Well, it took me some time because I just wasn't sure if I wanted to do it or not but I finally made the choice to visit Go Daddy and buy the name of my blog. Effective immediately, this blog is expatnomad.com!
So change your links and come on back when you wanna see if there is something new here. I've been a little lax with posting this year but that will happen. Welcome to a new name with an old look.
- Expat
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Thursday, April 19, 2007
baseball and the life of being an expat
I was having a discussion the other day with a friend of mine and we came up with an interesting analogy about two topics that I never really thought would go together but we managed to come up with a pretty solid.
The baseball season in the US just started a few weeks ago and I'm realizing just how much I did miss watching the sport when I lived in Holland. Granted, I coached the softball team there for two years, but its just not the same. And now with MLB.com broadcasting the games via the internet, I get my chance to keep up with baseball - especially the hometown faves, the Cleveland Indians. What can I say, a glutton for punishment and enjoy the moments of promise (the late 90s) where the team shines. In any case, I appreciate the game and what it takes to play it.
As a spectator's sport, it isn't the most energetic or exciting to watch. The game is exceedingly slow with brief moments intense drama. But the game isn't about the brief moments when the ball is in play, its so much more than that. Baseball is mostly mental and knowing the strategy of how to really play the sport is akin to being a chess master. Its not just a game where a guy goes out there and hurls the ball at 80-95 mph and another guys hopes to hit that ball to a place where one of nine defenders isn't. Each pitch influences how the game transpires and how each pitch is played depends on how the next one will go. Appreciating the strategy and athleticism of baseball is what keeps me coming back (even though I'm a hockey fan through and through).
During the conversation I had with Ilse, we got to talking about baseball and eventually it turned into how it is somewhat reflected in life as an expatriate. Baseball is played in many different stadiums around the world and none of them are the same, each field has its own feel. People who play on that field grow accustomed to those conditions and have home-field advantage (not to mention fan support). Traveling to another stadium means you have to adjust to those conditions and play your best under conditions that may not suit you. Maybe left field has a giant wall to hit over or maybe the bullpen is in foul territory and fielding fly-balls is more difficult. Whatever it may be, you have to adjust or fail miserably.
And then the parallels to being an expat started to take shape. Living overseas is like being on the road for baseball. A new country requires you to adapt to the conditions and learn how to play your game "on the road" if you want to succeed with your goals, whatever they may be. Not only do you have to adapt to the new surroundings, you need to adapt to the game as it goes along. You may see the same pitch more than once but when the timing of that pitch can dramatically change how you react to it. There is a strategy to being successful in baseball just as there is a strategy to being successful as an expatriate.
I've noticed in life that we rarely make HUGE life-changing decisions, rather we make a series of small ones that influence how our present plays out. I'm a product of those small decisions that I've made and as it turns out, I've made some good, small decisions (or else I'd be somewhere else in my life at the moment). A small decision to go to a party when I was a sophomore in college has turned me into the teacher that I am today (believe it or not, yes). Baseball is similar in that the small decision of whether to throw a fastball for the first pitch of an at-bat can dramatically affect how the rest of the AB goes and the cascade effect of the rest of the game. A small decision to start off with a fastball that just misses on the inside corner may determine how the game turns out for you.
Now just as one pitch doesn't decide the outcome of a game, neither does one decision in your life. Winning a game in baseball may mean that you must make another choice to correct a decision that you don't like the outcome of, like walking a batter. So you work hard to concentrate into trying to make a better pitch so the current batter grounds into a double play. The same can be said of living overseas (or just living in general) - sometimes you need to need to really concentrate on making the next choice to improve your situation rather than ride a bad decision into oblivion. Little choices turn into what our lives will be remembered as...
So at the end of our chat, she said that I should write this down as a way to let others in on my new-found knowledge and insight (a topic that I'm sure has been written about infinitely before) and so I did. In doing so, I made the choice to ignore my homework and write a blog that only a few people read. But hey, its my choice and that's fine with me. I'll just need to make sure that my next pitch is a slider that nibbles the outside corner for the strike-out.
The baseball season in the US just started a few weeks ago and I'm realizing just how much I did miss watching the sport when I lived in Holland. Granted, I coached the softball team there for two years, but its just not the same. And now with MLB.com broadcasting the games via the internet, I get my chance to keep up with baseball - especially the hometown faves, the Cleveland Indians. What can I say, a glutton for punishment and enjoy the moments of promise (the late 90s) where the team shines. In any case, I appreciate the game and what it takes to play it.
As a spectator's sport, it isn't the most energetic or exciting to watch. The game is exceedingly slow with brief moments intense drama. But the game isn't about the brief moments when the ball is in play, its so much more than that. Baseball is mostly mental and knowing the strategy of how to really play the sport is akin to being a chess master. Its not just a game where a guy goes out there and hurls the ball at 80-95 mph and another guys hopes to hit that ball to a place where one of nine defenders isn't. Each pitch influences how the game transpires and how each pitch is played depends on how the next one will go. Appreciating the strategy and athleticism of baseball is what keeps me coming back (even though I'm a hockey fan through and through).
During the conversation I had with Ilse, we got to talking about baseball and eventually it turned into how it is somewhat reflected in life as an expatriate. Baseball is played in many different stadiums around the world and none of them are the same, each field has its own feel. People who play on that field grow accustomed to those conditions and have home-field advantage (not to mention fan support). Traveling to another stadium means you have to adjust to those conditions and play your best under conditions that may not suit you. Maybe left field has a giant wall to hit over or maybe the bullpen is in foul territory and fielding fly-balls is more difficult. Whatever it may be, you have to adjust or fail miserably.
And then the parallels to being an expat started to take shape. Living overseas is like being on the road for baseball. A new country requires you to adapt to the conditions and learn how to play your game "on the road" if you want to succeed with your goals, whatever they may be. Not only do you have to adapt to the new surroundings, you need to adapt to the game as it goes along. You may see the same pitch more than once but when the timing of that pitch can dramatically change how you react to it. There is a strategy to being successful in baseball just as there is a strategy to being successful as an expatriate.
I've noticed in life that we rarely make HUGE life-changing decisions, rather we make a series of small ones that influence how our present plays out. I'm a product of those small decisions that I've made and as it turns out, I've made some good, small decisions (or else I'd be somewhere else in my life at the moment). A small decision to go to a party when I was a sophomore in college has turned me into the teacher that I am today (believe it or not, yes). Baseball is similar in that the small decision of whether to throw a fastball for the first pitch of an at-bat can dramatically affect how the rest of the AB goes and the cascade effect of the rest of the game. A small decision to start off with a fastball that just misses on the inside corner may determine how the game turns out for you.
Now just as one pitch doesn't decide the outcome of a game, neither does one decision in your life. Winning a game in baseball may mean that you must make another choice to correct a decision that you don't like the outcome of, like walking a batter. So you work hard to concentrate into trying to make a better pitch so the current batter grounds into a double play. The same can be said of living overseas (or just living in general) - sometimes you need to need to really concentrate on making the next choice to improve your situation rather than ride a bad decision into oblivion. Little choices turn into what our lives will be remembered as...
So at the end of our chat, she said that I should write this down as a way to let others in on my new-found knowledge and insight (a topic that I'm sure has been written about infinitely before) and so I did. In doing so, I made the choice to ignore my homework and write a blog that only a few people read. But hey, its my choice and that's fine with me. I'll just need to make sure that my next pitch is a slider that nibbles the outside corner for the strike-out.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
mrs. smith, can bobby come out and play for a national championship?
This rant comes at the suggestion of a former roommate of mine from Rotterdam. I agree with his stance on this issue and have decided to bring it to light. MO - I've got your back!
Its the time of year that I really like - the end of March is also the end of the regular season for the NHL. Its the time of year when the games take on different significance as teams become more desperate to make themselves eligible for the playoffs. *A classic case of people not performing when they should and now are panicking to get done what they should have done months earlier - win games.* Whatever the case, its a great time to watch hockey - too bad its not on TV since the NHL's commish screwed up and lost ESPN as a broadcaster (fuck us very much Gary Bettman...). However, if I were to be able to watch it on the tele, I would be presenting the same argument - even though my team is on the cusp of NOT making the playoffs.
Right now in the NHL there are 30 teams in two conferences (properly called the Campbell Conference and Prince of Wales Conference, but those names were stripped by the magnificent shithead known as Gary Bettman for easier names like Eastern and Western). In any case, there are 15 teams in each conference and of those 15 teams, 8 make it to the playoffs. In case you didn't do the math - that's over 50%.
That's right, the chance to play for the Stanley Cup - the championship of the league, is contended by over half of the people who play in the league. Wait - isn't a championship tournament supposed to bring the best teams together to vie for the ultimate prize? If that's the case, why is it that 53% of teams in the NHL make the playoffs? Oh yeah, I forgot - more revenue for the owners...
Don't be fooled, expanding the playoffs to 16 teams was done on purpose and that reason isn't going to change anytime soon. The owners realize that the more games their team plays, the more money they get. Believe it or not, there used to be a time when there were only 6 teams IN THE ENTIRE LEAGUE!!! And of those 6, only the top 2 regular season performers squared off for the Cup.
Its not exclusive to just hockey though, there are plenty of other money-hungry whores out there dying to get their hand on your money. Oh no, there is far worse than the NHL out there - at least the players in the NHL have a chance to earn some of the proceeds. The worst part is the NCAA and its plethora of bowls.
Last year there were a total of 118 Division I (now called NBS as to not confuse it with the D1 AA schools which will now be the NCS) that put a team into the NCAA football game. *Football is an expensive sport to run and as a result, not every school out there that is of the proper size can afford to run a program. Basketball is much cheaper and therefore more school participate in it.* Of those 118 schools that had a football team last year, 64 of them made it to a bowl game.
64!!!!
That's a greater percentage than the NHL puts into its playoffs. And the kicker is - only one bowl game decides the championship! The rest of the bowl games are just a way for schools to make more money on the athletes that play at those schools, many of them play for free. (I can hear people saying that they do get money in the form of scholarships and illegal contributions, but the majority of players aren't on scholarship and aren't getting money from scouts or shoe companies)
So why is it that this is happening? The NFL and MLB only take the top 4 in each conference (league for baseball), what's wrong with that model? Why is it that everyone thinks that they DESERVE to play in "the big game"? Why do people get mad when their school is "left out" of a bowl game when the team was barely won more than it lost? Does every Tom, Dick, and Harriett need to go play for a championship?
NO. Not everyone is a winner - deal with it. You're team had a lackluster season and should just go home and think about what you can do to make it better for next season. And this is coming from a person who went to a university that had its first bowl game since 1968 this year (and we lost that game just like the Tangerine Bowl of '68). I loved the fact that Ohio University made it to a bowl game - it made me proud to be a Bobcat but the simple truth is that the team lost in the MAC championship game and was only 2nd best in the conference. Simply put, they weren't the best and why should they have been rewarded with an additional game for not being the best?
Easy - money. Companies make fortunes off these games and Americans go farther into debt trying to do whatever they can to be a part of another Americans life. They want EVERYONE to feel special, EVERYONE to feel like a champion; ya know what? Get over it and go home! Stop paying so much money for all this crap and get a handle on your life. Spend the holidays with your college son/daughter rather than flying to Orlando to watch a team that plays for the school that you went to 22 years ago. Save some money on the fan gear and invest the time you would spend going the game with your family. Stop feeding the machine that is hyper-consumerism.
Alas, this rant has gone on long enough. Just thinking out loud...
Its the time of year that I really like - the end of March is also the end of the regular season for the NHL. Its the time of year when the games take on different significance as teams become more desperate to make themselves eligible for the playoffs. *A classic case of people not performing when they should and now are panicking to get done what they should have done months earlier - win games.* Whatever the case, its a great time to watch hockey - too bad its not on TV since the NHL's commish screwed up and lost ESPN as a broadcaster (fuck us very much Gary Bettman...). However, if I were to be able to watch it on the tele, I would be presenting the same argument - even though my team is on the cusp of NOT making the playoffs.
Right now in the NHL there are 30 teams in two conferences (properly called the Campbell Conference and Prince of Wales Conference, but those names were stripped by the magnificent shithead known as Gary Bettman for easier names like Eastern and Western). In any case, there are 15 teams in each conference and of those 15 teams, 8 make it to the playoffs. In case you didn't do the math - that's over 50%.
That's right, the chance to play for the Stanley Cup - the championship of the league, is contended by over half of the people who play in the league. Wait - isn't a championship tournament supposed to bring the best teams together to vie for the ultimate prize? If that's the case, why is it that 53% of teams in the NHL make the playoffs? Oh yeah, I forgot - more revenue for the owners...
Don't be fooled, expanding the playoffs to 16 teams was done on purpose and that reason isn't going to change anytime soon. The owners realize that the more games their team plays, the more money they get. Believe it or not, there used to be a time when there were only 6 teams IN THE ENTIRE LEAGUE!!! And of those 6, only the top 2 regular season performers squared off for the Cup.
Its not exclusive to just hockey though, there are plenty of other money-hungry whores out there dying to get their hand on your money. Oh no, there is far worse than the NHL out there - at least the players in the NHL have a chance to earn some of the proceeds. The worst part is the NCAA and its plethora of bowls.
Last year there were a total of 118 Division I (now called NBS as to not confuse it with the D1 AA schools which will now be the NCS) that put a team into the NCAA football game. *Football is an expensive sport to run and as a result, not every school out there that is of the proper size can afford to run a program. Basketball is much cheaper and therefore more school participate in it.* Of those 118 schools that had a football team last year, 64 of them made it to a bowl game.
64!!!!
That's a greater percentage than the NHL puts into its playoffs. And the kicker is - only one bowl game decides the championship! The rest of the bowl games are just a way for schools to make more money on the athletes that play at those schools, many of them play for free. (I can hear people saying that they do get money in the form of scholarships and illegal contributions, but the majority of players aren't on scholarship and aren't getting money from scouts or shoe companies)
So why is it that this is happening? The NFL and MLB only take the top 4 in each conference (league for baseball), what's wrong with that model? Why is it that everyone thinks that they DESERVE to play in "the big game"? Why do people get mad when their school is "left out" of a bowl game when the team was barely won more than it lost? Does every Tom, Dick, and Harriett need to go play for a championship?
NO. Not everyone is a winner - deal with it. You're team had a lackluster season and should just go home and think about what you can do to make it better for next season. And this is coming from a person who went to a university that had its first bowl game since 1968 this year (and we lost that game just like the Tangerine Bowl of '68). I loved the fact that Ohio University made it to a bowl game - it made me proud to be a Bobcat but the simple truth is that the team lost in the MAC championship game and was only 2nd best in the conference. Simply put, they weren't the best and why should they have been rewarded with an additional game for not being the best?
Easy - money. Companies make fortunes off these games and Americans go farther into debt trying to do whatever they can to be a part of another Americans life. They want EVERYONE to feel special, EVERYONE to feel like a champion; ya know what? Get over it and go home! Stop paying so much money for all this crap and get a handle on your life. Spend the holidays with your college son/daughter rather than flying to Orlando to watch a team that plays for the school that you went to 22 years ago. Save some money on the fan gear and invest the time you would spend going the game with your family. Stop feeding the machine that is hyper-consumerism.
Alas, this rant has gone on long enough. Just thinking out loud...
Monday, March 12, 2007
consumerism takes a break
I was logging on to my MSN Money account today when I came across an article that I really enjoyed reading. I plan on sending it to my friends that live in the States and see what their reaction is (click on 'consumerism takes a break' above for full story).
What I read really gave me hope - and I'm not being sarcastic. It gave me hope that someday the great treadmill of American consumerism would start to slow down and the country, as a whole, would start being a bit more fiscally responsible and not so far in debt. The author, Liz Pulliam Weston, put forth a challenge to her readers - only buy the necessities for a month and see what happens. In other words, stop buying the crap you don't need and just purchase those things you do to survive. No Starbucks frappachino, no extra pair of blue jeans that make you butt look good, no travel books to Machu Pichu that you want to go to - just the basics. What she and her readers found is refreshing to hear and there are some unexpected results.
The obvious bit about saving money is good. While some people did 'fall off the wagon' and make the occasional purchase they didn't need, the majority stayed the course and followed through with the experiment's design. Most found that they saved $400-$500 per month. That's an extra $6000 a year! One teacher managed to save $800 in the month of bare minimum spending - not too shabby at all. So from a financial perspective, it was a success.
But there was more to it than that. As people followed through with the experiment, they found there were additional side effects. In an attempt to save money, people started taking their lunch to work and lost weight through eating healthy. When they got bored, they didn't go to the mall to see what was on sale, they went for a walk in the park and gained in fitness. Instead of meeting for dinner and/or drinks at the TGIF's down the street, they went over to each other's place and spent time enriching themselves in the tranquility of a home.
How amazing! People who spend less can have the following habits - healthier lifestyle, greater depth of personal relationships, and a stronger sense of well-being from a lack of financial hardship. No longer do you have to worry about the idea of whether or not you can actually pay off your monthly bills. By doing things in moderation (like spending and eating crap food), you can achieve so much of what you are looking for without looking so hard.
So America - take heed. You may have the strongest and largest economy in the world but at what cost? Try putting the credit cards away and stop giving yourself everything you want, only meet your needs. Don't be so spoiled that you think you MUST have everything you desire; get away from the idea of keeping up with the Joneses. What you might find if you do just might be what you're looking for instead...
What I read really gave me hope - and I'm not being sarcastic. It gave me hope that someday the great treadmill of American consumerism would start to slow down and the country, as a whole, would start being a bit more fiscally responsible and not so far in debt. The author, Liz Pulliam Weston, put forth a challenge to her readers - only buy the necessities for a month and see what happens. In other words, stop buying the crap you don't need and just purchase those things you do to survive. No Starbucks frappachino, no extra pair of blue jeans that make you butt look good, no travel books to Machu Pichu that you want to go to - just the basics. What she and her readers found is refreshing to hear and there are some unexpected results.
The obvious bit about saving money is good. While some people did 'fall off the wagon' and make the occasional purchase they didn't need, the majority stayed the course and followed through with the experiment's design. Most found that they saved $400-$500 per month. That's an extra $6000 a year! One teacher managed to save $800 in the month of bare minimum spending - not too shabby at all. So from a financial perspective, it was a success.
But there was more to it than that. As people followed through with the experiment, they found there were additional side effects. In an attempt to save money, people started taking their lunch to work and lost weight through eating healthy. When they got bored, they didn't go to the mall to see what was on sale, they went for a walk in the park and gained in fitness. Instead of meeting for dinner and/or drinks at the TGIF's down the street, they went over to each other's place and spent time enriching themselves in the tranquility of a home.
How amazing! People who spend less can have the following habits - healthier lifestyle, greater depth of personal relationships, and a stronger sense of well-being from a lack of financial hardship. No longer do you have to worry about the idea of whether or not you can actually pay off your monthly bills. By doing things in moderation (like spending and eating crap food), you can achieve so much of what you are looking for without looking so hard.
So America - take heed. You may have the strongest and largest economy in the world but at what cost? Try putting the credit cards away and stop giving yourself everything you want, only meet your needs. Don't be so spoiled that you think you MUST have everything you desire; get away from the idea of keeping up with the Joneses. What you might find if you do just might be what you're looking for instead...
Saturday, January 27, 2007
fired for doing your job?
This blog originally was intended to be about issues relating to education and as you all know, it never really ended up being that. Its become more of a place for me to rant about one thing or another and make my opinion known. After reading this story (click on 'fired for doing your job?' above) about a teacher in Yonkers, this post is a flash back to what this blog was intended to be.
So a teacher in Yonkers is on administrative leave and will probably be fired for doing what his job. Jeffrey Kirby of the Pearls Hawthorne school in Yonkers teaches 7th grade there, or at least he did. Mr. Kirby was removed from his classroom for asking students to draw pictures of the male anatomy on the board.
Now when you first read that, you may think to yourself, "Well he should get fired for that. That's inappropriate for just any teacher to ask of his middle school students." Only Mr. Kirby teaches ANATOMY, or at least he tried to.
Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't anatomy the study of the human body and I do believe the penis is a part of the human (male) body. What's wrong with asking a student to be able to draw or annotate a diagram of something that s/he is learning? Should we fire math teachers for asking their students to draw a parallelogram? Should english teachers be removed from their classrooms for asking students to diagram sentences? Heck, should I - as a physics teacher - be sent home with my pink slip when I ask my kids to draw a picture that represents the forces acting on an object?
The answers to each and every one of those questions is an emphatic and resounding NO! So why is the Superintendent Bernard Pierorazio saying that it (the content covered) was "age inappropriate" for the students of the class? Age inappropriate??? HE WAS TEACHING THE STATE MANDATED CURRICULUM!!! This guy was doing his job, educating kids about what the human reproductive system looks like and is being fired for doing what the state told him to.
This is just wrong and support needs to be shown for Jeffrey Kirby. I went to the Pearls Hawthorne school's website so that I could send him an email as a showing of my support. HE'S ALREDY BEEN REMOVED FROM THE STAFF LISTING. That's right, the school doesn't want anyone to know how to contact him to show support. While at the school's website, I checked to see if he was teaching the curriculum that was written. The curriculum maps are linked on the site but you get a 404 error (file not found) when you try to access the maps. So I went to the NY State Education website and found the pdf of their curriculum, to see if Mr. Kirby was indeed teaching was he was supposed to. Here's what the curriculum says he is supposed to teach.
PERFORMANCE INDICATOR 1.2 - Explain the functioning of the major human organ systems and their interactions.
Major Understandings:
1.2a Each system is composed of organs and tissues which perform specific functions and interact with each other, e.g., digestion, gas exchange, excretion, circulation, locomotion, control, coordination, reproduction, and protection from disease.
1.2i The male and female reproductive systems are responsible for producing sex cells necessary for the production of offspring.
So what happens when kids, who are in the midst of puberty and wonder about their sexual self, ask a question about how the male and female reproductive systems work? Does the teacher say, "Sorry kids, I can only tell you that there are reproductive systems and that's what makes embryos?" No, because then parents would get in an uproar about how an ANATOMY teacher didn't teach them what the STATE MANDATED CURRICULUM told them to.
Look at Performance Indicator 1.2 - It says to "explain the functioning of the major organ systems". How exactly does a teacher get a student to understand how an organ system works without having them know the parts and be able to describe how those parts work? And what's wrong with asking kids to volunteer to come to the board to draw a representation of a major organ system? Would he be in this same mess if he asked someone to draw the circulatory system? No, but Lord help him if he had asked them to draw the excretory system - imagine a kid drawing an anus on the board...
I'm really chaffed at this one. I am embarassed that the Puritanical ethos of this country stymies someone when they try to educate people. What's wrong with learning about how the human body works? Aren't parents complaining that schools don't do enough to educate kids about the perils of sex and how to avoid teen pregnancy? How else are kids going to know how to prevent getting pregnant without knowing anything about how a penis or vagina work? Abstinence is great but most teens are sexually active and 7th graders are not known for making the best decisions. Some of them are mature enough to be fertile (and carry a child) and it would be a disservice to them to not educate them on their body and how it works.
Since I am a bit riled up about this, I've decided to write to the superintendent and let him know my opinion. There is a webpage specifically designated for contacting him. If you'd like to write to this spineless weasel who doesn't support his teachers, feel free to write to Bernard Pierorazio, Superintendent of Yonkers Public Schools. Be sure to tell him that he's a moron too.
So a teacher in Yonkers is on administrative leave and will probably be fired for doing what his job. Jeffrey Kirby of the Pearls Hawthorne school in Yonkers teaches 7th grade there, or at least he did. Mr. Kirby was removed from his classroom for asking students to draw pictures of the male anatomy on the board.
Now when you first read that, you may think to yourself, "Well he should get fired for that. That's inappropriate for just any teacher to ask of his middle school students." Only Mr. Kirby teaches ANATOMY, or at least he tried to.
Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't anatomy the study of the human body and I do believe the penis is a part of the human (male) body. What's wrong with asking a student to be able to draw or annotate a diagram of something that s/he is learning? Should we fire math teachers for asking their students to draw a parallelogram? Should english teachers be removed from their classrooms for asking students to diagram sentences? Heck, should I - as a physics teacher - be sent home with my pink slip when I ask my kids to draw a picture that represents the forces acting on an object?
The answers to each and every one of those questions is an emphatic and resounding NO! So why is the Superintendent Bernard Pierorazio saying that it (the content covered) was "age inappropriate" for the students of the class? Age inappropriate??? HE WAS TEACHING THE STATE MANDATED CURRICULUM!!! This guy was doing his job, educating kids about what the human reproductive system looks like and is being fired for doing what the state told him to.
This is just wrong and support needs to be shown for Jeffrey Kirby. I went to the Pearls Hawthorne school's website so that I could send him an email as a showing of my support. HE'S ALREDY BEEN REMOVED FROM THE STAFF LISTING. That's right, the school doesn't want anyone to know how to contact him to show support. While at the school's website, I checked to see if he was teaching the curriculum that was written. The curriculum maps are linked on the site but you get a 404 error (file not found) when you try to access the maps. So I went to the NY State Education website and found the pdf of their curriculum, to see if Mr. Kirby was indeed teaching was he was supposed to. Here's what the curriculum says he is supposed to teach.
PERFORMANCE INDICATOR 1.2 - Explain the functioning of the major human organ systems and their interactions.
Major Understandings:
1.2a Each system is composed of organs and tissues which perform specific functions and interact with each other, e.g., digestion, gas exchange, excretion, circulation, locomotion, control, coordination, reproduction, and protection from disease.
1.2i The male and female reproductive systems are responsible for producing sex cells necessary for the production of offspring.
So what happens when kids, who are in the midst of puberty and wonder about their sexual self, ask a question about how the male and female reproductive systems work? Does the teacher say, "Sorry kids, I can only tell you that there are reproductive systems and that's what makes embryos?" No, because then parents would get in an uproar about how an ANATOMY teacher didn't teach them what the STATE MANDATED CURRICULUM told them to.
Look at Performance Indicator 1.2 - It says to "explain the functioning of the major organ systems". How exactly does a teacher get a student to understand how an organ system works without having them know the parts and be able to describe how those parts work? And what's wrong with asking kids to volunteer to come to the board to draw a representation of a major organ system? Would he be in this same mess if he asked someone to draw the circulatory system? No, but Lord help him if he had asked them to draw the excretory system - imagine a kid drawing an anus on the board...
I'm really chaffed at this one. I am embarassed that the Puritanical ethos of this country stymies someone when they try to educate people. What's wrong with learning about how the human body works? Aren't parents complaining that schools don't do enough to educate kids about the perils of sex and how to avoid teen pregnancy? How else are kids going to know how to prevent getting pregnant without knowing anything about how a penis or vagina work? Abstinence is great but most teens are sexually active and 7th graders are not known for making the best decisions. Some of them are mature enough to be fertile (and carry a child) and it would be a disservice to them to not educate them on their body and how it works.
Since I am a bit riled up about this, I've decided to write to the superintendent and let him know my opinion. There is a webpage specifically designated for contacting him. If you'd like to write to this spineless weasel who doesn't support his teachers, feel free to write to Bernard Pierorazio, Superintendent of Yonkers Public Schools. Be sure to tell him that he's a moron too.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
whirlwind tour
Hello 2007!
Its been a while since my last post and that comes from the fact that I'm on vacation. I've spent the better part of the last month traveling around and seeing other parts of the world - at least outside of South America. For Christmas I was down in New Zealand and enjoyed seeing such a magnificent place, it is amazing how diverse the islands are. Now I'm in the US, visiting family and friends across the Southwest. Man its been a lot of traveling!
And it got me to wondering just how much traveling I have done over the last 12 months. It all started last February when I left Rotterdam and flew to Waterloo, Iowa for the UNI Overseas Job Fair. Since that weekend in the beginning of February, its been a bunch of planes, trains, automobiles, motorcycles, and ferries. So I sat down with Google Earth and made an estimate of the distance that I've traveled in the last year and I was kinda amazed at how much I've covered.
90,000 km (55,000 miles).
That's more than twice the circumference of the Earth (at the equator). Most of that is via airplanes, as to be expected, and includes 4 trans-Atlantic and 2 trans-Pacific journeys. Some of it comes via trains, almost 4000 km (2400 miles) on 3 different continents. Automobiles and ferries account for another 4000 km (2400 miles) and that omits the small amount covered via motorcycle. 7 different countries on 4 different continents, its been one heck of a year. No wonder I'm so tired. ;)
But travel is why I'm an international educator and I relish the amount of travel I am gifted with my profession (and its vacations). So here's to the joy of seeing new places and experiencing new cultures. I wonder how long this personal record of 90,000 km in one year will last...
Its been a while since my last post and that comes from the fact that I'm on vacation. I've spent the better part of the last month traveling around and seeing other parts of the world - at least outside of South America. For Christmas I was down in New Zealand and enjoyed seeing such a magnificent place, it is amazing how diverse the islands are. Now I'm in the US, visiting family and friends across the Southwest. Man its been a lot of traveling!
And it got me to wondering just how much traveling I have done over the last 12 months. It all started last February when I left Rotterdam and flew to Waterloo, Iowa for the UNI Overseas Job Fair. Since that weekend in the beginning of February, its been a bunch of planes, trains, automobiles, motorcycles, and ferries. So I sat down with Google Earth and made an estimate of the distance that I've traveled in the last year and I was kinda amazed at how much I've covered.
90,000 km (55,000 miles).
That's more than twice the circumference of the Earth (at the equator). Most of that is via airplanes, as to be expected, and includes 4 trans-Atlantic and 2 trans-Pacific journeys. Some of it comes via trains, almost 4000 km (2400 miles) on 3 different continents. Automobiles and ferries account for another 4000 km (2400 miles) and that omits the small amount covered via motorcycle. 7 different countries on 4 different continents, its been one heck of a year. No wonder I'm so tired. ;)
But travel is why I'm an international educator and I relish the amount of travel I am gifted with my profession (and its vacations). So here's to the joy of seeing new places and experiencing new cultures. I wonder how long this personal record of 90,000 km in one year will last...
Thursday, December 21, 2006
power of song
Sometimes there are just certain memories that are made much more powerful through the stimulus that surrounds you at the moment it happens. The smell of fresh brownies in the kitchen for a birthday, the explosion of fireworks above your head during a first kiss, or the song playing on radio when driving home from a far away place.
The other night I was at the gym, happily stomping away on the elliptical for my cardio workout (and yes, I was in step with the music) when a certain song started to play on my headphones - "Let's Get Loud" by J-Lo. It instantly brought a smile to my face for the distinct memory it brought to mind.
When I was working in Rotterdam, we played a weekend match down in Luxembourg and the two teams drove down there in the school vans. It wasn't planned this way but it just happened that the Varsity piled in my van and the JV girls jumped in with their coach, Tracy. We had a successful weekend and the girls were in good spirits as we headed back to Rotterdam on the rolling highways of Belgium. And then it happened.
"Let's Get Loud" came on the radio and before I knew it, the volume was cranked and the girls were singing the song at the top of their lungs in the van. It was amazing, the energy of the girls flooded over me as the van bounced up and down the road as they jumped around singing - I was captivated by the moment. The song finished a few minutes later and the girls slowed back down to a more catatonic-like teenage state after their frenzy. I was smiling the rest of the way back to Rotterdam.
And so when the J-Lo song came on over my headphones, I was swept back to that moment and I smiled as I bounced on the elliptical myself. I was reminded of the wonderful girls I had on that team and the fun that we had playing volleyball. Cherished memory indeed.
The other night I was at the gym, happily stomping away on the elliptical for my cardio workout (and yes, I was in step with the music) when a certain song started to play on my headphones - "Let's Get Loud" by J-Lo. It instantly brought a smile to my face for the distinct memory it brought to mind.
When I was working in Rotterdam, we played a weekend match down in Luxembourg and the two teams drove down there in the school vans. It wasn't planned this way but it just happened that the Varsity piled in my van and the JV girls jumped in with their coach, Tracy. We had a successful weekend and the girls were in good spirits as we headed back to Rotterdam on the rolling highways of Belgium. And then it happened.
"Let's Get Loud" came on the radio and before I knew it, the volume was cranked and the girls were singing the song at the top of their lungs in the van. It was amazing, the energy of the girls flooded over me as the van bounced up and down the road as they jumped around singing - I was captivated by the moment. The song finished a few minutes later and the girls slowed back down to a more catatonic-like teenage state after their frenzy. I was smiling the rest of the way back to Rotterdam.
And so when the J-Lo song came on over my headphones, I was swept back to that moment and I smiled as I bounced on the elliptical myself. I was reminded of the wonderful girls I had on that team and the fun that we had playing volleyball. Cherished memory indeed.
Friday, December 15, 2006
get a thicker hide
With apologies to MO, I'll do that story on college football here shortly. But for now, I've got something to rant about. Rosie O'Donnell and her comments made on The View that are getting groups up in arms.
From the Yahoo! news story (click on 'get a thicker hide' to read the full story), the following excerpt.
NEW YORK - Rosie O'Donnell says she's sorry for mocking spoken Chinese on "The View," but an association that represents journalists from diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds, including Chinese American, says it wasn't enough.
In a Dec. 5 segment, O'Donnell joked about how Danny DeVito's recent — and seemingly drunken — appearance on the ABC daytime talk show had become international news.
"You know, you can imagine in China it's like `ching chong, ching chong chong, Danny DeVito, ching chong chong chong, drunk, "The View," ching chong,'" the 44-year-old comedian said.
On Thursday's show, she told the audience: "To say ching chong to someone is very offensive, and some Asian people have told me it's as bad as the n-word. Which I was like, `Really? I didn't know that.'"
Karen Lincoln Michel, president-elect of Unity: Journalists of Color Inc., said O'Donnell's remarks "really didn't sound like an apology to me."
Lincoln Michel said Unity was waiting for Barbara Walters, who created the show, to respond to a letter asking her to publicly acknowledge that O'Donnell's remarks were "patently offensive."
Ok, so Rosie is clueless and her apology may have been lacking but c'mon folks, you gotta have a thicker hide than to allow something like that to get you all riled up. She said that she didn't know it was a bad word (or expression) and while ignorance isn't an excuse for a lot of things, people have got to understand that it was unintentional and move on. Educate and tolerate. Accept that people don't always know what they are saying and help them to overcome their own ignorance. Don't get all huffy about what someone on TV said and demand a public apology.
Listen, I've made a lot of mistakes traveling to other countries and I can't even count the number of times I must have offended someone by saying something stupid or doing something even worse. And to top it off, I've not apologized to those whom I've offended since I've not known that I've offended them. But hey, at least they are tough enough not to take every little comment as a personal attack on their culture and society.
So America - stop taking everything to heart. You live in a country where free speech is not only allowed but encouraged. It means that you are going to be offended by what people say sometimes. It means you can offend people without fear of going to jail (depending on who you offend). However, it also means that you need to be tolerant of those who say things that you don't agree with. If someone says, "ching chong ching chong" because they don't know a lick of Chinese, accept it and move on. In this case, it was intended as a joke. Laugh at it and move on. Chinese (both versions) is a hard language and the tonal nature of it means that many words sound the same to Westerners. You don't see me getting all pissed at people when I hear someone describe English as two dogs having a conversation (some say that English sounds like a barking dog). I realize that English is a funny language and accept that someone else's perspective is different than mine.
Stop the Political Correctness. Don't be so worried about always saying the right thing, just say WHAT you mean and deal with it later. Holy shit, Americans come across as being the bitchiest, whiniest, non-tolerant bunch of ignorant red-necks on the entire planet. Get over the comment and live your life. Stop worrying about what she said about you or what he said about them and start worrying about the things that ARE important in life. If people spent more time and gave more attention to issues like poverty, homelessness, and lack of a decent standard of health care, imagine what the US could truly be like. Now THAT would be an amazing country.
From the Yahoo! news story (click on 'get a thicker hide' to read the full story), the following excerpt.
NEW YORK - Rosie O'Donnell says she's sorry for mocking spoken Chinese on "The View," but an association that represents journalists from diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds, including Chinese American, says it wasn't enough.
In a Dec. 5 segment, O'Donnell joked about how Danny DeVito's recent — and seemingly drunken — appearance on the ABC daytime talk show had become international news.
"You know, you can imagine in China it's like `ching chong, ching chong chong, Danny DeVito, ching chong chong chong, drunk, "The View," ching chong,'" the 44-year-old comedian said.
On Thursday's show, she told the audience: "To say ching chong to someone is very offensive, and some Asian people have told me it's as bad as the n-word. Which I was like, `Really? I didn't know that.'"
Karen Lincoln Michel, president-elect of Unity: Journalists of Color Inc., said O'Donnell's remarks "really didn't sound like an apology to me."
Lincoln Michel said Unity was waiting for Barbara Walters, who created the show, to respond to a letter asking her to publicly acknowledge that O'Donnell's remarks were "patently offensive."
Ok, so Rosie is clueless and her apology may have been lacking but c'mon folks, you gotta have a thicker hide than to allow something like that to get you all riled up. She said that she didn't know it was a bad word (or expression) and while ignorance isn't an excuse for a lot of things, people have got to understand that it was unintentional and move on. Educate and tolerate. Accept that people don't always know what they are saying and help them to overcome their own ignorance. Don't get all huffy about what someone on TV said and demand a public apology.
Listen, I've made a lot of mistakes traveling to other countries and I can't even count the number of times I must have offended someone by saying something stupid or doing something even worse. And to top it off, I've not apologized to those whom I've offended since I've not known that I've offended them. But hey, at least they are tough enough not to take every little comment as a personal attack on their culture and society.
So America - stop taking everything to heart. You live in a country where free speech is not only allowed but encouraged. It means that you are going to be offended by what people say sometimes. It means you can offend people without fear of going to jail (depending on who you offend). However, it also means that you need to be tolerant of those who say things that you don't agree with. If someone says, "ching chong ching chong" because they don't know a lick of Chinese, accept it and move on. In this case, it was intended as a joke. Laugh at it and move on. Chinese (both versions) is a hard language and the tonal nature of it means that many words sound the same to Westerners. You don't see me getting all pissed at people when I hear someone describe English as two dogs having a conversation (some say that English sounds like a barking dog). I realize that English is a funny language and accept that someone else's perspective is different than mine.
Stop the Political Correctness. Don't be so worried about always saying the right thing, just say WHAT you mean and deal with it later. Holy shit, Americans come across as being the bitchiest, whiniest, non-tolerant bunch of ignorant red-necks on the entire planet. Get over the comment and live your life. Stop worrying about what she said about you or what he said about them and start worrying about the things that ARE important in life. If people spent more time and gave more attention to issues like poverty, homelessness, and lack of a decent standard of health care, imagine what the US could truly be like. Now THAT would be an amazing country.
Monday, November 20, 2006
drilled into me
Ok, so I'm going to have to admit just how much of a marching band nerd that I truly am. I'm not saying that being in a marching band makes you a nerd, to the contrary. The respect that was afforded to me on the campus of Ohio University when I was in the Marching 110 was amazing and I gained non-nerd status at the time. However as time has gone on, I've reverted in my ways and rejoined the ranks of being a nerd. How you ask?
As any person who marches knows, you always start with your left foot so that the downbeat is always made when that foot hits the ground. It was drilled into me so much that its hard to get that out of my head. Throughout my years of marching (high school and college makes 7 years plus the 3 that I was the assistant band director when I was in California makes it an even 10 years), one thing that has always amazed me is how people can get out of step and not know that they are. For me, its just too hard to walk out of beat and just as hard to not hit the downbeat with my left foot. And tonight was no exception.
I was at the gym tonight, on the elliptical trainer, groovin' to the beat. I've stacked my media player with tons of fast paced music that keeps my feet moving at a substantially higher rate than they would if I were not listening to music. But what I noticed tonight made me accept my marching band nerd-ness. I found that no matter what, I was always trying to keep in sync with the music, just like when I marched. Not only that, but I would alter my cadence to ensure that I was getting my left foot to come down on the downbeat! It just felt wrong to have my right foot coming down when I knew that it should be my left. It must be all those years of Pete Ulrich drilling it into my head that left foot = downbeat.
So thanks Pete, you've managed to make my workouts a head game as I attempt to synchronize my feet properly to the music. And I'm probably the laughing stock of the gym as I make that transition because I know I'm not graceful and look as awkward as a middle schooler trying to kiss a girl for the first time. But hey, at least I know I'm a nerd and can live with it, even be a little proud of it because I am a white guy who's got rhythm, in some elementary form...
As any person who marches knows, you always start with your left foot so that the downbeat is always made when that foot hits the ground. It was drilled into me so much that its hard to get that out of my head. Throughout my years of marching (high school and college makes 7 years plus the 3 that I was the assistant band director when I was in California makes it an even 10 years), one thing that has always amazed me is how people can get out of step and not know that they are. For me, its just too hard to walk out of beat and just as hard to not hit the downbeat with my left foot. And tonight was no exception.
I was at the gym tonight, on the elliptical trainer, groovin' to the beat. I've stacked my media player with tons of fast paced music that keeps my feet moving at a substantially higher rate than they would if I were not listening to music. But what I noticed tonight made me accept my marching band nerd-ness. I found that no matter what, I was always trying to keep in sync with the music, just like when I marched. Not only that, but I would alter my cadence to ensure that I was getting my left foot to come down on the downbeat! It just felt wrong to have my right foot coming down when I knew that it should be my left. It must be all those years of Pete Ulrich drilling it into my head that left foot = downbeat.
So thanks Pete, you've managed to make my workouts a head game as I attempt to synchronize my feet properly to the music. And I'm probably the laughing stock of the gym as I make that transition because I know I'm not graceful and look as awkward as a middle schooler trying to kiss a girl for the first time. But hey, at least I know I'm a nerd and can live with it, even be a little proud of it because I am a white guy who's got rhythm, in some elementary form...
Sunday, November 12, 2006
drag your knee
For those who aren't familiar with how fun this picture is, you won't understand why I've posted this shot. There's something to be said for taking a motorcycle through the curves and leaning it WAY over, to the point where your knee is close to draggin' on the ground. You can feel the excitement pulsating through your veins as you hover above the ground and gently torque back the throttle. You exit the corner, accelerating your butt into the back of the saddle, trying desperately to wipe the silly grin off your face so you can concentrate on the next curve just ahead.
Ahh, the joys of motorcycling...
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