Friday links: 28 January, 2022

 Happy Friday! Our PCR tests results came back last night: we're both negative, so my daughter is heading back to school today. I'm still not back to 100%; my headache is controlled by a few doses of ibuprofen throughout the day. I put in a message to my doctor to see what she thinks (and they've informed me that I should call the nurse triage line, so I'll be doing that after I drop my daughter off). I've had to be on longer stretches of meds in the past for a headache that just wouldn't die. Apparently, sometimes we just get caught in a headache cycle and need a little extra help to break out of it. Fun times. Human bodies really are the worst, aren't they?

Here's what I found interesting in the brief periods I was able to be online this week, mostly lying sideways in my chair with my computer on the footstool in front of me!

Tennessee-based adoption agency refuses to help couple because they're Jewish

I'm sure you can guess exactly how disgusted this Jewish woman is by this story.

I used to live in Tennessee for five years (which makes this story feel even worse, actually), and this doesn't surprise me. There was so, so much hatred and bigotry baked into the culture down there. My husband's kung-fu instructor made a really gross antisemitic slur one day right out in the open, absolutely zero shame about it, and the way people treated their neighbors who weren't Christian was just so utterly foul. 

The real losers in this story are the kids, who are missing out on homes that will love them and cherish them for the unique beings that they are. It's appalling.

Speaking of Tennessee...

A Tennessee School Board's Ban of 'Maus' Speaks to a Much Larger Problem

Oh, Tennessee...

Maus is an excellent book. Fascinating that these people look at a book about the Holocaust, where Jews and other marginalized groups were slaughtered by the millions, and their takeaway is, "Oh noes! Swear words and naked mice!" Imagine missing the point THAT badly.

Nothing about the Holocaust is pretty, and it doesn't need to be- it happened, and we need to learn from it. The eighth graders murdered in the Holocaust didn't get the chance to refuse their deaths; how dare these people claim that a graphic novel version of history isn't appropriate for their eighth graders?

The Jews are tired, y'all.

The Newbery Medal is 100. It's Smuggled Some Real Duds Onto Our Library Shelves.

Truth! 

That's not to say that we realized they were duds at the time they were awarded. Times change, standards change, and we learn and grow and realize that there are things in the books we once loved that...maybe don't look so hot in today's light. It happens, and there's nothing wrong with that. It's a good thing when we're able to recognize where beloved books have failed to remain good teaching tools. It's even okay if those books still give you the warm fuzzies, just as long as you also recognize where they went wrong amidst the things they did right. That said, this is a great article that discusses the controversy of those old Newbery winners that have racist, sexist, and other problematic content. What do we do with those? 

Times change, and that's okay. School curricula can change with them. : )

COVID Parenting Has Passed the Point of Absurdity

Boy howdy, has it. My daughter missed two days of school this week while we waited for our COVID tests to come back. Her school's policy this year is to NOT send any schoolwork home on missed days, and there's no remote learning. She was perfectly healthy those two days (it was me who felt like garbage) and could have been learning or at least keeping up with her class, but instead...nothing. Another reason to scream. (I at least felt decent enough to read some books to her yesterday.)

Be extra kind to the parents in your lives. We're all exhausted from this. (And the part in the article about how Omicron forced us to go back on all the promises we made? YUP. I feel that, so hard.)

Rewilding Is Good for Our Mental Health

I love this! Turning our yards into foresty, native plant paradises benefits not just nature, but us as well. This is something I'd definitely like to do more of in my own yard. My efforts are constrained by my back, however; yardwork is tough when you're not always able to get around easily. I'm good now, but that's not always the case. Maybe this summer...

And that's it for this week! My activities this weekend will depend highly on how I'm feeling, so who knows! I might be busy as a bee; I might spend the weekend loafing in misery. WHO KNOWS??? (Ugh.) Wish me luck, and I wish you a relaxing, peaceful weekend. :)