…that I was this person! *meow*

I haven’t written anything to file in the Debate & Discussion category of this blog for awhile, and was missing posting and commenting on things involving actual thought, so when I saw this news story posted on a forum this morning I thought it was worth writing about.

I spent rather a long time trying to find a news article that gave a fair report on what actually happened, as well as trying to find the news report that started the whole situation, but unfortunately I haven’t been able to find either.

The initial article about the women being allowed to adopt is nowhere to be seen (perhaps unsurprisingly, considering the fuss it has created!) and all the news stories about the case are either so LONG or leaning so far towards favouring one side over the other that I’m not going to bother posting them here.

Basically, the gist of the issue is that a Florida judge allowed a lesbian couple (above right) to adopt a 1-year-old child they had previously been fostering. The child was deemed to be “happy and thriving” with these women, and therefore a permanent adoption seemed logical.

However, Florida Family Policy Council disagreed with this and published an article about the case. The article was accompanied by the image above left, leading readers to make the reasonable assumption that the couple pictured was the couple involved. Only not.

The discussion then starts up over whether or not this was acceptable. Some people believe that the Florida Family Policy Council was employing an underhanded tactic to make same-sex couples look terrible and send the message “Look at these strange and unsavoury looking weirdos! What kind of reasonable judge would deem them to be fit parents?”

Yes. Not good.

EDIT: Here is a link to an article if you’d like to read more background info.

321. If you could put an extra eye on your body anywhere you wanted, where would you put it? On one my hands, so I could move it around like a periscope. HAHA! That would be awesome!
322. Are you in touch with the earth and nature? No
323. Would you rather live simply or extravagently? Somewhere in between.
324. Have you ever been camping? Yes, and I hated it. I like showering and dislike insects.
325. Is your heart open when you meet someone new? Mostly
326. Are you able to have conversations with and become friends with people who are not like you and are interested in different things than you are? To a point yes, although the people I’m closest to all have something in common with me on at least one level, none of us are total polar opposites.
327. Are strangers more beautiful or frightening to you? It depends what they look like and if they’re carrying dangerous looking weapons!
328. What stops you from doing everything you want to do? Procrastination
329. Can you think of three adjectives that do not apply to you at all? Male, tall, obese
330. How do you feel about Jeremy Jaynes, who got a nine year prison sentence for spamming people with junk email? I bet he regretted it!
331. Do you know who the current premier of China is? No
332. Are you very active? Not currently, I’m sitting on my bed.
333. Is there a city that reminds you of the landscape of your brain? Huh?! <- an enormous flat wasteland, apparently!
334. Have you ever loved someone who has loved you back? Yep
335. Is it really being ‘in love with’ someone if the other person doesn’t love you? No, because if you’re not both IN the “love” headspace, you’re not “with” one another!
336. Do you believe that there is someone perfect for everyone or that people just fall in love with who ever they are with at the time? I think a bit of both, the proof of this being that some arranged marriages really do work and the couple becomes very happy together (like Golde and Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof!). I don’t believe in love at first sight anyway, so it needs time to develop. I believe that a couple can become perfect for each other as their relationship grows.
337. Do you know secret things? Yes
338. Have you ever fallen in love with someone you shouldn’t have? No
339. How do you overcome your fears? Ignore them and never put myself in the situation where they cause a problem.
340. What can you do better than anyone you know? Procrastinate

Had my interview for teachers college today. It went well, but it could have gone better. I didn’t fall over myself and sound like a complete twit, but I also don’t think I came across as articulately as I had hoped. My answers sounded a lot better when I planned them in my head!

It turned out that it was a group interview, and I was with two other women. One was applying for the same program as me (the graduate diploma) and the other was applying for the bachelors degree. They were both really friendly in the waiting room before the interview, and I hope we all get in, since they struck me as the type of person I’d like to be in a class with!

The questions were mostly pretty logical, like what experience had I had with children that I thought would be useful, what projects had I initiated and seen through to completion, and in what context had I been involved with people from cultures different from my own. I think I answered all of those ok.

Near the very end, one of the people who was interviewing us said to me “So you’ve had all this experience with children which is great, but when was the last time you were actually in a primary school classroom? How prepared are you for the reality of what it’s going to be like?” I was very surprised by this! I had to pause to think for a minute before I said that it had been quite a while, but the closest experience I had had recently was in an ESOL setting, where children have had to sit quietly at a desk and complete worksheets or a chapter of a book, and were not able to study the information in activity or game form. She seemed to think that was ok, but it still made me a bit disconcerted.

I hope they weren’t trying to suggest that I wasn’t as good, or as well prepared as I thought I was! Hmm. Who IS perfectly prepared for this sort of thing? How many people, upon entering a teacher training course, would have spent vast amounts of time actually in a classroom in a teaching capacity? Some, possibly, if they’d had jobs as teacher aides or something, but surely not very many!? Does this strike anybody else as an odd question?

Oh well, it’s not like I can go back and change anything now. Whatever happens happens, and either way I think I’ll live.

If I get in, I’ll obviously be very excited and keen to get started, but if I don’t, I have a Plan B. I don’t think it would be unreasonable to ring the college office and ask if they can give me any information as to WHY I was not accepted, what I may be able to do to strengthen my application and increase my chances of being accepted for the mid-year intake in 6 months time.