Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night

1) Stars in ugly holiday sweaters! In the slideshow P Diddy’s looks suspiciously like Ms Rockstars’!

And this one costs…. USD 1700!!

(Btw my own holiday sweater was this one from Shopbop.com, which I wore over two other thin cashmere sweaters and dark brown leather pants but realized the cross can’t be seen in our holiday pics because Ms Rockstar is attached to me the whole time):

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2) Dogs in ugly holiday sweaters!

(Those two were cos I thought hadn’t done enough holiday pics – couple of our Christmas projects went unfinished, like a cardboard Christmas Tree and decorating with Rockstar’s cards from school…)

3) Otherwise there is just no way this doesn’t lead:

26 Moments That Restored Our Faith In Humanity This Year.

This Child Formed His Own Opinion

So Did This Child

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4) “………Many hope that, after seeing the lengths teachers are willing to go to to protect their students, America will adjust its attitude toward educators………”

The reason I initially paid some attention to teachers in the States was because of Levitt and Dubner’s Freakonomics; one of their studies involved how No Child Left Behind might inspire a teacher to help students cheat (I just thought it was interesting about human nature) – and research by Eric Hanushek of Hoover Instituition Stanford University, stating the benefits of a good teacher in the class heavily outweighing the possible detriment of having a larger class size.

(I went looking because pretty much the only thing I was a bit worried about re ESFs, way back when we were still deciding on a primary school for Rockstar, was class size. It probably being cheaper to pay premium for the best teaching staff than build more classrooms or even hire more mediocre teachers to have smaller classes – I mean, you want the best people spending 6 hours with your child or not – just pay the good ones sky-high and don’t have any bad ones Yes I’m a little simple-minded :P)

In the wake of the Newtown shooting, a number of school staff lost their lives trying to stop the shooter or shield the students. It was one of the first things that struck me when I read about it, except I didn’t know how to put it. Why didn’t they just run away? If I think about it, I don’t suppose I am going to go after a mentally ill person who has a gun. I chose never to be in the kind of line where I would have that kind of “responsibility” – I have never even been an RM, the person in the bank who sells investments to the rich client – I pick and put together the derivatives products (and no, I’m blessed to never have had anyone say to me Your Recommendation Sucks – it’s how you use the knife derivative and well if you give a monkey a knife…) – because I already thought that would be tough enough, and it’s just money.

How could Newtown school staff do that?

Don’t get me wrong – my default attitude has always been School Staff Should Get Investment Bank Pay Because How Come We Pay People More To Take Care Of Our Money Than Our Kids HANG ON that also means lousy staff should be fired the way they fire the bankers for non-performance. (In fact, it’s a pet peeve if good and bad anything get similar rewards because how on earth will you keep the good and get rid of the bad that way… And then that attitude just gets totally magnified because it’s kids…)

My point is just that in the wake of the shooting the disparity is even greater – how can anyone accept that these Newtown staff were being paid similar wages to lousy teachers in the public system in the States (and then there is the sad and huge irony that you only really realize how valuable those one-in-a-million were when they are no longer there)…

Anyway. Hug a teacher day. Except I’m not a hugger so I figured I’d do this instead 🙂

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Something’s missing… Here’s one:

Makes you almost want to be on this flight with them...

And another:

Wow more nice people.

Have a good weekend…

Ps: Yes yes I owe a posting of Ms Rockstar making coffee and Rockstar on Youtube singing Chainese.. will try to do that this weekend please!