The End of an Error

Tomorrow marks a special day. The end of the Bush Administration and the beginning of ObAmerica. By Wednesday, we should all have jobs!

Don’t worry; The bar is set really, really low for you, B.

Teach for Stable Employment

Allright, let’s cut to the chase: I have beef with Teach for America.

I’m someone who just spent the past five (yes, five)  years of my life sitting through countless education courses. Student teaching. Getting evaluations on how good I am. Minoring in English so that I fulfilled the new ridiculous teacher requirements as part of NCLB (more on that trainwreck later). Studying and passing three Praxis certification tests. Missing out on certain opportunities (study abroad, anyone) so that I can be in this renowned program that will get me a job and life will be perfect. I don’t know if it was worth it; ask me in a few years.

Now, someone who went to say, Colgate, or Boston U, can major in psychology or sociology. Come senior year, they realize they should probably seek gainful employment after having spent a whopping $160,000 divided over 4 years. Realize they will not in fact get a job at JP Morgan due to current financial meltdown! Apply to a few law schools and get rejected/wait-listed. Realize the sorta-connection they sorda-had to a premier job in Chicago or NYC is on the road to nowhere. Realize it’d be too embarassing to go back to their hometown unemployed and hang with the deadbeats that never left. What is left on the list of Possible Post-Grad Opportunities? 

Teach for America!!!

Not because they love kids or want to transform urban education, but because.. it’s there. It’s an option, something to write on the resume.

Just because you got your 4.0 at some fancy college does not mean you have the necessary tools to teach kids. Book smarts are important. It’ll take you to many jobs. Ones that pay a lot more than teaching. Stick with those. To be smart is one thing, to actually be able to apply teaching skills in practice is another. I studied education for 3 years and I do not know if I will be good enough; let’s wait and see. But the CT achievement gap is the largest in the country; that means that here, the suburban kids are doing the best out of everyone, and the urban kids are doing the worst out of everyone. It’s too much of a gamble to put teachers into positions that they aren’t adequately prepped for, in my opinion.

31 Places You Must Visit This Summer

 

Summer is a wonderful time. Beautiful weather aside, it’s a great time for traveling. Luckily, I have selected a career that is great for summer traveling. Apparently, you get 2 months off or something! (What a coincidence! I had no idea…) 

The New York Times selected 31 places you must visit this summer. It was written for summer 2008, but I don’t see why it can’t apply to 2009. 

Check out the article here.

Places I’ve Visited: New Hampshire, Las Vegas, San Francisco Bay Area, Quebec, the wild West, the glaciers of Alaska, Montreal, Lake Powell, and the pacific Northwest.

Current Addictions

 

 

1. The Casey Anthony Case: This case is fascinating to me because the suspect,  22-year-old Casey, looks (and seems) like a typical college girl and law-abiding citizen. She’s decent looking, and nothing really seems that off about her.  Yet she is accusing of killing her own child, and is currently  being held at jail with no bond. Bring it on! I’m in now.  Can’t wait til the trial.

2. City-Data.com: Probably the best source for finding out about different cities in different areas. I learn so much by reading this.actually.

3. Overheard in New York: This is probably one of the funniest websites. At first glance, it’s like, who cares? I don’t care about other people’s conversations overheard in New York City. But the things that come out of people’s mouths today are simply unbelievable. I find myself laughing out loud continually. Check it out here.

4. A Fine Frenzy: No, I’m not talking about a frenzy that is fine (whatever that means). This is one of the best bands I have heard in awhile. It’s actually just one singer, Allison Sudol, and she plays the piano. She’s pretty much unknown to the mainstream world, but her songs are amazing. She is proof that good music is not dead: In a word where Ashlee Simpson and T-Pain can get record deals, she is a breath of fresh air. I recommend Almost Lover, Near to You, or my personal favorite, You Picked Me.

5. CT REAP: Okay, I just realized that this one is totally boring. It’s CT REAP, and it is a list of all the job openings for teachers in Connecticut. It pretty much applies to almost nobody, but it’s a current addiction of mine. God, I am such a nerd. 

 

The End of White America

 

I came across this article in my new favorite magazine, The Atlantic, and laughed. Of course, it had a picture of our soon-to-be president, Barack Obama on the cover. So just because we have a black president, it’s !!OMG the end white America, alert the presses!! Mostly, it was yet another article about Obama and the impact of his skin color on America and how it’s not really that fun or interesting to be white right now, mostly because Obama isn’t.  One of the truest points came from Christian Lander, author of one of my favorite recently-discovered blogs, Stuff White People Like.

“As a white person, you’re just desperate to find something else to grab onto. You’re jealous! Pretty much every white person I grew up with wished they’d grown up in, you know, an ethnic home that gave them a second language. White culture is Family Ties and Led Zeppelin and Guns N’ Roses—like, this is white culture. This is all we have.”

 Ain’t that the truth. I grew up not only white, but Irish (so unique!) and Catholic (how original!) Not one thing about me stood out, so in the 7^th grade, when we had Heritage Night, and had to cook and bring in one dish unique to our heritage, I was pretty bummed out, needless to say. Yes, I was Irish, but not completely Irish, and honestly, my heritage was never really a big thing –  it was never part of my entity. I kind of envied the cultured, the ethnic, right? It was so interesting. People who could speak more than one language, fluently? Fascinating. Never understood how they could do it. The Irish Catholic don’t have much to grab onto! I’ll get over it though. Rough life. 

See the article here