has been saying recently are not new. I've heard them many times before, usually right before someone starts laughing. Anybody seen the movie Undercover Brother? Pay close attention to the character Conspiracy Brother. He and Wright would get along famously. I can't take credit for coming up with that comparison. I adapted it from a commenter on this post. But I digress.
Wright's proclamation that the negative reactions to his remarks are an attack on the "black church" was just too much. To attempt to tar black Christians in America with his views is...I'm trying to find the right word to use here without being too rude (Wright does claim to be a man of God after all and I was raised to respect those in that office) but I'm drawing a blank. Wright's implication that his views are representative of the "black church" is a bit like the white person who thinks that their racial prejudices are acceptable because they have black friends.
I would like to remind Mr. Wright (and anybody else who has forgotten) that as far as God is concerned there is no "black church" there is only The Church, the world wide body of those who believe in Jesus Christ. Wright's wanting there to be a "black church" that thinks as he does to save his hide and to hide behind clearly states where his priorities lay. To the genuine Christian the fact that they are a Christian comes first and is far more important than any other group affiliation. A Christian's affiliation with Christ shapes all other group affiliations not the other way around. That is the standard that the Bible calls Christians to live by. Wright apparently wants black Christians in America to do differently.
One last comment. Yesterday I listened as Wright dismissed a question about his comments about America's chickens coming home to roost during one of his sermons because the reporter admitted to not listening to the entirety of the sermon. Aside from his behaviour being rude I thought his reasoning was also wrong. One does not need to roll up on a Klan meeting to understand the full context of what they believe. Wright's meaning and intent were clear then and is even more so now.
Check out Baldilocks' response to Wright's performance so far.
Here begins another collection of some of the things said in my household.
Sophia: [After giving Ethan half of the curtain rod she had brought downstairs.] Here, now we can kill each other.
***
Me: You're not going. It's just me and Ethan going to see the doctor to make his arm all better.
Sophia: Okay. Can I bring my backpack?
***
Sophia: What does it say?
Hubby: Adorable.
Sophia: Just like Dora the Explorer!
***
Sophia:I'm gonna make Isaiah dead! [Pulls a toy egg out of her purse.] With this!
Me: What?! Are you going to try to kill your brother with an egg?
Sophia:Yes!
Me:We don't kill people in this house!
Sophia: [Walks over to Isaiah standing in the window and throws the egg. Isaiah fails to notice this deadly assault.] That didn't work. Maybe we should eat the egg.
I don't know why she keeps trying to do away with her brothers.
***
Sophia: [Walks in the room and puts a book and a block next to me on the bed.] Mommy would you pay for my stuff?
[Reaches down the front of her dress and pulls out a sock from which she pulls one AAA battery, one quarter, one dime, and one penny.]
I had to pretend to scan her items and then accept payment for them. I only charged her a quarter which she took back when we were done with our transaction. Apparently these items were "purchased" to be part of a meal, including the money.
***
Sophia: Mommy! Let me go! I am the power of God! I have powers in my stick, it has oil in it!
We were on our way home from the park because it had started to rain. Sophia kept stopping to turn puddles into blood/tomato juice (ala Prince of Egypt and Veggie Tales: Moe and the Big Exit). I think some of the themes of the story of Moses may have gotten a bit garbled in her mind. I don't know where the bit about the oil came from.
***
Hubby: Are you silly?
Sophia: [Giggling] No, I'm not laughing.
***
Sophia has been watching a new Disney Channel show that teaches small American children how to mangle Chinese (Mandarin I think). The following exchange took place after an episode involving some drama about making dumplings. This is the short version of the conversation. I cut out all of the pleading leading up to my capitulation.
Sophia: Can you make some dumplings?
Me: I don't know how to make dumplings.
Sophia: Can you make some dumplings?
Me: I don't know how to make dumplings. Wait a minute we have dumplings in the freezer.
Hubby: [From the other room.] We have duck wings in the freezer?
***
Mr. John: You don't want any tuna ice cream?
Sophia: That is not right!
***
Ethan: [Struggling to get away from Sis2 at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens.] Moms don't hold kids' hands!
Sis2: I'm not your mom.
Ethan: ...
Ethan remained quietly at Sis2's side for like 5 whole minutes while he contemplated his predicament.
***
That concludes this installment of "What did you say?" Stay tuned for future installments.
Today I am thankful for/that:
- Bed time. It never seems to come soon enough.
- The people who give me a "hang in there" smile and give me a sympathetic pat on the shoulder whenever one of the kids is having a hard time at the store or where ever.
- Spring time bird song. I've identified a new species this year. We seem to have acquired a red bellied woodpecker in the trees in the backyard. There are other members of the woodpecker family about but this is the first that I've successfully identified by its call.
- Sophia gleefully pointing out every little bit of spring time colour she sees. She had a blast down in NYC this week which is about 2 weeks ahead of CNY in the season. Most of the flowering tress were at their peak there while things have yet to start here.
- "You can get him to do anything if you put it on that schedule of his!" Paraphrase of my mom marveling at how willing Isaiah was do something that appeared on his picture schedule. Especially when he would point to the picture of the bathtub, say "Bath time!" and then run off to get in the bathtub. He did this several times a day. Isaiah REALLY likes taking baths. I've got pictures of things like making the bed and doing dishes that I hope he is equally as excited about.
- Ethan and Isaiah "gardening" in grandma's backyard. This mostly consisted of digging a hole in a vegetable bed in my parents' backyard and then sitting in it.
- High temp in the 70s today and again tomorrow.
- An uneventful drive to and from NYC (despite the lipstick and eyeshadow incident on the way back).
What are you thankful for?
Today I am thankful for/that:
- Warm sunshine.
- A warm breeze.
- Colourful spring flowers with the promise of more to come.
- Spring time birdsong.
- Spring time leaf pile jumping. The ear piercing shrieks of joy from the kids during this exercise are well worth any potential hearing loss in my old age.
- Compassionate teachers and therapists for my children.
- Understanding friends.
- Small children who understand the importance of reaching out to those who are different from themselves. One of Isaiah's classmates is usually walking by our house about the same time that the school bus arrives in the afternoon. She religiously says hi to Isaiah even though he has yet to say anything in response. The other day she told me that their teachers told the class that they need to talk to Isaiah to help him communicate. She also told me that he talks in class a lot.
On one occasion one little girl carried a conversation with Isaiah by herself. Isaiah never said a word but he didn't run away. When she was done she gave him a hug and a kiss before running off to find her mom.
Isaiah's classmates continually amaze me. We seem to run into them everywhere and they are always excited to see him and to say hi to him. These 5 and 6 year olds demonstrate the kind of compassion and understanding that I wish some adults would display. Isaiah doesn't seem to know what to do with his popularity yet. Neither do we other than to be relieved and grateful that he is with such a great bunch of kids.
What are you thankful for?
Bill O'Reilly will be commenting on Jenny McCarthy's recent performance on Larry King Live during his show tonight. I'm almost tempted to watch.
Cross posted at Say Anything: Reader blogs.
I got to see the first graders at my sons' school put on a musical a few days ago. It was a delightful experience to watch the kids sing, dance, and belt out their lines on stage. Our neighbourhood elementary school has quite a few special needs students. They seem to do the best job at educating these students compared to other schools in the district. While there were no doubt students on stage with learning disabilities who could not be easily marked as such there were some students whose disabilities made them stand out in the crowd. I was glad to see them there.
In the past those students would never have had the opportunity to participate in anything as enjoyable as a school musical. They would have been shut away from view so as not to make the rest of the "normal" folk uncomfortable with their presence or burden themselves with the work of understanding them. These children would have been medicated into submission and left to languish in institutions or shut away at home by parents trying to protect them from a cruel and unbending world that feared them.
With the assistance of teachers, classmates, and assisted communication technology these students were able to sing and dance with their classmates. Even more encouraging their non-disabled classmates accepted their special classmates without rancor. Kids can seriously torment their peers for any perceived difference but when taught otherwise they can be quite angelic.
I wondered if any in the audience resented the time and resources that were spent to make these kids a part of the school community. If they did they kept their quiet about it. In any case a good time was had by all.
Cross posted at Say Anything: Reader blogs.
There are a lot of extra costs associated with caring for autistic individuals, particularly when they are young. Apparently someone has taken the time to do a study on what it costs to care for autistic children.
Association of Childhood Autism Spectrum Disorders and Loss of Family Income
Data collected from 1999 to 2000 showed that each year U.S. taxpayer dollars collectively pay $12,773 of the annual education expenses associated with each child with autism. In spite of this assistance, ASD-affected families still bore the brunt of the financial burden. Between un-actualized income (again, estimated near $6,200) and extensive out-of-pocket ASD-related expenditures – one 2006 national study from the University of Rochester estimated that these families paid nearly $5,300 more than other families – this direct-to-family cost may exceed $11,000 each year.
Recent research has shown that parents of children with emotional and behavioral disorders lack appropriate community-based services and resources needed to support work and family obligations. Families with a child with a serious disability often accommodate family and work obligations to the requirements and behavior of the affected child. Lack of resources that fit the special needs of the child can have a significant impact on work and family functioning, leading to significant difficulty in establishing a work-family balance.
Kristina of
Autism Vox notes,
Even if one is not paying for specialists and therapists who can cost a few hundred dollars an hour (depending on what they are providing), money just becomes an issue for families with a special needs child. First of all is the matter of work: A child may have so many needs, and need such constant attention, that one parent is simply not able to work. Second, as noted, kids with special needs often need specialized educational therapies and medical treatments.
The
reader comments on her post are an enlightening read on what it costs families to care for their loved ones. It's a price we are willing to pay because to us it's more than worth it.
Cross posted at Say Anything: Reader blogs.
I meant to post this earlier but got sidetracked by life.
Early morning, April four
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky.
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride.
In the name of love
What more in the name of love.
In the name of love
What more in the name of love.
Pride (In The Name Of Love)
The Unforgettable Fire
U2
A bit inaccurate since King was shot in the evening but haunting none the less. Today is the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination in case you were wondering what this is about.
Cross posted at Say Anything: Reader blogs.
This is just a small portion of the address by the president of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) on World Autism Day at the Florida Autism Task Force's inaugural meeting. It stands in stark contrast to the way that other advocates speak about autism and autistic individuals.
The autism spectrum is broad, diverse and subject to many stereotypes. Just as we work to combat generalizations about racial, religious, national or other minorities, it is only right to avoid a stereotyped view of autism. There are speaking and nonspeaking people on the autism spectrum; people currently capable of living independently and holding competitive employment and those with more significant support needs before those goals are conceivable to them. There are those of us who have held diagnoses since childhood and those of us who were identified later in life, serving to correct an inaccurate previous diagnosis that had placed us in the wrong educational or service-delivery infrastructure. To claim, as some continue to do, that we on the autism spectrum are all incapable of speaking for ourselves is an ignorant and damaging falsehood. Equally harmful is the idea that autistic people are all geniuses or savants, with Rain Man-esque abilities. As someone with an autism spectrum diagnosis myself, I hope to address some of these misconceptions, explain a bit more about our community and inform those assembled here today about the public policy priorities – and concerns – of the autistic self-advocacy movement. In doing so, I hope to communicate to you that, contrary to the unfortunate paradigm that has pervaded the media discourse about us, autism is not a tragedy. We are, as with any other minority, a community with unique needs, strengths, challenges and aspirations that are often distinct from the parent or professional voices that speak about us, without us. The true tragedy is the persistent discrimination, abuse and lack of access that continues to govern society's approach to us. On this, the first ever World Autism Day, we assert that it is this prejudice – not autism itself – that we have a true interest in combating, in the interest of ensuring for every person the rights of communication, inclusion, self-determination and respect.
Today I am thankful for/that:
- A warm sunny day.
- Time to play with the kids outside.
- Early spring flowers.
- Ethan's teacher told me this week, "He's so smart that he gets bored with the work." There are worse problems to have to deal with than that.
- Sophia wanted to help write this post. Her contribution: abbbbbccccccddddddddddddddefghijklmnopqqrrrrrrsthhhhhhuuuuuvvvvvvvvvvvvwwwwxxxxxxxxxxyzzzzz
- Isaiah sitting enthralled while watching big brother and the rest of the first graders put on the first grade musical.
- Ethan singing, dancing, and saying his lines in the first grade musical.
- Ethan dancing at the zoo with his sister.
- Ethan's elbow has healed well.
- No one else has broken any bones. Toys, plates, cups, furniture sure but no bones.
- The chance to speak my mind.
- The birthday cake Sophia made for me with play dough. My birthday is a few months off still.
What are you thankful for?
