I’m heading out for Australia in six hours after a whirlwind adventure on the Robert C. Seamans that lasted about seven weeks. These are some of my favorite pics from my journey thus far - there are many more in storage and waiting to be taken.
Evaluations don’t take into account the real world of today’s Los Angeles Unified School District classrooms.
A must-read on education:
On a recent Wednesday, my second-period class was interrupted by a student who overdosed on alcohol and Ecstasy and nearly died. Earlier in the year, one of our students was shot in the face and hospitalized. Last year, a student was shot in the neck and paralyzed for life; one of my students was standing next to him when it happened. The year before that, one of my students was inside her house when her sister, sitting in a car outside, was shot and blinded in one eye in a gang drive-by. The baby she was holding was struck by a bullet and killed.
There are days, or perhaps just moments, when I feel like giving up. I have had to resign myself to the incomprehensible idea that society has decided to blame many of its failings on teachers. But I know we don’t deserve the rap. I work with an incredibly intelligent, caring, talented group of people. I also work with many brave, sweet, bright, extraordinary teens.
But really… a must-read. Yet another example of my increasing frustration with the education system in this country.
(Source: Los Angeles Times)
Last sunset in the U.S. for a while… updates will be infrequent, but you can follow my (also infrequent) photos at flickr.com/photos/bcreyo and our group’s once-a-day blog at sea.edu/voyages (SPICE S-239).
Lawrence Egbert, a retired anesthesiologist from Baltimore, has been present for 100 suicides in the last 15 years. But he is more reluctant in his leading role, in contrast to the late Jack Kevorkian:
I ask Egbert how much helium it takes to kill a person. “I don’t know,” he says. He recommends buying 50-liter tanks. “I know we have two tanks, and we run them to zero. Until they stop hissing. … It’s better to have too much than too little.”
I find myself staring at one of the hoods, turning it over and over, trying to comprehend how someone could spend the final moments of life with this thing over his head. I tell Egbert that the hoods make me feel uncomfortable.
He responds in a reed-thin voice, with the manner of a country doctor: “I hope so.”
“The New Public Face of American Assisted Suicide.” — Manuel Roig-Franzia, Washington Post
See also: “After Suicides, a Family’s Journey Toward Grace.” — Joshua Wolfson, Casper Star-Tribune
