Independence

This semester, I am working in a functional life skills classroom at one of the local high schools.  A lot of our class day is spent on "community based instruction," which entails traveling about the community, working on skills such as buying goods, riding the bus, making plans for future trips, ordering in restaurants, etc.  Today, Robyn pointed out this nice post from Crooked Timber about a father learning to cope with his son's increasing independence in New York City. 

Oh, and to keep the old-school philosophy blogs rolling, Brian Leiter at Leiter Reports has an excellent perspective on the Chicago Teacher's Strike:

Of course, it would be hard to generate enthusiasm among hedge-fund billionaire busybodies for doing something about the economic environment in which the victims live, so instead we are presented with the absurd idea that if only the teachers were better, everything would be dandy, as well as the destructive idea that to make the teachers better, we need to measure their performance based on standardized test results.

As for me, I've got a bunch of backed-up blog posts talking about the strike, property rights, teaching vocational skills, and teaching to the common core state standards.  But I also have, you know, work to do.  And it's college football season.  So I'll try to get more interesting reads out shortly.  Happy Sunday!