The bajillion stories in the comments about horrible experiences with math just reinforce the fact that I’ve made the right career choice.

I became an elementary teacher as a second career specifically because so many elementary teachers are absolutely terrible at teaching math. (Mostly because they don’t actually understand the math that they’re teaching. In my university cohort, almost 50% of my classmates failed the math entrance exam the first time. There was nothing more complex than 5th grade math on that test.)

Students should be allowed to use the strategies that work for them, and they should definitely never be punished for knowing math from higher grade levels.

If a student in my class knows something more advanced, I will challenge them to use grade-level-appropriate strategies to prove that their answers are correct. And if they demonstrate that they can do both, I’ll give them more advanced work to help them grow.

That’s a procedural rule I wasn’t aware of. Thanks for the clarification.

I don’t understand why literally every Democrat in the Senate didn’t line up to filibuster this bill. Booker’s performative filibuster was toothless. This could actually have done something to change public policy.

US expat in Colombia

For the general population, if you’re sick you go to urgent care and maybe wait for several hours. If you need to see a specialist, those appointments can take a couple of weeks to a couple of months, depending on the type of specialty. Either way, the cost is about $3 (all prices are rough equivalents in USD) per visit to see a doctor.

My employer signed me up for private insurance that gives me “concierge service,” so I have access to a different network of doctors with shorter wait times. If I’m sick, I can get a same-day house call. If I need a specialist, I can usually get an appointment in a two-week time frame. I pay about $50 per month for that (in addition to my normal taxes, which are used to fund the public system). My copay per visit, regardless of the type of doctor or procedure (exams, MRIs, etc.) is about $10.

One time, I paid out of pocket for an ultrasound because I didn’t want to wait for the insurance company to approve it and go back for a separate appointment. It cost me about $25.

Same.

I’m no programmer by any means, but I’ve always been more tech-savvy than the average bear. I finally took the plunge and added a Linux partition to my computer because I read enough posts here that piqued my curiosity.

You jest, but I can assure you that alligator is delicious.

My cousin got acupuncture treatments for alpha gal a couple of months ago. She went out for a steak after her last session and wound up in the hospital.

American Atheists is an organization that will happily take dues and send you a membership card in return.

My representative, who is generally a pretty progressive guy, is on this list. A local journalist asked about his vote, and the statement from his office was that the congressman is waiting for a classified briefing on the Iran strikes to help determine whether the president broke the law.

I know that we live in a world where we expect not only a 24-hour news cycle, but 24-hour resolutions to all issues. Having a solid argument and proper evidence for impeachment is the sort of thing that moves more slowly than we would like.

I was raised in the Assemblies of God, and I’m fairly sure that I knew an age-appropriate definition of adultery by kindergarten. Something along the lines of “breaking your marriage vows by being in a romantic relationship with another person.”

I definitely knew the actual definition of abortion by kindergarten because my church had fucked-up priorities.

This is exactly as reasonable as any recipe review I’ve ever read. Which is why I stopped reading recipe reviews.

I don’t necessarily buy him as a serious actor. Mad Men was so well written that I think almost anyone could have been an effective Don Draper. My opinion is that he pulled off about 90% of that role based on his looks. (I think it worked overall because there were so many very talented actors surrounding him.)

That said, I love him as a comedic actor. His SNL appearances are delightful, and I’m always pleasantly surprised when he shows up in comedy shows and films.

I think a lot of comedians are this way, and it makes sense. Most of us have a “work persona” that is not exactly the same as what we would consider our “real” personality.

For a more genuine version Will Ferrell, and just a hell of a story of friendship and overcoming challenges, I heartily recommend the documentary Will & Harper.

Yet

Which honestly seems to be an overwhelming majority of people.

Tech companies took a pretty good predictive text mechanism and called it “intelligent” when it obviously isn’t. People believed the hype, so greedy capitalists went all in on a cheaper alternative to their human workers. They deserve to lose business over their stupid mistakes.

In Colombia I get a shocking number of voice messages via WhatsApp. I got a 4-minute message from my landlord last week that had 20 seconds of actual information.

The transcribe option in the app is reasonably good, but it’s not 100% accurate.

It was a bad three-day weekend.

I recall that he was also in favor of charter schools, which made him non-viable for me years ago.

I hoped that maybe he had a real change of heart last month, but I guess that was just a publicity stunt.

If it’s really like Covid, toilet paper will be the first thing to go.

If you’re concerned about your anonymity, keep in mind that companies frequently put ID numbers on their return envelopes to help match the returned mail piece with your record in their database. Sometimes the number is invisible (UV ink) so it doesn’t look “mass produced” to the recipient.