Monday, October 28, 2013

When I Taught, Part 2 (see Part 1, 6.10.2013)

After my initial teaching experience in my hometown, the place where I spent a good portion of my own money providing food, school supplies, haircuts and such to those of my students who needed these things, I found myself in a completely different educational environment.  I landed a teaching position with the Muroc Unified School District at Edwards Air Force Base in California where my husband was assigned to the Judge Advocate General's office, his first assignment as a JAG officer.

The school building I was assigned to, on the base, was brand new and housed only sixth and seventh grade classes.  I was part of a team teaching effort and taught the sixth grade social studies/sixth and seventh grade girls physical education component.  Everything I needed or wanted was either housed in the building or could be brought in within a day.  My students were world travelers  by virtue of their parents being stationed at Air Force bases all over the world.  They came to my class armed with knowledge gained from living in other countries and around the United States.

All were well dressed, articulate, eager to share their experiences.  It was exciting to teach kids who didn't have hunger issues or all those issues that come with broken homes, low income or other family problems. I didn't have a plethora of paperwork to do.  I was able to be extremely creative with projects designed to give my students a reason to be enthusiastic about what I was teaching them.  It's the experience I expected to have when I became an elementary school teacher.

That teaching experience at Edwards had the kind of educational atmosphere every public school in the United States should provide.  But that was an exception.  My first teaching job in my home town and this one at Edwards were worlds apart in every sense.  

After Edwards, I took time off to have our sons and I stayed out of teaching until they got into school.  My next teaching experiences were different, weird, and unusual to say the least but that's for another time.


Tuesday, October 22, 2013

C'mon people. Share your thoughts with me!

I know people are reading my blogs.  What I can't understand is why they don't leave comments.  They sometimes indicate on Facebook that they've read it but that's not the same.  They've even mentioned it to my husband.  How come they never mention it on the blog itself or to me directly?  

I really like to write about all kinds of things.  It's what I do best, I think.....well, besides doing research on topics that interest me and interviewing people.  When I started my talk show on the radio in Connecticut I really did my homework on every guest I interviewed.  Researching each guest and coming up with the most interesting and germane questions for discussion really got my juices going. And I loved writing up the  stories I broadcast when I worked as a radio news reporter.      

Getting feedback on what I write is important to me as it would be for anyone who writes.  I just wish I didn't get comments second-hand.

So, I'm asking those of you who do read what I write, let me know what you think by posting your comments at the bottom of the blog entry.  I'm not asking for a long dissertation, just your thoughts on my efforts.  Thanks.


Friday, October 11, 2013

Screwing America, the GOP way.

"I support the troops."  These have become empty words with no real meaning anymore.   We have the Republicans to thank for that.

This phrase has no meaning at all to most Congressional Republicans and the Tea Party. It's just a slogan, a propaganda piece.  What support?  Our troops are not paid a living wage yet they are away from their families for months at a time, living in the worst of conditions, worrying about their families, worrying about their comrades in arms, worried about getting seriously injured or killed.

Now, with the GOP shut down of the government, supporting the troops has given way to "screwing the troops".  And not just the troops.  Screwing the country is what the GOP is after.  And make no mistake, this IS the fault of Congressional Republicans.

From the moment President Obama was elected, to this very minute, their goal was to take down the United States Government (and the Black guy in the White House), trash the Constitution they profess to believe in (but have no idea what it actually says and means) and place a "jackboot" on the necks of all those who are not white, Christian and European-descended.

Republicans' actions amount to sedition, a stirring up of rebellion against the government and that's a crime.  It is subversion of the Constitution. In my view, what the GOP is doing is plain and simple:  domestic terrorism.

Anyone with a working brain understands that the GOP hates the fact that they lost the last two elections to President Obama, that the ACA was part of that victory, and that Americans want that affordable health care.  They just can't stand that the deficit is going down, the economy is improving after the trashing G. W. Bush gave it.

The GOP-Tea Party:  whiny, kvetching bullies, filled with intense hatred for our elected President, inhumane, racist, bigoted, liars, utterly ignorant, anti-science, anti-education, anti-elderly, the sick and the poor, anti-women, anti anything that isn't just like them, narrow-minded religious fanatics intent on making this a Christian nation, easily duped, devoid of critical thinking skills.  They are all mamzers (Yiddish for untrustworthy bastards).

Ah, there are so many more descriptive words I could use but if you're not a right-wing Republican, you already know what they are.  What we need to do is get these Tea Party crazies out of Congress, out of any elected office and out of our hair.  They are killing the American dream and killing the reputation of the United States.  They are the worst of humanity because they don't care for humanity. As my sainted mother would say to these mamzers: Ich hob dich in bod! (Use your imagination)!