Seriously?

Here is the title of a Yahoo sports article by Dan Wetzel of today, March 28, 2012.

  

Augusta National’s conundrum: Should the golf club purposely not invite a woman?

Seriously? This is an issue?

Wetzel explains the two “conflicting traditions”: Augusta Nationals (that’s the golf masters tournament with the green jackets club) only allows men as members (still). It also always offers membership to the CEO of IBM. Finally, 1/1/2012, for the first time, CEO, finally, has a CEO who happens to be a woman (Ginni Rometty). So they either follow one tradition and invite her or follow the other and don’t.

Come on. This is a complete no brainer. The very fact that IBM (finally) has a CEO who is female should (finally) get the people of Augusta to get with the times. Wetzel tries to excuse the sexism by saying there are women at the club—people who are guests permitted to come and play and spouses. Really? Ridiculous.

Just invite her (and hopefully she will accept) the same way you invite everyone. I understand this is always done with little fanfare. It doesn’t have to be more than a blip of “it’s about time.” After all, if it is true what Wetzel says that it isn’t an all-men club in the fact that women are there, then really, what’s the big deal? And if it is a big deal, then please, join the 21^st century.

Unbelievable that this kind of thing is news. Times change, traditions are a sorry excuse for inappropriate behavior.

Eventually, approximately half of the CEOs who “must” be invited will be women. I’m sure when this thing started, they not only had to be male, but also white and probably belonging to a certain church and all sorts of other things. Archaic.

I’d say boycott and that I won’t support the Masters tournament anymore, but really how exactly do you boycott something that doesn’t want you? The only thing is not to broadcast their tournament anymore. Yeah, good luck with that.

Thanks

I don’t mean to ruin anything and I think it is great that several people who happen to be deaf are all excited about meeting the president. However, simply because the president signed, “thank you” to someone does not mean that he understood what they said or that he is fluent in sign language.

Over the years, I’ve learned a handful of signs. I never got very good and I’ve forgotten a lot, but I do remember a few, including how to say thank you. Picture it. You are greeting fans, you assume that most of the people lined up and struggling for the front “row” are supporters hoping for a closer look or a hand shake or maybe even to say hello or make eye contact. You figure (or hope) that anything they say will be positive. And suddenly, here is this person who signs. You take a moment watching the movements to realize that the person is not merely waving or making odd motions but is communicating, trying to tell you something. And so what do you do, you say thanks. And perhaps you happen to know the sign for it. So you sign, thanks, and go on your way. (or maybe you have a quick thinking bodyguard or advisor who knows the sign and quick whispers it in your ear—he’s gotta be wired, right).

The result? All of these excited people who are deaf who suddenly think that you understood what they were saying. I mean guess. They could have said we support you or you are great or keep it up or whatever. Actually the person said I am proud of you. Kind of a weird thing to say to someone you don’t know who is professionally superior. I mean you can’t get higher than president. But whatever. Saying thanks works for anything positive someone might be saying. But this person is blathering on (via text, posts, written stuff online) about how great it was that the president understood. What the president understood was the sentiment, was that it was sign language, was that the best response was to thank the person for his/her (don’t remember) support, and he just happened to know how to say thanks in sign language. Let’s not go overboard in reading too much into this. Maybe Obama does know sign language, but there is no evidence either way.

I know this whole thing is all positive spin. It still bothers me. Similar faulty logic can lead to the bad as well as the good. So let’s keep this into perspective just like we should do in general. Read the Phantom Tollbooth and don’t go jumping to conclusions.

Day Light Savings - Not a Bright Idea

It’s that time of year again: my semi-annual rant on people’s futile attempt to manipulate nature. There are a certain number of daylight hours in a day. Sure it changes each day from the shortest before Christmas (in the northern hemisphere) to the longest six months later (and it varies depending upon latitude). What time we say it is however is for convenience for coordination. It is arbitrary. Actually, since 12 noon is also supposed to be midday, then in theory the time from sunrise to noon and from noon to sunset should be equal. I’m not sure where this is the case. Are time zones designed so that smack in the middle of one (or at one and or the other) this really is true?

Anyway, I have to say that “daylight savings” was not one of Franklin’s brighter ideas. We are raised on the concept that changing the time saves electricity. Well, maybe it worked in Franklin’s time (um, electricity? Houses did not have electricity back then), but every time we reach the spring ahead or fall back day, we are bombarded with studies about how changing the time does NOT save electricity.

What does it do? It is all psychological. And personally, I hate it. First in the spring when we go on daylight savings, we “lose” an hour. We have a weekend that is actually one hour shorter. And what do we get for giving up this hour?

Well, let’s see, when our bodies think it is 5  AM, our clocks say 6 AM. Morning already? That’s a week of groggily getting up late and being sleep deprived. And that is not good for our health. I remember when Bush (W) made Daylight Savings start 3 weeks earlier one year. It literally took me those three weeks to get adjusted. I mean it was only one hour and I just couldn’t do it. (And why is the president in charge of setting the date?)

So, people are up an hour earlier, regardless of when you get up. Man, is it dark! We may not notice the change in daylight hours from one day to the next, but an hour change is very noticeable. We are sleepy and it is dark. Solution: turn on bright lights. In fact, I just saw something on Yahoo news about turning on a light by your bed instead of your snooze button to help wake up. So, with a country of sleepy people, that’s a lot of light.

In theory that is supposed to mean that we make up for it (or more than make up for it, or what is the point) by using less electricity when we get home. After all, now 5 PM is 6 PM and it is still light outside.

Oh, but I forgot, we are all on the road an hour earlier so the sun is in a different spot. Depending on the time and the direction you drive (like east), traffic is a mess for at least a week while people adjust to different lighting conditions or to suddenly having the sun blaring in their faces. I wonder if there are more accidents. That would offset savings wouldn’t it?

Same goes for driving home in the evening (especially west).

Psychologically, having it lighter longer in the afternoon, is that supposed to be a good thing? Does it make up for the darkness trying to get out of bed? I don’t think so.

Okay, so let’s fast forward six months. Up until last year, it seems to me that the time change was usually the week before Halloween. Now, I understand the thinking: Halloween is best celebrated in the dark so make it dark earlier. However, when you have little kids, you don’t want it dark. You want it to be late enough for most of the people in your neighborhood to be home but not so late that it is dark—easier to see kids walking across driveways and streets in the light. For some reason, in 2010, we went off Daylight Savings after Halloween.

I remember one time, years ago, when we actually stayed on Daylight Savings Time for a year and a half. Some grand experiment or something. Whatever the case, the bad idea is also badly named. It is impossible to save daylight.

And of course in the fall, you have the same driving issues all over again. Sure, maybe it’s easier to get up in the morning, but suddenly it is dark earlier. How is it that on one random day, making it lighter in the morning and darker in the evening saves money (going on standard time) and yet making darker in the morning and lighter in the evening also saves energy?

Anyway, I have two solutions. One, we set the time for noon as midday and leave it that way forever. You stay in a time zone, the time setting never changes. Or we can pick among the daylight savings time, the standard time or split the difference (change by 30 minutes) and be done with it.

Arizona and Hawaii stay on standard time all the time. Time for the rest of the states to do it too or for the country to stop doing it (and let states that want to continue it on their own).

Of course, this is all better than back in the USSR when the entire sprawling country was on Moscow time. I guess I should be grateful we have time zones at all.

Teaching to the Test

"Teaching to the test" has become this cliché catch phrase for part of what is wrong with education in America. Teachers are forced to teach to the test, oh my!


This drives me crazy.


Here is how teaching works. First, someone has determined what kids should know in a certain subject at a certain age (say, Ancient Greece in 6th grade). "Someone" means the committee that created the state standards. Next, publishing companies create textbooks to meet these requirements as closely as possible so that schools will select their materials. This includes an assessment (test) to determine if students learned "what they were supposed to" from the chapter/unit/etc.


When I teach a chapter, I look at the test. What is on it? This shows me what the publisher thinks students should take-away from the lesson. I compare that with state/district/school requirements for the unit as well as my own expectations. In some cases, I may add my own questions or replace some questions. I will also have other activities that are evaluated separately from the test. In any event, I have to know what I want students to learn before I can create lesson plans and teach them or provide them with learning opportunities to learn that information.


So in a sense, all teaching is teaching to a test. 


The catch phrase is short-hand for teaching to THE standardized test. And worse, to the inaccurate, unfair standardized test. Therein lies the problem. Not teaching to a test, per se, but that teachers focus (too much) time attempting to prepare students for tests that it seems educators or "the public" do not believe are a fair or accurate assessment of student ability. So by spending time on this, we are taking time away from other skills we could be teaching instead.


Teachers will always "teach to a test" part of the time. In most cases, they have some sort of control over the assessment to which they are teaching, creating it to make sure it evaluates students on the facts/skills/etc. that teachers want them to have learned and remembered from a given unit.

If you give a mouse a blue ray player…

Okay, so maybe you are not familiar with the book “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie.” I think the success of this book and its sequels demonstrates how pervasive the snowball effect is. We are all aware, even kids, of these chain reactions. The mouse wants milk to go with the cookie and then a straw, etc.

Well, the other day, we got a new DVD player, okay, technically it is a Blue Ray player. You see my DVD player is really old. I’ve had trouble for awhile now getting it to read the disks I create on my computer. Since I video school performances and provide them for viewing in class the next day, I need to make sure the dvds work. But half the time they don’t, at least not on my player. I’ve hobbled along, but then two things happened that were the final “straws.” First, I indulged and bought the complete Firefly dvds—not Blue Ray, mind you. My player insisted there was no disk in it. Add to this the fact that Blue Ray seems to becoming standard (although that will be only until 3D is the new norm). I couldn’t get my kids the final Harry Potter movie including special features on dvd. Sure the set comes with a movie on regular old dvd, but the special features are only available on Blue Ray.

And so, we bought a new DVD/Blue Ray (but not 3D) player. What does this have to do with mice and cookies? Well, this thing is small—like the size of a thick iPad. I took out the DVD player and connected the new one. Suddenly, I had this table that I really didn’t need. Of course, if I got rid of the table, I would need somewhere to put the TV and player.

In the midst of all of this, I had been going through paperwork in the file drawers which were just too crammed to keep stuffing monthly statements in them, not to mention tax papers that already are arriving. With everything in disarray, and a tiny dvd player, it was time to empty out the closet, purge, reorganize, and rearrange the room.

As I type, I am surrounded by papers and piles, bags and boxes, cables and dust. I’ve been waiting for inspiration for posting something on my blog. I had started back on the 8^th so I would post every week. However, I decided it was ridiculous to post only for the sake of it since the ramblings I had from January 6 were boring, pointless, and devoid of humor or purpose. So, this seemed like something to post. After all, I have a feeling that most of us have experienced this chain reaction that buying a new dining room table leads to redoing your entire house, or taking the dog to the dogpark leads to a $50 grooming bill and flea treatment.

The only good thing is that this latest snowball has not led to additional expenditures, so far…

Resolve

In the spirit of the new year, I am making a resolution to post my observations, rants, and digressions on a more regular basis. In keeping with that, I figure I need to actually make people aware that I even have a blog. It’s hard to believe how long ago I set this up and I never told anyone.

Of course it was for my own protection. If no one comes to the site, it is because no one knows about it. After I tell people, and still no one is interested, well, where do I hide then? However, telling people and hoping you all will find some worth in reading my posts should motivate me to post more often. After all, even the most enthusiastic will lose interest and forget if there is never anything new to read.

My posts are random rants based on whatever sets me off and has me burning to spew and sputter lest the flame consume me. The file I write in is called “digressions.” Without intent, every one of my entries has them and even the phrase “but I digress” as a pathetic attempt to get me back on track.

So here I am, laying it on the line. I will post more often (wimp, can’t even commit to a weekly post). Studies show that people’s resolutions seldom make it to Valentine’s Day. Let’s see how long I last…

Red Thursday

With only eight (eke!) shopping days left until Christmas,  people may now be looking back on Black Friday and wondering why they didn’t shop earlier or maybe you are glad you got your shopping—or most of—finished.  How did we get here from there?

Travel back with me to the week of Thanksgiving (and the week before, I suppose). That’s when all the ads came out from stores about their Black Friday sales.

This year, the problem: stores were trying to outdo each other by starting Black Friday at midnight or even earlier, on Thanksgiving! So efforts for stores to get into the black on the day after Thanksgiving created what I called Red Thursday—double entendre intended.

First of all, if the day after is black Friday, then stores are still in the red on Thursday. So far in it that they need some extra help to get into the black by the end of business (midnight?) Friday. Then we have small business Saturday and cyber Monday. And now encroaching on people’s Thanksgiving had them seeing red with anger and hence Red Thursday.

So here’s how it went. There are some people (millions apparently) who just have to be the first one in the door for those sales. Maybe there is something that they really want or need and have been waiting for this sale and need to get it before the stores sell out. Maybe they just get caught up in bargain fever. So, these people are not happy that they are forced to leave their Thanksgiving celebration early or miss it altogether in order to sit in line outside some store (and baby, it’s cold outside).

Add to this their relatives—people who know that their family members behave this way. So the ripple effect is that it ruins everyone’s Thanksgiving celebration because some people leave early or don’t even show up. And of course, someone’s got to man the store so people who work these shifts or have to get the store ready miss out. And let’s not forget law enforcement or security guards—extra ones—to help prevent deaths, trampling, not to mention theft.

In a supposed backlash, people said they were going to boycott. I wonder what that meant exactly: not go to a store until after 6 AM Friday morning? Not shop at stores who were making their workers work through Thanksgiving? There are 24-hour businesses that have to deal with this every year from nurses and emergency workers to hotels and airports. Of course, there, you know people have to work holidays and things are scheduled and paid accordingly. I don’t know how much advanced notice people got for working these shifts at stores. And generally, they are offered to those with the most seniority first. So workers can choose to make some extra money (at holiday pay). It is their choice. I have no idea how many workers with the least seniority were forced into working (or lose their jobs) because no one else wanted to.

Whatever the case, reports after Black Friday were that it was the largest grossing Black Friday on record. Clearly people did not stay away from the stores. So they complained all week, but actions speak louder than words—or money talks (even the Supreme Court agrees –but I digress).

As for me personally, we actually ran into Black Friday traffic around 9 pm on Friday night on our way home from our Thanksgiving celebration. The freeway was jammed with people trying to get to the mall!

It’s been 29 days now since Black Friday. With all the hullabaloo about it forgotten, we move forward and onward and prepare to face the next best (worst) shopping day of the year: Boxing day.