Condoms Blamed for Rape . . . ?

While updating the blog list for work, I came across this interesting blog article. Just when you thought the Catholic Church couldn’t get and crazier, add in Italy’s interesting safe-sex policy of installing condom vending machines in high school and you get one hot potato on your hands and the Catholic Church expressing their outrage.

About as good as expressing outrage over condom use in third world countries. Seriously.

http://technorati.com/politics/article/condoms-blamed-for-rape-really/

I don’t believe this is necessarily promoting sex before marriage or underage cavorting, this is just being realistic. Teenagers (not all, some) will have sex before leaving high school, so you might as well get them in the habit of practicing safe sex, right? But then again, this is a hot topic everywhere. Just what should we or shouldn’t we teach our children about that 3-letter word and its consequences?

I am all for informing them and letting them know the consequences without them experiencing it firsthand (i.e. teenage pregnancy, STDS), but I suppose the method of believing they won’t and keeping them in the dark works too, right?

Teacher say what?

2/3, 2÷3. No matter what way you slice it, it means 2 divided by 3, which means the 2 is going inside the division box and the 3 is going on the outside.  I told my students the numerator of a fraction is always on the inside, the denominator always on the outside of the division box.  And if it is written out like the second one, the number to the left always goes inside and the number to the right of the sign always goes outside.

It is a pretty hard and fast rule. But I have that one person who loves to challenge me. And he isn't asking 'why,' but rather he is challenging me by saying that it isn't true. No. It is ALWAYS true. But for whatever reason, he and most of my students have a tendency to due the exact opposite, especially when the dividend is smaller than the divisor.

In developmental math we deal with positive numbers only, so my students know they always put the larger number first when subtracting.  They apply this logic with division as well, which makes no sense.  Sometimes you are going to get things that are less than one. Fractions and percents are technically less than one.  Heaven forbid.  I give them 7÷12 and ask them which number goes inside our division box. Their answer: 12.  They don't like to have numbers less than one apparently.  No. You have to deal with parts of wholes and not always wholes, which make them less than enthusiastic.

A whole semester has now passed, finals are looming and one of my fears (besides people royally screwing up area, perimeter, circumference, and radii/diameters) is that they'll go back to dividing wrong. We shall see, I suppose.

I have another student who challenges me, not with division, but saying that I have not told him how to do something properly.  I spend an entire half hour instructing these students on how to work things out step by agonizing step.  Granted, that is not a lot of time, given the amount of questions they have some days, but I go over formulas and setups, stressing each and every one.  When he said that the other day, I was like I just went over and over how to do these for an entire half hour.  And what, praytell, was he doing during that time?  Either listening to his MP3 player or messing around on his laptop.  So how is it ME not telling him what to do?

One day he got so fed up with me.  There was a breakdown of communication regarding finding the area and circumference of a circle and he was getting snotty with me telling me I was not explaining it right, that he was only doing it exactly the way I told him to.  And I must admit, my patience has run out with him (and with one or two others as well).  I got a little testy with him.  Not a solution, but by that time after explaining and re-explaining and doing more examples, I was just a little peeved. What to do?

Thank god the end of the semester is here.  There are students I'll miss and students that I can't wait to never see again.

A Proud Moment

Back in either my sophomore or junior year at Adrian College a group of fellow students and I decided we wanted a place where we could write and receive feedback without worrying about creating a portfolio for a grade, thus our idea of establishing a writing club was born. A few of my friends thought it was too much of a hassle to go through the process of becoming an officially recognized organization, but I went through the tiring process of paperwork, research, and building a constitution, along with my close friend Sassy.

After going through the paperwork approval and then the official approval by the board, The Pen & Ink Society was created. Membership was low, we didn’t advertise and initially decided to forgo any fees, probably not the best idea, but all we really wanted was a comfortable environment where fellow student writers could come for workshops and I think the initial generation did a good job with what we had.

Now, the creation of this club in and of itself was a proud moment, but that is not what I am so happy about today. While doing some research for work, I stumbled across one of the winning essays from Eastern Michigan University’s Education First Essay Contest.  I was shocked/proud to see one of the winners was Adrian College’s own Angie Palaian.

I met her just as my stint as the Pen & Ink Society’s acting president was over, but I remember her work as strong and powerful and I am happy to know that the club meant something to her and am glad to see her go on to bigger and better things, such as pursuing a career as a college professor.

Rock on!

Where have I heard that before?

My little sister told me that she wants to be a famous writer.  Nothing wrong with dreaming, although we all know the likelihood of them hitting it big is relatively low, especially in this economy, digital age, and the instant gratification factor.

My favorite part about this is the fact that she hates reading.  Now, this could be because of her ESL nightmares, however, I think not. She is enraptured with her movies and television, but can’t be bothered to pick up a book.

Now, I am from the school that to be a good writer, you have to be a good reader.  Am I wrong?  I guess one doesn’t have to read a book to write a book, but it helps.  Especially if you can get your hands on those really special, well-written tomes.

I have always been an avid reader.  I have had stories and poems circulating and percolating in my brain for ages.  But I believe all the literature I have read, and the classes I have took, have made me the better writer.

It really breaks my heart to hear that the majority of children would rather watch tv than curl up with a good book.

College Book Store to go Bookless

Caltech, needing to severely trim its 2010 budget, has decided to merge the Caltech Bookstore with the popular c-store.  They will sell merchandise and food, and some published Caltech authors, but other than that, not a book is to be seen.

Students will now have to acquire their textbooks online.  Right now, plans are being made to create an easy-to-use interface to make things easier on students and staff alike when it comes time to buy books.

Out of all the ways to cut spending – they choose to eliminate books.  Even TEXTBOOKS!  And this is a college?  True books seem overpriced and you can never get half of what you spend back off of those books, but some students need a bricks and mortar bookstore.

Check out the article and the responses this decision has made, here: [http://www.nacs.org/news/041709-caltech.asp?id=cm]

Speak Up, Get Out

It is always interesting to hear when speaking up and encouraging others to speak up as well gets you in trouble. Heaven forbid a professor actually encourages her students to open their mouths about what is going on around them. What is even more interesting is that AC was always complaining about the high level of student apathy on campus. Out of the 1000 students, only a few were actually involved with campus activities. Many of the student organizations were comprised of the same groups of people.

Now, students are starting to speak out, trying to be heard. They want to get involved in the goings on at AC, of what the administration is planning. Since the college wants to keep the students (they finally managed to grow enrollment), the administration sticks to getting rid of faculty who oppose their ideas. The people who are being fired or are leaving due to differences of opinion are general favorites of students.

Yes, let's get rid of the people who care about the students, who want to make sure that their opinions are heard so they can have a happy college experience - it makes perfect sense. NOT.

Another fun fact. Forums were started so students could voice their concerns to the administration. Sure there was discussion, a voicing of complaints - but many things didn't change (like proper care of sewage in a dorm's basement, which finally got cleared up by parents calling and threatening the school). Change takes time. Very true, but not if the problems and concerns are ignored. Especially not if the faculty and other workers at the college who wish to help better the students are sent packing.

Minimum Wage Debacle

     Besides the fact that a federal government regulated minimum wage is a joke, let's talk about Michigan's raise.  Now, getting paid $6.95 versus $5.15 is a good thing, however, it is not helpful at all.  First of all, the cost of living demands that we get paid more than this in order to have all the basic necessities.  Unfortunately, a national study proves you need to be making $9 and upwards for that to be happening.  Go figure.  While wages have stagnated, the cost of living skyrocketed.  Joy of joys, people do not understand this.  There are people out their in working poverty who are making minimum wage.  The great thing about minimum wage is that it is not the least amount of money needed to get by.   It is a ploy developed during the New Deal to regulate wages.  They thought having a federally mandated minimum would solve the problems they were facing.  They were wrong.

     Why?  Well, having a minimum, in theory, is an excellent idea, however, in praxis it just doesn't work.  One of the great reasons for this little problem is the fact that the government refuses to raise it even though it is PROVEN that people cannot get by on minimum wage alone.  You have to love the irony of that, because we all know that a good portion of some (if not ALL) congressmen are definitely getting paid way over the minimum value.  Hell, there was a congressman who refused to take a certain job on because he swore to help the people, not take a vow of poverty, and that was for a job that made slightly over $200,000 a year.  Vow of poverty my ass.  You can definitely live more comfortable with that much money a year than you can for, oh lets say $11,000 which is roughly what federal minimum wage gets you.  Heaven forbid you make only 20 times that amount.  People are such freaking idiots!  I am doing my research paper on minimum wage so when I figure out just how the government calculates it and decides how and when to raise it, I will let you know.  It really is a fascinating topic.

*AC Update: the door that never locks has now been fixed.  The mold problem is still ongoing though I have been told that the college might be looking into it now.*

Black and Green

     Mold.  That's right mold.  It is invading our living spaces and getting people sick.  You could say that it's just this craptastic Michigan weather, you know it changes every five minutes, but that is not it.  When you are perfectly healthy until you move back into a resident hall where no one else was ill until they moved back in as well, you know that something is wrong.  Well, the Chi Omegas, ASAs and Alpha Phis are all in a pickle.  Their halls are filled with mold.  Some have black mold others have, I think green.  Girls have already been to the hospital this year due to mold related illnesses.  It is bad when every year you get sinus infections and bronchitis due to deplorable living conditions.  The funny part is that the college does nothing to the sorority houses.  Uh, hello, they are part of our campus.  It is not right that they should be marginalized because it is not a major part of campus.  Sororities do help bring people in, as much as I hate to admit that.  And most of the girls, or at least some, are pretty decent people.  Is it right that their needs get ignored?  Especially when most of their problems directly effect their health and safety?

     They have always had mold, but apparently the administration has not cared to take care of that potential health problem.  I think they might be looking into find a way to get rid of it, but not in both halls, just half of one.  Makes you feel loved by the administration, doesn't it?  Besides the mold problem these girls had showers caving in and sewage flooding their building.  Why has AC done nothing so things have gotten as bad as they have?  Well, for one they never close down either hall or strive to do major improvements in the summer.  Herrick and Lowry are generally untouched.  If the halls belonged to just the sorority and not the campus, it would make sense that campus would not interfere, but that is not the case.  The college just doesn't give a damn.  At least that is how it appears when these girls are turning up sick and (like last year, although they finally fixed the problem like in April) have human waste floating in their basement.

     I would say I am glad I am living in my hall instead, but I can't.  One door has no lock, which was supposed to be taken care of the second week of school, but here we are a month later and no lock.  There is the door that only unlocks for certain people and the revamped bathrooms suck.  Taking a shower is interesting because one shower has no water pressure really and another one gets hotter than Hades and there is really no way of cooling it down.  I have no idea how the handicap shower handles because I have never used it, but it was only after our water was shut off and turned back on that these problems began to surface.  Really, it's ridiculous.  And I won't even get started on the paint job.  The first floor is relatively okay, but I here the second floor is hideous.  Needless to say I avoid it now that I am living on the first floor.

**Upon receiving tests back, it has been determined that mold and mildew are present, but not black mold**

Keep Sharp Objects Hidden!

     So I am taking this class called Class, Status, and Power (sounds kind of redundant calling it a class doesn't it?).  I am enjoying the class; it is putting many things in perspective for me.  First of all, I found out what class I am in.  It is a depressing thought, but who am I to complain, it's just the way things are.  Now social class, as defined by Gilbert, is income based.  So accordingly, I am in the underclass.  And for those of you who don't know or can't guess, that's the lowest class you can be in.  Personally, I have no problem being there.  It's how I lived my entire life, but I would be lying if I said I want to stay there indefinitely.  But here I am getting way off topic.

     I took the GRE this past August and I brought up a question that was asked on the extra section I had to do.  Since this is from the ungraded portion, I doubt they care that I use it.  I was asked the question, "Should the government finance higher education for those who cannot afford it?".  Now, my response was "Hell, yeah!"  This is because of my lovely lack of funds that I say this.  I have one more semester after this one and I only have $800 to my name.  Unfortunately, I am also working on applying to graduate schools so my little supply of money is quickly going to dwindle down the drain.  Now, I bet you're wondering where I am going with this.  While discussing education and social class one class period a girl from my group, the illustrious and rich Miss S, said that she doesn't believe the government should pay for education.

     I can understand that viewpoint if you're going that's our tax dollars being used, but that was not her argument.  No.  Her argument is that the poor get poorer, the rich get richer, so what is the point of paying for poor people to go to college?  If I was a cartoon character you would have seen my jaw hit the table.  I honestly didn't think that she would say that.  The fact that she did with two people in our group in the lower classes, was totally idiotic.  Let's go live in India with their caste system, or better yet, let's go back to Feudal times when social climbing was damned near impossible. (I am not talking about the backstabbing, scheming to land a rich man/woman social climbing, but the work your ass off to better yourself and move up the ladder kind of social climbing.)

     One of the problems with lower classes of people is the fact that they have limited opportunities.  Well, going by S's method we shouldn't let them have any opportunities to further themselves because in the end they'll just end up poorer -- so why bother?  With that attitude, is there a reason for poorer people to exist?  If their life won't get better, but worse, then what have they to live for?  We talked about hope being a driving factor behind the poor.  Take away hope and you have a broken people who really have no point to their existence.  If all poor people thought this way, do you think suicide rates would be higher?

     Just to point out a fact, S is majoring in social work/human services.  She plans on working in social work, which generally entails working with and helping a lower class of people.  Gasp!  How can this capitalist (aka highest you can go on the social/income ladder) class girl with a bad attitude help the less fortunate at all?  It really makes you wonder.  At least it makes me wonder.  Even thinking about it now, four days later, I still shake with anger.  We deserve a chance -- don't take that away from us.

I Choose to Be

     In Class, Status and Power we were supposed to be talking about what we learned in chapter six via our groups that we were in.  At first my group was on task and the next thing I know S was going off on a tangent to R:  "I am sorry, but I cannot agree with your choice."  Um, and what choice would that be?  Dear little S does not like the fact that R "chooses" to be gay.  Let's just say I wanted to groan and put my head in my hands . . . well I did put my head in my hands, but that is partly due to the fact that I have a horrible sinus headache and the fact that my throat feels like I have claws digging into it.  But, I digress.  I think we were all a little shocked that S said that.  I have heard that argument before.  People can be so obstinate in their opinions that they refuse to look at certain facts.

     One fact that R confesses is that he wished he were "normal."  He would love to be attracted to women so he didn't get beat up by people (his dad beat the crap out of him when he came out of the closet) or ostracized, but he just isn't attracted to the opposite sex.  S says that he made the conscious decision and no matter what D or K said, she would not concede.  I find that quite stubborn, especially in the face of what I have stated previously.  R isn't the only homosexual who asks the question, "Do you think I want to be this way?"  I am not saying there is anything wrong with being homosexual, but even though our society has become more accepting it still carries the undertone that it is wrong and people are still getting beat up for their sexual preferences.  Although, if we call it preferences, isn't that terminology indicative of a choice?  Yes, it is.

     I guess, you could say that someone has a choice whether or not to follow through on their urges, but if a person is naturally inclined to be attracted to a person of the same sex, then what is wrong with that?  Why can't they act on those urges?  My favorite part of this discussion is K's rejoinder to S going "Did you make the decision to be straight."  The look on S's face was priceless.  She didn't know what to do with that question.  K also found out that S was 21 and she said that S will probably change her views, to which S said "no" this is how she believes and she will not let anyone say that she is not right.  This one girl from her high school told S first that she had a girlfriend.  S was polite but told her point blank that she didn't like her decision.  And S said like two years later the girls broke up and her friend is now dating guys.

     Sigh.  Experimentation, orientation.  Must we get into them?  Must we complain about people and how they live their lives?  It was ridiculous.  D and I tried to steer the conversation away from such dangerous ground but S wouldn't let it be.  So we tactfully ignored the conversation and finished our discussion on social succession and mobility between the two of us.  When time was up, S was still blabbering about her beliefs and I was like, "let's just say you agree to disagree."  Enough was enough!  Talking for half an hour on the subject and going nowhere was stupid, pointless, and infuriating.  But heaven forbid that people with strong opinions aren't allowed to try to convert you to their beliefs.  I don't care if you express your opinion, you have that right, but mulishly trying to get others to believe that you are right and they are wrong, is pure, unadulterated crap.

     Sorry, no matter how much you complain and give examples, I don't believe the choice.  Yes, there are choices involved, but in the end it is based on attraction and desire.  You shouldn't have to be with someone you don't really like just to please the phobics out there.

Why Is It?

     Riddle me this:  Why is it that classes that you have only once a week seem to pile on more homework than your average 2-3 times a week classes?  I mean honestly.  True, you only meet once a week and it's a 4 credit hour class, but is all that homework really necessary?  I think not.  I don't mind reading the 7 chapters for Nicholas Nickleby because I love the book so far, but it's all the creative writing homework that's dragging me down.  I have to read the first chapter of a book that my friend who is in the same class told me is very dry and boring.  Plus, I have to index it.  And the funny part about indexing is the fact that half the time with writing books they are just reiterating many things that have been drilled into me during my educational career, so I have to "pretend" to learn something new or think some idea is just so cool that I must remember it.  But oh well.  At least the poem reading should go faster than the book on how to write a poem, but there in lies another problem.  Besides reading 57 pages of a poetry book, god knows what length of a boring chapter, and indexing, I have to write two responses to two poems while also writing a poem myself.  All for Tuesday.  Is that insane or what?

     Not to mention there are my other classes as well.  About 20 pages and a journal for Class, Status and Power, 2 sections in Elements of Style plus a journal for Teaching writing, Reading two chapters for my art class, doing a power point homework thingy, doing the illustrator assignments, and now beginning to work on our first project.  Time.  What is that elusive thing?  Will it pause in order for me to get all of this stuff done?  The answer: Hell no.  But I will burn the midnight oil to do so.

     And this is why college students don't really have a life (those who do are either a. delusional, b. blowing off all their work, or c. lucky bastards with fewer classes and homework).  That is why I won't be enjoying my 3 day weekend.  I will be doing homework.  Yay me!  Off to read Nicholas Nickleby and then creative writing and then

That Time of Year Again

     Along with cooler weather comes something else.  Something that any sane child would do their best to avoid for three months.  School.  Nothing's wrong with school, I do enjoy it for the most part, but I just can't believe that it's here already.  They say time flies when you're having fun.  Well, that is true, but I cannot believe I've had that much fun this entire summer.  It is odd.

     Our dead campus is coming alive again.  Instead of administrators and construction workers we have students and faculty coming back.  It's nice to see life on campus again, but I don't like the fact that school starts on Monday.  It seems too soon . . . or not.  It seems weird that it's starting up again.  Maybe it's because I haven't left Adrian or the college all summer.  That's probably it.  Being here year round has made me bonkers.

     I am tired.  I need a vacation where I don't work or have anything else important to do.  Yeah, that'd be nice.  I feel like I am burning out.  I am getting sick of school, but I am even crazier contemplating graduate school.  I guess I am a glutton for punishment.  I still can't believe September is around the corner, but with the weather doing it's chilly thing, I guess it should make that fact more plausible, but it doesn't.

     The end of August is here.  The beginning of school is near.  Bah humbug.

Communications Skills

Communication: a necessity for getting around in today's world.  From family solidarity and understanding to a productive workplace, communication is essential.  Too bad that people forget this.  My dad has communicated nothing about coming to the US, and the people on this campus do not always see fit to tell you what in the world is going on.  It's great.

     How can they expect everything to be set up and ready if they don't tell you there's a group coming in?  Really.  You'd think that as professionals people would know that they have to communicate with one another, but apparently that is taboo.  Why work smoothly when you can run around like a chicken with its head cut off.  Geez Louise.  It's ridiculous with a capital R.

     Also, you'd think family would know to communicate, but no.  Gasp!  That might mean they actually have to talk to one another!  What is up with that?  Failure to communicate leads to failures elsewhere.  You can fail your family, your friends, your coworkers . . . your students.  Funny how practically every college requires a communications course.  Too  bad no one learns from that.  Even if it is just a glorified speech class, it does talk of the importance of communications, saying the right things, talking to people.  Hell, we had a convocation on communications.  Yet, people ignore the fact that if they don't talk to each other things don't get done, get done twice, or are done in a half-assed sort of way.

     Ain't it wonderful.  It's an interesting thing to think about.  How much do you communicate in your life?  Is it enough?  Who knows, but if you have no idea what's going on and why, suffice to say you need more communication.  Either that or you really need a better attention span.  I know I do sometimes.