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Being Poor - Whatever - 0 views

whatever.scalzi.com/...being-poor poverty society culture community politics economy finances education reference
shared by izz aty on 25 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • Being poor is getting angry at your kids for asking for all the crap they see on TV.
  • eing poor is relying on people who don’t give a damn about you.
  • Being poor is not taking the job because you can’t find someone you trust to watch your kids.
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  • Being poor is the police busting into the apartment right next to yours.
  • Being poor is needing that 35-cent raise.
  • Being poor is your kid’s teacher assuming you don’t have any books in your home.
  • Being poor is crying when you drop the mac and cheese on the floor.
  • Being poor is people surprised to discover you’re not actually stupid.
  • Being poor is people surprised to discover you’re not actually lazy.
  • Being poor is a six-hour wait in an emergency room with a sick child asleep on your lap.
  • Being poor is getting tired of people wanting you to be grateful.
  • Being poor is deciding that it’s all right to base a relationship on shelter.
  • Being poor is feeling helpless when your child makes the same mistakes you did, and won’t listen to you beg them against doing so.
  • Being poor is knowing where the shelter is.
  • Being poor is people who have never been poor wondering why you choose to be so.
  • Being poor is knowing how hard it is to stop being poor.
  • Being poor is seeing how few options you have.
  • Being poor is people wondering why you didn’t leave.
  • Being poor is staying with a man who beats your kids because you can’t afford to keep them out of foster care without his salary.
  • Being poor means making decisions like “is stealing food a sin” outside of an ethics class.
  • Being poor is realizing that heating and eating will probably be mutually exclusive this month.
  • Being poor is discovering that that letter from Duke University, naming you as one of three advanced students in your class invited to test out of HS early into their scholarship program, is just so much firestarter because the $300 it costs to take the test may as well be $3 million.
  • Despair is finally realizing, at nearly 36 and with a barely-afforded AA in English from a community college, just where you could have been by now had you had $300, and what that missed opportunity has truly cost you.
  • Being poor is understanding that the lowest, poorest, starvingest time of the month for anyone on public assistance is exactly when Katrina hit.
  • Being poor is taking a cash advance from the credit card–to pay the credit card minimum bill.
  • Being poor is trying to decide which one of you gets to eat today – the one of you that is pregnant or the one of you that can work.
  • Being poor is a sick, dreadful feeling of your stomach dropping out when the phone rings, because you know it’s a bill collector and you know you’ll pick it up anyway on a one in a million chance someone does want to hire you.
  • Being poor is laying down because it hurts to breathe and you are pregnant, but you can’t afford to go to the hospital.
  • Being poor is crying when $50 bill you didn’t expect gets taken from your paycheck.
  • Being poor means never forgeting that the bills aren’t paid.
  • Growing up poor is spending the rest of your life trying to escape (and never realizing that you have)
  • Being poor means looking at life in such a different way that most people can’t imagine it.
  • Being poor means being grateful that you’re living paycheck to paycheck.
  • Growing up poor means you feel guilty when you escape, because your siblings didn’t.
  • Being poor means saving the plastic containers and jars from yogurt or spaghetti sauce so you can take milk with you to school in your lunch after they lower the income limit for free lunches and your mom makes $3 more than the limit.
  • Being poor is choosing between the lesser of two evils and not realizing it.
  • Being poor is a motivator to never be as poor as your parents.
  • Being poor makes you appreciate everything you’ve earned.
  • Being poor gives you the ability to look at supporting your still poor mother as an honor not a burden.
  • Being poor is worrying that someday you will wake up, find yourself lying beneath a blanket in the back of that station wagon and realizing that your escape and rise was just a dream.
  • Being poor is a month with 28 spaghetti dinners, 2 invitations over to eat, and a day without.
  • Being poor is carrying your fiancee to the hospital to miscarry, then using their phone to call around for someone to take you back home, since there aren’t beds for Medicare patients.
  • Being poor is wondering what sort of fool drops a penny on the ground and doesn’t pick it up.
  • Being poor is wondering what to say when your friends ask you to join them for coffee in the campus coffee shop, and you can’t because you thought you had a couple bucks cash but you must have left it in your coat at home, and so you have to use all the change you dug up from under the seat for gas to get home after classes.
  • Being poor is pretending to any major, religion or career interest to get free pizza on campus.
  • Being poor means dreading getting a Christmas present from the Fireman’s Charity, because you’ll end up on TV and everybody at school will find out.
  • Being poor is wearing the same dress to school every day for four months, then getting “new” clothes from the church for Christmas and changing your clothes three times in one day because you can.
  • Being poor means not being able to take a better job because the shift ends are after the busses stop running, and you don’t feel safe walking the two miles home after dark.
  • Why is is so hard to remember poverty once you get past it, if you get past it? Why is it so hard to empathize with poverty if you have never had it? What the hell is wrong with us?
  • Being poor means learning firsthand the meaning of words like “eviction,” “garnishee,” “repossess,” and “transient motel.”
  • Being poor means paying a premium on food and goods at local stores that jack up prices for being in a poor neighborhood, or simply because they can.
  • Being poor means buying bread at the “day old store” even though it’s a lot older than one day.
  • Being poor means paying high prices for exprired meat at the bodega, because there isn’t a supermarket chain willing to open a store in your neighborhood.
  • Being poor means your 10 cent an hour raise is almost negated by the 25 cent increase in bus fare.
  • Being poor means watching your disabled child get worse and worse because you can’t afford the therapies.
  • Being poor means having your life gone over with a fine tooth comb to see if you’re bad enough to help.
  • Being poor is feeling ashamed when your ‘peers’ slam WalMart, and talk about buying organic, and the horrors of driving gass-guzzling cars, all while wondering why you repeatedly find ways to not join them at $15/plate social dinners.
  • Being poor is avoiding spending time with people you care about, because you don’t want to have to answer “how are you doing?”.
  • Being poor is having your best friend’s mother compliment her for hanging out with you–shows good moral fiber, don’t you know.
  • Being poor is having your mum scrimp and save to get you the latest “in” thing, just as it goes out of style. (But you wear it anyway, so she doesn’t feel bad, and then all the kids at school make fun of you.)
  • Being poor is being the family that everybody knows it’s okay to pick on.
  • Being poor is having your house egged and a firecracker tossed through your front door because some kid thought it was funny.
  • Being poor is losing your special lunch card and seeing the snotty kid across the street find it, chop it up with scissors, and return the pieces to you.
  • Being poor means going to a church school on a Pell grant and trying to get your associate degree in one year, because you know your sibs are close on your tail, and your family has barely enough money to send you.
  • Being poor takes time. Time to wait in line for the reduced-price clinic while gathering all your paperwork, and hoping you have it in order so you won’t be sent home to get one little slip of paperwork. Time to wait in line at the food bank, where people fight to get to the one box of expired Entemann’s first. Time that you spend walking back home or waiting beside your POS car because it broke down for the umpteenth time. Time that you spend at your minimum wage fast food job after hours because you really don’t want to go home, and the manager might just feed you.
  • Being poor means that if you pull yourself up and stop being ‘poor,’ you will still be struggling and behind, because a large chunk of your money will go toward cleaning up all the stopgaps, mistakes, and overcharges you accumulated when you were poor.
  • Being poor is everything gets washed by hand in the bathtub with the smallest amount of dollar-store detergent.
  • Being poor means choosing between a cup of coffee, a newspaper, or a load at the laundrymat. You can’t have all three, or even two of them. ever.
  • Being poor is everything must be mended, pinned, taped, glued or stapled for a little more use.
  • Being poor means two or three jobs, and never enough time, sleep, or money. never.
  • John, thanks for this. This is so spot-on it hurts. And I don’t have to do any of these things any more, but you really don’t ever forget what it’s like to do them.
  • Being poor is really, really pushing your two-year old during potty training, because diapers are really, really expensive.
  • Being poor means that you laugh hysterically when you watch the financial planning segments on the Today Show, because the thought of starting a college fund for your child is so far beyond the pale that if you don’t laugh, you’ll start to cry and you’ll never stop.
  • Being poor means that three years after you’re not poor anymore, you still know exactly what everything costs; you still feel like a dinner at Chili’s or even Wendy’s is a huge splurge; and you still feel like you can’t afford to buy a six dollar belt at Target. And you still buy ramen.
  • Being poor is obviously your fault, even though the biggest, fattest reason you had to file bankruptcy in the first place was because your husband frivolously got cancer while laid off. How silly of him! And then he couldn’t find a new job until he was done with treatment because oddly, employers are shy of hiring bald, vomiting people with IV ports taped into their arms.
  • Being poor is being horrified when you see a very young person from your area with an arm, neck, or hand tattoo, not because corporate America generally bans such things… but because fast-food and retail America does, too.
  • Being poor is being bumped by somebody carrying a Prada tote bag on your way to pick up your paycheck… and instantly realizing, without having to calculate, that in terms of actual cash value, the tote bag is worth far more than the paycheck.
  • Being poor means selling blood plasma and signing up for every medical experiment they’ll let you into, and breezing past the disclaimer form because, really, are you going to give up $100 just because you may be risking injury or death from whatever they’re giving you?
  • - Being poor is spending money you know you don’t have on a candybar because you need something to cheer yourself up enough to get out of bed.
  • Being poor is sleeping everyone to one bed so you’re a little bit warmer.
  • Being poor is having friends who’s parents won’t let them sleep over because you live in that part of town.
  • Being poor is not caring that starchy carbs are bad for you, rice and pasta are cheap, and it’s either that, or nothing at all.
  • Being poor is the lunchlady feeling bad for you so she sneaks you leftovers from after all the classes have eaten, for you to take home for dinner.
  • Being poor is learning to like skim milk because it’s a nickel cheaper than whole.
  • Being poor means your husband is working – when he can get work – at Labor Ready, and you’re at the food bank. Being poor means your husband is sharing his main meal of the day with someone who hasn’t eaten for three days.
  • Being poor is rejoicing the fact you miscarried
  • Being poor is becoming a stripper just to make the rent, and hating yourself for it.
  • Being poor is washing up in public bathrooms and sampling fragrances at the department store so you don’t smell bad.
  • Being poor is sleeping in stairwells.
  • Being poor means mom and dad do not sit and eat dinner with you. They eat after the kids are done with what’s left. Dad’s dinner is wiping clean the bits from the frying pan with a piece of bread.(He still does that out of habit just like grandpa.)
  • Being poor is not having sex because you can’t afford birth control and you’re smart enough to not get pregnant
  • Being poor is rejoicing in the fact that after five years, the color of your expired vehicle tags has cycled back around, and there’s less of a chance of getting pulled over for your 2001 tags.
  • Being poor is counting your food money for the week and knowing you will have to walk the two miles to the grocery with three children under the age of six.
  • Being poor is hearing your daughter tell you twenty years later that she finally realized that ‘Mommy already ate, sweetie’ was a lie.
  • Being poor is not being able to afford to pursue the ex who owes you child support.
  • Being poor is having a judge give him custody because HE isn’t poor.
  • Being broke is making a meal and sitting the kids down at the table, and sipping a glass of watered down powedered milk while they eat.
  • Poor never seems to leave us completely. No matter what we do or have done, we will always be haunted by the tears and shame of poverty. The worst part: even if our kids escape, THEY REMEMBER forever. A legacy we’d rather not give.
  • Being poor is having someone tell you that if you own _____ (A car, a TV, a bed) then you really aren’t poor, & realizing they’re either stupid, or worse off than you
  • Being poor means a 4 hours of commuting for a 6 hour shift.
  • Being poor means putting a beloved pet to sleep because you can’t afford the vet bill.
  • Being formerly poor means that your never-poor spouse resents the hell out of the fact that you still give your mom and siblings money – money that could have gone to “our” family. It means your spouse never quite thinks of your family as her family too because the resentment is there.
  • Being poor is throwing up six times a day because you are pregnant and don’t have health care. Being poor means that you can’t even scrape together enough change to ride the bus to the neonatal clinic, and it’s the middle of summer and too far to walk. Being poor means pondering an abortion because you know everybody around you is equally strapped for cash, you only get one meal a day, and you don’t see that changing in the immediate future. Being poor means after much tears and thought, when you finally decide to have the abortion, you have to borrow the money to get it done. Being poor means that if you’d kept the baby, some rich people would accuse you of abusing the welfare system. Being poor means that by getting the abortion, some rich people accuse you of murder. Being poor means weeks of crying and hating yourself.
  • being poor is mom and dad being humiliated saturday and sunday to pay your failed attempt at the american dream, because first you’re not american, second you are not rich, third you are not america educated, and all those dollar-master slavering world wonderpeople can tell you, making fun, is: born in the wrong country pal, hahaha.
  • being poor is working hard and never had worked enough.
  • Being poor makes you appreciate the value of free napkins, plastic food utensils, matches, condiment packages, plastic bags, or any other giveaway item of use in the home.
  • Being poor means never having leftovers.
  • FYI: Nick Mamatas has a few additions to the list (from an international perspective) here.
  • pictruandtru: you, more than anyone else here, need to read John’s article over and over again, until you get it. It was you he wrote it for. Being poor is people wondering why you didn’t leave.
  • Being poor (or having been poor) means you know that if there is a devistating economic crisis, you will know how to survive when those who never were poor are paralized with fear. Being poor is knowing you are strong and resourceful.
  • As a born-and-bred welfare kid raised by TV and cheap supermarket off-brands, I see my mother in many of these statements. She worked so hard to raise herself out of crushing poverty, with little or no useful help from the government or well-meaning “liberals” with social-science degrees that I can only shake my head and wonder how it was I got out of the poverty trap at all. I think I was just lucky. I also happen to be white and male, and I’m reasonably sure in today’s world this is a certain advantage.
  • Being poor means that someone who has never been poor will never really understand what it’s like.
  • Being poor means you no longer have to fill out the forms at the ‘payday loan store’ because they have your information memorized.
  • I joined the military so they would fix my teeth. I brushed everyday. And flossed. But never had dental insurance. Only got cleanings maybe once in my childhood.
  • The point is when something goes wrong, for whatever reason, being poor means your options are limited, and what options you have are often likely to cause you pain.
  • Being poor is not having any margin for error. The problem is that life only rarely lets people get through it without error.
  • When you’re middle-class or well-off, you can absorb a certain amount of the crap life throws at you. When you’re poor, you really can’t.
  • Being poor means understanding that Internet flamewars are a tragic waste of time better used bettering yourself. Use that time and effort to build yourself up rather than tear a stranger down- you’ll feel better afterward.
  • Being poor means being stuck around people who want you to continue to be poor.
  • Being poor means not being able to take advantage of all the really great sales that come along — because they only seem to happen when you don’t have the money in hand.
  • Being poor is having the grocery store checker give you dirty looks and make comments to the next customer about “my tax dollars being wasted” when you use food stamps to buy a day-old cake on sale and a package of birthday candles for your child. Being poor is being overwhelmingly grateful that the next person in line says to the checker, “I can’t think of a better use for my tax dollars than to pay for a poor child to have a birthday, you heartless prick.”
  • I still use tea-bags twice. I won’t eat ramen, because I ate far too much for too long. I consider myself well-off because I have a lot of books and I never skip a meal. I know exactly how much things cost, and shop at two supermarkets because one has cheaper prices on produce and meat, and the other has cheaper canned goods. And I know the usual price of everything I buy on a regular basis, so I know whether the “sale” price is really a good deal. And when it is, I stock up, just in case.
  • I worked for a bank for a while after finishing my bachelor’s degree, and here’s what I learned: Being poor means the bank doesn’t want you as a customer. Being poor means you will pay the highest fees for every service. Being poor means you will pay the highest interest on any loan. On the other hand– Being rich means all service charges will be waived on your accounts, because you’re a preferred customer. Being rich means never waiting in line, because the bank manager greets you when you come in and takes you to a customer service representative who handles your transactions.
  • Being poor is knowing how to sew.
  • Being poor is having a lower Social Security number than your classmates in high school, because you had to get one young to get welfare.
  • Being poor is finding prostitution a valid way to pay the electrical bill, and then lying to your spouse about where the money came from.
  • Being poor is exploding at the old lady who has taken all the 20c bread at the day-old store to feed to the fraggin’ SQUIRRELS.
  • Being less poor is living close enough to work and the store and the library to walk and NOT have to buy gas.
  • Being less poor is 10c for a packet of seeds that produces zucchini in your yard all summer.
  • I tell you this not to display my saintliness, but to put into perspective a conversation I have not infrequently with other members of my profession: ME: …no, I’m really tense about this case. If we lose, Mrs. Smith and her nephew have nowhere to go. She’s on a fixed income. What if I screw up and it costs them their apartment? OTHER LAWYER: Wow. Well, it could be worse. I mean, what if it were a big commercial-litigation case, and you screwed THAT up, and lost twenty million dollars for the client? At least the pro bono cases are over, what, five hundred dollars or something? (Pop Quiz: do you think the Other Lawyers who make such remarks have ever been poor?)
  • Being poor means you don’t count (unless you are pretty).
  • Being poor is never looking down on a man begging for change, mainly because you have seriously considered doing it.
  • Being poor is having the luck and luxury of growing up rich and having no resources whatsoever when you are tossed out of your parents house with no money for “the gay thing” because it’s an embarrasment to daddy and his ilk.
  • Being poor is making the rent and bills by six dollars and not having any left over for grocery shopping that week because that six dollars is for gas to get to work.
  • Being rich to poor means your parents make too damn much for you to get student loans so you have no way of getting any help, whatsoever.
  • Being rich to poor means that you can’t fathom how your family of two that you no longer live with lives in a 5500 square foot house.
  • Being rich to poor is your dad telling you it’s strange you don’t have a car, when you are paying for college on your own and he has just bought your younger, non-gay sibling, a BMW.
  • Being rich to poor is when your father visits your new apartment – the one you’re making it all on your own in – and tells you to move because you’re living “in a ghetto” as he drives home in his Mercedes.
  • Being poor means burning in shame because this is the most you could afford and you spent hours cleaning before he arrived.
  • Being rich to poor is being too ashamed to leave my name on this.
  • And being poor means you will probably be punished because you *did* leave
  • Being poor means teaching yourself to not notice feeling hungry.
  • Being poor means people making fun of your weight and calling you “anorexic” when you’ve been unable to have more than one meal a day.
  • Being poor is knowing you’re always under a microscope: Human Services, Housing Assistance, Social Security…but also, your friends, your family, and strangers who seem to think you’re lazy, unmotivated, or stupid for being in the situation you’re in.
  • Being poor is scraping enough money to go home to your family for Christmas and not having any gifts for them.
  • Being poor is using your stamps to buy pints of milk in glass bottles, then sitting outside of the supermarket, drinking the milk, rinsing out the bottle, and trading it in for a dollar cash so you can afford the co-pay on your prescriptions.
  • Being poor is never being able to afford to see a doctor for monthly cramps so bad they make you miss work; spending month after month for years hoping they just go away; and then finally getting seen and told you’re going to be infertile for the rest of your life, and that you could have avoided this had you come in sooner.
  • Being poor is sitting on a dusty brick sidewalk with a cheap recorder and a Goodwill hat, enduring snotty yuppie tourists, high school boys who make innuendos or say “get a day job”, police officers saying “You’re not doing anything illegal, but…”, and threats of physical violence from drunks, all in the hopes that someone will deign to put a dollar in.
  • Being poor is realizing that you will do just about anything necessary to feed your kids, including giving a blow job to a guy for $10.
  • Fifteen years ago, when I started in at a school, the packed that home room teachers got contained for each kid on opening day: 1 schedule, 1 emergency info form, 1 student handbook, 1 athletic dept. handbook 1 insurance form (AD&D plus emergency med. for school-related activities) and for a class of 20, three or four free/reduced lunch forms. You were supposed to give these to the students who asked for them, and get more if they weren’t enough. No one understood why I threw a hissy fit and made sure that there was one form per kid, just like all the other paperwork. Sometimes things do get slightly better. We now have cafeteria swipe cards, and the free kids and paying kids both just swipe their cards. The difference is that the paying kids have to top off their card balances with cash periodically.
  • Being rich to poor is your father casually talking about a utility bill that is the cost of your rent.
  • Being rich to poor is your father casually talking about half your years wages that he made in a week’s time.
  • Poor is living next to a crack house, being on a first name basis with the local prostitute, having murder weapons tossed in your back yard, and running from gangs.
  • Living in a house that’s literally falling apart. I used to get snow in my bedroom and water during thunderstorms.
  • By Katrina standards, however, my family was rich. We would’ve been able to evacuate. We had credit cards and family that would’ve helped us.
  • America, the land of opportunity, so long as you aren’t poor.
  • Being poor is hoping your bike doesnt break during your one hour cycle to work.
  • Being poor is walking for 3 hours to get to work because your bike broke.
  • Being poor is coming up with a different excuse every day why your not going to lunch (& dont eat any).
  • Being poor is thinking about the man who propositioned you while you were walking home some time back, and wondering just what he wanted to do to you or have you do to him, and how much he might be willing to pay for that.
  • Being poor is eating government commodity white rice with salt and pepper from packets that you kept from the last time you had fast food, and telling yourself that you actually prefer it that way.
  • Being poor is thinking of job benefits not in terms of health care, vacation, or retirement plans, but in terms of leftover or past-expiration-date food.
  • Being poor is being furious at the job interviewer who tells you that they won’t give you the nine-to-five office job because they don’t think that you can “adjust” from scrubbing out toilets on the graveyard shift.
  • Being poor is being furious at the manager of your rooming house for throwing away your bicycle because it was in such bad shape that he thought it had been abandoned there; surely no one would actually ride that thing.
  • Being poor is when people tell you that they think that you’re wasting your time and effort trying to get a better job, and they think that they’re doing you a favor.
  • Having been poor is weeping with joy and gratitude when you can afford an apartment with a kitchen and a bathroom of your own.
  • Having been poor is being amazed when you make it to the next paycheck with ten dollars in your bank account from the last one.
  • Having been poor is reading about thousands of people who used to have the comfortable middle-class existence that you have now, and have suddenly fallen through the cracks just as you once did, and really understanding for the first time what Satchel Paige said: “Don’t look back–something might be gaining on you.”
  • Being poor is not having eyeglasses until age 13 when you have needed them since age 4 and your grasp of the basics, like mathmatics, is without foundation, thereby closing the glorious door of science forever
  • Being poor is at age 14, using your entire first real paycheck to buy clothing for your younger siblings
  • Being poor is from age 14 on walking home three miles in the dark everyday after working after school because your family can’t survive without your paycheck
  • Being poor is making absolutely sure that you serve yourself last at all meals so that the younger kids can get their full share and so that you can be sure that your Mother gets to eat something as well
  • Being poor is watching your Mother die a slow agonizing death from cancer at home because your state doesn’t provide nursing home or hospice care for the indigent patient.
  • Being poor is not being able to escape watching your Mother die for even a minute because you don’t have a TV or a car or the price of a matinee movie ticket. Or money to hire someone to watch the young kids you are now responsible for.
  • Being poor is having, at age 18, to bath and clean your mother like an infant because the cancer has robbed her of her arms
  • Being poor is something you are inside forever.
  • Being poor, is having to share a bed with your three sisters in a house thats covered by tin and hoping it doesnt rain.
  • Being poor is being scared to take out the trash for fear of rats in the alley.
  • Being poor is hoping there’s not another drought so you have food to eat from the farm.
  • Being poor is rushing home so you can do your homework before nightime comes so you dont have to do it by candlelight instead.
  • Being poor is taking 5 years to finish high school because you have to work to pay for your private schooling.
  • Being poor is waking up your four year old at 3:30 in the morning to catch the bus in time to drop her at a seedy daycare, then make it to work on time.
  • Being poor is using your child’s piggy bank of dimes and nickels to pay for the ridiculous gas prices when you finally afford that car.
  • Being poor is walking up to your mom when you’re four, holding a toy and prefacing your request to buy it with “When you have money…”
  • Being poor is when your dinner consists of juice boxes because that’s all there is.
  • Being poor is being beat around by a baby-sitter you keep going to b/c they’re free
  • Being poor means learning by 7 that one meal a day is decent and real hunger doesn’t hit until at least the second day
  • Being poor is people asking you why you bothered to pick up that nickel on the ground
  • Being poor is never being liked by your friends’ parents because they think you must be a bad influence because you’re poor
  • Being poor is being bounced back and forth between different households who don’t really want you because your parents can’t afford to keep you.
  • Being poor means that holidays are no different than any other day: your mom is still working and there’s still no food in the house.
  • this is “being poor in one of the richest countries in the world”, being really poor is exactly like this, only much, much worse. Except perhaps without the status envy. Being really poor is walking 6 hours through the african night to the only hospital carrying your dead child, because you’ve heard the people there can bring the dead back to life. I’m not trumping your moving and honest writing. It just amazes me how humans are never happy, no matter what we have, if others have more.
  • this is “being poor in one of the richest countries in the world”, being really poor is exactly like this, only much, much worse. Except perhaps without the status envy. Being really poor is walking 6 hours through the african night to the only hospital carrying your dead child, because you’ve heard the people there can bring the dead back to life. I’m not trumping your moving and honest writing. It just amazes me how humans are never happy, no matter what we have, if others have more.
  • What’s the problem with me saying that there’s a difference between not having funds, and living like white trash? Because you’re ignoring reality in a desperate need to find somebody to step on–oh yes, we may have been poor, but we weren’t white trash, you see. And it’s a very handy way to see oneself as permanently beyond the reach of all those horrors of poverty: People stay poor because they are bad; I am good; therefore I will never be poor again. Your “brush your teeth” comment is a good example of this kind of magical thinking. The notion that people might have dental problems despite being diligent about dental hygiene is not one you can entertain, because that would deflate the whole “poor people deserve it” argument. (And, of course, it all rests on the fallacy that all poor people are adults.) Instead of focusing on self pity and hopelessness, I think it’s a lot better focus on what can be done to fix what’s broken. As somebody who didn’t grow up poor, Brian, let me give you a big suggestion as to one of those things that can be done, and it’s not telling poor people to shut up and work harder. It’s extending the same safety net, social support and benefit of the doubt we give wealthy people that we give to poor people. Believe you me, it’s quite an eye-opener to find out that things you took for granted when you were a kid–you know, like the cops showing up when someone calls 911, or having a functioning lab in your science class–were not available to everyone.
  • Being poor means not having a working stove, good pots and pans or decent food to eat and having to skip a meal or two a day.
  • Being poor means no asthma treatment and gasping for air in Emergency Rooms praying to stay alive where you know youll be getting thousands of dollars in bills you wont be able to pay.
  • Being poor means being looked at with a mixture of disgust and pity by so called “loved ones” who shop for recreation who have endless money to waste.
  • Being poor can lead you to depend on God, because there is no one else that is going to help you. I am a Christian today because of the poverty I faced.
  • Being poor makes you realize what a sick and shallow society we live in.
  • people seem take out of this list what they put into it. You seem to want make this list examples of how people can’t, don’t or won’t help themselves. Interestingly, this is one of the reasons I put this one in the list: Being poor is knowing you’re being judged.
  • being poor means wondering if the lights will come back on
  • Being poor is one meal a day, if that.
  • Being poor is worrying about appendicitis every time you ovulate.
  • Being poor means always the library, never the book store.
  • being poor is feeling all the eyes judging you, measuring you, and coming to the conclusion that you don’t belong; when all you want is to be away in the comfortable place you don’t have.
  • being poor is being exploited by rich people while you smile, not to be fired.
  • being poor is paying a debt to the rich for being born in their world.
  • The problem is people who aren’t poor or who have never been poor often don’t grasp why it’s difficult to escape poverty — you can do everything right in terms of trying to improve your life situation (and there are many people who are poor do), and yet just one thing going wrong can mess the whole thing up.
  • izz aty on 25 Jan 13
     
    Being poor is knowing exactly how much everything costs.
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How To Read 7 Books in 7 Days - 0 views

inoveryourhead.net/how-to-read-7-books-in-7-days epic ideas reading books literature references english language
shared by izz aty on 07 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • izz aty on 07 Sep 12
     
    "It's time for an epic reading assignment. In the next week I will be reading one book each day. 7 days. 7 books. You should too. Here's how."
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National Days - 0 views

www.louderbacks.com/...days.html days events national day calendar interesting culture society reference
shared by izz aty on 28 Nov 11 - Cached
  • izz aty on 28 Nov 11
     
    This purports to be a real list of "national" "days"
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English Tenses - 0 views

www.ego4u.com/...tenses grammar resources reference esol writing speaking tips english esl tense language language learning
shared by izz aty on 06 Jun 12 - Cached
  • Simple Present A: He speaks. N: He does not speak. Q: Does he speak? action in the present taking place once, never or several times facts actions taking place one after another action set by a timetable or schedule always, every …, never, normally, often, seldom, sometimes, usuallyif sentences type I (If I talk, …) Present Progressive A: He is speaking. N: He is not speaking. Q: Is he speaking? action taking place in the moment of speaking action taking place only for a limited period of time action arranged for the future at the moment, just, just now, Listen!, Look!, now, right now
  • Simple Past A: He spoke. N: He did not speak. Q: Did he speak? action in the past taking place once, never or several times actions taking place one after another action taking place in the middle of another action yesterday, 2 minutes ago, in 1990, the other day, last Friday if sentence type II (If I talked, …) Past Progressive A: He was speaking. N: He was not speaking. Q: Was he speaking? action going on at a certain time in the past actions taking place at the same time action in the past that is interrupted by another action when, while, as long as
  • Present Perfect Simple A: He has spoken. N: He has not spoken. Q: Has he spoken? putting emphasis on the result action that is still going on action that stopped recently finished action that has an influence on the present action that has taken place once, never or several times before the moment of speaking already, ever, just, never, not yet, so far, till now, up to now Present Perfect Progressive A: He has been speaking. N: He has not been speaking. Q: Has he been speaking? putting emphasis on the course or duration (not the result) action that recently stopped or is still going on finished action that influenced the present all day, for 4 years, since 1993, how long?, the whole week
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Past Perfect Simple A: He had spoken. N: He had not spoken. Q: Had he spoken? action taking place before a certain time in the past sometimes interchangeable with past perfect progressive putting emphasis only on the fact (not the duration) already, just, never, not yet, once, until that day if sentence type III (If I had talked, …) Past Perfect Progressive A: He had been speaking. N: He had not been speaking. Q: Had he been speaking? action taking place before a certain time in the past sometimes interchangeable with past perfect simple putting emphasis on the duration or course of an action for, since, the whole day, all day
  • Future I Simple A: He will speak. N: He will not speak. Q: Will he speak? action in the future that cannot be influenced spontaneous decision assumption with regard to the future in a year, next …, tomorrow If-Satz Typ I (If you ask her, she will help you.) assumption: I think, probably, perhaps Future I Simple (going to) A: He is going to speak. N: He is not going to speak. Q: Is he going to speak? decision made for the future conclusion with regard to the future in one year, next week, tomorrow Future I Progressive A: He will be speaking. N: He will not be speaking. Q: Will he be speaking? action that is going on at a certain time in the future action that is sure to happen in the near future in one year, next week, tomorrow Future II Simple A: He will have spoken. N: He will not have spoken. Q: Will he have spoken? action that will be finished at a certain time in the future by Monday, in a week Future II Progressive A: He will have been speaking. N: He will not have been speaking. Q: Will he have been speaking? action taking place before a certain time in the future putting emphasis on the course of an action for …, the last couple of hours, all day long
  • Conditional I Simple A: He would speak. N: He would not speak. Q: Would he speak? action that might take place if sentences type II (If I were you, I would go home.) Conditional I Progressive A: He would be speaking. N: He would not be speaking. Q: Would he be speaking? action that might take place putting emphasis on the course / duration of the action   Conditional II Simple A: He would have spoken. N: He would not have spoken. Q: Would he have spoken? action that might have taken place in the past if sentences type III (If I had seen that, I would have helped.) Conditional II Progressive A: He would have been speaking. N: He would not have been speaking. Q: Would he have been speaking? action that might have taken place in the past puts emphasis on the course / duration of the action  
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Short Stories for ESL Learners - 0 views

www.rong-chang.com/...s216.htm short story materials lesson language learning language esl english resources
shared by izz aty on 27 Sep 11 - No Cached
  • izz aty on 27 Sep 11
     
    It was noon on Friday. Friday was wash day, Kerry's least favorite day. Doing the wash was such a pain. He had to gather together all the dirty clothes. He had to turn the shirts and slacks inside out to save wear and tear on the outside of the shirts and slacks. He had to empty all the junk out of all the pockets of his clothes. Then he had to find quarters for each load of wash-four for the washer and three for the dryer. It'd be so nice to have a weekly maid, like his downstairs neighbor. Kerry piled all his clothes into the laundry basket and went downstairs. He was relieved to hear silence as he approached the laundry room; no one was using the machines. He put laundry soap and quarters into the washer, and set it at Warm Temperature and Regular Wash. A few minutes later, it was full of soapy water. He stuffed in half of the dirty clothes. This was going to be a two-load day. He placed the half-full basket on top of the churning washer. He shut the laundry room door and walked back upstairs. He set his electronic timer to 35 minutes. When the washer was done, he'd reload it and put the first load into the dryer. He sat down and opened the newspaper to the California section: "Truck Runs Over Crossing Guard," said the headline.
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Why I Think Weed Sucks | Thought Catalog - 0 views

thoughtcatalog.com/...why-i-think-weed-sucks drugs weed marijuana mental health addiction
shared by izz aty on 31 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • claudinator 3 months ago I smoke weed more than once daily and have for years I have an extremely active and successful job plus anything I have wanted I have achieved I used marijuana as a medicine for my insomnia because I rather not take sleeping pills and I also use marijuana to help me with my anger because I would rather not take pill so all I can say is everyone has there own opinion good or bad and nobody should rub it in other people's faces Flag 2 people liked this. Like Reply Reply Anonymous 1 week ago in reply to claudinator You forgot to mention how it also helps you forget punctuation and spelling.  Flag 2 people liked this. Like Reply
  • REASON WEED SUCKS #1: IT’S A WASTE OF MONEY (NOT APPLICABLE TO MEDICAL MARIJUANA)
  • REASON WEED SUCKS #2: IT MAKES YOU DUMB
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • REASON WEED SUCKS #3: IT MAKES YOU PARANOID AS SHIT
  • REASON WEED SUCKS #4: WEED IS THE ANTI-PRODUCTIVITY DRUG
  • REASON WEED SUCKS #5: YOU GET OBSESSED WITH IT
  • izz aty on 31 Jan 13
     
    "I used to smoke weed a lot. Throughout my four years of college, I probably smoked weed once a day on average (this average includes, for example, two-week stints of zero smoking as well as month-long binges of heavy consumption, when I'd smoke two to four times a day). My third year of school, I did an exchange program in Holland. The point is, I have been, at times, a total stoner. So, I mean: I get weed. I get it. But I quit smoking awhile ago, and now I think it sucks. Here's why."
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10 Simple Ways to Improve Your English | Malaysia Students - 0 views

www.malaysia-students.com/...s-to-improve-your-english.html malaysia language learning language esol esl education learning english independent learning reference
shared by izz aty on 09 Jun 12 - Cached
  • Watch English movies with subtitles
  • Listen to English songs
  • Start a blog in English
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • Write in your diary/journal in English
  • Be best friends with a good English dictionary
  • Speak the language whenever you can
  • Learn a new word a day
  • learn new phrases, idioms or proverbs a day.
  • Learn at your own pace
  • izz aty on 09 Jun 12
     
    I've just thought up of some simple ways for anyone who is interested in improving their English. I myself am trying to improve in this language each day. There's always so much to learn and it can be really fun! You just need to have the passion and enthusiasm to better yourself. This is what most people would advise: read. Read anything and everything in English. You can read story books, newspapers, magazines, blogs, comics, English textbooks, instructions and ingredients on food packages, advertisements, etc. For story books, don't force yourself to read something too difficult or something you know you won't enjoy. Make reading fun! Read books that you ENJOY reading. I hate to read books that bore me too.
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50 Easy Ways to Lose Weight | Reader's Digest - 0 views

www.rd.com/...y-ways-to-lose-weight-50-ideas health healthcare diet lose weight food culture society lifestyle exercise reference education learning
shared by izz aty on 17 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • 1. Once a week, indulge in a high-calorie-tasting, but low-calorie, treat
  • After breakfast, make water your primary drink.
  • Write down every single morsel that enters your lips — even water. Studies have found that people who maintain food diaries wind up eating about 15 percent less food than those who don’t
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • On average, sedentary people take only 2,000 to 3,000 steps a day. Adding 2,000 steps will help you maintain your current weight and stop gaining weight; adding more than that will help you lose weight
  • Add 10 percent to the amount of daily calories you think you’re eating, then adjust your eating habits accordingly. If you think you’re consuming 1,700 calories a day and don’t understand why you’re not losing weight, add another 170 calories to your guesstimate.
  • Eat five or six small meals or snacks a day instead of three large meals
  • Walk for 45 minutes a day
  • Find an online weight-loss buddy
  • Bring the color blue into your life more often
  • Clean your closet of the “fat” clothes
  • Downsize your dinner plates
  • izz aty on 17 Sep 12
     
    "You know the drill when it comes to losing weight -- take in fewer calories, burn more calories. But you also know that most diets and quick weight-loss plans have about as much substance as a politician's campaign pledges."
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The Best Way to Learn a Language | The Live in Asia Blog - 0 views

www.liveinasiablog.com/best-way-to-learn-a-language language learning education language learning esol strategies reference grammar learner learning styles study tips studying
shared by izz aty on 31 May 11 - No Cached
  • 1. Define fluency for your own purposes.
  • There are different levels of fluency. At the very least, being “fluent” means being able to communicate well enough to take care of daily tasks, including shopping, ordering food, communicating with drivers, getting medical care, etc. That’s a lot different, for example, than being fluent in the business lingo of your target language. To keep focused, and motivated, define your fluency goals based on your own needs. Then, when you reach a fluency goal, congratulate yourself on a job well done. After that, if you so desire, make a new fluency goal. Doing this will give you motivational “victories” in what can otherwise seem like a never-ending conquest.
  • 2. Get Structure
  • ...23 more annotations...
  • Some people can grab a book, start practicing, and, after some time, master a new language. For the other 99% of us, the best way to learn a language is to use a product that provides some structure. For me, computer-based learning is the best. I can study whenever I feel like it. I can study at my own pace, and I can focus on the topics that I find most meaningful.
  • 3. Be consistent.
  • The best way to learn a language is to study it every day. That is not to say that you have to study it all day, every day. It just means that all of your high school teachers, and your parents, were right—cramming is not an effective way to learn something. You will learn far more if you study one hour a day five times per week than if you study five hours on Monday and take the rest of the week off. Be consistent.
  • 4. Speak Out!
  • speaking out is the most important part of learning a language. You can memorize a million vocabulary words, but if you are not actively using them, you will not be able to recall them when you need them most. I don’t know what it is, to be honest, but there is something about actually getting the words to come out of your mouth that makes them stick in your head. Linguists often say, “Once you use a word three times in conversation, you own it.”
  • 5. How to Speak Out.
  • You don’t even need a speaking partner. This is one of the only situations in life where it’s perfectly acceptable to have conversations with yourself. Or, even better, sing to yourself. It’s a great way to learn!
  • Of course, at some point, you are going to want to talk to a real person. For that, turn to the language learner’s best Internet friend—Skype. Skype is a free Internet chat program that has both video and sound. Get yourself a free Skype account, search forums for a language learning partner, and then get talking! There are millions of people on the Internet who want to speak in your target language. Don’t be shy! Get out there and talk to them–it’s the best way to learn a language fast!
  • 6. Categorize
  • The human brain naturally likes to categorize things. If you want the best way to learn a language, be good to your brain and give it what it wants. You’ll be glad you did.
  • 7. Work in Phrases
  • Understand that you can get a great deal done knowing just a little bit of your target language; it’s amazing how repetitive daily conversation is. The quickest way to learn a language, at least at a rudimentary level, is to learn these basic survival phrases.
  • The key is to remember that you are trying to communicate, not trying to show how eloquent you are. You can be eloquent later.
  • 8. Use Flash Cards
  • If you want to speak another language, you have to memorize vocabulary. There is no way around it! The simplest, most effective way to learn vocabulary is to make your own flash cards.
  • With new vocabulary words, do not make stacks of more than 25-30 cards. It is not efficient to memorize too many words at once. Also, make sure you continue to shuffle the cards as you learn; otherwise, your mind will memorize the order of the words, and you will have difficulty recalling their meanings in a different context.
  • 9. Review Basic English Grammar
  • review the basics. I’m talking about knowing the difference between nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. I’m talking about understanding subjects, predicates and articles. Understand basic sentence structures.
  • when you learn the sentence structure of a new language, you will not just “know how to use it.” You will have to learn, for example, where to place verbs and nouns in a sentence.
  • if you can’t recall what articles and verbs are, you will not be able to take advantage these learning tips, and it will take you much longer to figure out how to structure sentences.
  • 10. Figure out what kind of learner you are.
  • Each of us learns differently. Find out what learning style works best for you and focus on learning in that way.
  • when learning a new language, you should always use a variety of strategies. For example, you should not just read and memorize, even if that is your best learning strategy. Focus on that, but also listen to recordings, speak dialogues, write sentences, and learn grammar rules.
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A local's guide to the 50 best places to visit in London | Onestopenglish - 0 views

www.onestopenglish.com/...552082.article london england britain UK trip travel society culture reference
shared by izz aty on 28 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • Favourite cafés
  • Safe havens
  • Veggie food
  • ...23 more annotations...
  • Easy eating
  • For summer
  • Culture
  • Nature
  • 3. JOE & THE JUICE (69 Broadwick St, W1F 9QY) where you are served coffee, juices and paninis by good-looking young people. You can use the wi-fi and hang around either fancying them or feeling ugly – or both!
  • 5. TINA, WE SALUTE YOU (47 King Henry’s Walk, N1 4NH) which is cozy and welcoming, with great frothy coffee and tasty porridge.
  • 6. CURZON SOHO (99 Shaftesbury Avenue, W1D 5DY) for reading, working, coffee and maybe a film.
  • 7. FOYLES (113-119 Charing Cross Rd, WC2H 0EB), the best bookshop in London. There’s a coffee shop on the second floor and somehow it’s both a place to escape and filled with hustle and bustle.
  • 15. FOOD FOR THOUGHT (31 Neal Street, WC2H 9PR) is always tasty and healthy, sometimes excellent, never meaty.
  • There’s a lot more choice at 17. MILDREDS (45 Lexington Street, W1F 9AN). It has a dignified pace, it’s been around for ages and it still does great food.
  • 18. 19 NUMARA BOS CIRRIK (34 Stoke Newington Road, N16 7XJ) is our favourite Turkish joint in north London – perfectly cooked meat and the grilled onions with pomegranate molasses are so good that the memory will stay with you long after you’ve left.
  • 19. LEON – if you’re in central London and want to grab a tasty lunch, then go here. They have branches dotted about all over the place.
  • 29. CYCLING is without a doubt the best way to experience London. You can hire bikes on the street and you may be interested to find out just how close to each other some of those tube stops actually are!
  • 31. THE PHOTOGRAPHERS’ GALLERY (16-18 Ramillies Street, W1F 7LW) for a quick shot of culture away from Oxford Circus and the endless shopping.
  • 32. NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM (Cromwell Road, SW7 5BD) – OK, you’ve already heard of this one, but it’s really worth a visit. There are old animals, stuffed and boned, and so many weird and wonderful things: wildlife photography, butterflies and even an ice rink!
  • 39. TOWPATH (Regent’s Canal towpath, between Whitmore Bridge and Kingsland Road Bridge, N1 5SB) is a nice little place to get a coffee, play a board game or, in the evening, have a glass of wine and hope that the jazz musicians will rock up and start busking. The whole canal has plenty to offer though. Highlights include Little Venice, London Zoo, Camden Town, Angel Islington, Broadway Market and Victoria Park.
  • We would also recommend throwing bread or bird food at birds in the sky and trying to get them to fly for their dinner. There are of course plenty of parks you can try this in, but it works particularly well with the birds in 40. ST JAMES’S PARK (SW1A 2BJ).
  • 41. HAMPSTEAD HEATH is an essential visit, especially in the summer – but for all seasons it serves well to escape the city and to see Londoners pretending they’re country folk. (London may be a sprawling metropolis but, underneath, it’s still England’s green and pleasant land.)
  • Markets
  • 43. BRIXTON MARKET (Electric Avenue, SW9 8JX) is full of every fruit and vegetable under the sun (or at least available in London) and is a very authentic experience.
  • Check out 48. COLUMBIA ROAD for its quirky independent shops and buzzing marketplace atmosphere.
  • don’t miss out on its vibrant 49. FLOWER MARKET (E2 7NN) if you’re up for the crowds and the flowers.
  • 50. SPITALFIELDS MARKET, conveniently situated between the Square Mile and Brick Lane. Once a ‘free-for-all’ flea market, in recent years it’s been completely refurbished. There is a regular market almost every day but we particularly like bric-a-brac Thursdays, when the market comes alive with retro furniture and friendly stallholders. Once there, you are stone’s throw away from the famous curry houses, vintage clothing stores and boutique coffee shops of Brick Lane – where, on a pleasant summer’s evening, you’ll get a real glimpse into the London that we love so much.
  • izz aty on 28 Mar 13
     
    Do you live or teach in London? Do you have students who are planning a visit to London? Here, a few members of the London Language Experience team behind our fantastic cinematic listening series A ghost's guide to London, Luke and James Vyner and Ben Lambert (the voice of Lord Jeffrey, the Ghost of London), share a list of their top 50 not-to-be-missed places in London. OK, we LOVE London, there's no hiding it. It's unique, exceptional, scary and exciting all at once and there's so much to do. When you're new in town and trying to decide where to go first, it can be pretty overwhelming and, like most big cities, you can never see everything. It's easy to be drawn to the big tourist attractions and, whilst you can have fantastic experiences in these historic and fascinating places, you won't get to see much of the real London - the London that hides down the myriad of backstreets and alleyways, the London you've always wanted to find, the London that us Londoners experience every day. So, with that in mind, here are our top 50 favourite places to go to in London.
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Use of present tense in reports - WordReference Forums - 0 views

forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php language learning grammar sentence tense punctuation language report format writing writing style writing format english reference
shared by izz aty on 09 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • First I explain something about the findings they reported. After the participant had completed the task, he immediately fell asleep. That has to be in past perfect/past.
  • Then I comment on the researchers' findings in the report. The researchers are quick to conclude that it was the task that caused the participant's exhaustion. What the researchers fail to address is that the participant had run a marathon earlier that day. Here I use the present tense to talk about what is in the report and I still use past perfect/past to talk about the events in their experiment.
  • izz aty on 09 Apr 12
     
    When is the best time to use present tense in a report? I'll have to provide an example, because I can't think of an adequate way to describe what I'm trying to ask without one. "After the participant had completed the task, he immediately fell asleep. The researchers are/were quick to conclude that it was the task that caused the participants exhaustion. What the researchers fail/failed to address was that the participant had run a marathon earlier that day." This passage is very vague, and for that I'm sorry, but I hope my question is apparent. In a report such as this, is it better to use the present tense to convey the researchers' own statements, or is past tense better? Because the researchers did do the concluding in the past, but I've been told that using present tense is preferable (as it is when writing a report about characters' actions in a fiction story). I hope my question isn't too convoluted... Thank you!
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180 Journal Writing Prompts: Enough for Every Day of the School Year - 0 views

www.dailyteachingtools.com/journal-writing-prompts.html prompts journal creative writing Ideas learning english writing language learning esol teaching esl resources education reference
shared by izz aty on 18 Jul 13 - No Cached
  • izz aty on 18 Jul 13
     
    Based on the assumption that an academic year, in most cases, consists of 180 days divided into 4 quarters, I have grouped these prompts accordingly. You, of course, may choose to use any of these at whatever time you like. There are eight graphics on this page to serve as general visual bookmarks
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BBC News - Gove calls for state schools to be more like private - 0 views

www.bbc.co.uk/...education-26015535 english education england united kingdom education ESTEkiv state school private school independent school
shared by izz aty on 12 May 14 - No Cached
  • Education Secretary Michael Gove
  • he said he wanted to break down the "Berlin Wall" between state and independent sectors. This could see state pupils taking the private school common entrance exam and state schools staying open longer
  • The education secretary, speaking at the London Academy of Excellence, said that for decades "the dominant consensus has been that state education in England was barely satisfactory"
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • he wanted schools to be able to stay open longer for nine or 10 hour days. This would allow more time for after-school activities or to provide a place for children to do their homework.
  • Mr Gove said that commentators had associated state schools with "poor discipline, low standards, entrenched illiteracy, widespread innumeracy", but he said that this "pessimistic view is no longer tenable"
  • he said the state system was improving, with better results, more pupils taking tougher subjects and fewer weak schools
  • called for more testing, including taking the common entrance exam taken by 13 year olds in some private schools
  • Academies, which are now the majority of secondary schools, can already set their own hours
  • Mr Gove backed plans for individual secondary schools to be able to take the OECD's international Pisa tests
  • Sir David also had tough words about teachers' unions, saying their "political naivety has been astonishing". "Their barrage of industrial action and knee-jerk opposition to any change has allowed the education secretary and his supporters to characterise them as cartoon-like bogeymen," he writes.
  • Responding to Mr Gove's speech on Monday, Labour's shadow education secretary, Tristram Hunt, said: "Improving school standards starts with a qualified teacher in every classroom. Until Michael Gove commits to this, he is ruling himself out of any serious debate about how we raise standards in our schools. "Whether on discipline, delivering extra-curricular activities or on improving learning outcomes: it all hinges on the quality of the teacher in the classroom. Raising the quality of teaching - that is where the focus needs to be and that is what Labour is concerned with. The Tories have lost sight of this and are undermining school standards as a result.
  • Christine Blower, leader of the National Union of Teachers, challenged the idea of state schools using the common entrance exam. "Why would we imagine that that is an appropriate examination? He's not discussed that with anybody, he's not discussed it with any of the exam boards, he's certainly not discussed it with the representatives of teachers," said Ms Blower.
  • Mr.Gove says that at the heart of every successful private school is the independence of the Head. It isn't.At the heart of every successful private school is exclusivity; fees; selection and privileged parental backgrounds.Will he give those to state schools? No, of course not. So let's stop this nonsensical argument now.
  • Most people work a 8 hour day (although there are many who work more) and we expect children to work for longer? How, many of us adults would want to attend a course that lasted 10 hours a day for 40 weeks of the year? I know my brain would explode! Concentrate on quality not quantity Mr Gove!
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40 Boys Put on Suits to Stand Up for Their Friend. It Worked. | The Mighty - 0 views

themighty.com/...-up-for-their-friend-it-worked motor disorder physical disorder childhood children school friendship brotherhood sports culture lifestyle health society gives me hope
shared by izz aty on 12 May 14 - No Cached
  • “It could have turned ugly. The boys could have gone to the playground and said, ‘Who’s doing this to you? Where are they?’” Keefe told The Mighty. “But instead they responded in this very adult-like, peaceful way. It was all about love and support.” Nearly six months later, Danny confidently walks around the school hallways. No one picks on him anymore, his mom says. “It’s kind of the opposite now,” Keefe told The Mighty. “Kids go up to him and say, ‘Hey, you’re the kid from TV!’”
  • “Danny started crying when he saw everyone in suits that day,” Keefe recalls. “He was only 6 but it was like he understood the magnitude of what happened. I’m just so thankful the parents in my community raised such kind young men.”
  • izz aty on 12 May 14
     
    "Kids at school often bullied Danny - they didn't understand why he wore a dress shirt or fedora each day, and they didn't understand why he couldn't talk. Danny has apraxia of speech, a motor disorder that makes it difficult for him to communicate. Kids would go up to him and ask, "Why can't you talk? Just talk." He'd come home from school distraught."
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Top 10 Ways to Manage Teacher Burnout - Combating Teacher Burnout - 0 views

712educators.about.com/...teacher_burnout.htm education teacher teaching new teacher motivation support burnout school work reference
shared by izz aty on 09 Aug 11 - No Cached
  • Every time you think a negative thought reword it in your own mind. Even though this might seem silly, it is the core of internal happiness.
  • create an overall task list that you need to accomplish and store this someplace where you can check it over each week. Then make yourself a daily to-do list that is reasonable and doable. Try to limit yourself to 3-5 tasks that you can accomplish in one day. Then when you mark them off the list you can feel a sense of accomplishment, and you will have something to celebrate.
  • Each time something happens beyond your control, you can just ask for the courage to change the things you can, the strength to accept the things you cannot change, and the wisdom to know the difference.
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  • While teachers cannot change much of what is thrown at them, they can change their own attitudes towards these challenges.
  • When your workday is done, you need to leave the stresses of it and the rest of your life behind, even if only for fifteen minutes. Relaxation and meditation can rejuvenate the body and the spirit.
  • laughter often is the best medicine. The natural endorphins that are released while laughing help bring us relief from the stresses of the world.
  • Burnout can often be caused by getting caught in a rut. While on the Internet, search for new lessons or materials to help you teach an upcoming topic. Outside of school, find something that you've always wanted to try but haven't done yet.
  • try not to bring home work every night. You might want to consider going into school early so that you can complete your paperwork.
  • everyone needs a good night's sleep to function properly the next day. I know that I personally need at least seven hours to be productive the next day. Figure this number out for yourself and make a date with your bed each night. Your body will thank you!
  • stay away from those who are disgruntled. Instead, find someone who has a positive outlook on life and talk about teaching with them.
  • izz aty on 09 Aug 11
     
    Teaching can be a very stressful job which can sometimes lead to teacher burnout. This article focuses on the top 10 things you can do to combat teacher burnout. 1. Foster Positivity 2. Create Realistic To Do Lists 3. Accept That There Are Things You Cannot Change 4. Learn to Relax 5. Watch a Funny Movie 6. Try Something New 7. Leave Your Teaching at School 8. Get Plenty of Sleep 9. Talk to Someone Positive 10. Celebrate What It Means to Be a Teacher
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ESL Lesson Plan: Twenty Questions - 1 views

www.esl-lesson-plan.com/...twenty_questions.php writing writing prompts questions english language language learning esl storytelling lesson filler activity activities story
shared by izz aty on 20 Aug 11 - No Cached
  • 1. What is your most obsessive thought? 2. Where is your favorite place in the world, and why? 3. What's the one thing your parents don't understand about you? 4. What have you learned that nobody taught you? 5. What is your earliest, most vivid memory? 6. If you have experienced a moment of sudden faith or loss of faith, what prompted it? 7. If you could take back one thing you have done, what would it be? 8. What is your greatest talent or accomplishment? 9. What is the most joyful moment you have experienced? 10. What is the most painful moment you have experienced? 11. What question would you ask God? 12. Which super power would you choose – and what would you do with it? 13. If you could make one rule about life, what would it be? 14. How would you define time? 15. What is it about some people that makes you immediately like - or dislike - them? 16. If you could be an animal, what animal would you be? 17. If you could have a conversation with a historical figure, who would it be? 18. If you could go back in time, where would you go? What would you do? 19. What do you know, that no one else knows? 20. If you had an extra hour in each day, what would you do with it?
  • my intention in teaching English is far more than mastery of grammar and vocabulary. I want my students to be equipped to comprehend and make sense of the world around them. Part of comprehending is to understand, but another important part is to make something known and part of one's self.
  • To inspire discussions or writing for English learning students, I have found open-ended questions to be a good place to start. I have found that a little introductory discussion can help a student with a context and a framework to continue developing... ...his or her own thoughts.
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  • How do we make basic decisions about our lives – like where we live, go to school, travel, vote or work? Are those our decisions? Or do we follow the tracks of others?
  • It is good to remember that we are all always learning. And it is always more fun to learn together. We can learn as much from the past as from the present. And we can learn as much from using and stretching our imaginations as from studying our textbooks.
  • izz aty on 20 Aug 11
     
    1. What is your most obsessive thought? 2. Where is your favorite place in the world, and why? 3. What's the one thing your parents don't understand about you? 4. What have you learned that nobody taught you? 5. What is your earliest, most vivid memory? 6. If you have experienced a moment of sudden faith or loss of faith, what prompted it? 7. If you could take back one thing you have done, what would it be? 8. What is your greatest talent or accomplishment? 9. What is the most joyful moment you have experienced? 10. What is the most painful moment you have experienced? 11. What question would you ask God? 12. Which super power would you choose - and what would you do with it? 13. If you could make one rule about life, what would it be? 14. How would you define time? 15. What is it about some people that makes you immediately like - or dislike - them? 16. If you could be an animal, what animal would you be? 17. If you could have a conversation with a historical figure, who would it be? 18. If you could go back in time, where would you go? What would you do? 19. What do you know, that no one else knows? 20. If you had an extra hour in each day, what would you do with it?
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No child left behind: (Relative) equity in Finnish schools -  Inside classroo... - 0 views

www.insideclassrooms.com/...tive-equity-in-finnish-schools finnish special ed scandinavian education finnish education
shared by izz aty on 21 Nov 14 - No Cached
  • not only is Finland a top performer in all three subjects tested in PISA, they manage to do so while making schooling equitable.
  • The aim of day-care is to support balanced growth, development and learning as well as promoting the personal well-being of all children, which means that by the time they start formal school at age 7, Finnish children that would have been behind developmentally at age 5 have had the time and the support to catch up. 
  • In Finland, although there is no formal education until age 7, most students attend preschool at 6, and day-care is available to all children under this age. This day-care is provided by the local authority in over 90% of cases, and its cost is dependent on the size and income of the family (bigger families pay less per child, and low income families pay nothing). 
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  • all classes are mixed ability.
  • high expectations of all students, and these are to meet the objectives set out in the national curriculum.
  • These mixed ability classes would be difficult for teachers to handle if it weren't for three things: thorough teacher education - teacher training includes a significant focus on differentiation and how to support students at all levels;small class sizes - the estimated average size is 14.1 (although some research suggests class size doesn't affect student performance); anda well staffed student support system - special teachers that provide in class support and take out small groups are qualified teachers with further qualifications in special education.
  • There are two types of special classes. The type described above is called the E class, and there is one in each year. These classes are smaller than the others, and they have the same teacher for most subjects (who should be a qualified teacher with an extra qualification in special needs, but in practice these are in short supply). Students can move in and out of this class, but in practice they usually stay there for most subjects, occasionally joining another class if they have a strength in a particular area.
  • Those with severe or specific special needs still attend mainstream school, but are in a class of their own somewhere in the district. Each school has its own specialism. This may mean travelling a little while to get there, as only one or two schools will have an autistic class for example. 
  • There isn't really special provision for gifted students
  • brighter students help struggling students in class which enhances their own understanding
  • if students are motivated, you can't stop them learning - gifted students will take the books and teach themselves (one of the teachers who told me this had four degrees but had come from a tiny school in the countryside).
  • Finland has only small differences in performance between schools (a measure closely associated with equality), and most students go to their local schools (to age 15).
  • Selection only happens in two situations: where students are applying to language emersion schools (and the student has to speak the language to a certain level), and where students are applying for a certain class in a school that is the school's specialism, such as Music or Sports (these classes have the same basic curriculum with additional Music or Sports lessons). There are no grammar schools, and very few private schools (and even these have to follow the national curriculum).
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NaPoWriMo: National Poetry Writing Month - 0 views

www.napowrimo.net poetry april events annual event annual 2013 literature creative writing writing reference resources english esol education language language learning
shared by izz aty on 05 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • izz aty on 05 Apr 13
     
    NaPoWriMo, or National Poetry Writing Month, is an annual project in which participating poets attempt to write a poem a day for the month of April. NaPoWriMo was founded in 2003, when poet Maureen Thorson decided to take up the challenge (modeled after NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month), and challenged other poets to join her. Since then, the number of participants has gotten larger every year, and many writers' organizations, local, national and even international, organize NaPoWriMo activities.
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sesuatu / suatu / satu > sesuatu - 0 views

www.proz.com/...823906-sesuatu_suatu_satu.html bahasa bahasa melayu malay malaysia language language learning reference
shared by izz aty on 30 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • 'sesuatu' is used as an indefinite article before a noun, without referring to any specific item. To play any song, it doesn't matter.
  • 'suatu' refers to something that is certain, a particular one. When you start a story with 'pada suatu hari', you are referring to a particular and certain day, not just any day.
  • 'satu' is clear, it means one, and not zero or two. To play a song, as in not two or three, but just one song.
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"We're the future - YOUR future." | Psychopomp - 0 views

psychopompblog.wordpress.com/...were-the-future-your-future people society london sociology crime democracy young people youth youth issues uk protest riot demonstration politics government law illegal education economy employment
shared by izz aty on 17 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • izz aty on 17 Feb 12
     
    Riots in London have everyone talking today, although violence and disorder have been going for days according to reports. Causes and motivations are still unclear, and as with most crises they will probably remain so until after the fact. Whatever the reasons, youth in London and increasingly across England are tossing aside any sense of citizenship they might have had in favour of selfish, violent behaviour against a society which, judging from the quotes that are emerging, they perceive as having abandoned them. Why is this spreading so far and so fast? Riots of this magnitude erupt when people are pushed to their limits, unhappy with a government which has betrayed them or does not represent them. We applaud when people demonstrate their desire for democracy with this kind of passion, and comdemn police who silence them. In London, however, the police seem to be determinedly holding to their responsibility not to hurt citizens - and in pro-democracy protests, rioters do not upload photos with themselves and the commercial goods they have managed to steal.
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