This pandemic feels like living in a horror movie that just keeps going on and on. We think the killer is dead, but then they come back for yet another attack. Is this one finally the end? Is this one?? When is it over?? Checking our watch is a bad sign
Continue readingAuthor: Marie Snyder
A Puff of Absurdity: On Removing Mask Mandates
I’m gobsmacked by the recent move to remove the mask mandate for schools starting March 21st, at the start of spring. The Hamilton Board dared to face down the ministry, but my board only had one trustee, a former nurse, willing to go on record as voting against the new
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Masks, Ventilation, and Contact Tracing – Yes, Again!
On Monday I presented to my school board to try to persuade them to keep masks even if (when) Ford removes mandates and to allow me to keep my Corsi-Rosenthal filtration unit in my classroom, dammit! Here’s my 8 minute presentation/plea. They said “thanks” very politely, then the Associate Director
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On the Importance of Civics Classes
On Monday, I did a five minute bit on CBC Radio’s Metro Morning with Ismaila Alfa about teaching civics. They called me last Sunday afternoon, having exhausted all other avenues, because I happened to tweet this the previous day: It wasn’t even a particularly well-liked tweet! And then right after
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Lunatic Fringe?
I’m a bit of a social media addict, but I quietly wandered away from Facebook last summer when too many people I know in real life were making fun of people wearing masks. A quick peek back finds far too much support for this inane convoy making a mess of
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Bad News is Increasing, but More Slowly?
Teaching in Ontario right now is an absurdist’s wet dream. Schools can only close if there’s more than 30% absent, and many classes are half full, but nobody’s actually away because any online contact gets them marked present, so even sick kids are logging in. Masks provided for kids smell
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Ontario Schools Opening Monday: A Collection of Responses
There is a simmering rage out there from Lecce & Moore’s reiteration of the “leaked” news of schools being in-person in five days. Of course it wasn’t truly leaked. This is how Ford gets feedback on his ideas before making them his ideas. It’s a childish way of establishing plausible
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Juris My Diction Crap
This Matrix clip has been at the front of my mind since I started looking into how to get a booster for my youngest, who’s 17, because I question if recent orders around delaying boosters for the 12-17 and around getting kids back to school in nine days are really for
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: LTC Homes: Ownership Matters
Nancy Olivieri, Michael Hurley, Vivian Stamatopoulos, and Natalie Mehra explained Doug Ford’s sneaky passing of Bill 37 just before Christmas in today’s Toronto Star. They warn, “Hope to live out your old age in dignity and comfort? Think again.” Ford doesn’t want us to know what’s been stolen from Ontarians.
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Resilience During a Pandemic in a Capitalist Dystopia
I learned little from English classes. I think my highest grade in high school was a 53. I mastered grammar and that formulaic essay enough to slip over into a passing grade, but I never understood all the metaphor and symbolism talk. At the time, I suspected it was all
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Parenting in the Time of Covid
He was on his way out the door, to walk around with a new friend outside. Me: Rapid test, masks, or walking 6′ apart? Which are you doing? Him: It bothers me that you ask. I shouldn’t have to live with your anxieties. You just ask because you’re anxious about
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On "Fixing" ASD
I watched a course-load of videos by Dr. Alok Kanojia (@HealthyGamerGG) this past summer. He’s a therapist specializing in addiction in his day job and focused on gaming addictions online, but he has broadened his videos to encompass many other issues. He doesn’t do therapy online but “coaches” people instead.
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Chomsky’s Lessons from 2021
Yanis Varoufakis spoke to Noam Chomsky, at DiEM25, about what 2021 has taught us. In a nutshell: the wealthy puts profits over people to their own detriment (e.g. patent rights over vaccines, which provoked mutations) and will only help with climate change if they can profit without taking risks. We
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Trying to Find Peace with Prem Rawat
Since falling into a pandemic funk, I’ve tried a variety of books and videos to try to get a little inner stillness in order to continue to function. Omicron and our region’s rising numbers aren’t helping matters! I’m crap at meditating, but Healthy Gamer’s course (my notes) came the closest to
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Still Going On about Masks!!
I’ve never been much of a rule-follower. I’m that teacher that lets kids sneak out early and shows movies with some questionable content (with kids forewarned and allowed to leave if triggered – none ever do). I go way outside of curriculum, allowing the class to guide the direction of
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Srinivasan’s "The Right to Sex"
“It is absurd to contend that vice, ecstasy, and passion would become impossible if man and woman were concretely peers” (xiii). ~ Simone de Beauvoir Amia Srinivasan’s book rivals Kate Manne’s fantastic Down Girl in the most exciting way. It’s an absolute must read for anyone hoping to improve themselves
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Burnout
Dr. Alok Kanojia is a psychiatrist who specializes in addiction treatment. His videos are fantastic for some everyday issues as well, like this one on burnout. The most impactful line from this video is that burnout tends to happen when, “people who want to do a good job are placed
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Monbiot on our Current Challenge
George Monbiot wrote an article that he’s calling his best bit of writing. It’s largely more of the same argument that people can’t seem to hear or respond to. We’re ignoring the changes in the world at our peril. In the back of our minds, there’s a voice whispering, “If
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Moral Injury
I just re-read a post full of sound and fury that I wrote last year at this time, detailing my initial shock at our unsafe and unprecedentedly intense working conditions at the time. The only policy improvements since then is that students don’t have to be in the building during
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Nobody’s Rules
We’re becoming subject to unrest in our schools and hospitals, with anti-vax picketers yelling at cancer patients and school children alike: “Stop being sheep! Take off your mask!” It’s not the fault of our government, not directly, although the province next door somehow managed to draft a bill to end
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