It’s #FunFriday and our Philly editor shares what she’s been reading this week.
Betsy DeVos and the Plan to Break Public Schools, The New Yorker: As a parent of two children who attend our neighborhood public school, an advocate against rampant charter expansion in Philadelphia, and a citizen, this appointment terrifies me. I have followed the dismantling of Detroit’s public education system in support of the idea “school choice” with little oversight or accountability, an initiative with Betsy DeVos’s fingerprints (and money) all over it and she terrifies me. This piece in the New Yorker gives a great overview of what’s at stake here.
Missing in the ideological embrace of choice for choice’s sake is any suggestion of the public school as a public good—as a centering locus for community—and as a shared pillar of the commonweal, in which all citizens have an investment. If, in recent years, a principal focus of federal educational policy has been upon academic standards in public education—how to measure success, and what to do with the results—DeVos’s nomination suggests that in a Trump Administration the more fundamental premises that underlie our institutions of public education will be brought into question.
In Aleppo, We Are The Ones We’ve Been Waiting For: Momastery
Do you feel helpless? I feel helpless. And lost and angry. I’m trying to force myself to see (really see) the tragedies in Aleppo and throughout Syria and the Middle East, as painful as it is to watch. But you know what? I’m also counting the beds in my house from my liberal, middle class urban bubble and feeling guilty. Because most of the good I have in my life is an accident of birth and circumstance. The same is true for my children. So, this week, I read Glennon Doyle Melton’s blog for some hope and discovered that Together Rising is working to raise funds for the efforts to help the families in and around Aleppo. 100% of funds donated to the cause will go directly to aid. I made a donation this week and urge you to consider doing so as well. Click here to donate.
With our new funding we raise this week, we will equip the mobile hospital with medicine and supplies for serving the injured as long as necessary. We are also going to help fund the planning of a pediatric hospital in a safer area, as no specialized pediatric facilities currently exist in the region. The hospital will be entirely funded by public donations and staffed by British doctors who will transport incubators, beds and medicines across Europe to the Syrian border, where the Independent Doctor’s Association will take over. From there, they will drive the supplies into Syria and do what they do best: treat sick and wounded children.
Will Facebook’s Fake News Warning Beome a Badge of Honor?: The Atlantic
This morning, I was listening to the radio and heard about this new fake news warning and thought, “this won’t work; the die hards will just decide that Facebook has become the ‘liberal mainstream media.'” Then I read this article from The Atlantic and was terrified and validated at the same time (a seemingly constant state of being for me since November 8). Check it out.
But perhaps you fall into a third category. You’re intensely suspicious of the mainstream media, which you think is largely controlled by liberals, or corporations, or unseen billionaires. Maybe you think the media has twisted the “fake news” label to apply it to stories they just don’t like, or want to discredit.
How to Inspire Kids to Play on Their Own: A Cup of Jo
As I type this round up, but 5 and 7 year olds are downstairs in our play room screaming at each other. I’m ignoring them until someone starts crying. Most of the time, my daughters can get it together and entertain themselves alone or as a sister team, but it doesn’t always work out (though they have stopped screaming). Blogger Joanna Goddard has some great tips that are super easy to execute. Spend some time browsing her blog, too; she’s awesome.
I’ve read 8,000 articles that say that boredom is good for kids. And I agree — being constantly entertained is not realistic or even fun. When our kids have chill time on their own, they often fall into a zone that’s happy and engaged. But sometimes they still can’t quite get there and seem restless and end up saying, “Mommy, can I have your phone?” or “I’m huuuuuuuuungry.” So, I was psyched to learn this tip…
Mollie Michel is a South Philly resident and a Philadelphia public school parent. A recovering non-profit professional, Mollie is also an experienced birth doula, Certified Lactation Counselor, and the mom of two awesome girls and a sweet pit bull named Princess Cleopatra. In her spare time, she is usually trying to figure out how Pinterest works, training for a(nother) half-marathon with her dog at her side, or simply trying to keep up with her increasingly wily daughters.