Education or Class Distinction?

My high school daughter sent me an excited text this morning.  It went like this:  "Hey mom!  The school is having a trip to Peru over the Easter break.  It'll cost $4000 to $5000 and we need $500 up front to hold a seat.  Food and everything is included.  I really want to go."

Instantly, my dander was up.  What is educational about a trip to Peru for a bunch of high school students?  What about the kids whose families can't afford an expense like this?  Because,  realistically, most of us are middle-class -- a lot are low income.  Why do schools want to set class distinctions such as these?  Why do schools want to instill a sense of entitlement in our teens?  Why is a trip like this so costly -- particularly when you go to a travel website and a similar trip, at a four star hotel would cost approximately $2000 for a seven day stay?  Food is not included, but I highly doubt food would cost an extra $2000 to $3000 more for one teenager.  Granted, I don't have all the details of this trip, but there is just so much wrong about it.

First and foremost, it separates the kids whose parents can afford to send them from the ones who cannot; whether it is financially unfeasible -- or because they simply don't want to send their children to a foreign country without being there, too.  I'm the latter.

My heart especially goes out to those kids who simply cannot afford trips like these.  You know the ones:  they won't even ask their parents because they know it can't happen.  There are teens in foster care, teens with single parents living below the poverty line, families with more than one teen and teens who are on their own due to unhappy and/or unhealthy family circumstances.  Who will help these kids save approximately $1,000 per month for the next six months so they can go?  Even if they have a part time job, I doubt they make $1,000 per month.  Let's be honest:  most two-income, middle-class homes can't manage to save that much per month, due to the high cost of living.

I believe the education system is putting unnecessary peer pressure on teens and parents, along with drilling a sense of class distinction into a world that is supposed to be about equality.  There is nothing equal about trips like these.  They are not great opportunities for our kids to see the world.  They are engineered for those with money and the middle-class sheep who will happily beggar themselves so their kids are happy; thereby, creating a sense of entitlement that simply doesn't need to be there -- in any level of society.  School trips should be kept within a two to three hour travel limit and the extent of a weekend.

Want to educate our children?  Send them to work the soup kitchen over their spring break.  Let's teach them the value of the elderly and have them shovel sidewalks or mow lawns.  How about reading to the elderly in the long term care facilities?  How about going to the hospital to cheer up sick children or adults?  Why not teach them to help clean up the city they call home?  Really, it's not horrible to bend over and pick up a paper cup out of the gutter -- or find a garbage can so someone else doesn't have to pick it up.  Why not teach them the value of investing in their community, in people?

Why are we teaching them that spending a small fortune is far cooler than helping those around us?  Help doesn't mean giving people money...  Sometimes a kind smile or word is more helpful than money could ever be.

The public education system is a huge part of the problem by creating inequality, peer pressure, instilling entitlement and general unkindness into our kids with trips like these.  After all, they do have our children for the majority of their waking hours to influence them as they see fit.

Please.  Stop the madness.  Bring back common sense and kindness.  Quit making kids feel like they don't belong because of money.

Peace is Not Irrelevant

The world has watched with a sense of disbelief and horror over the recent terrorist attacks in the Middle East.  From Hamas attacking Israel -- yet again using their own people in the Gaza strip as human shields -- to the Jihadists/ISIS in Syria and Iraq beheading American citizens.

While many of us are not directly affected by these conflicts, we are all indirectly affected by these extremist acts of what equates to ethnic or religious cleansing.  I believe we must all stand up against these terrorists.  It is not an issue of race or religion.  It is an issue of tolerance -- for all beliefs and races. 

I recently watched an amazing video (which I will attach at the end) that explains in some very clear language why we ALL need to stand up against terrorism.  Why we should be loyal to our peaceful countries first, rather than our religion or our race.  It includes historical examples and leaves out the usual political correctness -- which is probably why it keeps getting banned from popular social medias. 

This speech includes so many truths that need to be spread across the world virally.  Please listen openly to this lady's very wise speech.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnOF7y-KuHE&sns=em

Why Can't We Numb Stupid with aTwo-by-Four?

How my day began:

One person turned in front of me.  Their light was red.  Mine was green.  I was cruising the speed limit of 50 km/hr.  This driver proceeds to drive 30 km/hr.  Out of necessity, I jammed my brakes on to avoid a collision.  The next light turned red and caught me.  Whew.  Maybe this goofy driver would manage to get through the entire string of lights down town.  Get moving again and change lanes.  Finally get through down town, some goofball is doing 40 km/hr in a 50 zone.  Mirror check, shoulder check, gun it a little -- mostly because I like the sound of my Hemi when I do that!  Slow driver steps on it.  Just enough I can't change lanes back to where I need to be.  Really?  Vehicle turns in front of me so I sped up to get by this imbecile who was intent on causing an accident.  What does she do?  Speed up.  I was seriously wishing for a bumper car.  Bitch would still be crawling out of the woods if I had one, spitting out every damned one of her chicklets.  Not sure why this person thought it was appropriate to play such a childish and dangerous game, but she did. 

Next, on my bad day list:  dealing with the high school.  The good ol' automated phone call came through last night to inform me there was an orientation at the high school for all grade 9 and 10 students.  Cool.  Except the message was rattled off too quickly to grab a pen and write it down.  No warning the message contained information requiring a pen and paper.  Just a computer voice.  My absolute pet peeve.  NOBODY EVER WANTS TO TALK TO A COMPUTER!!!  So I called to request the information, plus what their actual first day of school was, due to conflicting information, and clarification if there would be a simpler, easier to follow schedule for students.

Unfortunately, I spoke to a vice principal.  Not sure which one.  Mentioned their message should have some kind of warning that critical information would be in it -- or better yet, have real people call.  Well, they can't POSSIBLY call everyone personally because there are far too many students!!  What did they do before computers???  Maybe they should use their summers to call parents with  this type of information.  Or maybe they should simply include it in the package, along with a well explained schedule.  Next, my request for a more understandable schedule was completely scoffed at.

I'll explain what the schedule looked like.  Every subject for an entire year.  Side descriptions of S1, S2 and Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4.  Header of B1, B2, B3, B4.  No explanation as to what these short-hand terms meant.  Hmmm.  A little stumped.  A friend gave me a hand:  S1 = semester 1, etc.  Q1 - quarter 1, etc.  Okay.  Makes sense.  I'd almost reached that conclusion on my own.  B1, etc., I had figured as the blocks/periods.  Again, okay.  What time do the blocks start and finish?  Well, let's see....  Flip through other pages in the package, come up with the block times.  But, wait a minute.  There's day one and day two.  So my kid has to carry around two papers, along with her books and binders, just to figure out where she's supposed to be and at what time of the day she's supposed to be there????  Oh, and don't forget there are no bells in high school!!  Very good.  Are the people who make these decisions up sniffing glue or crack?  What ever it is, they should give it up and simplify absolutely everything.

Anyway, back to my conversation regarding the schedules:  I asked if there would be an easier to understand schedule distributed to the students.  No, there wouldn't.  Why?  It's far too difficult to change them now.  All right.  Will it continue to be so poorly constructed next year or are there plans to make it more understandable?  No, probably not since this decision is up to "central" -- whoever that is.  How many times have you been questioned about its lack of simplicity?  Quite a few.  So, let me get this straight.  You've had complaints and concerns about students being able to understand this schedule style.  You are a vice principal, in a position to recommend sensible changes, BUT you aren't going to recommend anything for next year????  No, she had no intention of doing so.  My reply?  No problem.  I'll create one for my daughter and email you the template so it can be implemented next year.  I hung up without so much as a good bye.  After all, there's only so much stupid a person can handle in one day.

It should be made legal to numb stupid with a 2 x 4 or muffle the sound of it with duct tape, at the very least.  Seriously.

Chauvinism

What is up with chauvinistic behaviour being alive and well???

In the day and age where both men and women work outside the home to support their family, chauvinism should be dead and buried.  Instead, it is alive and well, particularly in older generations.  Thankfully, my husband is enlightened.

Why does it even matter that men and women often carry different chores?  Men often do the heavier chores, such as mowing the lawn or repairing vehicles and houses.  Women often do the lighter chores, such as laundry, cleaning and caring for the kids.  However, I know women who do all home repairs because their husbands are incapable.  I also know men who do the majority of the housework.

After so many years of enlightenment, why is there still this angst between the sexes?  Why do men often feel the need to belittle women because they don't work as "hard"?  Just because the physicality of a chore isn't as extreme does NOT mean a woman hasn't worked equally has "hard".

Because they have a penis, do men automatically think they are somehow genetically superior?  What is so spectacular about a penis?  Really?  Without a vagina, the human race dies.

I'm tired of men who think women's lives are so much simpler.  Reality Check: many of the women I know juggle far more chores/activities than men do; whether they are stay at home moms or moms who hold jobs outside of the home.

There is no need to belittle either sex's role in life.  Life is a team game.

Extremism

This week's world events sure make you question humanity.

Hamas fired rockets into Israel, then expected the world to stop Israel from attempting to control the situation by retaliating in a far harsher manner than was used to pick the fight.  This war is so ancient as to be completely ridiculous and proves only that humans stubbornly refuse to change their ways.  Maybe Hamas should learn to quit instigating a battle he can't handle.  Maybe he should learn that ancient beliefs on who the "promised land" of Gaza belongs to are probably false.  Maybe he should do the world a favor and...  Well, that statement is completely inappropriate so I'll keep that thought to myself.

The extremists in Russia shot down a commercial airliner over Ukraine, murdering almost 300 people.  What has the world done to shut them down?  Nothing.  There's been dissension there for many months now.

I simply do not understand extremism.  The majority of extremists have some sort of religion to blame it on.  Islam.  Jihadist.  ISIS.  In historical times, Catholics also murdered Protestants and vice versa.  Extremists may blame their religion, but it is merely a power struggle.  Power to control the world.  To make a certain "god" higher than the rest.  To claim a strip of land an old history book says belongs to one race or another, while belonging to none.

Maybe the world should be full of atheists.  Atheists are generally more pleasant than their religious counterparts - regardless of the belief set.  Atheists don't start wars based on ridiculous, ancient religious beliefs.  They don't get extreme over anything -- except maybe general fairness for everyone.  People are allowed to be who and what they are without judgement; without expectation of conversion to this or that belief.  Too bad there aren't more atheists in the world.  There'd be a lot less war and destruction.

The Foreign Workers' Program Hoopla

This program has been front and centre in the media for a while now, here in Alberta, anyway.  There always seems to be a shortage of workers for the service industry.  Apparently, we have 70,000 foreign workers Alberta wide.  That's a lot of temporary people from other countries, when certain areas of our own country have many unemployed people. 

I think we should "import" our own from other provinces before we bring in others from different countries.  I'd be willing to bet many of these employers haven't even tried recruiting from areas of Canada where unemployment rates are high.  We lived in an Eastern province, with higher unemployment rates.  Never once saw an advertisement workers were needed in the service industry in other provinces while we were there.  I understand (could be wrong) that recruited Canadians are required to pay their own way here, find affordable housing, etc.  These things are done for TFW's.  How is this fair? 

This is why so many Canadians are against the program.  It isn't about race.  Not even the language barrier (although this can be annoying, it isn't the end of the world).  Or the different religious beliefs brought into our country (unless, of course, you expect us to change the fabric of Canada's traditions for them).  After all, many of us stem from immigrants, as well.  It's about unfair treatment.

I constantly hear how Alberta employers have exhausted their resources locally and choose to pursue TFW.  Locally shouldn't be good enough.  If country-wide resources have been exhausted, that's when TFW should be utilized.  Not before.  Plain and simple.  Let's look after our own.

I'm tired of our country helping other countries without being willing to help our own.  Time to change that.

Fuck You, Type 1 Diabetes

This is one of those days I wished T1 diabetes would listen and take a flying leap off the tallest cliff, never to return. 

Go in to wake my daughter for school and she tells me she feels like throwing up. In the T1 camp, this is bad because it can signify the beginning of DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis). DKA is a condition where blood sugars have risen too high and the body starts to break down other tissue to essentially feed the body -- even though there is a lot of glucose (or food) in the bloodstream already but no insulin to help the body process the glucose. 

Mom goes into overdrive, grabs the meter for blood sugar and the meter to test for ketones: blood sugar was 28.5; ketones 3.5. None of those numbers are good. Check infusion site. No longer attached. Shit, shit, shit. Check the cheat sheet and draw appropriate amount of insulin into syringe. Bent the needle. Start again and get it right the second time. Inject my girl. She hates injections. I can't describe the look of resignation and hopelessness on her face when she absolutely must have one. All I know is my heart is ripped out, thrown forcefully on the floor and stomped on by the diabetes giant that controls her body. 

It's now almost eight hours later. Blood sugar is back in range, trace ketones and a girl who is feeling a bit better but still looks awful. 

This doesn't get easier with time; 3 1/2 years in and it still hurts to see my daughter so sick. Hurts a little more every time she gets this sick. Makes me ill to have to watch her suffer. 

But you know what truly bothers me?  I'm in the diabetes world on a sojourn. One day, my girl will grow up and take over full diabetes management. One day, I'll get a break. 

She will NEVER get a break from this fucking disease. It'll be with her forever causing havoc, no matter how skilled she gets at managing it. 

So, today, it's fuck you, Type 1 Diabetes, fuck you.