Monday, March 20th, 2017
(While I'd originally intended to publish this on 8th March, for International Women's Day, various events intervened. Still, it's never a bad day to celebrate the work of women, as they bend the arc of history towards justice.)
Several recent news stories have caused me to reflect on women in my ...
Posted in Citizenship, migration, race, and ethnicity, Personal, Political activism, Society and culture | Comments Off on Celebrating women
Sunday, February 5th, 2012
The Change.org people have been touting a Nicholas Kristof piece about successful petition drives on their site. His first example is of a petition by a fourth grade class, looking for changes in how a movie (of a Dr. Seuss book) is promoted - "Don't lose the environmental message!" A ...
Posted in Education, Political activism, Society and culture | Comments Off on Unless…
Thursday, June 16th, 2011
Two different suggestions today from Labour politicians about appropriate ways to mark Bloomsday. Joe Costello notes that Ireland has one of the lowest numbers of public holidays in Europe (9 per year, only exceeding the 8 of England and Wales) and suggests that making the day a holiday could provide ...
Posted in Education, Income and poverty, Labour issues, Society and culture | 1 Comment »
Friday, March 4th, 2011
Interesting analysis from CQ Roll Call about the latest employment numbers in the US:
What’s also clear is that the GOP’s spending-cut policies may limit overall improvement in the job market. While the report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed 1.3 million new jobs created over the past 12 months, ...
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Mixed employment numbers in US
Friday, November 26th, 2010
The Irish educational system has some strange features. One is that while school staff have their wages and conditions set - and paid for - by the Department of Education - they are not viewed, in law, as employees of the Department. Historically this has been used as a fudge ...
Posted in Education, Income and poverty, Labour issues | Comments Off on More DoE hypocrisy
Friday, November 26th, 2010
The Buddy Pack program in Missouri provides food from a food bank direct to school-age children. Children pick up food at the end of the school week - packaged in backpacks chosen to blend in with those of other children, in order that children participating not stand out and look ...
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Buddy Pack program packs nutrient punch
Monday, June 15th, 2009
"The great motto of Mother Mary Aikenhead, who founded the Sisters of Charity, was 'give to the poor what the rich could buy with money.' What better way to live up to this mission, and to make recompense for the wrongs done to children, than to stop taking from the ...
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Public ownership for public institutions – ending religious control of schools and hospitals.
Tuesday, September 16th, 2008
Amidst a BBC report on Roma migration in Europe is this note on education policy in Hungary, which :
In Hungary, an earlier policy to give money to schools for the mentally disabled, to which a disproportionate number of Roma were sent, was abandoned when it was realised that it encouraged ...
Posted in Citizenship, migration, race, and ethnicity, Education, Society and culture | Comments Off on This is integration