artist auxiliary

atomly:

People who have trouble paying attention are more creative and better at problem solving.  Not too surprising, honestly.

Daydream a little it’s good for you…

a TIME article about a few ways people can help the Japanese right now even if you don’t live there.

Great article on the topic. Respect comes from within, we cannot siphon it from others.

Tom… we are grateful for you and your point of view.

tomcallos:

On Respect and The Martial Artist

If you’re a senior or high-ranking martial artist (and, of course, I am speaking to —and about —myself), you have to, first, ask yourself why you need someone to show you “respect.” Do you think you deserve it? Is it important for you to be acknowledged?…

THIS is why we are losing our best teachers! If we continue to treat the people who educate our children as second class citizens. If we call them names and take away the things that make teaching a rewarding experience for student and teacher, what do we expect?

Something has to change. We need to raise another voice. A louder voice than the folks who are putting teachers down and stripping them of dignity.

Teachers teach us how to do every other job in America. Do we really want to make them into robots? What will that do to our work force? Everything is connected. Think for yourselves. Don’t just vomit what politicians want us to think. 

Teachers deserve as much respect as the President. After all a bunch of Teachers learned him a thing or two before he became who he is today.

moscowburns:

” Then the past few years a few of the buildings in our district didn’t meet their AYP (adequate yearly progress.)  The district began to look for ways to help these building to succeed.  The focus on test scores escalated to a crazy level.  The teachers in one of the elementary buildings in my district were told they could no longer teach anything besides reading, math, and science because those were the subjects that were tested.  Our building wasn’t ever told that specifically, but it was understood that we were to focus on practices that would improve our students’ test-taking skills.
    The district decided to implement required core instructional materials that were mandated to everyone.  Suddenly, the creativity of the job was being removed.  They wanted everybody to teach the same materials, the same way.  I’ve never been one to buck the system, so I began to wrack my brain for how to use these new materials and still keep the lessons interesting for my students.  
    At the same time, class sizes and special needs were growing.  The behavior classroom was closed and its students were mainstreamed into the regular classroom.  I tried to become an expert on dealing with anger issues.  I tried to learn how to help fifth graders with severe disabilities, limited mobility, and cognitive levels of very young children, all in my regular classroom now filled with 30-35 students.  My job became an even greater challenge than it had always been before, but still my attitude was to think “bring it on!”  I just couldn’t fathom the idea that my natural teaching ability wasn’t exactly what was needed to solve any and all challenges that came my way.
……
 But then one Thursday, on the eighth day of my 35th year of teaching, I suddenly thought for the very first time ever, “I don’t want to be a teacher anymore.”  It’s so weird how it just came over me like that.  I don’t know if it’s like the challenges in Survivor where they keep adding water until the bucket finally tips over and the slow leak of problems finally made my bucket tip over.  Or maybe this is how it happens for all older teachers. ”

 

this is what is happening to our educational system. and the right’s constant bashing and criticizing of teachers, calling them greedy, overpaid and ineffective, is only making it worse. not to mention the extremely dangerous practice of neglecting arts programs to focus on preparation for standardized testing.  growing classroom sizes and tightening the budget by cutting funding for public schools, especially those with the greatest need for it.  this is all very bad.


if i ever have kids, i’m going to do the responsible thing and ensure they get their education in one of the 30+ countries with better educational systems than ours. slovak republic, anyone?