…look…before we get to anything else can I just…well…see, it’s like this…gardens are – in addition to often being very pleasant places to spend time – actually quite complicated things which take a good deal of time (both in the sense of time spent working on/in them & in the sense of the passage of time, or more specifically seasons) to really come into their own…so I have to admit that this might seem like a “sure, whatever – I could give a fuck” kind of a thing in light of all the seriously fucked up shit that seems to be passing for current events these days…but
Melania Trump, announced on Monday a plan renovate the White House Rose Garden
…leave aside whether or not the woman has any kind of taste…or knowledge of plants…or landscaping…or even really has any meaningful input in the whole endeavor…if you had any actual intent to see a garden be “renovated” & you were going to be in residence a maximum of 8 years you’d want to get started pretty much on day 1…you might not (or at least I fucking hope not) be thinking of changing the trees but someone once said of those that the best time to plant them would be about 50 years ago & the next best time would be today (they weren’t even talking about the climate change thing, iirc) but sincerely…that little announcement is a big ball of something I’m not even sure “tacky” or “stunt” really covers…although the latter might well prove apposite…anyway…for a given (& in the relative sense arguably not important) value of fucked up…it’s frankly offensive…which as ever is a heading that casts a broad umbrella in terms of news coverage
Dr. Sapan Desai, who supplied the data for two prominent and later retracted studies, is said to have a history of cutting corners and misrepresenting information in pursuit of his ambitions.
This is how the president operates when he is desperate and in trouble.
…& there are pleanty of people getting desperate & in trouble who are more deserving of sympathy…getting sent home because nobody wants to pay you no more is a whole lot different from “being furloughed” even if it started that way…& not all jobs are ones that can be worked from home
…honestly, I thought they were going to start printing burgers before we got to this kind of thing but they do say that necessity is the mother of invention, I suppose
Bioprinting could be used for testing potential treatments for Covid-19, cancer and other diseases.
…& it can be hard to summon up sympathy for some people
…but just for the sake of repeating it because it seems like I could stand to hear it a little more often…people being dead that could be alive…that’s just never a thing it seems like we should be glad about
…& I forget whether I found this on a day I was on deck as far as these are concerned so just in case I forgot…there are other kinds of unmasking which are likewise some shit we’d all be better off without
After a Russia expert who had collected research on Donald Trump for a disputed dossier agreed to tell the F.B.I. what he knew about it, law enforcement officials declassified a road map to identifying him.
…on the other hand…how much longer do we have to keep speculating on Joe’s running mate?
Susan Rice Wants to Run for Office. Will Her First Campaign Be for V.P.?
…on the other other hand…the question of how the debate thing is going to work remains morbidly fascinating…attempting to loom in your opponent’s background like an overweight chimp with silverback delusions is going to be tough to pull off on a zoom call…& just the gatecrashing possibilities alone are enough to get carried away with
…& speaking of carried away…if you want a quick sketch of some of the ways that “clever” polling questions are extrapolated the “why they asked” bits that you can see if you fill out the questionaire here are an interesting reminder if not particularly revelatory…& you don’t have to fill out the demographic bit at the end to get to read them or compare your answers with the rest of the ones they’ve got
Jeebus, it’s like MLB didn’t have a fucking plan when things go sideways.
The Canadian Feds are looking wiser and wiser for not letting this bullshit season happen here.
Of course melania wants to return the Rose Garden to it’s original 1962 state. She, like her husband, has no vision and has proved time and again that she can only imitate, not create.
Doctor backed by Trump who pushes Hydroxychloroquine and opposes masks has truly nutty ideas.
The doctor “has often claimed that gynecological problems like cysts and endometriosis are in fact caused by people having sex in their dreams with demons and witches. ”
“She alleges alien DNA is currently used in medical treatments, and that scientists are cooking up a vaccine to prevent people from being religious. And, despite appearing in Washington, D.C. to lobby Congress on Monday, she has said that the government is run in part not by humans but by “reptilians” and other aliens.”
I watched about 20 seconds of that shit show last night. Absolutely deranged. Did you see Jr. got temporarily suspended from Twitter for sharing it though? LOL!
*completely misses all the links*
hey…i know theres some foodies here
i have found meself in possession of some red bass…what would you do with it?
im thinking….sear it…and maybe serve with equally seared brocolli, baby spuds and a slice of lemon
…searing sounds good…kind of assuming when you say “some red bass” you don’t mean whole fish?
…because I know that if you take a whole fish, score the sides of the thing & rub the zest of some citrus into it & stuff the cavity with some thyme & slices of whatever you took the zest off before sprinkling some oil over it & wrapping the whole thing in a sort of tinfoil calzone & throw that in an oven/under a grill it tends to be pretty tasty?
…or a bunch of lemongrass & ginger instead of the thyme
…might work for fillets but I haven’t tried it…so I expect someone has a better idea…like coating one side with harissa paste before you sear it…or something fancy?
i have 2 pretty oversized skin on fillets
tbh…marinating it in something could be good too…but..that’ll take an extra day (i have nothing to marinate it in right now) and i have no idea how long this will keep
…I’m pretty sure that citrus juice cooks fish on a chemical level (like ceviche & stuff) but some sort of herb/spice paste like harissa applied to the side that isn’t skin & then sear skin-side down…maybe?
…the poach-in-tinfoil thing is good but maybe a bit of a faff for just fillets?
…up to you if you flip the things & sear the side with the extra stuff since I think it’s optional…& maybe depends what you plan to have it with
…people pay a lot for lemon sole & I think that’s pretty nearly just grilled/fried in butter?
…pepper & lemon to taste…so maybe not super helpful but I think if you don’t overcook it the fish does a lot of the being tasty for you?
tbh…i flip everything….but thats mostly coz i can do the fancy pancake flip and its fun
harrissa sounds pretty good tho
im adding that to my option list for tomorow
i actually went with salt pepper and butter…forgot the lemon..and i grilled it..lol.. turns out red bass is one fishy smelling fishy when its cooking…delicious tho
served it with couscous n brocolli…all went together pretty nicely if i do say so myself (and i do)
“Teachers did not enlist to die at work”
I know that’s a bit of a throwaway line, under the pic, on the NBC “Think” oped…
But it reminds me of the excuse/ argument in the “Blue Lives Matter!!!!” camp, of “Cops didn’t sign up to die at work!”
And, frankly, in this day & age, of deranged folks who try to use guns to make their points, it’s a crock. ANY of us who ho into Ed nowadays DO have it in the back of our minds, at any given time during the day, that YES, we could die at work.
We’d die doing our damndest, to save as many of our kiddos as we could. And *hopefully* we would be able to either de-escalate a situation *before* it happened, or barricade a room & evacuate our tinies out the windows, if *at all* possible…
But–JUST LIKE COPS–this is our reality now.
Because fucking shit-for-brains cowards, whose egos are tied up in their dick size & turgidity feel the need to mask their percieved “inadequacies” with ever more & bigger firepower…
Cops–if they are honest–know in their heart of hearts, that YES, they might not make it home that day… but many of them like what they do, and weigh the odds, and understand that the likelihood of *this being the day* (while they will whine about it like a motherfuckers to anyone who gives them a news platform!), is infinitesimally small.
We know in education, too, that *this could be the day* that some deranged asshat decides our building, and our kiddosare the ones they want to use, to advance their sick manifesto…
We do.
We go through drills, we practice scenarios, and we build that muscle memory multiple times a year, so that we KNOW–“Ok, get the kids in, pull the magnet off the door so it locks, make sure _____ is taking the kids to the corner away from the door. _______ has the lights…go pull the blinds… who has the backpack?… is the walkie over there?..Oh yeah–grab the fidgets…can I grab the iPad, to keep ______ calm & quiet?… lemme pull out my phone, so I can turn on my flashlight for _____, to keep him calm–i’ll sit him in my lap, so I can sing softly & do squishes/heavy pressure down his arms & back, so he doesn’t try to run…”
ALL THAT^^^?
That happens in… three or so minutes?
And then we wait…then we check in when they call our room # over the walkies, and thank GOD, so far every time(!), it’s just been a drill–practice & a muscle-memory building exercise.
But just like the scenarios that Rick Rescorla had folks practice over & over again, which saved Literally thousands of lives at Morgan Stanley and in the South Tower on 9-11, we PRACTICE, we train, so that In that moment–If the unthinkable happens–more people make it home that day–even if not all of us do.
This is the Reality of education, in our current era.
We aren’t just charged with caring for kids, shaping minds, feeding brains & bodies, watching for abuse, creating caring & resilient young people, and teaching them how to be good people in a civil society, with the scantest of resources at our disposal.
We also know–in our heart of hearts, that the society which so disrespects & disregards us by calling our work “child care,” “glorified babysitting,” or “if you can’t Do, you teach”… That same society also literally EXPECTS us to be willing to literally DIE for our kids.
They do.
In programs like mine?
There is no way to safely “socially distance.” Three, four, and five year olds do not do it with ANY sort of regularity–and that’s the neurotypical ones!😆😂🤣🤣🤣
My kiddos?
The neurodivergent ones like I was as a child? We don’t even always understand our own edges… Where *our* body ends, and the rest of the world begins… I swear to god, sometimes,as a child, I FELT like you could perhaps be overlapping a bit with the things around you–people, objects, pets, whatever–a bit like the electrons in an atom’s field, and how they can be orbiting through shared spaces, as long as they’re not in the same place, at the same time…
My kiddos have no “personal bubble.” Honestly, *I* often have very little personal bubble, either! When I remember to have one/use one, it is because *for me,* that was 100% a learned behavior.
Which is why it doesn’t really ever bother me, when my kiddos lean, or try to sit on me, or literally get up in my face so close, that we mutually appear to have *that one, giant, eye*🤣🤣🤣💖… because I LOVED that as a child, too. And it gave *me* comfort.
And it helped me to learn where *my* edges were–where *my* body stopped, and the rest of the world (and other people!) began.
My kiddos explore.
They touch *everything.*
They push it, they pull on it, to see what happens, and what those things DO… Some of them literally explore the world with their mouths–sometimes, even walking through the world, with their tongue out, using it like an extra finger (which can also *taste* as it feels things!😉💖).
Others literally need support to sit, or be placed into their walkers, wheelchairs, or rifton chairs.
Some need their hand held for support & stability, as they navigate the halls or classroom…
There ARE no “personal bubbles” in ECSE.
And truthfully, that’s one of the things I *love* about working in ECSE.
As someone who WAS the (undiagnosed!) neurodivergent child myself, I can take all of my own experiences–ESPECIALLY the failures(!), and I can teach my kiddos how to navigate around & past them, without falling flat on their faces like I did.
But Covid is… a bearbug–to the Nth degree.
Because there is no way we’re going to be able to gear up, to a “biohazard level-3 laboratory” degree.
We WON’T have full tyvek suits. Or N-95 masks, face shields, etc…
Neither will our sweet, but MESSY, 3’s, 4, ‘s, or 5’s.💖
When we go back, and when we are in person, honestly?
People WILL get sick. And some ARE going to die from this… people in school, and–even more tragically for some of our kiddos–peopleat home.💔
Because we Already go through rounds of “everyone comes back, and we pass ALL the germs around!” at the beginning of the year, after Thanksgiving break, after Winter break, and after Spring Break.
The kids get each other sick during the first 2-3 weeks of school, EVERY time, and then the staff get it during the 3rd & 4th weeks after those breaks… at EVERY school, EVERY daycare, and every other place kids congregate for hours at a time…
As you get on in years at your site, your immunity against those colds strengthen, and you’re less likely to get the *bad* version of “the crud,” but we still catch *something* every year.
This time, though?
It’s going to have parallels with those disaster-preparedness/active shooter drills events… there Will be events in every school that opens up.
Cases of Covid.
In many, there are going to be a death–sometimes more than *a* within the district. Just like there were in schools in NYC last spring.
Kids, staff, and teachers–all beloved people–are going to pass away from this. Family members and friends, too. Others will be disabled for their lifetimes…
We can’t Not provide services. Legally, and more importantly Ethically/Morally, we have to…
But, we KNOW, deep down, that realistically–just like we know our reality with school shootings–that if (when!!) schools open up–frankly because of Antivaxxers–even AFTER there’s a vaccine– some of us *aren’t* going to be alive at the end of the school year, because of Covid.
That’s just the reality of life in the US right now.
…just my opinion & all…but I feel like that all ought to be above the line where people could talk about it underneath instead of all the way down here
…thanks for taking the time…& as it happens thanks just generally for doing what you do
…but there’s a lot of stuff in that comment that many of the links that crop up in these about the timelines & requirements being discussed regarding the return of students to full-time education have made me think about & I for one could stand to hear more about what that looks like from someone with more direct involvement than I have in that end of it
Thank you,my friend!😉😁💖
Regarding the “above the line” bit, vs rambling down here as a groundling in the yard–part of it is that there seem to have been a lot more rules** for me to have forgotten, than there are when throwing up a ramble over in the Kinjaverse.
And part of it is also my ADHD-ishness, plus free time😉
With me now working 5x/wk at the grocery store, my 7 hours of work is easily stretching out into a 9-10+ hour chunk out of my day, once the commute is factored in🙃 (that’s why I haven’t been participating & commenting as much lately, too!).
**NOT that the rules are a bad thing!!!–they made perfect sense! Buuuut I didn’t quite understand them back-in-the-day, when they were pinned-ish to the landing page, and I’ve basically forgotten what they were (something about… posting with the proper tags(?) so as not to make Myo’s life a living hell is about the only one I can recall!)😖😬🥴
But, I wouldn’t mind a discussion or eighty on Ed and COVID–whether on the idealism/possibilities vs the reality of the situation in actual classrooms like the ones I will (hopefully!) be in, later on this year.***
Or how DeVos is a terrible, evil, malevolence bent on eradicating public ed as we know it, and completely unfit for her position…
Or some of the ways we, as educators, fuck up repeatedly, disservicing our kiddos, because the info we’re using is old/bad/whatever, and we may not even *know* that, because WE get taught bad info in college!
See topics like; how Black boys are flagged for SPED screening & found to have EBD’s [Emotional & Behavior Disorders] at rates FAR exceeding their white male counterparts; or the adultification of young Black girls in Educational & Societal settings, placing demands on them that 1. Their brains are not yet mature enough to navigate by themselves, or 2.which their white female cohorts do not often–if EVER–face; or how Girls are typically NOT seen as possibly having/screened for ASD’s, because the societal narrative is that–as formerly with ADHD in our generations–“It only happens to Boys”; etc., etc., etc.😉
***Or the classes I’ll also hopefully be participating in, as a student again myself later on this year (fingers crossed!😁🤞🤞🤞).
It’s a LOT easier to be the adult student in class, than a kiddo, though. Doubly/exponentially more so, compared to my kiddos–particularly some of the ones behind the thickest ASD fortresses/walls….
And YEAH, obviously I have some… FEELINGS😉😈, about the “Thin Blue Line”/”Blue Lives Matter”/”We’re co-opting The Punisher & turning him BLUE!” bullshit… as someone who is also now in a field where, yes, I have an awareness that (just like Medicine, Soldiering, or Firefighting, frankly!), I might one day have my own life on the line because of the work I love…
Hopefully *not!* But we get no guarantees in life, besides the ever-proverbial “Death and Taxes”😉
I’m getting better with my levels of ADHD-ness, now that I’m on the Vyvanse my primary care person prescribed… she upped me to the next dosage as of today, because I’m still having some issues with focus. It’s better than it was (SERIOUSLY, sometimes the inside of my brain feels like I have a 3-5ring circus going on *at all times,* and one of those rings is ALWAYS a group of mischievous monkeys trying to scramble their way into the *other* rings to steal things like the motorcycles & clowncars & trying to send the performing dogs up into the audience–BECAUSE WHO DOESN’T LOVE PUPPIES?!?!???” 😉😆🤣)
…but I’m still not *quite* to a point where I can hold focus enough to remember all the rules to write a post, and then to remember to double check things pre-posting it, annnnd then respond to comments, without first dropping into about eleventy-billion internet rabbitholes first😉
I’m feeling like I have *a bit* more energy lately, instead of everything being dissipated by my brain hopping from topic to topic, then back again…
But I’m not *quite* batting 1000 yet…
Having realized the fact that I was evidently burning a loooooot of my energy as *hyperfocus* with my pre-K’ers, and not having that outlet during this stretch has been enlightening, but exasperating!
Is there a way, perhaps–if I have an idea–to write something up in Word, and then to figure out the posting rules, appropriate tags, etc., and then get it posted?
If it would, then I probably could do a write-up, or a few (eventually and over time!😉), and in particular, on my current “Mariana Trench Deep, and a meter-wide” favorite areas of interest like Ed and Disability, and how those things intersect with Race, and Politics, and the Urban/Rural divide, and Poverty, plus the school-to-prison-pipeline, and why EVERYONE ought to care about this stuff, because!!!….
😉
Like Pat Tillman, and now John Lewis, he was a guy with an unmistakeable point of view that is simply too inconvenient for the easy platitudes mainstream messaging wants to convey. So we get meaningless salutes to the man that dodge the difficulty of what he preached. This is a great piece on him. I still remember the story of the eight Ps.
That we have “active shooter drills” in the same way we have fire drills is such American bullshit.
I just can’t with that subject. Just the fact that they exist is Exhibit A on how America is a failed state.
Agreed, my friend, agreed.As a great Senator & VP from my state once said,
“It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.”
(Sorry for the whackadoodle font, I’m having supper & don’t feel like typing alllll that out one-handed😉)
Our Government is a complete moral failure, and HAS been, for quite some time, now.
Somewhat ironically, too,
Since we have SO traumatized an *entire generation* of young people with “active shooter drills,” schools are now changing the terms they use to describe them when we *do* them, to things like “Lock Out Drill,” (person/threat is outside the building) or “Lock Down Drill” (lock down, barricade if possible, and shelter in place, with lights off, trying to keep the kids calm & quiet).
Thanks for sharing the New Yorker article, BD!💖
Ugggggh, that’s a read💝
I mostly knew about him from the coverage in the days & weeks afterward–the stuff about him being “the guy on the bullhorn” who’d been into disaster preparedness, and brilliantly managed to evacuate *everyone* from Morgan Stanley’s floors, then gone back to help more folks.
I didn’t realize he was also dealing with cancer, and still basically a newlywed. I just knew he was EXTREMELY beloved by all the folks who’d known & talked about him in interviews.
And that his willingness to plan & prepare, and to build that muscle-memory for folks led to so many saved lives that day.
That’s a GREAT article, and it’s also just heartbreaking.
Thanks for sharing it!😉💖
Roses are gay,
Violets are gayer,
This poem sucks,
SO LISTEN TO SLAYER.
Just saying: When you’re about to move out of a house, it’s a smart idea to make some upgrades.
That’s only if you’re putting the house up for sale. Wait … oh, shit.
Jeebus, it’s like MLB didn’t have a fucking plan when things go sideways.
The Canadian Feds are looking wiser and wiser for not letting this bullshit season happen here.
I’m so far gone I found John Sterling and Susan Waldman soothing over the weekend. That couldn’t last, FU 2020.
Of course melania wants to return the Rose Garden to it’s original 1962 state. She, like her husband, has no vision and has proved time and again that she can only imitate, not create.
Doctor backed by Trump who pushes Hydroxychloroquine and opposes masks has truly nutty ideas.
The doctor “has often claimed that gynecological problems like cysts and endometriosis are in fact caused by people having sex in their dreams with demons and witches. ”
“She alleges alien DNA is currently used in medical treatments, and that scientists are cooking up a vaccine to prevent people from being religious. And, despite appearing in Washington, D.C. to lobby Congress on Monday, she has said that the government is run in part not by humans but by “reptilians” and other aliens.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/stella-immanuel-trumps-new-covid-doctor-believes-in-alien-dna-demon-sperm-and-hydroxychloroquine
I watched about 20 seconds of that shit show last night. Absolutely deranged. Did you see Jr. got temporarily suspended from Twitter for sharing it though? LOL!
Damn, that shit is CRAZY!
*completely misses all the links*
hey…i know theres some foodies here
i have found meself in possession of some red bass…what would you do with it?
im thinking….sear it…and maybe serve with equally seared brocolli, baby spuds and a slice of lemon
…searing sounds good…kind of assuming when you say “some red bass” you don’t mean whole fish?
…because I know that if you take a whole fish, score the sides of the thing & rub the zest of some citrus into it & stuff the cavity with some thyme & slices of whatever you took the zest off before sprinkling some oil over it & wrapping the whole thing in a sort of tinfoil calzone & throw that in an oven/under a grill it tends to be pretty tasty?
…or a bunch of lemongrass & ginger instead of the thyme
…might work for fillets but I haven’t tried it…so I expect someone has a better idea…like coating one side with harissa paste before you sear it…or something fancy?
i have 2 pretty oversized skin on fillets
tbh…marinating it in something could be good too…but..that’ll take an extra day (i have nothing to marinate it in right now) and i have no idea how long this will keep
…I’m pretty sure that citrus juice cooks fish on a chemical level (like ceviche & stuff) but some sort of herb/spice paste like harissa applied to the side that isn’t skin & then sear skin-side down…maybe?
…the poach-in-tinfoil thing is good but maybe a bit of a faff for just fillets?
…up to you if you flip the things & sear the side with the extra stuff since I think it’s optional…& maybe depends what you plan to have it with
…people pay a lot for lemon sole & I think that’s pretty nearly just grilled/fried in butter?
…pepper & lemon to taste…so maybe not super helpful but I think if you don’t overcook it the fish does a lot of the being tasty for you?
tbh…i flip everything….but thats mostly coz i can do the fancy pancake flip and its fun
harrissa sounds pretty good tho
im adding that to my option list for tomorow
Can’t go wrong with some salt, pepper, butter and lemon. You could make a beurre blanc if you wanted to get fancy. https://www.thespruceeats.com/beurre-blanc-sauce-recipe-995329
cheers 🙂
*adds to options*
I feel like a pound of butter will make anything taste good.
true dat
i used to butter fry my stale bread….lol
(and by stale i mean gone hard…not mouldy)
i actually went with salt pepper and butter…forgot the lemon..and i grilled it..lol.. turns out red bass is one fishy smelling fishy when its cooking…delicious tho
served it with couscous n brocolli…all went together pretty nicely if i do say so myself (and i do)
…hurrah for that
…& to be honest taking meg’s advice over mine is probably the safe bet on a lot of things, really
…glad it worked out, though
Sometimes I like to use sliced oranges instead of lemon for a slightly sweeter flavor.
“Teachers did not enlist to die at work”
I know that’s a bit of a throwaway line, under the pic, on the NBC “Think” oped…
But it reminds me of the excuse/ argument in the “Blue Lives Matter!!!!” camp, of “Cops didn’t sign up to die at work!”
And, frankly, in this day & age, of deranged folks who try to use guns to make their points, it’s a crock.
ANY of us who ho into Ed nowadays DO have it in the back of our minds, at any given time during the day, that YES, we could die at work.
We’d die doing our damndest, to save as many of our kiddos as we could. And *hopefully* we would be able to either de-escalate a situation *before* it happened, or barricade a room & evacuate our tinies out the windows, if *at all* possible…
But–JUST LIKE COPS–this is our reality now.
Because fucking shit-for-brains cowards, whose egos are tied up in their dick size & turgidity feel the need to mask their percieved “inadequacies” with ever more & bigger firepower…
Cops–if they are honest–know in their heart of hearts, that YES, they might not make it home that day… but many of them like what they do, and weigh the odds, and understand that the likelihood of *this being the day* (while they will whine about it like a motherfuckers to anyone who gives them a news platform!), is infinitesimally small.
We know in education, too, that *this could be the day* that some deranged asshat decides our building, and our kiddos are the ones they want to use, to advance their sick manifesto…
We do.
We go through drills, we practice scenarios, and we build that muscle memory multiple times a year, so that we KNOW–“Ok, get the kids in, pull the magnet off the door so it locks, make sure _____ is taking the kids to the corner away from the door. _______ has the lights…go pull the blinds… who has the backpack?… is the walkie over there?..Oh yeah–grab the fidgets…can I grab the iPad, to keep ______ calm & quiet?… lemme pull out my phone, so I can turn on my flashlight for _____, to keep him calm–i’ll sit him in my lap, so I can sing softly & do squishes/heavy pressure down his arms & back, so he doesn’t try to run…”
ALL THAT^^^?
That happens in… three or so minutes?
And then we wait…then we check in when they call our room # over the walkies, and thank GOD, so far every time(!), it’s just been a drill–practice & a muscle-memory building exercise.
But just like the scenarios that Rick Rescorla had folks practice over & over again, which saved Literally thousands of lives at Morgan Stanley and in the South Tower on 9-11, we PRACTICE, we train, so that In that moment–If the unthinkable happens–more people make it home that day–even if not all of us do.
This is the Reality of education, in our current era.
We aren’t just charged with caring for kids, shaping minds, feeding brains & bodies, watching for abuse, creating caring & resilient young people, and teaching them how to be good people in a civil society, with the scantest of resources at our disposal.
We also know–in our heart of hearts, that the society which so disrespects & disregards us by calling our work “child care,” “glorified babysitting,” or “if you can’t Do, you teach”… That same society also literally EXPECTS us to be willing to literally DIE for our kids.
They do.
In programs like mine?
There is no way to safely “socially distance.” Three, four, and five year olds do not do it with ANY sort of regularity–and that’s the neurotypical ones!😆😂🤣🤣🤣
My kiddos?
The neurodivergent ones like I was as a child? We don’t even always understand our own edges… Where *our* body ends, and the rest of the world begins… I swear to god, sometimes,as a child, I FELT like you could perhaps be overlapping a bit with the things around you–people, objects, pets, whatever–a bit like the electrons in an atom’s field, and how they can be orbiting through shared spaces, as long as they’re not in the same place, at the same time…
My kiddos have no “personal bubble.” Honestly, *I* often have very little personal bubble, either! When I remember to have one/use one, it is because *for me,* that was 100% a learned behavior.
Which is why it doesn’t really ever bother me, when my kiddos lean, or try to sit on me, or literally get up in my face so close, that we mutually appear to have *that one, giant, eye*🤣🤣🤣💖… because I LOVED that as a child, too. And it gave *me* comfort.
And it helped me to learn where *my* edges were–where *my* body stopped, and the rest of the world (and other people!) began.
My kiddos explore.
They touch *everything.*
They push it, they pull on it, to see what happens, and what those things DO… Some of them literally explore the world with their mouths–sometimes, even walking through the world, with their tongue out, using it like an extra finger (which can also *taste* as it feels things!😉💖).
Others literally need support to sit, or be placed into their walkers, wheelchairs, or rifton chairs.
Some need their hand held for support & stability, as they navigate the halls or classroom…
There ARE no “personal bubbles” in ECSE.
And truthfully, that’s one of the things I *love* about working in ECSE.
As someone who WAS the (undiagnosed!) neurodivergent child myself, I can take all of my own experiences–ESPECIALLY the failures(!), and I can teach my kiddos how to navigate around & past them, without falling flat on their faces like I did.
But Covid is… a bearbug–to the Nth degree.
Because there is no way we’re going to be able to gear up, to a “biohazard level-3 laboratory” degree.
We WON’T have full tyvek suits. Or N-95 masks, face shields, etc…
Neither will our sweet, but MESSY, 3’s, 4, ‘s, or 5’s.💖
When we go back, and when we are in person, honestly?
People WILL get sick. And some ARE going to die from this… people in school, and–even more tragically for some of our kiddos–people at home.💔
Because we Already go through rounds of “everyone comes back, and we pass ALL the germs around!” at the beginning of the year, after Thanksgiving break, after Winter break, and after Spring Break.
The kids get each other sick during the first 2-3 weeks of school, EVERY time, and then the staff get it during the 3rd & 4th weeks after those breaks… at EVERY school, EVERY daycare, and every other place kids congregate for hours at a time…
As you get on in years at your site, your immunity against those colds strengthen, and you’re less likely to get the *bad* version of “the crud,” but we still catch *something* every year.
This time, though?
It’s going to have parallels with those disaster-preparedness/active shooter
drillsevents… there Will be events in every school that opens up.Cases of Covid.
In many, there are going to be a death–sometimes more than *a* within the district. Just like there were in schools in NYC last spring.
Kids, staff, and teachers–all beloved people–are going to pass away from this. Family members and friends, too. Others will be disabled for their lifetimes…
We can’t Not provide services. Legally, and more importantly Ethically/Morally, we have to…
But, we KNOW, deep down, that realistically–just like we know our reality with school shootings–that if (when!!) schools open up–frankly because of Antivaxxers–even AFTER there’s a vaccine– some of us *aren’t* going to be alive at the end of the school year, because of Covid.
That’s just the reality of life in the US right now.
…just my opinion & all…but I feel like that all ought to be above the line where people could talk about it underneath instead of all the way down here
…thanks for taking the time…& as it happens thanks just generally for doing what you do
…but there’s a lot of stuff in that comment that many of the links that crop up in these about the timelines & requirements being discussed regarding the return of students to full-time education have made me think about & I for one could stand to hear more about what that looks like from someone with more direct involvement than I have in that end of it
Thank you,my friend!😉😁💖
Regarding the “above the line” bit, vs rambling down here as a groundling in the yard–part of it is that there seem to have been a lot more rules** for me to have forgotten, than there are when throwing up a ramble over in the Kinjaverse.
And part of it is also my ADHD-ishness, plus free time😉
With me now working 5x/wk at the grocery store, my 7 hours of work is easily stretching out into a 9-10+ hour chunk out of my day, once the commute is factored in🙃 (that’s why I haven’t been participating & commenting as much lately, too!).
**NOT that the rules are a bad thing!!!–they made perfect sense! Buuuut I didn’t quite understand them back-in-the-day, when they were pinned-ish to the landing page, and I’ve basically forgotten what they were (something about… posting with the proper tags(?) so as not to make Myo’s life a living hell is about the only one I can recall!)😖😬🥴
But, I wouldn’t mind a discussion or eighty on Ed and COVID–whether on the idealism/possibilities vs the reality of the situation in actual classrooms like the ones I will (hopefully!) be in, later on this year.***
Or how DeVos is a terrible, evil, malevolence bent on eradicating public ed as we know it, and completely unfit for her position…
Or some of the ways we, as educators, fuck up repeatedly, disservicing our kiddos, because the info we’re using is old/bad/whatever, and we may not even *know* that, because WE get taught bad info in college!
See topics like; how Black boys are flagged for SPED screening & found to have EBD’s [Emotional & Behavior Disorders] at rates FAR exceeding their white male counterparts; or the adultification of young Black girls in Educational & Societal settings, placing demands on them that 1. Their brains are not yet mature enough to navigate by themselves, or 2.which their white female cohorts do not often–if EVER–face; or how Girls are typically NOT seen as possibly having/screened for ASD’s, because the societal narrative is that–as formerly with ADHD in our generations–“It only happens to Boys”; etc., etc., etc.😉
***Or the classes I’ll also hopefully be participating in, as a student again myself later on this year (fingers crossed!😁🤞🤞🤞).
It’s a LOT easier to be the adult student in class, than a kiddo, though. Doubly/exponentially more so, compared to my kiddos–particularly some of the ones behind the thickest ASD fortresses/walls….
And YEAH, obviously I have some… FEELINGS😉😈, about the “Thin Blue Line”/”Blue Lives Matter”/”We’re co-opting The Punisher & turning him BLUE!” bullshit… as someone who is also now in a field where, yes, I have an awareness that (just like Medicine, Soldiering, or Firefighting, frankly!), I might one day have my own life on the line because of the work I love…
Hopefully *not!* But we get no guarantees in life, besides the ever-proverbial “Death and Taxes”😉
I’m getting better with my levels of ADHD-ness, now that I’m on the Vyvanse my primary care person prescribed… she upped me to the next dosage as of today, because I’m still having some issues with focus. It’s better than it was (SERIOUSLY, sometimes the inside of my brain feels like I have a 3-5ring circus going on *at all times,* and one of those rings is ALWAYS a group of mischievous monkeys trying to scramble their way into the *other* rings to steal things like the motorcycles & clowncars & trying to send the performing dogs up into the audience–BECAUSE WHO DOESN’T LOVE PUPPIES?!?!???” 😉😆🤣)
…but I’m still not *quite* to a point where I can hold focus enough to remember all the rules to write a post, and then to remember to double check things pre-posting it, annnnd then respond to comments, without first dropping into about eleventy-billion internet rabbitholes first😉
I’m feeling like I have *a bit* more energy lately, instead of everything being dissipated by my brain hopping from topic to topic, then back again…
But I’m not *quite* batting 1000 yet…
Having realized the fact that I was evidently burning a loooooot of my energy as *hyperfocus* with my pre-K’ers, and not having that outlet during this stretch has been enlightening, but exasperating!
Is there a way, perhaps–if I have an idea–to write something up in Word, and then to figure out the posting rules, appropriate tags, etc., and then get it posted?
If it would, then I probably could do a write-up, or a few (eventually and over time!😉), and in particular, on my current “Mariana Trench Deep, and a meter-wide” favorite areas of interest like Ed and Disability, and how those things intersect with Race, and Politics, and the Urban/Rural divide, and Poverty, plus the school-to-prison-pipeline, and why EVERYONE ought to care about this stuff, because!!!….
😉
…I think we could figure something out as far as the posting thing goes
…I’ll have a think about what might suit?
Appreciate the mention of Rick Rescorla.
Like Pat Tillman, and now John Lewis, he was a guy with an unmistakeable point of view that is simply too inconvenient for the easy platitudes mainstream messaging wants to convey. So we get meaningless salutes to the man that dodge the difficulty of what he preached. This is a great piece on him. I still remember the story of the eight Ps.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/02/11/the-real-heroes-are-dead
That we have “active shooter drills” in the same way we have fire drills is such American bullshit.
I just can’t with that subject. Just the fact that they exist is Exhibit A on how America is a failed state.
Agreed, my friend, agreed.As a great Senator & VP from my state once said,
“It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.”
(Sorry for the whackadoodle font, I’m having supper & don’t feel like typing alllll that out one-handed😉)
Our Government is a complete moral failure, and HAS been, for quite some time, now.
Somewhat ironically, too,
Since we have SO traumatized an *entire generation* of young people with “active shooter drills,” schools are now changing the terms they use to describe them when we *do* them, to things like “Lock Out Drill,” (person/threat is outside the building) or “Lock Down Drill” (lock down, barricade if possible, and shelter in place, with lights off, trying to keep the kids calm & quiet).
Thanks for sharing the New Yorker article, BD!💖
Ugggggh, that’s a read💝
I mostly knew about him from the coverage in the days & weeks afterward–the stuff about him being “the guy on the bullhorn” who’d been into disaster preparedness, and brilliantly managed to evacuate *everyone* from Morgan Stanley’s floors, then gone back to help more folks.
I didn’t realize he was also dealing with cancer, and still basically a newlywed. I just knew he was EXTREMELY beloved by all the folks who’d known & talked about him in interviews.
And that his willingness to plan & prepare, and to build that muscle-memory for folks led to so many saved lives that day.
That’s a GREAT article, and it’s also just heartbreaking.
Thanks for sharing it!😉💖