Charles M. Blow offers his Thanksgiving
in Giving Thanks, a column for Thursday's New York Times that is available online now. Sometimes I encounter a column of which all I can say is that you should read it. It is impossible to properly summarize it, and unfair to selectively quote from it. This is such a column. Despite that, allow me to offer a bit from the middle, not even the best part. I comes after he begins the column with new
Breaking - another MD County votes to raise Minimum Wage
as one can read in this Washington Post story, the County Council in Prince George's County has joined Montgomery County in committing to raising the minimum wage to $11.50 over the next four years. For what it is worth, the two are the two largest in population of Maryland's 24 (23 counties and Baltimore City) civil jurisdictions. Between them they have more than 1/4 of the population of the sta
Teaching - Giving Thanks to students
For me, teaching is more about relationship that it is about content or skill. That is, unless I can build a relationship where students will trust me, it is hard to challenge them to the kind of intellectual growth that really matters, which is far more than memorizing facts or performing well on various tests, mine or those imposed from the outside. Once early in my career as a high school teac
Why the Affordable Care Act matters
even for all its flaws, can be seen in the difference between having insurance and not having insurance. I have never added up all the bills this year for my wife's cancer treatment. There are many. X-rays and lab tests hospitalization - both for her original emergency admission in January and for her autologous stem cell transplant in October doctor's fees hospital bed (which she still uses) ren
11-26-13 teacherken at Daily Kos
teacherken at Daily Kos: the moral test of a governmentAs Congress considers more cuts to services for the poor, be these unemployment payments, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Payments, Medicaid reimbursement rates - what ever they may be, and to the rest of the social safety net, including Medicare and Social Security ..... I would like to remind them of one of the most important moral stateme