Nerd is my Gender
What's yours?
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Kenyan Girls Refuse to "Be Cut" Choose Education Over Marriage
Video about how some girls are choosing education as their path, instead of pursuing marriage. Their courage and leadership are so inspiring!
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New research on Christian school graduates yields surprising results
In the first study of its kind on K-12 Christian education in North America, University of Notre Dame sociologist David Sikkink, in partnership with Cardus – a public policy think tank – found that while Protestant Christian school graduates show uncommon commitment to their families and churches, donate more money than graduates of other schools, and divorce less, they also have lower incomes, less education, and are less engaged in politics than their Catholic and non-religious private school peers.
I attended Protestant school for 10 years, then public school for 3, so this is rather interesting to me.
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They found that bullies were just as capable of understanding right from wrong as defenders. However, bullies were the group most likely to underestimate their influence on others—a step that could help them justify their hurtful behavior. Interestingly, the opposite pattern was observed in victims: They were less able to determine right from wrong but were more emotionally aware of how their behavior influences others. Taken together, these findings suggest a two-way approach to reducing the negative consequences of bullying: helping bullies become more aware of the harm they cause and teaching victims to identify unjust behavior when it occurs.
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Educate Your Damn Self
Cracks me up when someone runs into a discussion banner flying, demanding that everyone there immediately bring him up-to-date on the issue at hand, but as soon as someone shares relevant links so he can do so, he gets upset that they’d actually dare to demand so much of his time and say their issue must not be that important or they’d drop everything for him. Cracks me up for much the same reason this gif does:
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Oh so quotable...
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Andy (me):
How will we know when gender equality has taken hold and becomes self-sustaining within a particular field?
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Zi (my friend):
When the conservative Christians backpedal and claim that they were for it all along and they helped bring it about.
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Andy (me):
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Rick Perry stumbles and mumbles as he tries to defend abstinence education
Q: Governor, why does Texas continue with abstinence education programs when they don’t seem to be working? In fact, I think we have the third highest teen pregnancy rate in the country.
A: Abstinence works.
Q: But we have the third highest teen pregnancy rate among all states in the country. The questioner’s point is, it doesn’t seem to be working.
A: It, it, it works, uhh, maybe it’s the way it’s being taught or the way that it’s being applied out there, but the fact of the matter is, it is the best form of uh, to teach our children.
Q: Can you give me a statistic suggesting it works?
A: I’m just gonna tell ya, I’ma tell ya from my own personal life, abstinence works. And the point is, if, if, if we’re not teaching it, and if we’re not impressing it upon them, then no, but if, if the point is, you know, we’re gonna go stand up here and say listen, y’all go have sex, and go have the whatever is going on, and we’ll worry with that, and here are the, here’s the ways to have safe sex, I’m sorry, call me old-fashioned if you want, but that is not what I’m gonna stand up in front of the people of the state of Texas and say that’s the way we need go and forget about abstinence.
Q: Respect, Governer, that’s not what the questioner’s asking. The questioner is simply saying, we’re spending money on abstinence education, we have the third highest teen pregnancy rate in the country—is there a problem, disconnect between one and the other?
A: [Pause.] I don’t know, look, it, it, it gets in line with, uh, it gets in line with other programs that we have that we spend money on, and do they work 100 percent, or do they work 5 percent, and that’s a bigger and a better issue than, ‘Well, we have the third highest teenage pregnancy rate.’ Uh, are we, on the amount of money that we’re spending, are we getting a return on that that is appropriate?
Q: And your belief is that we are?
RP: I think that those are some dollars that are well spent. For instance, we’re spendin’ dollars to check kids for steroids, right? And what did we find? Seven? 15? And we spent X numbers of, of a—look, I’m—
Q: And you think that’s a poor expenditure?
RP: I’m sayin’ that if, no I’m trying to make a comparable here. If that’s a good expenditure, then I would suggest to you the dollars we’re spending on abstinence education is a good expenditure.
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Study Shows Minorities Less Likely to Win Grants and Scholarships
So I’m tired of hearing how the playing field is level now and dear god won’t somebody think of the white boys, mmkay?
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This is why we need to put more teachers to work permanently: for the economy and for our future.
I am a teacher. You are able to read, write, do arithmetic and much more because of people like me. Each year, I am expected to take your children further than ever before with fewer materials and resources. I spend thousands out of my own pocket to educate your child. Due to budget cuts, I am also nurse, lunch monitor, counselor, and janitor. I spend long hours after school away from my family, grading papers and planning lessons. I am overworked, underpaid, and I am still told I do not do enough. I am the 99%.”
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Wow, this takes me back a decade. When I was a high school freshman starting out the Shakespeare unit, the teacher had us read from this list and throw paper balls at each other. We all knew we wouldn’t be bored that year.
Yay for teachers!
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Rape culture affects our youth too.
(via Half Of High School Students Have Experienced Sexual Harassment)
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It’s not censorship, it’s marketing: Americans don’t want to be informed.
(via Censorship?)
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"Intelligent design" bill in Missouri
My opinion was reportedly deleted after 15 minutes*, but luckily I got a screen capture to prove I was there:
I am concerned about House Bill 1227, primarily, why we need legislation to replace scientific consensus. I do not think it is the position of the House to create their own version of reality. If we are to increase the quality of public education in this state and attempt to reclaim our global competitiveness, we need to equip our students with the scientific skills they’ll need to succeed in their careers.
*Inability to access post may also have been due to user failure, not deletion.
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"Intelligent design" bill in Missouri
Update: confirmed that Rick Brattin is indeed deleting opinions about this bill off his Facebook page.
My opinion was reportedly deleted after 15 minutes*, but luckily I got a screen capture to prove I was there:
I am concerned about House Bill 1227, primarily, why we need legislation to replace scientific consensus. I do not think it is the position of the House to create their own version of reality. If we are to increase the quality of public education in this state and attempt to reclaim our global competitiveness, we need to equip our students with the scientific skills they’ll need to succeed in their careers.
*Inability to access post may also have been due to user failure, not deletion.
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Why We Need Sex Ed Now
Created by: PublicHealthDegree.com -
‘Space Chronicles’: Why Exploring Space Still Matters
February 27, 2012After decades of global dominance, America’s Space Shuttle program ended last summer while countries like Russia, China and India continue to advance their programs. But astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, author of the new book Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier, says we’re at a critical moment for America’s space program. He thinks it’s time for America to invest heavily in space exploration and research.
“Space exploration is a force of nature unto itself that no other force in society can rival,” Tyson tells NPR’s David Greene. “Not only does that get people interested in sciences and all the related fields, it transforms the culture into one that values science and technology, and that’s the culture that innovates,” Tyson says. “And in the 21st century, innovations in science and technology are the foundations of tomorrow’s economy.”
He sees this “force of nature” firsthand when he goes to student classrooms. “I could stand in front of eighth graders and say, ‘Who wants to be an aerospace engineer so you can design an airplane 20 percent more fuel efficient than the one your parents flew?’ ” Tyson says. “That doesn’t usually work. But if I say, ‘Who wants to be an aerospace engineer to design the airplane that will navigate the rarefied atmosphere of Mars?’ because that’s where we’re going next, I’m getting the best students in the class. I’m looking for life on Mars? I’m getting the best biologist. I want to study the rocks on Mars? I’m getting the best geologists.”
But spending for space programs isn’t where Tyson would like it to be. In just one year, Tyson says, the expenditure of the U.S.’s military budget is equivalent to the entire 50-year running budget of NASA combined.
“I think if you double [the budget], to a penny on the dollar, that’s enough to take us in bold visions in a shorter timescale to Mars, visit asteroids, to study the status of all the planets,” he says. On Venus, for example, scientists have observed a “runaway greenhouse effect,” Tyson says. “I kinda want to know what happened there because we’re twirling knobs here on Earth without knowing the consequences of it.”
Today, Mars is bone-dry; it once had running water. “Something bad happened there as well,” he says. “Asteroids have us in our sight. The dinosaurs didn’t have a space program, so they’re not here to talk about this problem. We are, and we have the power to do something about it. I don’t want to be the embarrassment of the galaxy, to have had the power to deflect an asteroid, and then not, and end up going extinct. We’d be the laughing stock of the aliens of the cosmos if that were the case.”
And asteroids hitting the Earth are actually a reasonably serious problem that does need a solution, Tyson contends. The asteroid Apophis, named for the Egyptian god of death and darkness, has a very slim chance of striking the Earth in 2036. Tyson says some researchers have advocated for blowing up the football stadium-sized object.That could create a bigger problem, though: “If you blow it up and it becomes two pieces, and now one is aimed for each coast of the United States, it’s just doubled the emergency status of that call,” he says.
Another option is what he calls a “gravitational tractor beam.” A space probe would be parked a fixed distance away from the asteroid. Gravity would want to pull the objects together, but by firing rockets on the probe, the asteroid would actually be “towed” out of harm’s way.
Tyson admits that such a space tow truck would be a tough sell for a president to make when asking for more money for NASA.
He proposes this tack: “What [the President] needs to say is, ‘We need to double NASA’s budget because, not only is it the grandest epic adventure a human being can undertake; not only would the people who led this adventure be the ones we end up building statues to and naming high schools after and becoming the next generation’s Mercury 7 as role models; not only will there be spinoff products from these discoveries, but what’s more important than all of those, what’s more practical than all of those, is that he will transform the economy into one that will lead the world once again rather than trail the world as we are inevitably going to be doing over the next decade.”
Watch out, we’re dealing with a bad-ass here!
Genderqueer with a touch of happy humanism.
