Oh, I can't (couldn't? It's been a decade since I swam) go without goggles. Just because my eyes can't take it and I can't swim straight otherwise. I could go without a swim cap, most likely, with pins, since my hair is shorter than it was when I swam before. But not gonna.
'Shindig'
Natter 64: Yes, we still need you
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
When I had access to a pool with painted lane lines on the floor I could follow those okay without goggles, but I don't have that anymore. I have swum with my (decades out of date) prescription scuba mask, but it's packed away somewhere and even that level of being able to see was very strange. Good, but strange.
God, I hope swimming is as good as I remember it. I loved it; it just wasn't at all convenient once I moved up here. Too many logistics. But now? 5 minute walk away, if that. Full locker-room. Unlimited access. I no longer have almost an hour of commute. Almost more convenient than when I was in college.
And I'm liking to have my body working for itself again. Hadn't realized it was missing.
Someone in my neighborhood has a kitchen timer that sounds just like mine. It's very confusing.
the idea that everyone is entitled to enough of an income to subsist, just for being a live person, is very attractive to me
Me too.
Hm. Looking at this [link] and at tivo and I'm wondering if I shouldn't just continue to watch tv on the computer (even though I sometimes miss the window for free streaming of an episode or two) and get a Wii.
The band director can't buy new music for the band, all of the kids have to either rent or buy their own instruments from an outside source because the school can't afford to buy instruments for the kids to borrow (which was the norm when I was in band)
When I was in band (in a rather wealthy district public school) everyone had to buy or rent their own instruments except for percussion and a few of the huge brass instruments. I started band in 1991, and I think my sister started in 1987, and she also had to buy her own clarinet. (I started off on glockenspiel, then switched to drums, then back to tuned percussion, so the only things I had to buy were drumsticks and a practice pad.)
But I also suspect that if you took any underperforming school and spent a big chunk of money on it so it had good facilities and equipment and well-supported well-trained teachers teaching small classes it would improve VASTLY and just about immediately.
I don't necessarily agree with it. Lots of underperforming schools get money thrown at them. Money isn't the answer, and I'm coming from a relatively underfunded district, with some pretty decent schools (according to Academic Decathalon and college admits).
I think the onion analogy is way more apt.
As a teacher in a single-subject classroom (meaning I teach 150 kids over 5 or so periods), I see my students for approximately 2% of their life that year. If I taught in a K-6 room it would be 12% of their life. I cannot make up for what is missing in the REST of their life, basic things, like conversation. Or even having had someone read them a bed time story for the first 4 years of their life or someone who sang nursery songs to them.
There is way more to the problem that money CAN'T fix and it's not always the school that needs to work on the fixing.
I'm coming from a relatively underfunded district, with some pretty decent schools (according to Academic Decathalon and college admits).
Academic Decathlon can get really expensive really quickly. When I was in it in high school, we always had to make decisions about which study materials to get, because with our budget, we just couldn't afford to get everything we needed. (And that was with each of us finding our own copies of the books for the English section bringing in a blank tape to copy the CD of the music we had to know. We usually ended up skipping the art booklets, because those were full-color and more expensive than the other booklets.)
I should mention that lots of schools in my district get a lot of Title I funds along with encumbered school improvement funds. And in fact the lower performing schools within my district often have MORE money than the higher performing schools that are in neighborhoods with more educated parents. But that could be a fluke of school funding in California.