Posted on 07/28/2013 3:45:35 AM PDT by MacMattico
I'm in NY and my daughter's schools just recently put out their "school supply lists" -- what students have to have for each class and supplies they "share" like tissues, whiteboard markers, colored pencils. My kids are in high school and Jr High.
It cost me $206 for school supplies! And we spend about $17,000 per year per student in this district! Wayyy over taxed!! My parents couldn't have afforded this for 4 kids.
I told the Superintendent this was ridiculous. She tried to steer me to a "charity" group that could help me get the supply's. I said I'm not in need of charity, I think you're wasting our money! She told me not to worry, when school starts they'll have some free supply give-a-ways! How dense! I don't need your $$, I need you to stop wasting money that isn't yours!
No apologies needed. There are many out of work or those who are nearing retirements find themselves without a pension. We are very fortunate. It was her choice to become a school teacher-a choice she regrets and would not wish on anyone. And she’s the first to let you know. This is a career field where 30 years ago it was much like a lot of jobs with administrative support, a decent wage, etc. Like just every other jobs the liberals have touched, it has disintegrated into chaos.
Good for her. The school system pays pittances for teachers. Your daughter is very wise to get out while she’s young.
Never had a 41. Was it RPN?
Too bad I don’t have an iPhone, nor iAnythingElse for that matter. I suspect that the old calculators such as ours will still be running long after the iPhones quit.
And I still have my Pickett slide rule, too.
I’m not following. You roll out canned beef stew and cut it into strips? Then what?
RPN...yes
Thanks. Do they still make them?
I think I drove one of them to retirement. Second Grade nun. I generally refer to her as the old bat. She wanted us to draw bowls of fruit. My orange was perfect but she didn’t like my apples. I drew them narrow at the bottom and wider on top, just like the apples my mom always bought. The old bat insisted that apples were symmetrical and made me do it again. So I did. Narrow at the bottom and wider on top. She tore it up, so I did it again. Any guess what it looked like? Let’s just say there was a big empty space on the wall where all of our bowls of fruit were on display for the art fair.
I don’t think so. Lot of them on ebay...crazy prices...I might drag a couple of them out and sell them. I think I have 4 altogether.
Ditto
My favorite part was his ‘safe-cracking” phase...:)
I add the pillsbury biscuit dough in to make dumplings. They puff up just like regular dumplings do.
I just found my copy of "The meaning of it all: Thoughts of a citizen scientist" I am going to put both of those back in my reread pile
Note the S for sarcasm.
It’s a funny thing, I’m pretty sure that my politics and his politics are fairly far apart in some areas, but I have to admit that he would’ve been a lot of fun to spend an evening with, having drinks around a table somewhere… :-)
He reminded me of a guy that I used to know when I was in the Navy. I was third class or possibly a second class Petty Officer at the time, and he was a first class. He had a funny, different way of looking at things.
For example, there was one time we got on an elevator full of people. Everyone usually goes to the back of the elevator, turns around, and looks towards the door or the floor indicator above the door. He got on and stood there facing everyone as the door closed behind him. It was instantaneously funny and amazing. People got really kind of uncomfortable with this odd breach of elevator protocol and began appearing nervous. It was weird, yet hilarious. It was as if they all had the feeling that they might have ants walking up their pant legs.
Another time, he and I were in a mall, and we went into a shoe store because I needed some sneakers. When I paid, he asked the cute young girl behind the counter if it was possible to buy just one shoe. She said she didn’t think so, and said “Why would you need to?”
He replied “What if I only had one leg?”
She paused and furrowed her forehead, then said “Well, I guess you would have to find someone who was missing the other leg, and you could split the cost...”
and so on. I thought it was amusing.
When were on the ship, we were completely bored one day, and he began hitting his head against the padded steel bulkhead while saying “I’m not crazy...I’m not crazy...” and all of a sudden he had a little stream of red blood running down his balding forehead.
Apparently, one of the “buttons” on the bulkhead padding (which had the appearance of a quilted chair with buttons that puckered the fabric) had fallen off, and all that remained of it was a little sharp metal clip that must have been hidden right below the surface of the canvas quilting, and when he playfully bumped his head against it, it poked through and cut him. He said when they asked him in sick bay how he cut it, he said “I was banging my head against the wall while I told everyone I wasn’t crazy...”
Heh, I wish I could have been a fly on the wall...:) Anyway, there is some weird quirkiness about Feynman that reminded me of this guy.
Yeah I think the same thing. There was this woman I used to work with. She was a liberal atheist that drove a hybrid. She and I used to have the best discussions, almost as interesting as the lesbian artist I used to hand out, but that is a story for a different time.
Did you teach Biology in a small upstate NY school district?
Not my district but your years teaching and salary sound like someone I know retiring this year.
“Nearly half of the parents in this state can’t afford to feed their children? Really?”
If we had Great Depression I soup kitchens instead of EBT cards, you’d be stunned at the lines.
It is not unusual to meet people who have been looking for work for three years or more.
I know things are tough for many people. I’m not disputing that, but my dad grew up during the Great Depression to a single mother. Sometimes they had string beans and fat back for dinner. My dad is going on for 83 now. I won’t say he’s going strong...he’s an elderly man, but he and his sister made it. No help from the government. His mom did what they had to do to survive. Sometimes it wasn’t pretty or moral, but she got him to 16 years old before she died.
I’ve told this story on FR a few times. Just a few years ago, my oldest two attended a charter school for a few months. The charter was in its first year. For some reason, a charter school in this area/state? can’t offer a lunch program in its first year. So for the first year, *every* child had to bring their own lunch to school. The next year, when lunch could be offered, almost half were on a free/reduced lunch.
I teach Life Science, 7th graders, in a rural area of South Jersey.
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