RIP: Trayvon Martin

united

i hope i live to see the day...

it's good to remember

Given the current election atmosphere and the state of public education, I thought it would be good to revisit an old song that addresses those very issues.

I should have ran for the Republican Central Committee in precinct 20-A...I might have won!

recent inspiration

OK, so my English 102 class and teacher, Ms. Coyle, have inspired me to revisit this old ground of blogging where I can spill my guts about the things I love, hate or maybe just need a little closer investigation. So let me revive my blog with this...

I'm a 35yr old freshman in college going back to school for a degree in education. I've been a graphic artist for 13 years and at the same employer for 10. There is nothing inspiring about what I do and the environment that I find myself in on a daily basis is deteriorating and repulsive. I'm confined to a 6x4 cubicle. There is nothing that means anything here beyond productivity and paychecks....wow, who wouldn't be inspired by that? I'm sick of ungrateful bosses and an atmosphere that lends itself to drama and chaos every single moment of every day. No one to turn to and no hope for salvation except that I might get fired! Or mysteriously win the lottery that I never play. There are days that I want to kick my own ass for continuing to show up voluntarily put myself through this crap everyday.

On the other hand, I'm going to school to enter a field that has its highest unsatisfactory rate in two decades and is being run more like the private sector everyday. Seasoned teachers are under attack like never before and new teachers are lucky to find a job. The ones that do find jobs are thrown to the wolves under Charter systems that aren't doing much more than babysitting the cities worst behavior problems. 18 years ago my father worked tirelessly to make sure I didn't choose the military or truck driving as a career because he was in the middle of both and could testify for how bad those industries were. I'm not sure my mother wouldn't be saying the same things to me about teaching right now except that she knows that I play by my own rules.

I'm sick of busting my ass for nothing more than a paycheck. There has got to be more to this life than just that...right? I know there is and I'm off to get me a little piece of it!

Stay tuned!

the future of education?

this is mind blowing! not so much because it hasn't been thought of or attempted before, but rather because it's COMPLETELY FREE and very intuitive! if you're a teacher or have school age kids, this is definitely worth your time to watch.

so we've got people like this who has dedicated his life to an idea that would expand and enhance free, public education, and then you have the Scott Walker's, John Kasich's and Robert Bobb's (yeah, that's Bob Bobb) of the world trying to sell public education to the private sector using YOUR tax dollars. that's right, kinda like spending trillions of taxpayer money on Wall Street bonuses. FAIL!

Contemplative practices in education

this is awesome! and much needed. Antioch College is holding a symposium next month about incorporating contemplative practices into higher education. follow the link below!

http://antiochcollege.org/the_antiochian/winter_2011/features/contemplation.html

exercise democracy!

this is going to be a venting post, so please bear with me...

democracy is getting a much needed workout by protesters from Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio and across the globe. South Carolina, Texas, Maine and Maryland are a few of the newcomers that have been inspired by the brave protesters from Wisconsin and have joined in the protests against the upper class attack on labor rights.

have no doubts that this new "fad" of demonizing public workers has NOTHING to do with the budget crisis. it's no coincidence that the new film "Kids Aren't Cars", directed by highly partisan Kyle Olson, has been released very quickly, in small, very poorly edited chunks just in time for the unified Republican attack on unions.

oh yeah...and if you are not one of Forbes' top 400, then you are probably one of the 155,000,000 people who, combined, make less than these elite. USA is outa money? nope, it's just that u don't have any of it, and what little bit you do make, someone else is trying to take to fund trillion dollar bailouts and erroneous wars.

do yourselves a favor people and start thinking for yourselves and taking responsibility for your own thoughts and actions! denounce liberalism, conservatism, fundamentalism, tea-bagism, douchebabism and definitely creationism and promote individualism with tolerance for others and their ideas and the nobelism to know when your own ideas are genius or pure crap as they relate to the greater good of the whole. don't put a turd in a bag and sell it to someone else if you wouldn't gratefully gobble down someone else's shit when they feed it to you!

BLAH!