Alright, I've had enough.
Every other second we hear about Tzniyus for women, and really there are problems out there. Women who should know better wearing things they know they shouldn't, and I'm not talking about the grey area stuff.
So I have felt that this is something that could possibly be rectified by teaching men about some of the laws of tzniyus, so when their wife asks "hey can I go out like this?" and she is wearing something a little short or a little tight and he thinks "sure, you look great," he might actually know that there may be some issues with it.
But now I think we need to teach tzniyus to the men for the clothes that THEY wear.
HEY! YOU! Yeah YOU with the black hat:
YOUR PANTS ARE TOO TIGHT AND SITTING TOO LOW. AND DUDE? REALLY? GET A SHIRT THAT FITS!!!!
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Thursday, September 6, 2012
School Supplies
In my kids' school (K-8) the biggest secret of the summer all the way through to opening day is who their teachers will be. This is a closely guarded secret, because the school does not want to be inundated with calls from unhappy parents who would prefer their kid was placed in another parallel class with a different teacher. Once school starts it's in place already, and then I guess the parents can be more easily ignored.
This brings up a a problem that is, to put it mildly, annoying. School supplies. Because of this closely guarded secret the school will not send out a list from the teacher, because then the teacher will know who is in the class (and may divulge it), and if a parent does enough detective work they may figure out who the teacher is ("oh, you need the zipper looseleaf? You must be in Mrs. Katz's class").
So what happens? The first week of September, when all of the big chain stores have depleted their school supplies and moved on to Pumpkins and Reindeer, our kids come home from school the first day with a list of school supplies. Some of the items are very typical, and thus easily bought in July when the notebooks costs 10 cents, and the folders are plentiful and cute. However, at least three or four of the items are teacher specific, and sometimes very, very, very specific (my friend went shopping today for a yellow plastic folder and a blue plastic folder, both with prongs!). So aside from the headache of trying to get back on schedule after the summer, and NOT have to go out shopping for supplies,which are in fact only available in small local stores, or the annoyance of paying so much more for things you looked at when they were dirt cheap in the summer, it's the simplicity of how to rectify this situation that really upsets me.
There are two solutions.
1. Tell the teachers they need to all get on the same page and make the supplies uniform for all parallel classes of each grade. The teachers will have to compromise and learn to "make do" with supplies that another teacher thinks are essential to proper learning. (It's called working together.) Then the school can mail home a list in JULY with, for example, the 4th grade list of supplies. It will be a uniform list, so no one will know who the teacher is, and the parents can send the kids to school with all their neccessary items, not worry about trying to find supplies when they have been sold out for two weeks, and in general make the experience more pleasant (in the teacher's defense they NO LONGER ask for the supplies with in two days...we have until Monday!).
2. If the teachers cannot all get on the same page, and there are teachers who insist on supplies that are not intuitive to parents or uniform (everyone asks for looseleafs, and notebooks, folders, paper, pens and pencils, so that list can surely come home early) then the teacher should purchase the supplies she wants (in JULY when they are good and cheap!) and then tell the class to bring in the money to recieve that necessary item.
Simplicity.
That's probably why they don't do it.
This brings up a a problem that is, to put it mildly, annoying. School supplies. Because of this closely guarded secret the school will not send out a list from the teacher, because then the teacher will know who is in the class (and may divulge it), and if a parent does enough detective work they may figure out who the teacher is ("oh, you need the zipper looseleaf? You must be in Mrs. Katz's class").
So what happens? The first week of September, when all of the big chain stores have depleted their school supplies and moved on to Pumpkins and Reindeer, our kids come home from school the first day with a list of school supplies. Some of the items are very typical, and thus easily bought in July when the notebooks costs 10 cents, and the folders are plentiful and cute. However, at least three or four of the items are teacher specific, and sometimes very, very, very specific (my friend went shopping today for a yellow plastic folder and a blue plastic folder, both with prongs!). So aside from the headache of trying to get back on schedule after the summer, and NOT have to go out shopping for supplies,which are in fact only available in small local stores, or the annoyance of paying so much more for things you looked at when they were dirt cheap in the summer, it's the simplicity of how to rectify this situation that really upsets me.
There are two solutions.
1. Tell the teachers they need to all get on the same page and make the supplies uniform for all parallel classes of each grade. The teachers will have to compromise and learn to "make do" with supplies that another teacher thinks are essential to proper learning. (It's called working together.) Then the school can mail home a list in JULY with, for example, the 4th grade list of supplies. It will be a uniform list, so no one will know who the teacher is, and the parents can send the kids to school with all their neccessary items, not worry about trying to find supplies when they have been sold out for two weeks, and in general make the experience more pleasant (in the teacher's defense they NO LONGER ask for the supplies with in two days...we have until Monday!).
2. If the teachers cannot all get on the same page, and there are teachers who insist on supplies that are not intuitive to parents or uniform (everyone asks for looseleafs, and notebooks, folders, paper, pens and pencils, so that list can surely come home early) then the teacher should purchase the supplies she wants (in JULY when they are good and cheap!) and then tell the class to bring in the money to recieve that necessary item.
Simplicity.
That's probably why they don't do it.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Waning Days of Summer
It's been a busy summer. It's been a a fun summer. It's been an emotional summer. It's been the summer, and I love it.
Niece got engaged and married, kids went to camp and hung out with cousins, we went on family vacation to the Finger Lakes that was everything we dreamed of and more, and now, today, Eldest is headed off to Israel until June.
Someone said to me yesterday "It is the beginning of the beginning."
I hope it's great.
Niece got engaged and married, kids went to camp and hung out with cousins, we went on family vacation to the Finger Lakes that was everything we dreamed of and more, and now, today, Eldest is headed off to Israel until June.
Someone said to me yesterday "It is the beginning of the beginning."
I hope it's great.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Unintentional Comedy
As much as the zoning meeting was, as most town meetings are, depressing, there was one aspect that cracked me up. One of the Board members both in look and and voice sounded EXACTLY like this guy:
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
No One Cares
The other night I went to a Zoning Board meeting at Town Hall. The illegal then made legal school across the street from my house was looking for variances (changes to the existing zoning code to allow them to do some work on their property that gives exceptions to the rules in place regarding how much open space is needed on all side of a structure/driveway, and the neighboring property and how much landscaping is needed)) to put in a circular driveway. I asked a lot of questions, and knowing it was a fait accompli before anyone had even stepped in the room I appealed to the board, on the record, to remember that this was a residential neighborhood, and removing all grass and trees is not in keeping with that. (I kept thinking about the semi-legal shul next store to this barely legal school, and how they may experience some flooding once all surfaces are turned to blacktop-surfaces which they are downhill from).
The saddest part of the evening was not that I would need ten feet from my neighbors property to put up a shed, and this house/school can have almost NO setback off the street. No, the saddest part was the diner owner who stood up, and in an impassioned speech talked about what he went through when he put up his diner, how the board limited him to a small facility, with a specific amount of parking, and now the board was being asked to approve a 225 seat family style restaurant (as the lawyers said, an Applebees or Outback Steakhouse) in a shopping center that happens to cross over into their jurisdiction. It broke my heart to hear him, in his Greek accented English beg the board to do their duty, the way he swore to protect the Constitution when he became a citizen. Compounding this travesty was when the usual suspects (read: developers of other projects) sat there shmoozing or laughing, or when members of the advisory board (Town lawyer, Town buildings people) were obviously not listening. (they are not the main board, just the advisory board who basically tells the board what to do).
The room was full of badly dressed lawyers, sleazy lawyers, and maybe six or seven people there to try to ensure that their neighborhoods or livelihoods not be destroyed. I don't think the people who are in that room once a month realize what they can do, what they have done to neighborhoods all across this town. Aside from the diner owner there was the gas station owner concerned that the Super Walmart attached to the restaurant strip mall would put him and all the other gas stations out of business. "What they sell it for is lower than my cost." There were the group of neighbors trying to stop a two family house from being erected on their quiet street with single family homes (that case was pushed to next month).
The boards, planning and zoning, are clueless. But at some point, even for the dumbest people a lightbulb must go on and they must SEE what they have wrought. I guess they enjoy being in the inner circle, knowing Mr. Sleaze Lawyer and his cronies, knowing the buildings guys, knowing the corrupt Town Supervisor. It's the lowest level of power and they relish it.
I have to believe that these people are just stupid. Dumb as posts and unaware. The alternative is that they just don't care.
That's the saddest of all.
The saddest part of the evening was not that I would need ten feet from my neighbors property to put up a shed, and this house/school can have almost NO setback off the street. No, the saddest part was the diner owner who stood up, and in an impassioned speech talked about what he went through when he put up his diner, how the board limited him to a small facility, with a specific amount of parking, and now the board was being asked to approve a 225 seat family style restaurant (as the lawyers said, an Applebees or Outback Steakhouse) in a shopping center that happens to cross over into their jurisdiction. It broke my heart to hear him, in his Greek accented English beg the board to do their duty, the way he swore to protect the Constitution when he became a citizen. Compounding this travesty was when the usual suspects (read: developers of other projects) sat there shmoozing or laughing, or when members of the advisory board (Town lawyer, Town buildings people) were obviously not listening. (they are not the main board, just the advisory board who basically tells the board what to do).
The room was full of badly dressed lawyers, sleazy lawyers, and maybe six or seven people there to try to ensure that their neighborhoods or livelihoods not be destroyed. I don't think the people who are in that room once a month realize what they can do, what they have done to neighborhoods all across this town. Aside from the diner owner there was the gas station owner concerned that the Super Walmart attached to the restaurant strip mall would put him and all the other gas stations out of business. "What they sell it for is lower than my cost." There were the group of neighbors trying to stop a two family house from being erected on their quiet street with single family homes (that case was pushed to next month).
The boards, planning and zoning, are clueless. But at some point, even for the dumbest people a lightbulb must go on and they must SEE what they have wrought. I guess they enjoy being in the inner circle, knowing Mr. Sleaze Lawyer and his cronies, knowing the buildings guys, knowing the corrupt Town Supervisor. It's the lowest level of power and they relish it.
I have to believe that these people are just stupid. Dumb as posts and unaware. The alternative is that they just don't care.
That's the saddest of all.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Ready For His Close-Up
The two year old boy seems to get this "internet thing." We went fruit/veggie picking yesterday, and I captured a great shot of him...well great for this blog, anyway....
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)