EleCivil
-
Posts
838 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
1
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Blogs
Posts posted by EleCivil
-
-
I tried really hard to think of a good anecdote about the differences in behavior between the boys and girls in my classes. I honestly can't think of one. There's no specific trait or behavior that I can say I've noticed in only one gender, or even disproportionately in one more than the other...except one.
Here it is - the one thing I've noticed that's different between boys and girls at my school:
The girls know how to FIGHT.
When the guys fight, it's mostly shoving, bumping, some half-hearted punches here and there. Easy to break up. The worst I've seen is a shot to the jaw that knocked a guy to the ground.
When the girls fight, it's a rolling-on-the-ground, clawing at the eyes, pulling out the hair, biting, kicking, Tasmanian Devil-esque whirlwind of destruction.
I was trained in Crisis Intervention - that is, how to break up fights, disarm kids with weapons, restrain kids who are a danger to themselves and others, etc. Even the trainer said "In the case of a girl fight, just let them go. If you intervene there, you're just going to get hurt."
So there it is - the one big difference I've noticed between boys and girls at school.
-
There are a good number of single-sex public schools around here - remnants from an "educational reform" movement (I'd argue that most of what passes as "reform" isn't, but that's another topic) when city leaders said "Our schools are all failing, so let's just...try stuff. As long is it doesn't cost anything." So we got uniforms, magnet schools, charter schools, sex-segregated schools, non-union schools...everything except, say, getting the under-performing schools in the city equal funding as the excellent schools in the 'burbs. The result?
Turns out that taking an angry, hopeless kid with a history of poverty, neglect, and abuse, putting him in a uniform and surrounding him with other boys gives you...a really angry, hopeless boy in a uniform, surrounded by the same. Academically and behaviorally, very little change. Shocking, I know.
The research I've read has shown that single-sex education doesn't make much of an impact at best, and supports gender stereotypes at worst. Introverted, cerebral boys would absolutely hate being in a school where they tried to play up the "Boys are boisterous and competitive" stereotype, just as active, competitive girls would hate a school that plays up the "Girls are all about communication and collaboration" stereotype. Not only does this make the kids feel bad because they're being forced to work in a situation that goes against their natures, but they're in a position where they feel that they're wrong because of it - "The teachers act like boys are supposed to be loud and active. I just want to read my book. Does that mean I'm too girly?"
"But EC!" You're saying, "What about all those private schools that separate genders? They do way better than the public schools that keep boys and girls together!"
Well, yes. But those are private schools. The kinds of parents that seek out single-gender schools (and private schools in general) are the kind of parents interested in education. Their kids are going to do well no matter where they go. When you remove that aspect and look at public schools, single-sex and co-ed doesn't really matter.
---
Ideally, teachers would look at kids as more than their demographic information, but the system itself makes that difficult. Here's something crazy that you might not realize if you don't have kids in school (and maybe even if you do):
Because of No Child Left Behind, schools have quotas for success based on demographic information. Meaning, not only do 75% of our kids need to pass this test, but 75% of white kids need to pass this test, as well as 75% of boys, 75% of girls, 75% of African-Americans, etc. Also, the test score is king, so it's the "Bubble Kids" (kids who are failing, but are close to passing) that get the most attention and resources. Kids who are failing by a lot are ignored, because even if they make great gains, they will still be below grade level and will likely fail the test. Kids who are passing or above average are ignored, because, hey, we've already got their numbers.
So it's not unusual to see memos along these lines: "We have enough 3rd grade boys passing math. Focus interventions on the girls!" "We have enough Caucasian and African-American kids passing reading - focus interventions on Hispanic kids!" "Kid X is scoring so low that he stands no chance of coming up high enough to pass the test. Stop working with him and focus on Kid Y, who is closer to the bubble!"
It's a case of good intentions ("Let's make sure schools are accountable for educating all demographics") turning into ridiculous results (playing numbers games to keep the school open, rather than, you know, TEACHING KIDS).
---
Back on topic:
I sometimes hear that line of "Boys are too unruly and aggressive" vs. "Boys will be boys." I don't see it, myself. I've worked with a lot of students, now, and there are as many modes of behavior as there are kids. I've known girls who love to fight and curse and spit, and I've known boys who like to draw and read and cook, and everything in between. I'm a fan of teaching the kid, not the demographic.
I guess in the end, I don't come to the table with a "You're supposed to be this way" attitude - I've got the kids that I've got, I'll make clear my expectations, and I'll hold to them. If I notice a kid that needs to move around, I'll give them a seat near the back and let them stand up while they take notes, or teach them to spin a pen between their fingers so that they're able to burn some energy while working. It's about an equal number of boys and girls to whom I give those kinds of accommodations.
-
In fact, despite all the real violence and problems that certainly do exist, we live in the most peaceful time in human history, and despite lots of bumps along the way, this has increased fairly linearly for the past ten thousand years. Pick a random person off the face of the earth, then pick a whole bunch more until you have a good sample size. Then do the same thing at all the points of history back to cave-man days. Measure their likelihood of dying by violence, being involved in war or combat, or having an immediate family member die by violence. This number has gone down (with a few notable exceptions) steadily.
I haven't read it yet, but this book that makes that case is sitting in my "to-read" pile. I'll get to it eventually! Haha.
Despite the inevitable end of everything into a cosmic version of the dust on the back shelf in your basement corner, there's a lot of fascinating and weird stuff going on. Black holes, quantum mechanics, string theory, supersymmetry, gauge-gravity duality, brane theory, and on and on...
Speaking of, I nearly posted this in the News section, but figured it was kind of esoteric - just yesterday, researchers at CERN announced that they've found new evidence of the Higgs-Boson! ...Still not enough to say they've "Discovered" it, but along the lines of "We've got everything short of actually seeing it."
The Sci-Fi side of my brain is spinning with possibilities of what we could do if we could understand - and eventually manipulate - the very thing that gives mass to matter.
-
Here's what I see/hear with my students (mostly 8 to 14), in order of popularity:
-Marijuana. It's cheap, easily available, and it's not as scary as the harder stuff. Some of their parents smoke it around and/or with them.
-Alcohol. Actually more difficult for kids to get than pot, since stores check ID for booze, and nobody really bothers with a black market for it, since profit margins would be pretty low.
-Prescription drug abuse, especially Adderall and Ritalin. Kids diagnosed with conditions like ADHD will pocket or fake-swallow their pills, then sell them to other kids.
-DXM (Robitussin, Triple-C's) was big when I was that age, because kids could legally buy it. Now, stores tend to keep that stuff behind the counter. It's still possible to get hold of it, but it's usually just easier to find pot or Adderall/Ritalin.
Keep in mind, I work in a high poverty neighborhood - kids are mostly limited to what they can find, beg, borrow, or steal. Everybody knows that if you want REAL drugs, you leave the ghetto and go to the rich kids' neighborhoods - the private Catholic schools, especially. You get into those schools, it's still mostly pot/booze/prescription drugs, but you start seeing some LSD, X, coke, and among certain groups, performance enhancers like anabolic steroids and human growth hormone.
-
I am not bragging. I was not even refering to the death of our world by heat. I was talking about the emphasis on war, and our possible self-destruction, other than forgeting to take care of our enviroment. I think the human race has accomplished more than finding new ways of eradicating each other.
Oh, I didn't mean to make it seem like that quote was directed at you - that was just an illustration of absurdist thought toward annihilation, more directed at the very people starting wars in the first place. As if to say to world leaders "The universe is going to disolve into nothingness, and you're going to waste the time we've got killing each other? Why? Over land that will cease to exist? Over ideology that will all be meaningless in the end? How absurd."
-
Haha, how did I know you'd be the one to bring up the Upanishads, Des? Tat tvam asi!
But yeah, I was thinking a bit of the Mahavakyas when I wrote that. Combine the idea that all consciousness is eventually indistinguishable from the universe itself, and that the Big Bang, Big Crunch, and the period in between coincide with Brahma's creation of the universe, Shiva's destruction of the universe, and Vishnu's preservation of life in between, and the eventual destruction of everything doesn't sound so bad.
-
What? Money before art? Capitalist pig dogs...
Prose-titute: (n) An author who writes about sexual activities in exchange for money.
He hired a prose-titute to entertain him with stories filled with carnal depravity. And adverbs. Lots and lots of adverbs.
-
The only parts I had trouble with were that most of the footage seemed to be USA centered, and the final scenes that seemed so fatalistic. To just give up to the "inevitable", sounds like giving in to me. I am a fighter. I refuse to just give up.
Agreed about the USA-centric part. We've only been around for 200 years compared to say, India's 5500+ years. Think about the kind of change that's taken place there over that length of time. That would make a good video on its own.
As far as the fatalism...well, yeah, kinda. Eventually Earth will go. Maybe by then we'll have colonized other planets, so that humanity will still be around. But eventually, those planets will go. And so on, and so on. In the 60's and 70's a lot of absurdist authors used the idea of the heat death of the universe - the notion that eventually all the stars would burn out and the universe would be reduced to a cold, barren soup of entropy - to poke at both our pettiness and our pretentions. "Why are you fighting? What are you bragging about? Don't you realize that the heat death of the universe is only a few billion years away, at which point - win or lose - none of your little squabbles will have mattered?" While it's not something I'd prefer to think about constantly, it is a good way of staying humble.
I believe the current prediction, rather than heat death, is "The Big Crunch" - sort of the Big Bang in reverse. Eventually, as astral bodies pull further and further apart, they'll start to lose momentum from the initial "Bang" until they stop...at which point gravity will start to draw them back toward each other, faster and faster, until they all cruch down together into a singularity. And then it will explode, and it'll all start again. And maybe 17 billion years from then, someone quite similar to me will be typing a sentence quite similar to this on a machine that may or may not be made from the very same particles from which this computer was made. I don't know how valid that hypothesis is - I haven't researched it very thoroughly, myself - but it's a bit more romantic than heat death. Haha.
Oh man, it's 3:00 a.m. already!? See what happens when I don't sleep? My posts get increasingly stranger.
-
I know, right! As an Audible member myself, I'd download it.
Also, the excerpts being read sound like a low- to mid-level Nifty story. And it's sold a million copies. That should give all AD authors hope - they're a hell of a lot better than this!
-
Very cool video.
Here's something staggering:
If that video had been to scale (homo sapiens having been around for ~100,000 years vs. the Earth's ~4.7 billion), there would have been (if my figures are adding up right) about 1533 hours of footage before the two minutes where humans showed up. Meaning, if we wanted to watch Earth's history compressed to this time scale, we would be watching for about 64 days before we got to the part with our particular species...and then it'd be over two minutes later.
All the advancements we've made in the last, say, hundred years - scientifically, socially, etc. - would fly by so fast that our brains would barely register them. You'll notice, too, that in this video, the majority of the "modern, civilized" era was represented by our various wars. Again, if we put all of Earth's history to this scale, the amount of time we've spent building and creating would be a blink compared to the amount of time we've spent killing each other and smashing things. An outside observer would note that humans, as a whole, have spent the majority of their time on this planet being terrible to each other.
-
-
Some stories are written purely as mental stimulation and/or wish fulfilment for the author and readers.
Some stories are written with more of a focus on characters or plot.
This is the big distinction most of us make between "stroke-stories" and "gay fiction."
But there's a false choice being offered, I think. There's no law saying that a well-written, character- or plot-driven story can't have scenes that are...uh..."stroke-able."
Some of my biggest influences and favorite writers in the "genre" (I don't like to think of "gay" as a genre, myself, but that's another topic all together) write detailed descriptions of sex:
Joey Gumb's "Forever on a Tree"
Journeyman's "Journey of Love"
FreeThinker's...uh, all of them. (Yeah, that's right - I'm referencing you to answer your own question. Haha.)
What these writers have in common is their ability to take hold of the heartstrings and give them a good twist, balancing the highs and lows of human emotion and keeping the two in tension. In all three examples I named, the protagonists end up in such terrible lows that, dammit, they deserve something good to happen to them! The sex in these stories is almost necessary to balance out the tragedy.
Brief tangent:
One of J.R.R. Tolkien’s big claims with regards to writing (and critiquing) fantasy was that happy endings can work - and can even be necessary. Literary critics didn't like the idea of a happy ending - it's too unrealistic, and if your story is already about magic elves, you're really asking for a lot by way of suspension of disbelief. So in an effort to justify a happy ending, fantasy writers will put their characters through mortal danger, heartbreaking loss, and existential despair - a cycle of tension and release that finally pays off with a happy ending.
Back on track:
I think this applies to writers of romance just as well as fantasy. One could easily argue that writing about love - especially with teenage characters - can be unrealistic, and indeed, it can easily become overly saccharine to the point that it causes insulin spikes just by reading it. This, I would argue, separates the Authors from the Writers. There's a billion stories on Nifty that follow the pattern of happy-sex-happy-sex-happy-sex. We tend to forget these as soon as we finish reading them. The stories that grab us and refuse to let go, the stories that stick with us, that make us think "I want to write something that makes people feel the way this made me feel!" - they play off of that tension-release dynamic.
And, frankly, sex can be a good form of release. But like any sort of happy ending, if it's going to be memorable, it has to be earned.
How is it earned? How much is too much? How detailed can you get without being off-putting? The answer, I think, is the same as the answer to almost any question when it comes to the "rules" of writing:
It depends.
Though, as a long time fan of your work, I'd suggest you follow your instincts. They've worked for you so far.
Write what you want to write - you're never going to please everybody, but there's always someone out there who it will resonate with.
-
Just googled EleCivil +Queerschool to check. Yep, both Leaves and Lunatics and Laika are reviewed there. Must say I'm flattered.
Interesting note: their review of L&L links to AwesomeDude, while their review of Laika links to Codey's World, so their reviewer is aware of both sites in our "family," and is not just skimming Nifty.
-
Do keep in mind that republicans are, like democrats, a spectrum of ideologies.
As there are only two parties, to chose one, everybody has to make many compromises.
Many republicans are pro-science and progress. They simply aren't part of the religious fanatic wing of the party.
Most of this sort are more Libertarian than Republican and are more likely to deal equitably with GLBT people than Southern Democrats.
Agreed. I'm not here to bash on republicans. Dems can be just as ridiculous at times.
And to be fair, when it comes to mainstream politicians, there are BARELY two parties. We have the party that openly shills for big business and warmongering, and we have the party that tries to pretend that they aren't shilling for big business and warmongering.
-
Anecdotal archival footage gives life to this reality, when the late CBS news anchor and reporter Mike Wallace announced on a 1966 CBS Reports: "The average homosexual, if there be such, is promiscuous. He is not interested in, nor capable of, a lasting relationship like that of a heterosexual marriage."
Fascinating. 50 years later, and the argument has changed from "They're so depraved, they don't even desire something as stable as marriage!" to "Sure, they want to get married...but they shouldn't be allowed!"
It may seem weak, but that is progress - it firmly puts the focus on those denying equal rights, rather than on those being refused them. Not "They're gay, so they don't want to get married," but "They're gay, so we won't LET them get married." A small twist in language is enough to change from blissful ignorance to open oppression, and while the two are certainly...well, let's say "life partners"...the phrase "We won't let you" is more often challenged. It perks up our ears, and sticks in the throats of even the ones saying it.
"They don't want this," is answered with "Oh, okay."
"We won't let them have it," is answered with "Why?"
And eventually, the kernel of individualism at the heart of even the most conservative person will burst open, and they'll realize that there is no good answer for that question.
-
From the article:
“We believe the current teaching of a multicultural curriculum is divisive,” the platform says, adding that it supports teaching “common American identity and loyalty instead of political correctness that nurtures alienation among racial and ethnic groups.” In Arizona, where Republicans banned multicultural programs, students in those programs actually out-performed their peers. Texas Republicans also believe “controversial theories” such evolution and climate change — which aren’t controversial at all — “should be taught as challengeable scientific theories subject to change as new data is produced.” There’s more: the GOP also opposes the teaching of “critical thinking skills” because they “focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.”(Bolded for emphasis.)
It's like they read about Socrates, and the lesson they got out of it was "Yeah! Those Greeks had the right idea getting rid of that troublemaker!"
If your "fixed beliefs" and "parental authority" can be undermined through logic and reason, your beliefs are weak and your authority is questionable.
-
Well, maybe you can use it in Firelands tonight.
I'll be there. It'll be my first time raiding, and my first time in Firelands, though.
As a tank once I actually had a priest tell me I died because I dint' use the lightwell. I told her, bluntly, that the tank was the healing priority and the DPS should be allowed to die if it's a choice.Agreed. My general priority is tank > healer > everyone else. Hense, drop a lightwell for the DPS to use, because if things get crazy and I've got to focus on the tank, it gives them a chance to survive when I can't spare a second to toss them a renew/bubble. And I say this as a former DPSer (I've got an 85 cat druid parked on another server).
And of course, we're thrilled to have you. Tonights group will be a lot chattier too as Rae is a new recruit having just joined yesterday.Cool, looking forward to it!
-
Just rolled with Luck in the Shadows for the first time last night. Very cool group - they patiently put up with my rusty healing skills.
You know what I just realized? Throughout those heroics last night, I completely forgot to use Lightwell - one of my favorite methods of keeping DPS alive. Also, I forgot to put Flash Heal on my bars, even though I was proc-ing free instant casts. Haha...now that I've shaken the dust off my keyboard, my HPS should be much higher.
And now I feel like I should post this, again:
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/IRsPheErBj8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
-
What I've heard from teachers, parents, or teens I know is that cell phones are allowed in their schools, but like with EC, they're supposed to have them off during class. Actually using one in class varies, but some schools confiscate the phone, at least until the end of class.
My personal cell phone policy goes like this:
If you forget to turn off your ringer and it rings in class, take it out and turn it off. No big deal unless you make it one.
The first time I catch you using it in class, I take it until the end of class.
If I catch you using it in class again, I keep it until the end of the day.
If I catch you using it in class a third time, I keep it until a parent/guardian comes to get it, and we have a quick conference to see if there's some kind of home emergency or other legitimate reason for the kid to need to be in constant contact. This has never happened - the threat of losing one's phone is enough to prevent that. Haha.
BTW, I again have to say, I salute EleCivil -- not just for being a terrific writer, but also for having the strength and dedication needed to be a teacher nowadays. My mom was a 5th grade teacher for more than 30 years, and when she retired in the 1980s for health reasons, I can remember her classes were a zoo back then. I can only imagine how challenging it is nowadays, at least in certain areas.
Haha, thanks. It can be crazy, but it's fun. I can't imagine being in a job where I'm not challenged daily. I was just discussing this today with some colleagues. One of them recently had to tackle a student in the street to keep him from getting shot in a random drive-by. We were laughing about how that kind of thing scares our parents/friends when we tell them about it, but to us, it's just another day. "Yeah, tackled a kid. Stopped a sexual assault. Oh, stay off the 2200 block for a few days - some idiot local set shot a Crip, so there'll be some bullets flying. Also, how are your lesson plans coming? You incorporating that new tech I set up for you?"
-
Blinks.
OK, I think there's a whole lot of context missing there.
The Unhate ads are photoshops of people you would normally expect to not be on close terms kissing each other. There's Obama/Hu Jintao, Obama/Hugo Chavez (above), The Pope/an Egyptian Imam, etc.
If I recall, the one with the Pope, in particular, got a lot of press. The Vatican wasn't very happy about it, first, for showing the Pope kissing a dude, and second, for implying that the current state of afairs involves the Pope hating Imams (implied with the "Unhate" caption). The Obama/Dudes ads got some flack for using the image of the President to advertize commercial products, which is frowned upon. No word on whether Michelle was a bit jealous.
-
I drive an '03 Impala with a missing hubcap. But I just paid it off, so I'm going to drive it until the engine falls out.
-
This is great. I'm curious how they're going to ensure it doesn't backfire. I can just see Bull McBully all pissed off at Nerd McGeek and texting the service to say the Nerd McGeek has a nuclear bomb hidden in his locker. Then sitting back to watch the show.
I've been in a school during a false bomb threat before. It goes like this:
The school goes into lockdown.
The cops and the bomb dogs sweep the school.
No bomb is found.
The call is traced.
The false alarmist is taken off in cuffs.
In general, these kids get in so much trouble (criminal charges) that false bomb threats are very, very rare. Also, it's rarely the bullies that do things like this - it's more often victims of bullying looking for some way to feel powerful, get revenge, or simply shut down the school for a day or two as a way to escape their tormentors. If a bully has a problem with you, he'll probably just punch you in the head. It's the kids that feel too weak or intimidated to do face-to-face confrontation that end up finding these subtler ways of dealing with their enemies.
Do most schools restrict phones in school? Or not? I don't have any idea. Maybe the kids can have them but aren't supposed to use them unless it's an emergency, something along that line. I was just wondering, if someone saw active bullying happening, whether he'd have a phone available to make the call, and additionally, would phoning bring attention to himself?
Cell phones are pretty common. The rule in my school (and others in the area) is "Just don't use it during class." Recess? Lunch? Restroom? During passing periods, before, and after class? Sure. Some staff are hard about this, and take them away, but most will look the other way - bigger fish to fry, and all. And keep in mind, I'm in a K-8 school - they're even more common in high schools.
If there's bullying going on, there's a good chance five or six people in the area already have their phones out, texting others about it, videotaping it, facebooking about it, or simply texting/playing a game, completely oblivious to the anti-social behavior (or actively trying to ignore it and not get drawn in).
---
Here's the thing about this hot-line, though:
Students get due process. Alleged bullies included. If an admin gets a report saying "Student X has been bullying student Y" - well, that's not actionable. The most schools can do is alert teachers to keep a closer eye on those two students...and if the bully was dumb enough to be carrying out his bullying in front of staff, he probably would have been caught already. Trying to suspend, expell, or even put the fear into a kid without an eye-witness report from a staff member (NOT a student) or an incident captured on tape leads to parents bringing in lawyers. An anonymous report to a third-party organization is pretty weak as far as evidence goes. Now, if a victim comes forward and says "X is bullying me," it's actionable...but, of course, the fear of retaliation stops those reports from ever reaching the office.
(There's probably a story in there, somewhere.)
-
Hey, just sent a join request to Luck in the Shadows. Character name is Vizzin.
-
You know, I think I'll take you up on that offer, provided you've got room for a very out-of-practice healer.
Transferring to Earthen Ring now.
Also, yes, I am writing again. I find farming for valor/honor to be conducive to brainstorming writing ideas.
Scan to donate
Help request
in Writers' Workshop
Posted
Around here, Whip-Its (nitrous cartridges) have a reputation as a "white trash drug" - it was all over the place in the trailer park where I grew up. Its popularity seems to have faded out, lately - the rise of meth as the trailer park drug of choice has edged out a lot of the competitors. Too many kids I grew up with are beat-as-all-hell meth-heads, these days.