Some PTA’s Paying Teachers’ Salaries

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Like in Seattle Washington. Here’s the district’s rationale.

Many well-to-do parents’ fear their children will not enjoy the same economic privilege they have. That anxiety explains a lot of the inequities embedded in our public education system. In fact, I’m surprised super wealthy parents in the U.S. haven’t followed the lead of the super wealthy 30-something Chinese parents I met twenty years ago in a Beijing suburb. Focused intensely on English language instruction, those parents built a K-8 boarding school specifically for their children. It was a weird, disconcerting place, but I bet the teachers made quite a bit more money than their public school Chinese counterparts.

I wonder. Why haven’t any multi-millionaire parent groups (that I know of) created schools exclusively for their children staffed with teachers making $200,000/year? I suppose the answer is they feel the best public and private K-12 schools are good enough. If that changes, I will not be surprised. And yes, I will say, I called it.

 

Studies Show That Religious People Are Happier Than The Nonreligious

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From Ruth Whippman in America the Anxious:

“Almost all the studies show that religious people tend to have a greater number of social ties and stronger and more supportive communities. When the studies control for the increased levels of social connection, the link between religion and happiness almost always disappears.”

This is my fav positive psychology book. The one I’d recommend to someone brand new to the subject. I dig Whippman’s skepticism, insights, journalistic bent, and British wit. Only complaint, she could use some working class friends.

Monday Assorted Links

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1. Students’ grades determine where they eat lunch at Florida schools. While trying to process this, I was overcome by a strong desire to excise the peninsula along the Alabama-Georgia borders. Let it drift away I say.

2. Olympic marathon champ Jemima Sumgong banned four years for EPO. This is so common place, why doesn’t the Olympic Organizing Committee wait four years and distribute the awards right before the next game’s Opening Ceremony. And while we’re at it, let’s all agree to wait ten years to give wedding gifts. Make sure the relationship sticks before springing for that state-of-the-art toaster oven.

3. How to Get Entirely Tax-Free Retirement Income. An excellent explanation of why Health Savings Accounts rock.

4. When Your Shitty Health Insurance Doubles in Price.

“Remember, health insurance is not really health insurance. It’s just “large medical bill insurance” – a shaky precaution against having to pay for expensive procedures, so you can keep your investments instead of using them to pay the bills, perhaps eventually becoming poor enough that you are covered by public health insurance (Medicaid). A better name for it might be wealth insurance.”

5. Here’s why you may want to stop judging your emotions.

“. . . research from the University of California, Berkeley found that the pressure to feel upbeat can make you feel downbeat, while embracing your darker moods can actually make you feel better in the long run.

“We found that people who habitually accept their negative emotions experience fewer negative emotions, which adds up to better psychological health,” said senior author Iris Mauss.

At this point, researchers can only speculate on why accepting your joyless emotions can defuse them, like dark clouds passing swiftly in front of the sun and out of sight.

“Maybe if you have an accepting attitude toward negative emotions, you’re not giving them as much attention,” Mauss said. “And perhaps, if you’re constantly judging your emotions, the negativity can pile up.”

In Today’s News

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In the interest of helping the growing number of journo’s on the sexual harassment beat with their untenable workload, I have created a template:

“Today, [insert number] women [or substitute underaged men or just men if applicable] have accused [insert name of Hollywood director, writer, actor, comedian, Congressman, former/current President, professor, executive, publicity titan, veteran political journalist, athlete, celebrity journalist, studio head, fashion photographer, Olympic team doctor] of allegedly [insert type of harassment—groping them while posing for a picture, talking about sex with them, telling them he deserved to see them naked for all he had done for them, touching them in an improper way, repeatedly making sexual comments at work, kissing them and grabbing their breasts during a work meeting, chasing them around a hotel room naked, masturbating in front of them, raping them]. [Insert name again] has released a statement through his attorney saying he is extremely sorry if anyone has been hurt by his actions.”

 

Don’t Just Follow The Money

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Saturday night the Gal Pal and I (and Kris and Brian) went to a concert at Traditions Cafe in downtown Olympia. When we go out, we go all out, which means some grub beforehand. Traditions concert tickets are $15. I counted about 40 peeps tucked into the small cafe. So I started to do the math because I’m always doing the math, can’t help it. Actually, MaggieZ does math, I do arithmetic. $600 divided between three musicians minus one-third to the cafe (guessing) equals $400 divided between three or $133/per. Don’t forget to factor in a few CD sales, but still less than $200/per.

And yet, all three musicians, Larry in particular, performed like it was a stadium concert with 40,000 people. His technical prowess as a guitar player and singer was impressive, but not nearly as much as the profound joy he had for sharing his gifts. The intrinsic genesis of his art was a beautiful, downright spiritual thing to observe.

And it got me thinking about whether I’d share my teaching gifts with the same committed passion if I only had a few students. And how I like to be well compensated for my time. And how I want to be more like Larry when I grow up.

Fast forward a few days to a story our local on-line paper ran on a local citizen who is doing a mindfulness workshop for local educators. Interested in mindfulness, I snooped around her website only to find a “shopping” section with bullshit mindfulness products. And her teacher workshop costs twenty Tradition’s concert tickets. I don’t begrudge her the right to run a profitable business or her desire to build wealth as a young person. Also, people pay decent money for yoga classes, but the overt commercialism and explicit selling of mindfulness, not only makes me want to run the other way, but likely turns off others who could benefit greatly from it.

Granted, it’s easier to take my advice to be like Larry and not just follow the money all the time, when you have some money. But whether you do or don’t have money, nonstop selling becomes habitual, meaning the extrinsic overwhelms the intrinsic until one’s work contributes very little to the greater good.

I’ve referenced two PressingPausers—Kris and MaggieZ—whose loyalty to the humble blog I greatly appreciate, but I’m thinking about a third who shall remain nameless because that’s the way he’d want it. Check out this other article from our same local on-line paper, “Puget Sound Honor Flight Recognizes Veterans One Flight At A Time”. When I first saw it, I immediately skimmed it for my friend’s name, but somehow he didn’t make it into the article. The fact that no one is watching him get up at 4 a.m. to drive to Sea-Tac Airport monthly, or watching him sometimes accompany local veterans on the actual flights, or watching him attend board meetings, makes all those activities much more meaningful.

Larry didn’t need much if any money. All he needed was a small group of people to share with. Same with our esteemed, third PressingPauser. All he needs is an appreciative veteran or two to share with.

 

 

 

Monday Assorted Links

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1. A guy filmed a fantastic commercial to sell his girlfriend’s 1996 Honda Accord.

Now his fiancee.

2. Fred Beckey, Conqueror of North American Peaks, Dies at 94.

“Indeed, Mr. Beckey shunned publicity and people. He lived like a hermit in Seattle, holing up to write or vanishing for months on expeditions. He looked like a scruffy hobo — a wiry, stooped nomad with a backpack, a shapeless jacket, dirty pants and sneakers. But he was all-purpose: the craggy face leathery from sun, wind and snow; powerful hands scarred with cuts; flyaway hair crushed under a woolen cap; keen eyes for the next toehold; and a toothy smile for the book signings.

He never married or had children, never had a business or sought security. Friends said he just wanted to climb mountains.

But to the fraternity of climbing enthusiasts around the world, he was a phenomenon whose exploits above clouds and tree lines at 10,000 to 20,000 feet resounded in mountaineering lore and journals: the achievements of an eccentric daredevil who took on the continent’s last unclimbed peaks and uncharted routes, who probably took more risks than anyone in history.”

3. Reinventing the hutong.

“A kitchen, dining hall and two crisply modern bathrooms on the ground floor are connected to bedroom, study, teahouse and terrace above by wooden ladders rather than space-stealing stairs. The hostel is a felicitous marriage of ancient and modern design. Zhang Ke hopes that projects like this will encourage new generations of Beijingers to think of living in remodelled hutongs rather than in tower blocks that could belong anywhere.”

4. Americans Are Officially Freaking Out.

“A majority of the more than 3,400 Americans polled, 59 percent, said “they consider this to to be the lowest point in our nation’s history that they can remember.” That sentiment spanned generations, including those that lived through World War II, the Vietnam War, and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.”

Maybe we should cut one another more slack than normal.

5. Check the excellent new blog by the eldest daughter and college friend. They appear to like television. Here’s “Big Al’s” top five t.v. shows of all time. Note the overlap with Meaty’s top five. Nice that their distorted views of the modern workplace are not holding them back. I will continue reading CROSSOVER HIT even though they don’t appreciate The Wire or the Sopranos. Note to self: find a co-blogger named Meaty.

The Gray Lady’s Downward Spiral

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The New York Times is known as the Gray Lady. Today the Gray Lady ran a sad, sick story on its front page. Titled “U.S. Report Says Humans Cause Climate Change, Contradicting Top Trump Officials.”

This is really your fault. Instead of subscribing to the NYT, you just read it online for free, which means the Gray Lady can’t afford fact checkers anymore. So they’re just making shit up.

How do I know this? Because in the middle of this morning’s run, as I climbed up out of Woodard Bay, a blizzard began. Now that’s hyperbole, but PressingPause can’t afford fact checkers either, so I exaggerate at times. In truth, it was a very steady snow, huge wet flakes, that I swallowed to quench my thirst.

Obvi, if it dumps snow in Olympia, WA on November 3rd, there’s no global warming. Also, how dare the Gray Lady contradict “top Trump officials”! Who does she think she is? We know. A sad, sick lady in decline.

 

The RepubliCON Tax Plan

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From Money magazine:

“According to a 2015 report from Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation, 4,700 estate tax returns reporting tax liability were filed in 2013, out of 2.6 million total deaths in the United States. That means the estate tax hits roughly 0.2% of Americans, or 1 out of every 500 people who die.”

Paul Ryan, Kevin Brady, and company are betting that the American people are complete idiots. The midterm elections will tell us if they’re right or not.

The proposed plan is great for the five thousand Americans each year that pay up 40% in estate taxes. Nah, that understates it. The plan is fucking unbelievable for the five thousand Americans that pay up to 40% in estate taxes each year. If Frump is in fact a billionaire, when he dies his heirs will save $400m in taxes.

Social mobility in the U.S. already lags most every other developed country in the world. The elimination of the estate tax will create a large, entrenched aristocracy that will put the British to shame.

Somehow we’re supposed to believe that working families that are not invested in the stock market are going to benefit from a 15% reduction in the corporate tax rate. Trickle down my ass.

There are only two questions that matter, but they’re not ones the Republicons want asked, let alone answered:

• Can we flourish as one country given the current differences in wealth?

• Will this plan reduce the rich/poor divide?

Don’t buy the bullshit the Republicons are selling. The answers are no and hell no.

And thanks to Dan, Dan, the Transpo man for teaching me how to spell Republicon. I have mistakenly been using an “a” for many years.

Postscript: Is there a Congressional Medal for this?

 

 

Monday Assorted Links

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1. When the Revolution Came for Amy Cuddy.

Because I know you’re as fascinated by social science politics as I am.

2. What’s So Bad About Ken Burns?

Because I know you’re as fascinated by history politics as I am.

3. New Zealand Government to ban foreigners from buying property.

Shit, that’s what I get for equivocating.

4. Paul Newman’s Rolex . . . fetches $17.8m.

Or about $16.8m more than expected. Great insights on marriage tucked in, including Newman saying a good marriage requires lust, respect, patience, and determination.

5. Teachers’ perceptions can become reality for students.

“Teachers expect 58 percent of white high school students — but just 37 percent of black high school students — to obtain at least a four-year college degree. And when evaluating the same black student, white teachers were 9 percentage points less likely than their black colleagues to expect that student to earn a college degree. This bias was more flagrant for black male students than for black female students.”

6. It’s time to admit that allowing men into the workplace was a mistake.

I like Ruth Graham.

“You might be able to make the case that if we just put strict limits of their leadership opportunities, we could avoid banning them from the workplace entirely. Sadly, however, it has now become clear that many men are not just incompetent but also dangerous. One recent poll found that 30 percent of women have endured unwanted advances from men they work with, with the majority of those women saying those advances rose to the level of sexual harassment.”

Satire people. I think.