I saw this video on the web today, and though it would probably be considered "inappropriate" for school, I wish I could show it to my classes. There is definitely pressure on girls to act like, or be a "stupid girl."
It's increasingly difficult for young women to accept themselves in a culture in which the standards of beauty focus on being seen in the correct skimpy clothes, complete with over-priced accessories, push-up bras, high heels, tons of makeup, artificially enhanced hair, and a body shape that defies what most of them can begin to accomplish with anything less than extreme dieting and a boob job. Behaviors that accompany this tend toward downplaying their intelligence, acting "sexy," and an it's-all-about-me attitude. I see plenty of girls who resist this pressure, but not without their share of angst. It takes a lot of self-confidence to be okay with being your unenhanced self, smart, and kind and compassionate, when one looks around and sees who's getting most of the attention and seems to be having most of the fun.
Preaching about this will get a teacher nowhere. Even for those who are repected by kids, it's tricky not to come off as one who just doesn't get it when it comes to issues of their culture. As a member of the don't-trust-anyone-over-30 generation, I understand this, therefore, I hope this video gets lots of airplay, and the girls who aren't "stupid girls" get that they are valued for their strength, intelligence, and self-knowledge, knowing that Pink does.
Here's a link to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar6bhinHVh4
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Monday, May 22, 2006
Leonard, You Devil
Tonight, I listened to Terry Gross interview the great poet and songwriter Leonard Cohen on public radio. At 72, the guy's still got it. Terry would ask him some inane question regarding what he was thinking or feeling when he wrote a poem or lyric 30 years ago. Without sounding bored by her inane question or fudging some ridiculous story, and without a trace of animosity in his voice he'd answer that he didn't have any recollection of what he was thinking at that time. And she'd giggle, a very Terry sort of giggle. He charmed her; but then, what woman has escaped the charms of Leonard Cohen? He laughed a lot too, the pithy chuckle only a man of a certain age with many charmed giggles under his belt can produce.
I didn't know he recently spent time in a Buddhist monastery and is an ordained Zen monk. He read a new lyric related to the experience that contained some killer lines. Hearing him read with his wonderful, gravelly voice inspired me. I added his biographical documentary, "I'm Your Man," to my Netflix list, but it's "saved," as it hasn't been released. It looks like a goodie.
Here's my feeble stab at a Cohenesque lyric:
The Western Side of Blue
The sky is fading slowly on the western side of blue,
In rankled ribbons reaching out to hold a lonesome hue.
I guess I wasn't meant to know what it means to be you,
And the time has come to go back home again.
I told myself I'd know the place to write the story's end,
Inside the book of longing for a lover and a friend,
When suddenly there seems to be a funeral to attend,
And the time has come to go back home again.
Home is where reality's dark visions come to roost,
Home is where the dread comes rushing in.
I'm fighting not to take my life to that unholy hour
To hear the slow, indentured hum of self-destructive sin.
Perfecting reinvention has become a dying flame,
To feel the burn is ever more absurd.
I hold my marker close and let the others play the game
While listening for consolation's solitary word.
To approach qualifying as a decent Cohen imitation this would need to resolve itself in several more verses, but I quit at four, as I'm no Leonard Cohen. I'm glad he is.
I didn't know he recently spent time in a Buddhist monastery and is an ordained Zen monk. He read a new lyric related to the experience that contained some killer lines. Hearing him read with his wonderful, gravelly voice inspired me. I added his biographical documentary, "I'm Your Man," to my Netflix list, but it's "saved," as it hasn't been released. It looks like a goodie.
Here's my feeble stab at a Cohenesque lyric:
The Western Side of Blue
The sky is fading slowly on the western side of blue,
In rankled ribbons reaching out to hold a lonesome hue.
I guess I wasn't meant to know what it means to be you,
And the time has come to go back home again.
I told myself I'd know the place to write the story's end,
Inside the book of longing for a lover and a friend,
When suddenly there seems to be a funeral to attend,
And the time has come to go back home again.
Home is where reality's dark visions come to roost,
Home is where the dread comes rushing in.
I'm fighting not to take my life to that unholy hour
To hear the slow, indentured hum of self-destructive sin.
Perfecting reinvention has become a dying flame,
To feel the burn is ever more absurd.
I hold my marker close and let the others play the game
While listening for consolation's solitary word.
To approach qualifying as a decent Cohen imitation this would need to resolve itself in several more verses, but I quit at four, as I'm no Leonard Cohen. I'm glad he is.
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
I Love School
Yesterday, we high school teachers helped those at other schools in the district get ready for construction work that will take place this summer. I worked for several hours moving boxes and furniture and wrangling garbage. It's the kind of work that erases all bitterness about having to make student loan payments at age 50.
My journey to college is a long, complicated story of missed opportunities and poor decisions, the result of which is a splendid, now 30-year-old daughter, and a lot of experience checking groceries, framing art, and performing office tasks. I spent 10 years as a medical office manager, for which I was paid a ridiculously low wage and, get this, offered no medical insurance. Hence, by the time I got to the university at 41, I really wanted to be there. I agonized over whether to begin my studies at the local community college, where tuition and expenses would be considerably cheaper, or go for the complete university education I longed for. Here's how my decision-making process functioned in this instance:
A slip of junk fluttered from my car insurance bill offering back-to-school scholarships of $5,000, $2,500, and $1,000 to hopefuls who could explain, in a limited number of words, why they wanted college. I wrote my essay and decided that if I got any of the three offerings, it was a "sign" that I was to follow my dream and shoot for the university. I got the $2500. So I loaded up the truck and moved to university. Bigger school, junky car.
The University of Iowa offered me a full-tuition scholarship based a 23-year-old ACT score, no money in the bank, and my promise to maintain a 3.5 gpa. I was given decent PELL grants (remember decent PELL grants?) and a part-time job in the university payroll office, thanks to a dear friend whose uncle ran the place. She liked me and also wanted my low-wage office job (thank you, thank you, sweet Michelle). Despite my good fortune, being a "nontraditional" student (wtf kind of label is that?) has its financial disadvantages, even compared to kids whose families can't afford to help much. No riding the coattails of parents' health insurance, or car insurance, nothing to do but stay and spend summer earnings on high u-town rent. No free laundry or going home for long periods of freeloading in general. As a result, I'm now a 50-year-old teacher with six years of experience and a student loan to outdo most of my 30-year-old colleagues. Not pretty.
But I'm not complaining, I can't begin to express what my time at the university did for me. Not here, not in a thousand words, probably not in a War and Peace-length tome. Besides, I learned that if I die before I finish repayment, the loan is cancelled, freeing my daughter from the burden of an encumbered estate. This discovery is making grad school more and more attractive.
If I win the lottery, I'm going to pay off my student loan and spend the rest of my life weaseling my way into the great universities across the country, starting with UC Berkeley in the West, and finishing up in the East Coast institutions of the Ivy league, crouched under a desk. Because I'm certain I wouldn't meet their admission standards, and I'm not legacy anything, even with a gazillion bucks in my bank account. When I get too old to army-crawl in and find my seat on the floor, I'll play the age card, feeding on the pity and authority complexes of liberal professors who wouldn't dare to damage their reputations by ejecting an elderly, earnest, note-taking grandma-with-Marxist-leanings for her refusal to conform to the restrictive policies of the man. For insurance, I'll use my lottery windfall to slip each of them a gift certificate for a lifetime of meals at the best vegan restaurant in town. But I digress...
Yesterday, when I was doing the exhausting work of the decent people who were my supervisors for the three measly hours I spent doing their jobs, I wondered how my life might have turned out, had I not taken the chance to further my education. Instead, I'm a grateful teacher with student loan angst and a lottery dream. Cuz I love school.
My journey to college is a long, complicated story of missed opportunities and poor decisions, the result of which is a splendid, now 30-year-old daughter, and a lot of experience checking groceries, framing art, and performing office tasks. I spent 10 years as a medical office manager, for which I was paid a ridiculously low wage and, get this, offered no medical insurance. Hence, by the time I got to the university at 41, I really wanted to be there. I agonized over whether to begin my studies at the local community college, where tuition and expenses would be considerably cheaper, or go for the complete university education I longed for. Here's how my decision-making process functioned in this instance:
A slip of junk fluttered from my car insurance bill offering back-to-school scholarships of $5,000, $2,500, and $1,000 to hopefuls who could explain, in a limited number of words, why they wanted college. I wrote my essay and decided that if I got any of the three offerings, it was a "sign" that I was to follow my dream and shoot for the university. I got the $2500. So I loaded up the truck and moved to university. Bigger school, junky car.
The University of Iowa offered me a full-tuition scholarship based a 23-year-old ACT score, no money in the bank, and my promise to maintain a 3.5 gpa. I was given decent PELL grants (remember decent PELL grants?) and a part-time job in the university payroll office, thanks to a dear friend whose uncle ran the place. She liked me and also wanted my low-wage office job (thank you, thank you, sweet Michelle). Despite my good fortune, being a "nontraditional" student (wtf kind of label is that?) has its financial disadvantages, even compared to kids whose families can't afford to help much. No riding the coattails of parents' health insurance, or car insurance, nothing to do but stay and spend summer earnings on high u-town rent. No free laundry or going home for long periods of freeloading in general. As a result, I'm now a 50-year-old teacher with six years of experience and a student loan to outdo most of my 30-year-old colleagues. Not pretty.
But I'm not complaining, I can't begin to express what my time at the university did for me. Not here, not in a thousand words, probably not in a War and Peace-length tome. Besides, I learned that if I die before I finish repayment, the loan is cancelled, freeing my daughter from the burden of an encumbered estate. This discovery is making grad school more and more attractive.
If I win the lottery, I'm going to pay off my student loan and spend the rest of my life weaseling my way into the great universities across the country, starting with UC Berkeley in the West, and finishing up in the East Coast institutions of the Ivy league, crouched under a desk. Because I'm certain I wouldn't meet their admission standards, and I'm not legacy anything, even with a gazillion bucks in my bank account. When I get too old to army-crawl in and find my seat on the floor, I'll play the age card, feeding on the pity and authority complexes of liberal professors who wouldn't dare to damage their reputations by ejecting an elderly, earnest, note-taking grandma-with-Marxist-leanings for her refusal to conform to the restrictive policies of the man. For insurance, I'll use my lottery windfall to slip each of them a gift certificate for a lifetime of meals at the best vegan restaurant in town. But I digress...
Yesterday, when I was doing the exhausting work of the decent people who were my supervisors for the three measly hours I spent doing their jobs, I wondered how my life might have turned out, had I not taken the chance to further my education. Instead, I'm a grateful teacher with student loan angst and a lottery dream. Cuz I love school.
Friday, May 12, 2006
Golds 'n Steins
Not long ago, Russ Feingold attempted censure over the wiretapping issue but was largely ignored.
Now, Dianne Feinstein says this about the latest news of countless NSA wiretaps: "We are on our way to a major constitutional confrontation."
Gee, Dianne, ya think? Where have you been?!?!
Wait; where have WE been?!?!? Maybe we can stand having our elections manipulated, maybe we can watch congress authorize the continuation of huge tax cuts for the uber rich, maybe we can even stand being lied to about Iraq, but this is getting creepy....
Now, Dianne Feinstein says this about the latest news of countless NSA wiretaps: "We are on our way to a major constitutional confrontation."
Gee, Dianne, ya think? Where have you been?!?!
Wait; where have WE been?!?!? Maybe we can stand having our elections manipulated, maybe we can watch congress authorize the continuation of huge tax cuts for the uber rich, maybe we can even stand being lied to about Iraq, but this is getting creepy....
Sunday, May 07, 2006
New Boyfriend
For those of you who read the post mentioning my failed relationship with Cesar Chavez, the one that didn't work out because he is dead, I would like to announce that I now have a new boyfriend. His name is Stephen Colbert. You can see video of the moment I fell in love with him at this link:
http://c-span.org/
scroll about half way down the page to the video/audio heading and click on:
Comedian Stephen Colbert at White House Correspondents' Dinner (4/29/2006)
The success of this relationship may also be on shaky ground, solely, I'm sure, because he's married. But he is alive. I think I'm making progress.
http://c-span.org/
scroll about half way down the page to the video/audio heading and click on:
Comedian Stephen Colbert at White House Correspondents' Dinner (4/29/2006)
The success of this relationship may also be on shaky ground, solely, I'm sure, because he's married. But he is alive. I think I'm making progress.
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