"Things should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler." ~ Albert Einstein
As a young teenager coming to grips with the fact that I knew I was gay I well remember the early news reports about AIDS. What a terrifying time to be coming to grips with a sexual orientation that meant risking potential death with any sexual activity. Although I didn't feel this way at the time, I'm ever so grateful now that I wasn't more precocious or confident when I was going through puberty. If I had been there's a very real possibility that I would have died long ago. The few gay friends that I have that are older than me would need extra fingers and toes to count all the friends that they lost to that horrible disease.
I mentioned on the thread I started about SO stepping up to help a former employee as her medical power of attorney that she was estranged from her family. I've since found out why. She had moved here from a small midwest town in the mid-70's. Her baby brother followed a couple of years later. And then ended up being one of the early casualties of AIDS. As he got sick and eventually died their family rejected him, leaving her with the sole responsibility of caring for him. Every year for the rest of her life she walked in the Aids Walk-a-thon to help raise money for the cause and was extremely grateful that SO was able to help her name the San Francisco Aids Foundation as the beneficiary of her 401k while she was still mentally competent to make such a decision.
I've always said that the most emotionally wrenching market research project I've ever done was ethnography research with HIV patients. They ranged in age from my age down to teenagers. I went to their homes and spent time with them, interviewing them about their experiences.
The older ones tended to be really battle-scarred, with survivor guilt. They expected to die, but didn't. One of them talked about how when he got his diagnosis he blew all of his money--went on cruises, lived large, figuring why not? Then he lived and he's now broke. Thankfully due to NYC programs, he lives in a nice apartment in the Village but he was emotionally tired--even then when I interviewed him in the early 2010s.
The younger ones were much more cavalier, but in spite of all the years gone by, and all the knowledge, all the antiretrovirals and other medicines we have, what we still don't have is a non-judgmental society. Even the young ones are stigmatized.
I spoke with everyone from promising college students to jacked-up people in Harlem. Every one of them had so much heart. Every story made it difficult for me to maintain professional demeanor.
One of the lessons I've learned doing market research is that if people--even the medical community-- thinks you are "responsible" for your condition, they dismiss you. So not only do you carry all the grief and fear of having a bad illness, but you may also be shunned.
I really wanted to write a magazine article about the many faces of HIV after that research was over but it would have been difficult getting permissions to do it.
"Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
www.silententry.wordpress.com
The Florida Department Of Education seems to have provided a few examples: Instructional Materials (fldoe.org)
"Things should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler." ~ Albert Einstein
Here is an article in the NYT today with 21 examples of the content in question. I think the comments are also interesting. Certainly not straight up liberal progressive opinions, but a diversity of thinking in terms of the place that "softer" values like self-esteem and self-awareness have in math education. Frankly, I could have used a lot more self-esteem when I was struggling with algebra.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/22/u...textbooks.html
"Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
www.silententry.wordpress.com
Oh noes!!! We can’t have students learning things like empathy. Completely unacceptable! That’ll turn them into woke groomers.
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