Tell Virginia to resist separate and unequal expectations for our students!

You guys, I usually don't ever post anything asking you guys to participate or contribute to things, but this is so backwards, I can't believe this was passed under the radar without more of an uproar.

Virginia's Board of Education has passed a new policy that divides their performance targets of their schools by race, ethnicity, and income. Under the new rules, Virginia's schools require 78% of their white students to pass the Standards of Learning tests, 89% of Asian students, and then only 57% of black students, 65% of Hispanic students, and 59% of low-income students.

Let's pause right there. Virginia's Board of Education has essentially just told black students and Hispanic students that they're not capable of achieving the same things their white and Asian classmates are. In 2012. 

We can't tell our kids that they can do anything, and to do their best to achieve all they can, and simultaneously tell them that they're not good enough just because of the color of their skin. The way to motivate our students is not to set the bar low. Why are we expecting less from them instead of helping them to achieve more?

Please take a minute out of your day to sign this petition and/or reblog this post. Here is the link to the petition at Change.org to tell the Virginia Board of Education that this is NOT okay in the 21st century, that it is NOT okay to expect less from kids because of where they come from, and that we should instead be helping them to get to where they want to be.

http://www.change.org/petitions/president-virginia-board-of-education-tell-virginia-to-resist-separate-and-unequal-expectations-for-our-students#

Here are some news articles on the new policy:

Washington Post op-ed by Andy Rotherham:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/virginias-together-and-unequal-school-standards/2012/08/24/ad0d3e06-ed4e-11e1-b09d-07d971dee30a_story.html

Richmond Times- Dispatch by Kris Amundson:  http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/oped/2012/aug/25/tdopin02-amundson-new-education-standards-wont-clo-ar-2152190/

Huffington Post by SamreenHooda:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/23/virginia-new-achievement-based-on-race_n_1826624.html

Thanks guys.

Mighty Late Bloomers of the Arts

For all of you who’ve felt even for a second that it’s ever too late: 

1. Charles Bukowski had his first book published when he was 49

2. Leonard Cohen was 33 when his first album was released

3. Marina Abramovic’s career as an independent artist wasn’t solidified until she was 42

4. Julia Child’s career started when she was 36

5. Van Gogh started drawing when he was 27

6. Monet painted Sunrise when he was 33, but wasn’t creating his best work until his early 40s

7. Kazuo Ohno started dancing at 27

8. William S. Burroughs had his first novel published when he was 39

I wonder what Jenna does when everyone else is trying to memorize their lines.

What. Just. Happened.

Why is it when I take off my glasses peasants ask me,

“How many fingers am I holding up!?”

I don’t see this:

  I see this:

CAN THIS BE A PSA BECAUSE THIS IS THE MOST ANNOYING SHIT.

 #dude right #if i cant order something online it's like WELP I GUESS I DIDNT NEED THAT

how do people just have casual sex with random strangers i can’t even order pizza over the phone

pretty sure they meant she has a more beautiful personality than the people calling her "ugly". 

If Miley Cyrus has short hair. does that mean kids with cancer that are losing their hair, are ugly?

no shit.

This weekend I was told a story which, although I’m kind of ashamed to admit it, because holy shit is it ever obvious, is kind of blowing my mind.

A friend of a friend won a free consultation with Clinton Kelly of What Not To Wear, and she was very excited, because she has a plus-size body, and wanted some tips on how to make the most of her wardrobe in a fashion culture which deliberately puts her body at a disadvantage.

Her first question for him was this: how do celebrities make a plain white t-shirt and a pair of weekend jeans look chic?  She always assumed it was because so many celebrities have, by nature or by design, very slender frames, and because they can afford very expensive clothing.  But when she watched What Not To Wear, she noticed that women of all sizes ended up in cute clothes that really fit their bodies and looked great.  She had tried to apply some guidelines from the show into her own wardrobe, but with only mixed success.  So - what gives?

His answer was that everything you will ever see on a celebrity’s body, including their outfits when they’re out and about and they just get caught by a paparazzo, has been tailored, and the same goes for everything on What Not To Wear.  Jeans, blazers, dresses - everything right down to plain t-shirts and camisoles.  He pointed out that historically, up until the last few generations, the vast majority of people either made their own clothing or had their clothing made by tailors and seamstresses.  You had your clothing made to accommodate the measurements of your individual body, and then you moved the fuck on.  Nothing on the show or in People magazine is off the rack and unaltered.  He said that what they do is ignore the actual size numbers on the tags, find something that fits an individual’s widest place, and then have it completely altered to fit.  That’s how celebrities have jeans that magically fit them all over, and the rest of us chumps can’t ever find a pair that doesn’t gape here or ride up or slouch down or have about four yards of extra fabric here and there.

I knew that having dresses and blazers altered was probably something they were doing, but to me, having alterations done generally means having my jeans hemmed and then simply living with the fact that I will always be adjusting my clothing while I’m wearing it because I have curves from here to ya-ya, some things don’t fit right, and the world is just unfair that way.  I didn’t think that having everything tailored was something that people did. 

It’s so obvious, I can’t believe I didn’t know this.  But no one ever told me.  I was told about bikini season and dieting and targeting your “problem areas” and avoiding horizontal stripes.  No one told me that Jennifer Aniston is out there wearing a bigger size of Ralph Lauren t-shirt and having it altered to fit her.

I sat there after I was told this story, and I really thought about how hard I have worked not to care about the number or the letter on the tag of my clothes, how hard I have tried to just love my body the way it is, and where I’ve succeeded and failed.  I thought about all the times I’ve stood in a fitting room and stared up at the lights and bit my lip so hard it bled, just to keep myself from crying about how nothing fits the way it’s supposed to.  No one told me that it wasn’t supposed to.  I guess I just didn’t know.  I was too busy thinking that I was the one that didn’t fit.

I thought about that, and about all the other girls and women out there whose proportions are “wrong,” who can’t find a good pair of work trousers, who can’t fill a sweater, who feel excluded and freakish and sad and frustrated because they have to go up a size, when really the size doesn’t mean anything and it never, ever did, and this is just another bullshit thing thrown in your path to make you feel shitty about yourself.

I thought about all of that, and then I thought that in elementary school, there should be a class for girls where they sit you down and tell you this stuff before you waste years of your life feeling like someone put you together wrong.

So, I have to take that and sit with it for a while.  But in the meantime, I thought perhaps I should post this, because maybe my friend, her friend, and I are the only clueless people who did not realise this, but maybe we’re not.  Maybe some of you have tried to embrace the arbitrary size you are, but still couldn’t find a cute pair of jeans, and didn’t know why.

are you the SAT because i’d do you for 3 hours and 45 minutes

i don’t think michael phelps understands how arms work

Aliya Mustafina congratulates/consoles Viktoria Komova and then looks at the scores for her after a great floor routine by Komova in the all around finals that they both know will most likely not be enough to catch up to the front-runner and eventual champion Gabby Douglas.