Recent Posts

Most Used Categories

Tag: Education

You are Here :
Perspective, Political, , , , ,

What Sen. Enzi really wants

M. Patricia Smith’s nomination as Solicitor of the Department of Labor has moved forward with a cloture vote today along party lines. There should be an up-or-down vote on the nomination tomorrow or the day after. See SENATUS for details on the vote.

Senator Enzi, the leading Republican on the Senate HELP Committee, had been blocking the nomination, for no good, valid, or honest reason. As both Republicans and Democrats have done in recent years, he has abused the whole practice of filibuster (I’ll write more on that later).

To respond to his ignorant criticism would take volumes. Frankly, he is scandalous in his use of innuendo and distorted facts to paint those he doesn’t like as incompetent managers and liars (an example of his blathering at the Washington Examiner). I would hate to be his child and have made a mistake. Of course his blather is par for the course in Washington (a pox on both houses). If someone won’t bow to your personal agenda, destroy them by whatever means possible.

Sen. Harkin, no flaming liberal, provided the facts that refute Sen. Enzi line by line during his pre-cloture vote statements. The Congressional Record should have his factual testimony in-full by tomorrow. I encourage you to check it out.

So to my title above, ‘What does Sen. Enzi really want?’ I believe he wants the following:

  • That workers not be educated as to their rights under the law.
  • That low wage workers have no recourse when their wages are stolen.
  • That any person or organization providing assistance only do so according to an approved script and to approved eligible individuals.
  • That employers who skirt the rules, especially those who hire low wage and immigrant workers presuming that they can abuse them, be free to establish a system of indentured servitude.
  • That disreputable, race-to-the-bottom, employers be free to re-establish the company store and a chit and voucher program.
  • That rights are only for those in Sen. Enzi’s social and economic demographic.
  • That the law is only a set of suggestions and optional guidelines, especially laws that protect the lower classes.
  • That truth be subservient to agenda.
  • That the United States be known as the land of permanent masters and servants.
  • That the Republican Party abjure its tie to the abolition of slavery.

Amy Traub, writing at Huffington, gives a great narrative on the things Ms. Smith has done and works to prevent in New York in New York’s Hidden Crime Wave

And we thought crime in New York City was low. According to the NYPD just 418 robberies were reported in New York last week, along with 695 incidents of grand larceny. Not bad for a city of more than 8 million people. But the rosy numbers overlook a devastating series of thefts that never make it into the police statistics: last week the city may have experienced just 375 burglaries but it also saw an estimated 317,263 cases of employer wage theft from their own low wage workers. More than $18.4 million were stolen from wages in that week alone. And because the wage violations are systematic and ongoing, the crimes recur every week throughout the year.

The shocking new wage theft data come from research [pdf] unveiled this morning by the National Employment Law Project. After a rigorous study involving thousands of front-line workers in New York’s low wage industries, researchers documented the prevalence of New York City’s workplace violations for the first time.

The study reveals a crime wage centered on the city’s most vulnerable workers. More than one in five workers in the city’s low-wage industries was paid less than the minimum wage. More than three in four were denied the overtime pay they were legally owed. When workers tried to stand up for themselves (for example, by filing a complaint with a government agency or attempting to organize a union) they faced a high risk of illegal employer retaliation: being fired, getting their hours cut, or having the boss threaten to call immigration authorities. Not surprisingly, many workers decided to remain silent, even as they continued to work in dangerous conditions or saw their earnings stolen.

Imagine the destructive impact on New York’s families and communities. Although the average worker in the city’s low-wage industries earns just $20,644 a year, they lost an average 15 percent of that to wage theft. That amounts to an average $3,016 annually stolen from some of the lowest-income working families in the city…

Are you ready for your employer to arbitrarily cut your salary by 15%? That 15% cut isn’t for any good economic reason, and certainly no legal reason. It is just so you can continue to work the same hours at less pay, and he can take it home to buy himself a better bottle of scotch. Maybe he’ll share that scotch with Sen. Enzi. Wonder if he hypocritically likes it neat.

Funny that my son was recently studying indentured servitude. I can’t wait till my son learns about human trafficking. I will be able to point to Sen. Enzi (if he’s still there) as a proponent of the very things that aid in its continuance.

Christian Witness, Perspective, ,

Should have caught that

I absolutely got a kick out of the recent story of a plane that was “forced” to land because an Orthodox Jew was doing his morning prayers. The story from the BBC covers it succinctly. There’s a lot of other ones out there too.

My immediate thought is that Christians should know this. Not sure any of the flight crew was Christian, there’s fewer and fewer of us around anymore, but if they were they should have recalled Jesus words in Matthew 23:5

They do all their deeds to be seen by men; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long

In other words, they should have known better.

Of course Jesus was talking about the hypocrisy of the Scribes and Pharisees who did things in big ways only to be seen and recognized, not because they believed in what they were doing. Don’t get me wrong, I am absolutely against Christians doing any type of Jewish ritual (we don’t need no Seders or tefillin for salvation), but we should know these things because our roots are in these very rituals. We should also take the time to know what Jesus was talking about, what He practiced, and what He was referring to.

For the uninitiated, from Wikipedia:

Phylacteries or tefillin (Hebrew: תפלין—Ž) are two boxes containing Biblical verses and the leather straps attached to them which are used in traditional Jewish prayer. This practice is derived from commands found in the Biblical books of Exodus and Deuteronomy (Exodus 13:9, Exodus 13:16, Deuteronomy 6:8, Deuteronomy 11:18).

Art, Current Events, ,

Webposium for Teaching Artists

The Dana Foundation is pleased to invite you to a free Webposium for Teaching Artists, Friday, January 29, 2010, 12:00-1:00PM (EST).

Join us online for a discussion about the challenges and successes of working with students with disabilities. The event will be streamed live and viewers will be able to join in the Q and A at the end of the session.

What do teaching artists need to know to be successful when working with students with disabilities?

What do teaching artists need to know, understand, and be able to do to achieve success in a self-contained or inclusion classroom? The panel consists of artists and educators dedicated to making the arts accessible to all students. The panelists will discuss practical classroom strategies, lesson plan modifications, as well as the necessary questions to ask in order for everyone (artists, students, teachers, para-professionals, and administrators) to be successful.

Panelists include:

  • Judith Jellison, Regents Professor of Music and Human Learning, Butler School of Music, University of Texas, Austin (expertise in music and disabilities)
  • Allison Orr, Artistic Director, Forklift Danceworks (expertise in dance and disabilities)
  • Sherry Snowden, Lecturer, Art Education, Texas State University (expertise in lesson plan design, visual arts, and disabilities)
  • Moderator: Russell Granet, Founder, Arts Education Resource (expertise in theatre and disabilities)

Register here. Registration ends January 28 at 5:00pm.

Current Events, Poland - Polish - Polonia,

U.S. Embassy in Poland accepting applications

United States Institutes 2010 (program szkoleniowy w USA dla nauczycieli i wykładowców z całego świata)

USA Ambasada USA w Warszawie zaprasza do składania podań na program Study of the United States Institutes (SUSI), który odbędzie się w lecie 2010 roku.

Applications Accepted until January 25, 2010 (Podania można składać do 25 stycznia 2010).

The U.S. Embassy in Warsaw is pleased to invite candidate nominations for the Summer 2010 Study of the United States Institutes (SUSI) for University Faculty and Secondary School Educators. University-Level and Faculty members participate in intensive post-graduate level academic programs with integrated study tours. The programs provide foreign university faculty and other scholars the opportunity to deepen their understanding of American society, culture and institutions. The ultimate goal is to strengthen curricula and to improve the quality of teaching about the United States in academic institutions abroad. Secondary School Educators attend a six-week post-graduate seminar in the United States. All of the institute programs will be held this summer at different U.S. universities and colleges beginning in mid-June 2010. Space in the institutes is very limited. To be competitive, candidates must have excellent proficiency in English and outstanding qualifications. Application Deadline: January 25, 2010.

The SUSI programs in six institutes for University-Level and Faculty members:

  • Study of the U.S. Institute on U.S. Culture and Society
  • Study of the U.S. Institute on American Politics and Political Thought
  • Study of the U.S. Institute on Contemporary American Literature
  • Study of the U.S. Institute on Foreign Policy
  • Study of the U.S. Institute on Journalism and Media
  • Study of the U.S. Institute on Religious Pluralism

SUSI Programs for Secondary School Educators:

The institute programs are an opportunity for secondary school teachers, teacher trainers, curriculum developers, textbook writers, and other educational professionals to attend a six-week post-graduate seminar in the United States.

All of the institute programs will be held this summer at different U.S. universities and colleges over the course of six weeks beginning in mid June 2010.

Poland - Polish - Polonia, , ,

Respecting the silence, telling the stories

Dr. John Z. Guzlowski recently posted a short blog about journalist Justine Jablonska’s series of online articles about four Poles who survived the Nazi and Soviet invasions of Poland. In The Stories of Four Poles he notes:

The population of Poland was about 36,000,000 when the Nazis decided to destroy the country and its people. Six million of them died. The ones who didn’t die lived unimaginable lives for decades and decades to come, first under the hammer of the Nazis and then under the hammer and sickle of the Communists.

Not all of them want to talk about what happened. Some Poles don’t want to remember the killings, brutality, deportation, enslavement, deprivation, and suffering that many of them felt would never end. My mother was one of these Poles. If I asked her about what those years under the Nazis were like, she would wave me away and tell me simply, “If they give you bread, you eat it. If they beat you, you run away.”

I respect the silence of those like my mother who wouldn’t talk about those years. I’m sure she felt that she was protecting my sister Donna and me from the kind of sorrow few can bear.

Other Poles, however, were like my dad. He was a man who felt that it was his duty to let people know about the terrible things that were done. He didn’t want people to forget the evil that came down upon the Poles.

Justine Jablonska, a graduate student in the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, recently published a series of reports about four Poles who, like my father, feel that they must keep the memories of what happened alive.

These reports are gathered together under the title “Four stories: The nurse, the child, the Resistance fighter and the Home Army soldier.”…

Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political, ,

Speaking of Russian history – Stalin нет (No!)

From the Kosciuszko Society and the Huffington Post: Josef Stalin Must Not Be Honored At The National D-Day Memorial.

The National D-Day Memorial website notes:

At the eastern entrance of the walk leading to Elmon T. Gray Plaza, the action on the European Theater’s eastern front will be acknowledged with a portrait of Marshal Joseph Stalin, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

The National D-Day Memorial in Virginia has, unfortunately, decided honor Josef Stalin by placing his bust on a pedestal at its museum.

Several Polish war veterans in New York, who fought against Stalin and Hitler asked Alex Storozynski, President & Executive Director of the Kosciuszko Foundation, to write something about this outrageous development. His father and grandfather both fought against Nazi and Soviet troops during WWII. His article appears on the Huffington Post. Feel free to add your own comments.

If you are as outraged as I am, please send a letter to the President of the D-Day Memorial, William McIntosh, at the National D-Day Memorial Foundation, P.O. Box 77, Bedford, VA 24523, or call 800-351-DDAY (toll free) or E-mail here. You may also feel free to contact the White House here.

Of note, the plaza where the bust will be placed is named after the Hon. Elmon T. Gray of Virginia, a former Virginia state senator. You can write to him at P.O. Box 82, Waverly VA 23890-0082.

Current Events, ,

CommonGround 2010

CommonGround is the annual New York State arts-in-education conference that brings over 150 administrators, teachers, teaching artists, and community members together for three days of policy setting, planning, exchange of skills and inspirational speakers. This gathering contributes to fresh curriculum design, school reform and new models for classroom learning.

This year the NYS Alliance for Arts Education will be serving as the lead organizer of the conference, working in collaboration with Partners for Arts Education and the Empire State Partnerships, the NYS Department of Education, the BOCES Arts in Education Network, the Association of Teaching Artists, and the Capital Region BOCES. The 2010 conference will be held from March 24-26 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Albany, NY.

The Conference organizers are currently seeking proposals for workshops. Guidelines are located at the conference website.

PNCC, , , ,

Attention prospective applicants to Canisius College

Canisius logoAs an alumni of Canisius I am able to obtain fee waived applications for new students who wish to apply.

To apply under fee waived provisions please complete this on-line application. In the alternative you may choose Canisius on the Common Application. Either way, you will save the $40 application fee.

If you prefer a paper application please contact me and I will obtain one from the Admissions Office for you.

For PNCC applicants, please contact me if you need a recommendation and don’t forget your PNUA (Spójnia) college stipend [pdf].

Go Canisius 2014!

Christian Witness, Current Events, , , ,

November 19th: Campaign against Wage Theft National Day of Action

ndalogo2On November 19th, Agencies, organizations, and individuals will join together in taking action to fight Wage Theft. Some will join in delegations to unethical employers, while others will participate in demonstrations and other actions to raise awareness and support for those who have had wages stolen.

If interested in joining in the National Day of Action or more information on the National Day of Action, please contact Cara Gold or call her at (773) 728-8400 x 34.

All Right Reserved © 2005 - 2023