Tag Archives: elementary school

Saddest Story of the Week Tells of an Elementary School “Surrounded by Prostitutes”

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I wouldn’t describe myself as pro-prostitution, but I’m definitely not against prostitution, either (especially considering how the industry is treated in our country), just that I acknowledge that it fits into a realm of jobs that can be fulfilling and also be awful (now that I think of it, like most jobs are). I also feel, like many others, that there’s a need to legalize careers in fields relating to sex or drugs that are probably not, considering history, going anywhere. Like any job, prostitution is fraught with risks and rewards, but it’s the sex that makes it more complicated, as we’re all just obsessed with it. Despite all of these feelings about prostitution theoretically, I could not get past the deep sadness depicted in this article about an elementary school that is “surrounded by prostitutes.”

At West Farms elementary school in the Bronx in New York City:

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Gunman Shoots Two Children at a Carlsbad, California Elementary School

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photo of shooter orourkes apartment

This past Friday morning, two children in the affluent San Diego neighborhood of Carlsbad were shot during recess at their elementary school.  The victims, two little girls, 6 and 7 years old, thankfully were not fatally wounded.  They are expected to make a full recovery.  The motive of the gunman, 41-year-old Brendan O’Rourke, is still unknown. However, he is currently in custody, but is sadly he is not cooperating with the police.

According to reports, O’Rourke scaled Kelly Elementary School’s fence during recess time.  Witnesses to the shooting say that O’Rourke appeared to be out of it, but heroically, he was tackled by three bad ass construction men who witnessed the shooting.  After being apprehended, when asked for his name, O’Rourke gave police three different names, including that of a woman.  This led officers to question his mental state.

Neighbors of O’Rourke noted that he often displayed odd behavior. In fact, they described him as a total nut job.  Vickie Rowe-Mitchell, whose apartment is under O’Rourke’s, told reporters that he would scream racial obscenities late into the night and stomp around; it’s said that actual pieces of her ceiling would fall to the ground during …

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Signs and Symptoms: Be On the Lookout for Head Lice

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Photo of Girl With Head Lice Being Combed
Ah, head lice. As a new school year revs up and kids are freshly home from summer camps, it’s a topic worth addressing. The stigma attached with head lice is indicative of a greater problem in society, that of comparing the so-called haves and have-nots.

What’s ironic is that head lice is absolutely in no way indicative of either cleanliness or hygiene, although I can definitely remember the kids who were sent home directly following the school nurse’s “lice check.” It must have been mortifying for them.

Although I am fairly well-educated and consider myself an open-minded person, I’ve found that I have a lot to learn about these little buggers as both a teacher and a parent—and the knee-jerk reaction that seems to go along with an infestation.

From USA Today:

Any child can get head lice. Dr. David Flinders, a family physician in Provo, Utah, stressed that getting head lice shouldn’t reflect badly on children who have them or on the children’s families.

“People often think it’s associated with poor hygiene or low socioeconomic status,” Flinders said. But, he said, “an affluent person is just as likely to get head lice as someone from a lower socioeconomic status.”

And often the white collar families are the ones that suffer most as they have to overcome their own aversions and humiliation (misguided as it may be) to a situation that they have preconceived notions about.

Going to the store and buying Nix and huge quantities of Lysol? …

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Are Elementary School Teachers Perpetuating Gender Based Violence and Stereotypes?

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vintage black and white photo of two boys fighting retro pictures hipster

Now this is something I can get behind.

There is, as usual, a new study making its rounds. However, unlike the past, say, four articles I’ve written, I’m totally down with this one for a couple of reasons.

The British Educational Research Association performed a study on elementary school students centered around gender dynamics between young girls and boys. They came to the conclusion that influential adults (like teachers) were perpetuating gender stereotypes and poor behavior amongst male students with what might seem to be harmless comments. What kinds of comments? Things we use every day — “boys will be boys,” “silly boys,” and “schoolboy pranks,” for example.

I took a politics course last year called Explaining Social Power in which we studied gender dynamics throughout history, starting with Machiavelli and ending with modern social theorist Larry May. I mention these two in particular because they support the findings of this study quite well. In Machiavelli’s The Prince, he insists that to rule a country, a man must be violent, unwavering, unemotional, and instill fear amongst his people. For Machiavelli, who published The Prince in 1532, men were not respected unless they were physically overpowering and unafraid of using unprecedented violence.

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