Dan Meyer’s latest post is on an exercise involving using a gridless coordinate plane to place fruit along two dimensions. The goal is a worthy one: To give students the opportunity to explore what the coordinate plane is without getting tied down by its rigid formalism. However, the nature of the exercise highlights that there are…
Author: Clio
Police Racism: A White Man’s Experiences
I still see white people claiming that there’s no systemic racism among police, and that racist police officers are the exception, not the rule. Even though I’m white, I have had multiple experiences with police officers that have had a racial component. From 1989 to 1997, I lived in a poor neighborhood in Lansing, Michigan;…
Can’t
I was in seventh grade, or maybe eighth, when the girl in the fuzzy sweater told me I was cute. I still don’t know why she decided that I was going to be her boyfriend. I was awkward and out of place. I don’t remember ever fitting in, and certainly not with the girl in…
Talking Politics with Students
I was raised to believe that it was best to avoid talking about religion or politics in mixed company. The political environment of the United States has become particularly rocky in recent years, making such discussions a potential powderkeg. The election of Donald Trump, billed as an attempt to bring an end to that divisiveness,…
Trump and Family (filk)
(To the tune of “The Addams’s Family”) He’s selfish and he’s creepy He’s grabby and he’s peepy Let’s hope he’s getting sleepy It’s Trump and family His wife is kinda dour Gaslighted and so sour Was it worth it for the power? It’s Trump and family Slick! Sick! Small dick! And don’t forget the daughter…
Fragment
“It might just seem like a pointless detail to you, but it’s a symbol, is what it is.” He leaned in close to me, so I could smell the garlic and cigarettes on his breath. “A symbol of who I am. A cog in the machine. But not just any cog, oh no. A rusty…
Suicide is Pointless
We have a cultural preoccupation with not letting people die. Conservatives focus that obsession on being against abortion and euthanasia. Quality of life be damned: The conservative platform includes cutting welfare and getting rid of government controls. But if someone is dying and wants to do so in dignity, they can’t. And if a pregnant…
My story began before I did
My story began before I did, Written on leather and linen, Papyrus and stone. I was born in the taint of the oppressor Stained white with a fabricated purity Invented by men Then forced into the mouth of God My story was hammered into drying clay Like pigeons’ feet Dancing Across the centuries. My myths…
Reflection
Today, I am a hero to a gull. And probably a sparrow. Coming out of the Target on John R, I saw a gull attacking a heavily greased brown paper bag. He wasn’t getting very far, and was clearly frustrated. As I walked over to look in the bag, the gull flew off to a…
Reflection
On one of my routes home, there’s a signpost to which has been affixed a stuffed animal and a plastic figurine of an angel with the head of a little black girl. It’s bleached now from the sun, and the stuffed animal has gotten raggedy from the weather, and the desolation of it gives me…