babbybunnybutts:

THANK YOU

(Source: triomni)

San Francisco teachers vote overwhelmingly to support strike

cognitivedissonance:

San Francisco teachers voted overwhelmingly to support a strike Thursday night, with 97 percent saying yes in what was the first of two required votes.

“Last night the teachers of San Francisco sent a message loud and clear to the San Francisco Unified School District,” said Dennis Kelly, United Educators of San Francisco President, in a statement after votes were counted Friday. “It is time for the district to stop seeking unilateral cuts and sweeping program changes, and to start treating the teachers and paraprofessionals with respect and to recognize what we have done to keep this district afloat.”

About 1,900 teachers voted. A second vote required to give union leadership the ability to call a strike has not been scheduled.

Fuck yes. The union is pushing back on more cuts to the education budget and layoffs. Way to send a message.

If we’re going to out-innovate and out-educate the rest of the world, then we have to open doors to everyone, we need all hands on deck. And that means clearing hurdles for women and girls as they navigate careers in science, technology, engineering and math.

Source:

Michelle Obama

Mrs. Obama introduced the NSF Career-Life Balance Initiative. This initiative is a 10-year plan to create greater work-related flexibility for women and men in the STEM related research careers.

Women make up 41% of the STEM related graduates today, while only 28% of full-tenure tracked researchers are women. This is a significant loss in retention, mostly caused by family creation. STEM related careers are of particular interest because it is one area where the wage gap between men and women is smaller then other fields. Also, women in STEM careers make 33% more then women in other fields. Retaining these women is important for not only their research but for the national economy.

The NSF has tried smaller campaigns in the past to promote family friendly work environments but their small scale trials led to a mediocre reception. This will be the first foundation wide initiative to meet the goal of providing post-doctorate fellows and early tenure track researchers support in having a family, if they choose, without having to give up on their careers.

Another reason to love our First Lady.

(via greaterthanlapsed)
I think this says it all.

I think this says it all.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation Thursday making California the first state to require that school textbooks and history lessons include the contributions of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans…

In accepting a mandate that California students be taught the accomplishments of gays and lesbians, Brown said that “history should be honest.” The bill, he said in a statement, “revises existing laws that prohibit discrimination in education and ensures that the important contributions of Americans from all backgrounds and walks of life are included in our history books.”

The measure had sparked hot debate in the Legislature, where Republicans argued that it would force a “gay agenda” on young people against many of their parents’ wishes. State Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) said the new law, which he wrote, will reduce the bullying of gay students by showing role models in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens.

“Denying LGBT people their rightful place in history gives our young people an inaccurate and incomplete view of the world around them,” said Leno, whose bill, SB 48, also covers the role of the disabled in history.

The governor’s action drew criticism from [right-wing] groups.

Source:

New state law requires textbooks to include gays’ achievements (via ryking)

How much do you want to bet that these republicans in the Legislature are from rural districts? I live in Los Angeles. I challenge you to go outside for more than 10 minutes and NOT see a gay person. And don’t ask me how I know they’re gay, gay people have very little reason to hide their orientation in this city, which is of course one of the best things about this place. You can be yourself and people just don’t care.

We don’t need rednecks from Bakersfield (some of whom are themselves gay) trying to whitewash history.

(Source: diadoumenos)
thereisnogod: serialmatrix: <3 Science is not equal to religion. Hey let’s cut education funding & alienate all of our teachers, and while we’re at it, make teaching such a shitty job that no one wants to do it! I mean it’s obvious our kids are learning things like science just fine, right? Right?

thereisnogod:

serialmatrix:

<3

Science is not equal to religion.

Hey let’s cut education funding & alienate all of our teachers, and while we’re at it, make teaching such a shitty job that no one wants to do it! I mean it’s obvious our kids are learning things like science just fine, right?

Right?

5 Bad Ideas Humanity Is Sticking With Out of Habit

  • The QWERTY Keyboard
  • Cursive
  • Summer Vacation
  • Corks in Wine Bottles
  • The Imperial Measurement System

Online Creationist Textbook Proposed in Texas

helvetebrann:

An online biology textbook up for approval by the Texas State Board of Education is drawing fire from scientific and education groups for tacitly pushing creationism. Created by the obscure, New Mexico-based International Databases LLC, the textbook seeks to justify the existence of a higher being while avoiding direct mention of God or the Bible. The Texas Freedom Network, which monitors the religious right in Texas, said in a press release that its adoption by the SBOE would be “a shocking leap backward.”

The textbook’s “Origin of Life” chapter details lab experiments that have failed to create life from inorganic materials, concluding that there is a huge gap between “life” and “non-life” (as crudely illustrated in the photo at right). But from there it makes the considerable leap that biological explanations for the origin of life are discredited. “[T]he legitimate scientific hypothesis,” it argues, is that “life on Earth is the result of intelligent causes.”

The notes to teachers accompanying the chapter leave little doubt that pushing a belief in God is the ultimate goal:

[A]t the end of the instructional unit on the Origin of Life students should go home with the understanding that a new paradigm of explaining life’s origins is emerging from the failed attempts of naturalistic scenarios. This new way of thinking is predicated on the hypothesis that intelligent input is necessary for life’s origins.

Of course, this is far from the first attempt to insert creationism into Texas classrooms; the issue has often been a cause célèbre for right-wing members of the State Board of Education, as well as Republican state legislators. The SBOE will vote on adopting the new science curriculum materials in July.

Annnnnd I’m back to hating Texas.

The “god of the gaps” is so ridiculous. Every time science fills a gap, religion now sees 2 gaps, and says god’s in there. There are of course multiple logical problems with this, not the least of which is infinite regression, sometimes also referred to as “turtles all the way down”.

I don’t know about you guys, but if I was an omniscient & omnipotent being I wouldn’t be hiding in gaps.