The practice of shifting clocks twice a year is an annoyance to everyone. Its roots go back to the Enlightenment, when such luminaries as Ben Franklin suggested the practice in part to keep urbanites, who lived by the clock, in better summertime sync with the rural majority who lived by…
Move on is giving away a great bumper sticker. I'm not much for bumper stickers, I've only ever had three on my car. My first was years ago, it said, "Indians had bad immigration laws." My next was during the last presidential election. I can't remember exactly what it said,…
Many of you have probably seen maps like these before. The geographic size of each country is adjusted (inflated or deflated) to show the relative size of some non-geographic characteristic. Notice, for example, the map of military spending.
“If I didn’t care about my kids, I’d have an easier time.”
“No real-life problem is ever actually solved, it seems.”
For three years, Geri Anderson has worked as a grade school art teacher. She wakes up every day, willing to try her hardest to make a difference in the lives of the students who attend Walnut Elementary School. “Geri” and “Walnut” are not real names; Geri and I decided to use these pseudonyms to allow Geri to speak freely. Everything else in this article is based on my recent interview of Geri.
Geri is a soft-spoken woman in her mid-twenties. Before being hired for her current job, Geri often substitute taught at expensive private grade schools. She took her first permanent job at Walnut to make a difference.
Geri teaches art to each of the 200 students who attend Walnut. They range in age from preschoolers to sixth-graders. The average class includes about twenty children, although some of the classes have almost 30 children. Not all of the teacher positions are filled at Walnut; for many months, the school has sought the help of adults from the community to fill in for the non-existent science teacher, for example.
Walnut is located in the urban center of a large U.S. city. 98% of the children attending Walnut Elementary are African-American. More than 90% of these students receive free or reduced price lunches. Based upon Geri’s observations, the great majority of the students live in single-parent homes. Classroom behavior issues, including …
Here's what new owner Mark Green has to say about the focus of Air America: Air America will aggressively cover national politics and policies in ways that will be informative, opinionated and entertaining. All three. We'll be full of news and views. Two views especially. First, America should stop attacking…