What could be a better example of nature at work than purring?
Day: October 2, 2010
What an amazing idea
Giving federal funds to sex ed programs with proven results.
Beginning this school year, a five-year, $375 million grant is being divided among 28 programs that have been proven to lower the pregnancy rate among participants, no matter their focus. Many programs distribute condoms, but about half also aim to boost teens’ academics, get them involved in extracurricular activities and even improve their parents’ job status. Advocates believe this “above the waist” approach gives kids the tools to help them succeed in school and make better life decisions, especially about sex.
Some of these programs sound really great:
Birth control is distributed as part of the Carrera Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program, one of the approaches that are getting HHS funding. But students also get art and music classes, science field trips, homework tutoring, mental health counseling and free medical and dental care. They’re also required to get summer jobs, open a bank account, save 10 percent of their wages and learn how to balance a checkbook.
Even parents — many who were teen mothers — get help through the program, including high school-equivalency classes, resume writing tips and mortgage advice.
“You’re illuminating pathways for them … to link the (sex) education with all the other things that make a young person whole, it sticks better,” said the program’s founder, Michael Carrera, an adjunct professor at The Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York.
He said that early in his career, “I didn’t understand that when young people came into my workshops they brought all their issues, not just their sexuality.”
(Thanks, Jender-Parents!)
“The Sopranos” back again?
O joy. It was so nice to enter a world where the moral black is black indeed. However much one felt for Tony Soprano, one knew whacking one’s foe, taking them out, is wrong. Right? And how soothing to sit encased in moral certitude.
We might get a whole new series of pretty much the same thing. If you think that could be a good thing, just watch Paladino, the Republican candidate for governor of NY, in action. For example, he’d do anything for family:
Aren’t you sick of these politicians who hide all their little shenanigans? Call girls, buying votes, why there isn’t even much imagination involved.
See Jender’s post here for more evidence that Paladino is well prepared to embarrass a whole state. We’re talking truly disgusting. And we can all know they’re wrong!
Calling all adjuncts at U.S. institutions
From the SWIP and FEAST listservs, via Kathryn Norlock:
The APA has sent out the request from the Coalition on the Academic Workforce, to all NON-tenure track instructors in the United States, to participate in the (free, quick, online) survey of America’s most widely employed and disadvantaged non-tenured/non-tenureably employed instructors. I was concerned, though, that this email by the APA was far more likely to go to those of us who are tenured (since APA dues-current members are disproportionately likely to be tenured folks with the dues-money to spare).
Please distribute widely, so that under-employed philosophers in the U.S. are heard. (I regret to observe that this survey does not seem to invite participation from adjuncts outside of the U.S.)
Feminist Philosophers 