March 13th, 2008
A New York City schoolteacher responds to this article in the New York Times, which presents a new charter school’s plan to pay its teachers $125,000 (and that’s before a possible performance-based bonus). Will six-figure pay keep the education system’s blues away? Post your thoughts in the Comments.
Op-Ed Response by Jennifer Fernandez
While paying a teacher 125,000 bucks sounds like a wonderful idea, I personally do not feel that paying a teacher more is the most effective way to improve teacher performance. I do not feel that most teachers make the decision to teach based on the salary. I, myself, sometimes even forget that I’m getting paid because the amount is so insignificant. In general, I don’t believe that money is the greatest underlying factor that motivates individuals to teach.
The best way to get better teachers is to put more effort into training and support programs that help teachers understand their value. Many teachers do not recognize what immense importance and grave responsibility is intrinsic to …
March 4th, 2008
By Frenchi Urban
Eyes that cry,
Lips that lie,
Tongue with two sides,
Get prepared for verbal homicide…
Nothing but cruel intentions,
Concealed in dependable exhibitions…
Can’t trust that nigga,
He’s too hard to figure…
Stretching out his arm,
Promising no harm,
But you know better than that…
You learned from the past,
Never think trust lasts,
So make yourself an outcast…
His silhouette engaging and enticing,
yet his shadow, evil suggesting…
Says one thing,
Does the other,
Now you scared of him,
Running to your mother…
Who to trust?
Who to believe?
The idea of pain,
Much easier to conceive…
You got Pistanthrophobia,
Fear of Trust, that’s a mania…
Resulting from your fear of love,
Your philophobia,
Don’t want to get hurt, can’t blame ya…
But pain comes with happiness,
With twinkly eyes must come a heavy chest…
The path to happiness lies in love…
The path to love lies in trust…
The path to trust lies in forgiveness…
Let go…
I got ya…
February 26th, 2008
It’s funny, when I was dancing every day it never occurred to me how truly terrifying a ballet classroom is. Until today. Granted, it was early and I was tired and only half-awake, and Starbucks made my tea too hot (as always) and was out of bagels (stupid, stupid, stupid)… But none of that would’ve bothered me, oh, two years ago. Actually, I wouldn’t have been drinking tea, it would’ve been coffee. And I wouldn’t have been eating breakfast (vomiting in class at 9 am is never a good option). But I made it. Or most of me made it, at any rate, which should have been a positive reinforcement after all this time.
But, the classroom… Windows now, certainly not the old studio that I grew up dancing in. An entire wall of floor to ceiling 1.5 story windows. And another of floor to ceiling mirrors. Very bright, at 9:45 in the morning. 9:45! 9:45? What on earth did I do for that half hour before class? I know I …
February 20th, 2008
By Dayo Olopade
For many people, the prospect of owning one’s own home offers the sweet satisfaction of seeing down a foundation in one place. Yale’s New Haven Homebuyer Program operates on the philosophy that good foundations make good neighbors. Since 1994, the initiative has allowed over 700 individuals affiliated with Yale—faculty, staff , and their families—to benefit from partially subsidized housing within certain districts of New Haven. The program offers Yale employees $25,000 in assistance over ten years, if applicants elect to buy homes within the city government’s “Empowerment Zone” neighborhoods. Because the program’s payout is the same regardless of the home’s cost, lower-income households can gain the most from the arrangement. Eighty percent of those who have participated in the initiative are first time homeowners, according to statements from Yale. Yale managers of the program will continue expanding the regions of the city where it offers support, and hope that the continued success of the initiative will give school employees a stake in their city’s development that …
February 14th, 2008
Jessica Abrego is a sophomore in Timothy Dwight College and is a member of the campus spoken word performance group WORD. Here is a glimpse into her perception of relationships.
the smallness of beds
transparent gossamer threads connect me tenuously to myself
then, simple silver scissors snip
strings thin enough to be
invisible and i am
lost
unconscious animal i sleepwalk over manic days and
dance haphazardly under anonymous nights
eyes glaze over opalescent
i blind myself to the sight of
bodies
piled knee deep on the bedroom floor
Cause of death? They were dead on arrival.
indiscriminate slash and
burn
but, these are not days of mourning, only days of
shoveling
of
cleaning out rotted limbs and sweeping the floors of
discarded hair.
i am cold
i am calculating
you are not my children
i am not responsible for you
you are
men
why do i try to
shield your perceptions?
protect you from my
ravenous licention and
the reality of a woman
unhinged
and
undressed?
mornings after always dawn dark and i
collect my broken bits asserting
you can not take the shattered fragments of me and
divide them …
February 13th, 2008
As students frolic around backing in the light of free sex toys and porn start debates, the more serious side of relations should be remembered.
From issue #5 Love, Sex, and Sexuality
By Sunny Kim
According to the newly released statistics from the Bureau of Justice, an average of 3.8 per 1000 persons in college are raped every year. If we project these statistics to Yale we learn that, unless Yale is a statistical anomaly, the annual numbers reported for sexual assault should be closer to 20 per year than to the five documented. Had I been writing this article a year ago, Yale’s reported numbers would have been even lower. In 2004, Security on Campus, Inc., a watchdog organization, filed a complaint with the Department of Education about Yale’s violation of the Clery Act. The Jeanne Clery Act is a federal law that requires colleges and universities to keep and report accurate crime statistics, which must be released yearly. Perhaps luckily …
February 4th, 2008
By Thomas Nakanishi
Is it too much to hope for resolution in her assassination? As the
first woman elected to lead a Muslim state as the Pakistani Prime
Minister in the late 1980s and from 1993 to 1996, Bhutto was a
giant. A voice that the world will sorely miss as we embark on
the journey of 2008, Bhuttowas encouraged by the US to work
with President Musharraf to create a unity government that could
“save Pakistan from extremists” – a heroic tragedy that ended
before anyone could ring in the New Year, let alone vote for in
early January.
Over a month later questions remain unanswered in Rawalpindi
and many have only slight hope that even with a Scotland Yard
team called in by President Musharraf that we will get definite
answers about what really happened, one would think that
holding the responsible parties to account and serving them a
cold slice, noose or firing squad of justice would be the appropriate,
immediate response to honor the former Prime Minister.
Walking off a plane …
January 30th, 2008
By Rebecca Livengood
I came to Yale, in part, because I am interested in a career in politics. I had long appreciated electoral politics as a way of making people’s lives easier and giving voice to those normally outside of decision-making, and I was excited to be a part of this. I expected Yale to be a wonderful place to prepare for such a career. I realized when I arrived that I was in a city with some of the most active social justice organizing in the country. I didn’t have to wait until after college to be active, I could join the movement immediately!
There are incredible opportunities for Yale students to begin to make changes during their time at college.
This was a change from high school for me. I went to a small, relatively politically inactive school, and most of my political activity had been debate. This was fun and interesting, but it was not satisfying as …
January 21st, 2008
As we take today to celebrate the life of MLK Jr. with a day off, many people will simple take it as that, with no thought to the reasons why we honor him. Just over 44 years after his most famous speech, we should all take time to reflect on what he and the civil rights movement stood for. And not only that, but to think further on his words than simply, he had a dream. Has his dream been fulfilled? If so, how? If it hasn’t how can the dream come to fruition, or will it never? As race rifts America in regular scandals ( Golf Week and Kelly Tilghman anyone?) will the fissures ever be repairable?
With his great oration and powerful message Dr. King was able to affect change, perhaps we need another leader to answer some questions for us.
Transcript of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s August 28 1963 speech.
I am happy to join with you today …
January 16th, 2008
Story and Images by Anyuli La
El puerto de Cassis
The Mistral is blowing again. The sun and colors of this country are just a mask for its cold heart; this icy northern wind is its blood. His chill follows me for some reason, into buildings, conversations, my dinner plate. The bastard is always there, his frozen breath trickling down my neck. I hate the Mistral. He reminds me that I don’t belong here: that in my Caribbean home there is no wind-chill to give me goose bumps, that no matter how natural my French accent becomes or how gracefully I tie my scarves, I will never belong.
Puerto Rico
He’s there in my bones, never letting me forget that I am an island bred mutt. The daughter of slaves and exiled whores, of the third world and the Monroe Doctrine, of palm trees and coconut milk, of African spirits and catholic saints, of ocean sunsets that never give up hope. Yet here I am, in a …
