In a big fat ad in the very skinny Jobs section of the Sunday Times-Pic, a local private university advertises for adjuncts in 18 departments. I can’t figure out if it’s all the remaining departments or most or only half—at the website, the PDF for the current university catalogue is “corrupted” and the info under Academics and elsewhere is outdated, reflecting none of the changes announced in this T-P article/press release.
The potential number of adjuncts needed is not a good sign.
I don’t even want to talk about it.
________
Two Years and One Day Later—August 2007
Four Years and Two Days Later—August 2009
CORRECTION: The actual quote on the billboard is “College is the only option!“
Sophie B. Wright Charter School has this sentence plastered across the bottom of its billboard off I-10. I am sure many parents, teachers, and other folks give this a smart nod of approval.
I’m about to say something that is unpopular, something I have gotten looks and snubs and gapes for in the past.
I do not think that college is for everyone. I do not believe that “everyone” needs to go or can go or wants to go to college. And by college I mean the four-year liberal arts experience full of research, writing, reading, challenging ideas and people [in both senses, challenging others and of being challenged by that which is other], rhetoric, critical thinking, final exams, guest lecturers, conferences, all that. It is not for everyone and it is a disservice to tell all kids that they must go, no discussions, no options.
Do you need a four-year liberal arts degree to be successful, however you might define that now, at 20 years old, at 67 years old? No. Do you need such a degree to be rich? No. Do you need it to be a productive citizen? No. Is college for you if you find reading boring? No. Is college for you if your sole reason for attending is someone said, “You should go to college”? Possibly not. High school As and Bs don’t necessarily mean college is your thing. [Likewise, Cs don't mean you can't make it if it's what you want.] Is that bad? No. Should you be ashamed of not going to college? No. Does not having that four-year degree and experience mean you have no intellectual curiosity about the world? Not at all. But college is more and should be more than just the next level of mandatory-to-somebody schooling. Under the right circumstances, or wrong, college can be a poor fit, an expensive mistake, four years of frustration and drudgery. Or just not what you need at the time. You can go back—there’s that, too.
I know that the teachers and staff at Wright are creating an atmosphere of high expectations and optimism, one to counteract the indifference, hostility and hopelessness found in too many public schools with large numbers of students of color or poverty. College seems tangible. The teachers all went. And the academic demands for college preparation are high which encourages—or should—rigor and sets the proper environment for intellectual curiosity and hunger. I get that and don’t have a problem with that. I have a problem with the “all” part of it, just like we should all have a problem with the crackpot idea of 100% proficiency, something that scrambles all meanings of “proficiency” in order to achieve something that looks like 100% to avoid punishment, if not outright annihilation. All the kids can read, write, do algebra, identify the continents on a map and understand the context of the noose in the US South and the history of the conflict in the Middle East and all kinds of shit without all going to college. It does mean expecting more of K-12 and part of the current problem is expecting too much with nowhere near enough support from any of the possible sources. It also means expecting something different from K-12. But when schools are punished and punished over a small set of data, how far from 100% proficiency is 100% college attendance? Especially if you loosely define “attendance” and even “college.”
I want the Wright kids to succeed. I don’t want them to think the only success in life is college. I want them to think that middle school is fertile learning-growing ground for the future, not just a means to a specious end.
It’s that time of year again! And time again for a still-true G Bitch rerun:
Last week, the grocery ads got more meat-heavy than usual which tipped me off that a holiday is coming, the Fourth of July specifically. It is a day, as Mister, Girl and I say, for folks to burn some dead animal. For us, it’s a time to be given the fourth degree about not eating meat (or fish or even chicken?) and waiting for the proper appearance time has passed to either rush home to gobble down tofu and vegetables or race to the nearest Subway.
Except this year. I am “giving myself permission” to avoid insane and/or animal-burning family members and drink at home.
As the omnivores eat their charred animal flesh with ketchup and bread, we’ll grill some veggies, smother potatoes in the coals and start the margaritas around noon. Happy Independence (for whom?) Day!
[Not this time, anyway.]
FM. Fibromyalgia. If you want neglectful or outright hostile treatment from some health-care providers, this is the syndrome/chronic condition for you.
I thought my health care was pretty good—I liked my doctor, I could get appointments fast, he was bright and efficient and took notes and took your blood pressure and temp and pulse himself; I liked the doctors he referred me to, though that rarely happened because I didn’t need much. Then, I did.
I asked for a referral to a sleep specialist and got a pulmonologist. Who knew dick about sleep. She looked at my overnight sleep study and gave me the kind of advice I could get from a cashier at PetSmart. The rheumatologist I’ve been referred to has been even worse—gave me a diagnosis, told me to go do research, gave me a prescription for Lyrica, and set my next appointment for 6 months down the road. Not once did she mention any side effects of Lyrica. I got an earlier-than-6-months-from-now appointment because of the extreme daily pain I’ve been in and what did she do? Tell me to gradually increase the dose and come back in 3 months. The pain I was in? No mention, description, plea got anything but a blank stare or a Yes, that’s what fibromyalgia is. I told her how I couldn’t work at a reasonable level because of the fibro fog and the pain from sitting and the stiffness in my wrists and everywhere else. I got a nod and a cheerful, That’s fibromyalgia all right. When I got to the maximum dosage and started having side effects that alarmed my family and called the office, I got, through a nurse, a strong doubt that Lyrica could possibly cause such a thing [the warning is all over the prescription record, drug maker website and all online sources] but it’s possible and rare so reduce the dosage by 75 mg and keep your appointment for June. The end.
Yeah, it’s the end all right. I’ve stepped down from Cymbalta, which is one of the scariest things I’ve done, and I can do it with Lyrica. And guess what? When she starts on about Savella—all she knows about fibromyalgia is Lyrica and Savella–I’ll say little, take the scrip, shred it and never go back. 6 months of Lyrica. No pain relief. No sleep help. Just $40 a month, blurry vision, and dizzy spells. For what? Because a rheumatologist doesn’t want to be bothered with something as individual and “needy” as fibromyalgia. I guess I’m supposed to be grateful I wasn’t told I was crazy and lazy and drug-seeking. Though all that could be in my medical record.
Fuck me? Fuck you.
…the Girl said it would be the first year of her entire life she hadn’t gone to Jazz Fest.
…a check came in Saturday’s mail.
…we said, Fuck the bills, get the ponchos.
And the Girl’s lifetime Jazz Fest record is intact.
What made Jazz Fest the event to travel from far and wide to attend? Locals. The locals who attended, worked the Fest, played at the Fest, cleaned up the Fest, and played and worked after and around the Fest. Locals and others who brought their kids who are now bringing their own kids. Or were. Ticket prices may justify having Janet Jackson or Bruce Springsteen but let me ask you, Quint Davis et al, why would someone travel from Amsterdam or Barcelona or Osaka to see Janet Jackson or Bruce Springsteen? They came for jazz, they came for brass bands and Mardi Gras Indians and zydeco and Congo Square. They came for what they can’t find in a chain “record” store or on the splash page of Amazon.com.
I’ve finally been priced out. Damn.
____
Thursday Festing (2008)
So many plates spinning I feel like I have vertigo—researching for more Who IS? posts [Christine Rossell? Michael Fullan?], reading through some research on KIPP and Leslie Jacobs testimony that touches on schools, the Cowen reports, being sick and barely getting through working part-time and home changes and and and and and.
Time for a break. If something is burning a hole in my gray matter, it’ll pop up.
See you April 2, 2010.
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