Don't Call Me a Senior!

I can remember when I was young and thought nothing could be worse than being old. Honestly, I thought of old people as a different species.

Now that I'm older, not "old" at all, I look at the entire aging thing differently. I'm pretty much insulted when anyone calls me a "senior" and being a boomer, old is always at least ten years older, and more likely twenty years older than I am.

I have to admit that the only good expression using the word senior is when it is followed by the word discount. For the first time, I qualified for a $2 discount when I attended the Missouri State Fair this year. I had my drivers' license ready just in case I was carded--although, I can't imagine a woman lying about her age and saying she is older than she is.

Not only did I get a discount on my ticket, but I suppose they think anyone so old as to qualify for a senior discount needs a free tram ride too. Not that there's anything wrong with that and my knees have given me problems for nearly thirty years.

Okay, so how about I take the discount and skip being called a senior? Works for me.

copyright (c) Aug 2011 L. S. Fisher
http://boomerobics.blogspot.com/

ERA: You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby, but You’re Not There Yet!

At the Missouri Business Women’s Legislative Conference this weekend, I experienced a refresher course on the Equal Rights Amendment. Alice Paul wrote the Equal Rights Amendment in 1923 and it was introduced in Congress every year between 1923-1972. When the ERA passed only 35 states ratified it—three states short. The deadline was extended until 1982, but women had no luck getting the other three states to put equal rights in the constitution.

Chief Justice Scalia recently shot holes into sexual discrimination being included in the 14th amendment when he said the constitution does not have protection for women. One might wonder if the 14th amendment gave women equal rights (a favorite opposition argument) why did it take the 19th amendment to give women the right to vote?

This is the wording of the Equal Rights Amendment:

Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.

Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.

The 15 states that have not ratified the Equal Rights Amendment are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, and Virginia.

The Equal Rights Amendment is not dead! If three more states ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, the precedent of the “Madison Amendment” for congressional pay, which was ratified 203 years later, gives support to the “Three State Strategy.”

To keep up to date, join ERA Once and For All on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ERAonceandforall

Copyright © March 2011 L. S. Fisher
http://boomeraerobics.blogspot.com

The Two “R’s”—Who Needs Cursive?

When I began school people referred to education as the “Three R’s.” Reading, wRiting, and aRrithmetic were the fundamentals that all children needed to learn, and learn well. Now the state of Georgia has taken writing out of the curriculum. Teachers are encouraged to focus on technology instead of teaching children cursive.

Why not just skip arithmetic, or math, too? Students could focus that time on calculators. Why worry about reading or spelling? We have audio books and spell check.

There is no need to teach the big three R’s at all. Focus on texting and students won’t waste hours learning grammar, punctuation, or sentence structure. Why waste precious time teaching them skills they will not need? History, science, and all those other useless classes can be renamed “Google for Dummies.” Teachers can ask questions and students can look them up on the Internet to answer multiple choice answers on their online tests. (Remember, they can’t take written tests because they don’t know how to write.) Instead of sports, why not replace that nonsense with online games?

Hey wait, I have a better idea. Why send kids to school at all? Let them stay at home and learn all they need to know from technology. That face to face time can be replaced with social networking.

What happens twenty years down the road? A new generation will think their parents are really stupid because today’s technology will be antiquated, and talk about useless information. (Does anyone remember Word Perfect, Lotus 1-2-3, Cobol?)

Don’t get me wrong, I think technology has a place in the school system, but it should not replace fundamentals. Technology should enhance a student’s opportunity to learn—not hinder it. Today’s youth have an opportunity unlike any previous generation to learn. They start school practically before they’re out of diapers and have limitless knowledge at their fingertips. Why rob them of educational basics that allow them to grow intellectually using the most complex and intricate database of all—their own brains.

Copyright © Jan 2011, L. S. Fisher
http://boomerobics.blogspot.com/