GPV
GPV's JournalI've joined BlueSky. My link's inside.
https://bsky.app/profile/jenh1971.bsky.social
I've developed a plan for my self-triggered anxiety over the next four years. (I'm the queen of "what-ifs.")
And as many of you know, if your anxiety is up, your thinking skills are down, making everything worse.
So I'm focusing on what's under my control. Caring for myself, my home family, and my work family, which is about 50 other school personnel and our students. I work in Special Ed, and a lot of our kiddos also experience anxiety, so I'm going to double down on teaching them how to get the anxiety under control by getting organized. If they're doing word problems, I'm going to show them how to slow down, make sure they understand the problem, and if not _why_. I watched them just take their midyear standardized tests, and saw eyes glazing over at the avalanche of text sweeping them away. It looked scary, and it felt like they didn't know what to do, so they panic-poked at a multiple choice answer and went through the same cycle another forty or so times.
But now I'm going to work with them on how to close read, find what's important, and zero in on any words they don't know, because if they don't know it, they automatically assume they can't do anything about it. This is not necessarily true. If they finish evaluating the problem with the checklist I'm giving them, and still genuinely think they can't do it because no one ever taught them how to find the volume of a rectangular prism, then it's now reasonable to say, "I don't have all the information I need to do this," rule out some bad answer options, pick the best guess, and move on with life. Yes, I need to give them reading and math skills, but without skills to lower anxiety, sharpen thinking, and get themselves organized then I am literally sending them out into the world armed with a phonics chart and the twos times table.
So that's my healthy plan to manage my anxiety, by helping my kiddos manage theirs. I'll step up and call congress critters over larger stuff, but by and large my focus is on the kids at school. Anyone else have a plan to tackle their anxiety?
In 2016, I left the Greens to become a Dem so that I could caucus for Bernie. By that point, I'd been a Green for more
than two decades. My dad was heavily involved in the party, and was running for the Maine State Legislature when he passed away. I was drawn into the leadership email chain to receive condolences, but even there I saw evidence of in-fighting. (The Greens of the early days had been more stable, less prone to attaching people like Jill Stein to it.) You other old-timers will remember that I started out here as GreenPartyVoter. I wasn't trying trying to stir up trouble. At that time I thought the left-leaning parties should work together to minimize the damage caused by ** and crew. But I can't tell you how many people freaked out over my username, saying it was my fault that Gore lost. That Nader was crazy for wanting to burn it all down and rebuild.
Which brings me to what I see here today. Lots of infighting, not just with us but within the Dem party. Absence of strong leadership. A sense of disconnection from the top and the base, except when money and votes are needed. The top is always around to secure those. It was hair-on-fire, don't let Trump get elected before. But now that he has been, aside from a few individuals, the frantic pressure from pre-election seems largely absent. And while I don't expect leadership to tip their hand to the Repubs, stronger reassurances that they've got this would be nice.
To bring this full circle, I'm just struck by echoes of the past. Watching the Greens drift ever further from their potential, splintering. The fiasco of the late removal of Biden from the ticket. And there are posts here exclaiming that we should let Trumple-thin-skin burn it all down now so we can rebuild later. I don't know. Maybe a system can only drift so far off center before it collapses. I guess it's like the climate catastrophe that way. Human beings don't see the crisis looming over them, either ignoring it or taking pointless baby steps-- feel good now but utterly useless in the long run green washing.
I guess I'm feeling like we're at a loss. Not just because of politics, but culturally. I work in education at the elementary level. There is a fundamental difference in this fully on-demand generation. A passivity, learned helplessness, lack of resilience. I think the movie Wall-E was pretty spot on. There will always be a few, like David Hogg, who will fight on, but I am nonplussed as to what the future holds. (To be above board, my millennials, elder and younger green kids were the start of this trend. I bought into the "everything should be fair and painless mindset," and while they are doing pretty well now, I still think I could have better prepared them for real life by not wrapping them in cotton wool.)
Anyway, if you made it this far, thanks for letting me ramble. 
Gov Mills considering possible Senate run.
Hope we can say bye- bye to See-Saw Susie!
https://www.pressherald.com/2024/11/29/gov-mills-doesnt-rule-out-challenging-susan-collins-for-u-s-senate-in-2026/
How do you feel about the new Christian-flavored textbooks coming to a school near you? (Public educator, here.)
Years ago, when hubby was still teaching at a nondenominational Christian school, I used to volunteer there. His first year he taught in a two room schoolhouse. K was downstairs, and he had grades 1-6 upstairs. I loved the kids and loved helping them. There were a number of struggling students who should have had services for one reason or another, so it felt super important to me that I help out. But then came the day, the following year, when we acquired another teacher for gr 1-3, and hubby had gr 4-8 upstairs, when I had to help with history. The school used the ABeka program. Hardcore evangelical young earth stuff. I was asked to teach a young lady that we have different races because each of Noah's three sons travelled in a different direction after the flood receded and the ark made landfall (as shown in the map inset.) (Now, some back story might help here, for those who are wondering how the daughter of Green, secular humanists ended up with the son of a bible-believing preacher man. 1) A decade and a half of bullying had left me with no self-esteem. 2) I was navigating misdiagnosed OCD and Bipolar largely on my own. 3) He's a great guy, and we fit well together despite our differences. (I did try, at first, to cling to his faith, which was how we got together. I thought it might be the answer to all my craziness, but I digress.))
But, being presented with this race theory was a bridge too far. I had tolerated random semi-feel good bible verses on the math pages, but this was the subversion of science. Just as bad as saying there had never been any rain before the great flood, the idea that species diverge because God tweaked them with "divine speciation." I couldn't teach it. Couldn't bring myself to come in anymore, even though those kids desperately needed my help.
I watched from afar as the Baptists infiltrated the board. Suddenly, it was no longer enough to slash only Harry Potter and Goose Bumps from the book order forms. Only the King James 1611 Bible was allowed. No more touchy feely Message. The Kindergarten teacher, who'd been raised Catholic, was brought to tears for her background. Accused of slipping in Catechism. Hubby was the de facto admin, so he heard it from all sides. Hed taken up chugging antacids that year. Eventually, he left that school, worked retail for a while, and got back into public education until "no child left behind/no teacher left standing" came into view.
Now, in the current case of TX, the Baptists already rule. What they are slipping in is already agreed upon. I'm curious to know if this round is just soft sell, feel good stuff. More golden rule nuggets on math pages, but I bet they are going to work the hardcore stuff in down the line. I know for myself, I don't want comparative religion eating up my math instruction time. Because if I was forced to present the Christian stuff, I would absolutely add in other perspectives. But, maybe they can't force us to teach it? It's in the books, but we can ignore it? I would prefer it wasn't there at all, but wonder if that's going to be the workaround. In places that are religious strongholds, it's taken in with fervor, and where it's not wanted it's left to wither in favor of more important things. This will only divide the nation further, I think.
I see the world through the eyes of an educator. I wouldn't trust these Trump appointments to
work in my school, so why are they ok elsewhere? Does character only matter in elementary schools now?
How bad is the floating in your area? Trump signs are still up, but no magats in my life have given me a hard time. Also
are you hearing any local anecdotes of Liberals and Magats parting ways?
It's like this: We're all on the Titanic. It's going down, and
half the passengers are cheering about it. Most of them are locked in steerage, but somehow they truly believe they aren't going to drown with the rest of us.
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Gender: FemaleHometown: New England
Member since: 2002
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