What Price Measurement

            Recently I had an interview with an organization called Strategic Measurement and Evaluation, a company that has been hired by the New York DOE to score and evaluate the upcoming Core Standard math and reading tests that will be administered in the New York City public schools in April.  These tests will be given grades 3 through 8 for the second time this year.  Last year there was so much controversy about the multiple choice questions on the reading tests that parents threatened to sue Pearson (the publishing company that created the tests.)  Pearson accepted a settlement out of court and agreed to revise the tests for this year.

            From what I saw of the math multiple choice questions at the training I attended and some of the values questions on the reading part of the test, they will have problems this year too.  Not only that, but they were asking for certified teachers to work from four to eight hours, either during the day or in the evening to score the tests and were offering to pay $20-$25 per hour for that deadly assignment.  As soon as I saw the samples of the questions and the working conditions (in a room at a hotel near La Guardia Airport) I vowed not to have anything to do with the program.

            I have filled part time and temporary positions since I retired as a New York City English teacher twelve ago and I never got paid less than $30 an hour.  Most tutoring and mentoring jobs paid $45-$65 per hour.  Adjuncts make at least $75 an hour teaching for SUNY or CUNY.  Any professional job, such as the one described above, that pays less than that will only attract people who are desperate to earn extra money or who probably have a full or part time teaching job.  That means they will come to this extra job already tired and stressed out.  They are bound to make mistakes when they are beyond two hours of this monotonous assignment.

            Does SME have any connection to Pearson?  Their main offices are in Illinois.  Pearson is a world-wide organization with branches in several states.  Why is SME paying so little for such a difficult assignment?  How much is SME getting paid from the city for this assignment?

            Considering the fact that schools and teachers are now being evaluated based on students’ achievement on these core standards rubrics, I think it’s disgraceful that the tests will be graded by a company that hires teachers to work under these conditions.  Parents and other New York City teachers and administrators should be made aware of this situation.

A Plan that Worked

In the 1990’s, when I was teaching at Walton High School in the Bronx, during the height of the HIV epidemic; the Board of Education decided to institute a program that involved providing condoms at selected schools.  Maybe Walton was chosen  because it used to be an all-girls school and they did get pregnant.  I do know that to commemorate the event, Magic Johnson, who had just announced that he was HIV positive, decided to host an assembly at Walton.  The administration, students and the media were all there to publicize the event.  Some parents, in Staten Island and Queens objected strongly to the program but it went ahead anyway.

            Volunteer teachers (myself amongst them) were trained by the Board to teach about HIV and how to use condoms to prevent exposure to the disease.  We taught the lessons once a week during the third period in selected classrooms to either our own students or with another teacher present in his or her subject class. (We were warned not to mention the term pregnancy during the lessons.)  I mention this because I just read that the city has decided to reenter the fray by initiating a poster campaign at MTA bus and subway locales to educate students about the dangers and consequences of teenage pregnancy.

            Some viewers have stated that they find the ads demeaning and immoral and others have said it’s a very good idea.  I have no opinions one way or the other on the subject because I haven’t seen the ads yet or spoken to teenagers about them.  I just have one question?  Why now?  Statistics here and in the rest of the country don’t show an increase in teenage pregnancy but nearly 9 out of 10 teenage pregnancies in the city are unplanned.  The city spent over $400,000 to implement the program which includes a survey, a website, and video games to teach the dangers of an unplanned pregnancy.

            Planned Parenthood, on the other hand, denounced the campaign, saying it ignored the racial, economic and social factors that contribute to teenage pregnancy and stigmatized teenage parents and their children.  Planned Parenthood originally helped to sponsor the condom distribution plan described above and, of course THEY were stigmatized at the time for even suggesting such a program.

            In today’s political climate, where the Arkansas legislature has passed a law to outlaw abortion up to the twelfth week of pregnancy, I’m not surprised that New York City has hired a public relations company to stigmatize teenagers.  Better trivialize the issue with emotional posters and video games than do what we actually did almost thirty years ago to prevent pregnancy in the first place.  And it worked!

Who Speaks for Us?

                                                                            

                There has been much comment and controversy concerning the role of feminism in the women’s movement.  Everything from the commemoration of the 50^th anniversary  of the publication of The Feminine Mystique to a documentary on public television tracing the modern history of the women’s movement.  Today Maureen Down in the New York Times focused on the books and comments by two powerful women executives (from Facebook and Yahoo) who have recently instituted policies that seem to contradict the original tenets of the movement about whether a woman’s place is actually in the home or at her job site.

                All this reminds me of the contradictions about policies circulated by the original founders of the women’s movement concerning lesbians, housewives, professionals, women of color and other factions that abounded during the original demonstrations and publications.  One thing was certain: the reason that feminism floundered as it progressed through the 20^th and 21^st centuries was the very reason it is weakened today.  It is focused on middle and upper class women who have never really benefitted from the gains made down through the years and it was mostly an American phenomenon.

                To support this contention, I could cite many examples.  Two of them were outlined by articles in the Times today.  One dealt with sexual crimes committed against women in the military that went unreported for years because women were afraid to speak out against their male trainers who were above their rank and intimidated them.  It was also the military protocol (controlled by male officers) that made it difficult to prosecute these sex offenders.  It is only at the present time, when thousands of enlisted women have had the courage to come forward to report these crimes, that the military establishment has decided to do something to change this environment.

                The same could be said about availability of child care that was described in an article about Japanese mothers today who have full time jobs but sometimes have to wait years to get their children placed in nurseries that are terribly crowded or not available to them at the present time.  This is also true for millions of women around the world, and even in big cities in the US, where subsidized day in unavailable or too expensive for lower and middle class mothers.

                It’s true that women like the CEO’s of Facebook and Yahoo have all their childcare needs provided for them so they can maintain full professional responsibilities and spend time with their children whenever they want.  But what about single mothers throughout the country who have to find alternate facilities so they can continue to work and provide for their children’s needs?  How has the women’s movement helped improve the situation for them down through the years?

                Until the women’s movement recognizes that a women’s place is anywhere where their rights as parents and workers are truly protected by social movements or the government and works to protect these rights, it will not represent the true mission of feminism in this generation.

                                                            

Recreational Shooting for Kids

           Today’s front page article in the Times (Selling a New Generation on Guns) shockingly dramatizes what those of us who fear gun violence fear most:  how Americans get addicted to using guns.  You can always find evidence that training children to use guns safely cuts down on accidents while using guns.  It is hard to find definitive evidence that an addiction to violent video games causes its users to become violent in real life.  But one thing is sure: having an unguarded weapon in the home makes it easier for shooters to use them to commit atrocities like Newtown and Aurora.

            Everyone now knows the Newtown assassin was trained at a gun club to use his AR15 effectively.  It seems he killed practically everyone he shot.  Hurray!  There’s also definitive evidence that veterans with PTSD have used the guns they bring back with them to kill members of their families, incident civilians in their community, and themselves.  They were also very well trained to use their weapons at firing ranges.

            NRA members who are avid supporters of gun clubs and manufacturers say shooting guns is fun for everyone and a sport.  What they neglect to say is that most users also find it addictive in the same way as playing video games can become a day-long activity.  Millions of dollars are spent buying both guns and games.  According the article mentioned above, gun manufacturers sponsor competitions for kids and promote violent games in their catalogues and in ads in gun magazines.

            People who keep guns in the home for protection or for recreation claim that gun control advocates don’t really understand how having a weapon provides peace of mind to the head of the household.  But the shooters profiled above weren’t necessarily heads of households.  They were the children and relatives of someone who kept guns unguarded in their homes.  One seven year who brought a gun deposited in his book bag to school without his knowledge was ready to give it to one of his classmates when his mother showed up to apologetically admit she forgot it was in his bag.  Is that your example of a responsible gun owner?  How many other stupid parents like her are out there?

            There are too many incidents involving tragedies caused by the millions of guns already out there in this country.  One thing is obvious: limiting the sale of more dangerous weapons can only prevent a limited number of gun disasters.  But even preventing one would be enough

Anger and Guns

           

When our kids were young, my husband and I made the decision to enroll them in a karate class.  My son was six when he started and my daughter was thirteen (she was training in gymnastics when she was younger.)

            We both agreed down through the years that this was the best decision we ever made for our kids.  It gave them confidence and self-discipline and they never had any really bad physical confrontations during their time in the public schools in Manhattan.  Now when I read about the young men who were the perpetrators of gun violence down through the years I am even more thankful about the karate lessons.

            Karate also teaches how to deal with anger and fear through meditation and lessons in self-defense.  Everyone gets depressed from time to time, but the Buddhist philosophy supporting the martial arts enables people to live from day to day without letting these emotions get out of control.

            When I read how many people have committed suicide using guns, I think about my own kids when they were teenagers.  My daughter, especially, seemed angry during most of her teens and my son suppressed his anger by keeping to himself and writing poetry.  Both of them focused on martial arts to energize themselves and learn how to deal with pain.

            The NRA insists that there are no bad guns, only bad people.  But some of those same good people seem to be very angry now that the federal and some state governments are pushing for more gun control.  They say the new laws being proposed would force people to give up weapons they need to protect themselves.  Protect themselves from whom?  People who are angry like they are?

            I say let’s keep angry people away from guns any way we can and I’m relieved that I live in New York State, a place where the governor feels the way I do.