^ what dilbs said. never flat out reject, just always be in the middle until you see a good opening. but being a union rep, you'll be an unpaid therapist half the time.Dilbert_X wrote:
Gut feeling - No, it'll be a career blocker and soak up a hell of a lot of your time.
Don't reject it, push it down the road, agree to think about it in a year or two.
I took a peek at who the author is after I saw that pretentious reference to the British Raj. It is Joel Stein. I hate that guy. One of the reasons I no longer take time magazine seriously. Back into early 2010's Time gave him a page to write his opinion or whatever pieces at the very end of the magazine. I thought he was a pretentious and annoying neurotic Jew jackass back then.DesertFox- wrote:
Today I hate-read a piece of absolute trash trying to stir up more generational strife with sweeping characterizations of multiple generations. A bit fun to laugh at.
He hates Hindus. Me hating him is the circle of lifeNewbie wrote:
You could criticize him without being anti-Semitic
In July 2010, Stein wrote a humor column for Time in which he expressed his discomfort at the impact immigration of Indians has had on his hometown of Edison, New Jersey. Stein initially took to Twitter to defend himself with a tweet saying "Didn't meant to insult Indians with my column this week. Also stupidly assumed their emails would follow that Gandhi non-violence thing."[13] Time and Stein subsequently publicly apologized for the article. Stein's apology read: "I truly feel stomach-sick that I hurt so many people. I was trying to explain how, as someone who believes that immigration has enriched American life and my hometown in particular, I was shocked that I could feel a tiny bit uncomfortable with my changing town when I went to visit it. If we could understand that reaction, we'd be better equipped to debate people on the other side of the immigration issue."[14] United States Senator from New Jersey Bob Menendez submitted a letter to Time stating that the column "not only fell terribly flat but crossed the lines of offensiveness toward a particular community that has dealt with violent hate crimes in the past. Mr. Stein's mocking allusions to revered deities in the Hindu religion are particularly reprehensible."[15] Kal Penn, actor and former associate director in the White House Office of Public Engagement, also criticized the column for its portrayal of Indian Americans.[16]
Slate magazine writer Tom Scocca wrote of the column, "To a charitable reader, it's clear that the piece was trying not to be offensive. Stein's description of his childhood small-town idyll before the mass immigration is deliberately fake-sentimental, describing lowlife white kids stealing things and getting drunk. He was trying to make more fun of white people than he made of Indian people." Nonetheless, Scocca wrote, many Indian-Americans received the column "as an unironic anti-immigrant rant."[17]
Last edited by uziq (2022-01-05 19:58:02)
Complaining about how millennials called you out on your article calling them, and younger people, self-centered and bratty.The Times piece also cited my 2013 Time magazine cover story about millennials, whom I called the Me, Me, Me Generation. To which many millennials responded with angry emails explaining how the story didn’t pertain to them, explaining all the details about them that made them different.
The article has a bunch of obnoxious name drops to people popular in 2017Since my first column, 19 years ago, readers and co-workers have clamored to have me fired. The first time I visited TIME’s L.A. bureau, I saw one of my columns taped outside a science reporter’s door, with sentences crossed out by red Sharpie accompanied by the words “This is what TIME magazine has become!” When I introduced myself to Gore Vidal on a flight, he ranted about how TIME’s editor at the time, Walter Isaacson, had destroyed the magazine by bringing in solipsistic young people who write in first person. I nodded in agreement, thinking, Gore Vidal knows about me!
I get that it is satire. I just feel that it doesn't have a place in a magazine that also proudly considers itself a serious publication. "If you want to be considered a legit source, act with legitimacy"Uzique wrote:
his column is satire. you clearly dont understand satire because you are a mule man
Ask A Government Teacher: What is teaching like in the COVID era? wrote:
Usually I write posts on trending topics that have to do with, you guessed it, government. The Imgur community has been kind and supportive of my posts in regards to politics in the past so I'd like to draw attention to this issue, not because I'm struggling but because all educators, at least in the US, are struggling.
Thanks to a slew of attacks and now legal actions of a few newly empowered politicians nationwide, my profession has been dragged into the national spotlight and most unfortunately, into question. Since I imagine most of my readers have not been in a public school classroom in some time and while we were there most paid little attention to the big picture. Many of us probably had little sympathy for the teachers (don't feel bad, I didn't care for my teachers either and look how that turned out).
Anyway, in case you're curious what it's like teaching in 2022, read on but I'll warn you, it's not an uplifting read. I have been teaching for a decent number of years in a widely recognized district with a long history of strong support. Even so, every teacher, green and veteran, supports this claim: it's never been this bad.
Before I go any further, I feel it's important to mention that teachers are very highly trained professionals that DO NOT just recite information students need to know so we can get our paychecks. Modern teachers are carefully instructed on how to build relationships with their students to act as stewards of their well-being to guarantee the safest most supportive learning environment possible. A good teacher can tell when any student on their roster is going through something and what to do about it. In a lot of ways, teachers really are parents to over 130 students 8 hours a day 5 days a week. When something profound happens to our students, we share the experience, good or bad, and this part of our job NEVER stops. I'm not ashamed that I've needed to seek grief counseling this year. Bear that in mind as you read.
Many students hate us, more than ever before. Enough to physically attack us, to swear at us, call us racial, sexist or homophobic slurs. They threaten us and punch us when we enforce school rules or actually attack or steal from us just for fun thanks to the latest viral challenges. They cough in our faces, especially when they know we have immuno-compromised family members and laugh while doing it. 14 year olds throw temper tantrums when they fail, don't get to use their phones, or aren't able to listen to music. They storm out of classrooms, go to bathrooms where they vape, destroy soap/ paper towel dispensers, clog toilets and create Snapchats meant to bully and harass others. They bully classmates into doubting their existence then literally bully them to death (lost a student to suicide in November who was bullied to death). They do these things because there simply not enough school administrators or counselors or even teachers to properly address all these egregious "discipline" problems. The parents either consider it "not their problem" or they're overwhelmed themselves.
Since March 2020, a huge number of parents have called teachers lazy, ungrateful, over paid (average in my district is 48k) and under worked. They have demanded we be fired for teaching state approved standards, call us lying liberal communists (irony) when we teach history that doesn't align with the views of their favorite the disinforming celebrity. They demand that we be disciplined when we politely ask their children to wear masks so our families wouldn't become gravely ill. They have called us weak, vindictive and insecure when their children don't get what they honestly don't deserve. They have told us that we will give tests when they feel their child is ready and then blame us when their child fails. If this all wasn't bad enough, they accuse us of failing at our jobs because their children are out of control after over a year of being home alone in a critical stage in social development. They feel we should be able to wish away the steep declines in their children's mental health that has been declared a national health emergency (I lost another student to suicide last Xmas who felt cut off and alone).
Politicians are seizing on the toxic nationwide discord to gaslight constituents into believing teachers are out for themselves. They accuse teachers of teaching false narratives that just do happen to affect their agendas. They ban discomfort in history, a subject where billions have been starved, beaten, enslaved, diseased and murdered over the centuries. They threaten to take our hard earned licenses through email hotlines where people could easily report us just for doing our jobs. To bully us into their misguided line, they slash our funding further the pathetic amount it already is. They ban masks mandates because they know it gets the votes of parents who cannot relate to our fear of the virus; the fear of a strong likelihood of exposure that comes with being in close contact with over 130 young restless students in a small cinderblock classroom for 8 hours a day (and there are very few professions where so many people are so close together for so long).
In the words of Remarque, 'this is to be neither an accusation nor a confession' but to serve as an SOS to parents, current and future, and to fellow citizens that we are sinking and we desperately need help or at the very least support. Appreciate educators, we truly have children's best interests at heart.
TLDR- Teaching in 2020-22 has turned into a nightmare for educators.
A sincere thank you for reading this far. It is much appreciated.
As always, keep calm and We The People.
-Your local government teacher
