The voting rights act: gutted. Texas: being Texas. And now Zimmerman walks. Stop the world, I want to get off. (And I'm not going to see Ender's Game, either.)

I have always clung to the encouraging idea that social progress marches ever onward, and that bigoted beliefs will slowly die with their demographic. That the majority of haters are aging out of the population, to be replaced by new generations of voters who are either more liberal minded, or completely uninterested in upholding absurd bigotries ( Read more... )

The students I'll be meeting tomorrow are from Bhutan, but the Bhutanese government wants nothing to do with them. Bhutan takes great pride in placing "Gross National Happiness" over Gross National Product, while simultaneously justifying the expulsion of over 100,000 ethnic Nepali citizens since the late 80s.

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(Warning: gun violence)

With only 12 3-hour classes to get through all 100 questions on the US Naturalization Exam, I have to be pretty selective about what goes into a lesson plan. The curriculum follows a similar pattern to what I observed in my own high school history classes--we spend a load of time addressing the Revolutionary and Civil War periods in great detail, ( Read more... )

On March 30, I drove to Athens to attend a talk given by Dr. Stephen Krashen on poverty and education.  I'm mainly familiar with Dr. Krashen as a linguist, and while I have not always agreed with some of his theories about second language acquisition, he is an engaging speaker, and also one of the most prominent figures in the field, so the long ( Read more... )

Best way to beat the crowds on Black Friday? Don't shop. Good lord, people, haven't you got anything better to do? And do you really want a PlayStation or TV or multi-pronged gold-plated nose-picking widget badly enough to stand in line before dawn and beat people up for it? Or pepper spray them? WTF, America? Just W-T-GD-F?

Attended a lantern-making workshop today, in preparation for the FLUX lantern parade at the end of the month. I think today was an appropriate day to make art that brings light into the world.

I'm not so much watching the Super Bowl (bc I'd rather lick concrete), as watching everyone else watch the Super Bowl via Facebook. So, twenty minutes ago, I read about Christina Aguilera screwing up the words to the national anthem. And I noted that the Washington Post apparently shares her issues, because they described the gaffe in the ( Read more... )

...as if a hundred thousand linguists suddenly cried out in anguish.

Arizona Grades Teachers on Fluency

"State education officials say the move is intended to ensure that students with limited English have teachers who speak the language flawlessly."Really? Flawlessly? Hmm. Seems it's all part of the notorious NCLB mess we inherited from...well ( Read more... )

It seems to be my week for protests. This morning I read about a march protesting the plan to cut funding for the GA Council for the Arts. Since the Center for Puppetry Arts, one of my favorite places on earth, is partially funded by the GCA, it seemed like something I didn't want to see happen. So after our Mommy/Baby Class this morning, Z and ( Read more... )