(via truth-has-a-liberal-bias)

faysbook:

OOTD: ‘Fat femme summer chic’ edition

(via searchingforknowledge)

(Source: amodernmanifesto, via searchingforknowledge)

world-shaker:

The challenge is this – How can you effectively teach thousands of students simultaneously? I’m fascinated by the contrast between post-secondary faculty and K-12 teacher contract agreements that limit class size and the current emergent MOOC aim of having as many enrollments as possible. What a dichotomy.

MOOC’s have done a great job at creating courses open to massive enrollments from anywhere around the world. But how well are MOOC’s doing at actually successfully teaching those students? Based on MOOCs equally massive dropout rates having teaching and learning success on a massive scale will require pedagogical innovation. It’s this innovation, more than massive enrollments or free that I think make MOOC’s important. Let me explain.

An excellent article, and well-worth the read for the history of MOOCs (can you call less than three years “history?”).

sociolab:

Do you ever think about the fact that the US has created and legitimized a system of institutionalized inequality by funding schools through property taxes?  That basically a child’s education is only as good as the value of the property in their neighborhood.  Funny how education is so often viewed as an equalizing factor when there is nothing equal about it.

(via bad-dominicana)

littleredridingcat:

annamay-wrong:

spicyobsession:

annamay-wrong:

omfg i lost it

dead and dying

儿儿儿儿儿儿儿 that’s beijingese for hello nice to meet you

LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OMG

(Source: kencian, via bankuei)

http://www.pinyin.info/readings/yin_binyong/o09_onomatopoeia.pdf

http://blog.nciku.com/blog/en/2010/12/17/animal-sounds-in-chinese-onomatopeia/

tamarma:

bunnika:

I seriously just had to teach my mother some basics of parenting.

Both photos are of my daughter in October, the first in 2011, the second in 2012.  I let her pick out her own clothes, shoes, haircuts, hair colors, anything superficial, really.  She’s too young to understand the permanence of piercings, so she doesn’t have any.  But hair grows, shoes get grown out of, clothes go threadbare.  These things don’t really matter—shouldn’t really matter—but anyone raising a gender-variant child knows the world isn’t that kind.

My daughter recently requested a haircut like mine.  A long flop on top, pixie-length fade on the back and sides.  She’s been bugging me for weeks to color her hair again, I just haven’t had the time.  But today she came to me with the same shyness she keeps developing when outside our home; she’s being pressured by peers and family to look “normal,” to grow her hair long and uncolored, to dress a certain way (she hates to match), to indulge in self-consciousness, and alter or not alter her appearance to gain the approval of others, and society at large.

THIS FUCKING INFURIATES ME.

I called my mother tonight, because my daughter had become shy again, and didn’t want to color her hair anymore, and she said it was because of what her Nana had said to her.  My mother told me we should get that spray-on Halloween hair colors, so it wouldn’t be so “permanent” and my daughter could be “normal” again to avoid being bullied.

IT IS NOT THE JOB OF THE VICTIM TO STOP BEING BULLIED.  IT IS THE BULLY’S JOB TO STOP BULLYING.

I know she gets teased sometimes, and we always talk about it.  She stays strong and confident, so long as she has the support of those around her.  But what that support falters, or pulls a 180, she’s left to crash.

She also gets teased for liking dinosaurs and not dolls.  She gets teased for preferring roughhousing to playing house.  She gets teased for liking Lightning McQueen and not Cinderella.  Where do we draw the line?

My mother thinks this is a “minor” thing, that it’s better to just blend in.  But it would plant the seed of doubt, it forms the foundation for queer kids staying in the closet, for disabled kids to feel worthless, for young girls accepting abusive partners.  This is not “minor,” it is fucking MAJOR, because this is my daughter’s foundation, and it will shape her life.

Support your fucking kids.  Let them be who they want to be, look how they want to look, and play how they want to play.  And make sure they know that you will love them no matter what.

Will always beblog this.

(via pieces-of-rainb0w)

thepeoplesrecord:

Interest rates on student loans set to double even as students fall deeper into debt 
April 10, 2013

Student loan interest rates are scheduled to double on July 1, from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. Congress extended the lower rate on federal student loans for a year in an effort to control the nation’s formidable student debt crisis, but will now have to decide whether or not to cancel the interest rate hike once again.

The interest rate is a rare instance of bipartisan agreement; last year, both President Obama and GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney promised to hold down interest rates on subsidized Stafford loans. Student loan rates have not been changed since they wereset in 2001, even though student debt has exploded in the past decade. The average student is now grappling with more than $27,000 in debt, and the national student debt has reached $1 trillion. Meanwhile, the federal government is making a profit on these interest rates, according to a brief by student advocacy groups:

The brief, citing a February report from the Congressional Budget Office, said the federal government makes 36 cents in profit on every student-loan dollar it puts out, and estimates that over all, student loans will bring in $34 billion next year.

“Higher education loans are meant to subsidize the cost of higher education, not profit from them, especially at a time when students are facing record debt,” said Ethan Senack, the higher education advocate at the United States Public Interest Research Group, which is issuing the brief with the United States Student Association and Young Invincibles, an organization for people 18 to 34.

According to the C.B.O. report, the government will get 12.5 cents in revenue next year for every dollar lent through subsidized Staffords, 33.3 cents per dollar in unsubsidized Staffords, 54.8 cents on each dollar of graduate school loans, and 49 cents per dollar of parent loans, for a total of $34 billion a year.

Borrowers of subsidized Stafford loans make up more than a third of those using federal student aid. More than two-thirds of those borrowers are from families with an annual income under $50,000.

The Senate’s recent budget resolution extended the lower rate indefinitely, and the House will soon have legislation to extend it for 2 more years. However, postponing the rate hike will not be enough to mitigate the ever-worsening student debt crisis. In the first three months of 2013, borrowers defaulted on their student loans in record numbers. According to the Department of Education, 6.8 million federal student loan borrowers have now defaulted on $85 billion in debt. Sequestration has only worsened the problem, driving up fees for some federal loans.

Students are relying more heavily on federal loans to pay for education as states have uniformly gutted higher education funding, pushing tuition costs to new heights. If states were willing to raise taxes rather than slash education funding, tuition costs could be stabilized. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is also working on an initiative to help students pay off their debt and find alternative refinance options. Campus Progress and other groups have also pushed for reductions in the interest rate on federal student loans.

But students aren’t the only ones suffering from this crisis. Student debt is directly responsible for the feebleness of the housing recovery. College graduates saddled with debt and unable to find suitable wages have avoided buying houses and taking on mortgages, while others aren’t able to qualify for loans because of their excessive student debt.

Source

(via truth-has-a-liberal-bias)

(via ethiopienne)