WWII

We spent today going to some of the historical sites including the WII memorials around Okinawa which was the biggest priority I had coming here... Japanese history does not interest me except when it comes to WWII, I am fascinated by the war in the Pacific (if you have not watched the HBO mini series the Pacific , it is better than Band of Brothers).

We rented a taxi for six hours and went to Shuri Castle, Himeyuri Monument, and the Okinawa peace museum. The Himeyuri Monument and museum was by far the most interesting and sobering. The quick story is when Japan began WII the militarized most of the schools in Okinawa to train the students and teachers to support the Japanese imperial goal and aid in combat if needed. When the U.S. attacked Okinawa in the last battle before the A-Bombs , students at the All girls Himeyuri school were called on to help the Japanese soldiers in battle. All 296 students were forced into caves and in combat. After a couple hours a demobilization was called by the Japanese and they forced the students out of the caves into the front lines with out protection. The students, helpless against the U.S air and ground raids were mostly killed. Those who were not killed by fire, committed suicide by jumping of cliffs and blowing themselves up with live grenades.

Unfortunately these were not the only civilians who were killed in the battle of Okinawa, in total 190,000 Okinawan’s were killed. Both the American and Japanese soldiers were responsible for their death. They were used as human shields by the Japanese and killed by U.S. crossfire.

The theme of both museums was peace , not just for Okinawa but for the world. Because of their experience with WWII , the people of Okinawa took a pledge against war and weapons. I can understand why the 13 MILITARY BASES on this Island bother most of the people living here...

Scuba Steve...Close encounters of the Reef Kind

OKINAWA O-KI-NA-WA Day dos

The best part of a beach day is 5 pm, after soaking up a full day of sun, embracing waves, reading a book, catching a cat nap, you feel such calmness, most people have left, the sun begins to set, maybe you crack open that last corona and enjoy the changing of the sky from blue to orange...

I have that feeling now, no beach today, but as I sit on our deck, looking over the ocean, I feel serene and mellow

Clark Griswold aka my father woke me up at 6 am today, although I went to bed last night at 1030, I still would of appreciated at least an hour more of sleep. You see back in Akita I don't sleep for various reasons, and I have about 127 days of sleep to catch up on, but hell whats another day. My dad had stretched , did laps, and showered all by the time I finally rolled out of bed, we had an 8 am cab to catch so this gave me an hour for breakfast.

Buffets are usually for extremely large people, the elderly, people that have large appetites either naturally or chemically induced and nascar fans...I don't go to the Sizzler unless my grandparents drag me there. However the breakfast buffet at the Grand Mer was well...Grand. A fine concoction of Japanese breakfast and American breakfast!

Headed down to go scuba diving at 815, with some misdirection by the cab driver we just barely made it there by 9, this scuba shop looked like Jimmy Buffett had worked there before Margariataville changed his life...It was a dive shop in both senses of the word and extremely cool. We were met by Toyo who told us “lets dive” I have never been scuba diving and might of snorkeled in the kiddie pool when I was five. My dad had been scuba diving when he was 16 which basically means he had never been scuba diving either.

We were the only two in the intro group and the advanced group was filled with marines and ex military. (There are a lot of bases in Okinawa, ill refrain from saying much more).

Here was our intro class....Toyo says “ok you breath through this , don't stop breathing underwater, when your ears pop , hold your nose, if your not ok go like this...(he waves his hand). Ok thats it, lets dive)”

Uh ok...I mean maybe this was easier than I thought, seemed like the intro class would be more...Introduction, the ins and outs of putting on a wetsuit, how the tank works, what to expect, am I going to die type questions...

So here was my feeling going into scuba diving, it will be cool something to tell the grand kids about, will my heart explode?, how far will we go down... i hope way far, my dad doesn't seem nervous, i should of taken a Xanax

I ve paraglided in the Keys, bungee jumped into the Nile and now scuba dived in Okinawa, and this was by far the coolest fucking experience ever. I cant put it into words and did not have a water proof camera... But if you have been to an aquarium think of the coolest exhibit there then imagine diving 29 feet below the ocean and witnessing that exhibit yourself, swimming with the fish amongst the coral reef. We were down for half an hour and I could of spent another four , I am addicted never thought of scuba diving as an interest, but when I live near an ocean, I am becoming certified, when I come here next summer, I am visiting Toyo and going for seconds. Big shout out to Reef Encounters!

Merry xmas pops hope you enjoyed your scuba present

The Grand Mer

Waiting for the sun to rise on my first full day in Okinawa, heading to go scuba diving soon...

Arrived yesterday evening to the Tokyo Dai-Ichi Grand Mer Hotel, its the highest pt in Okinawa City and our room overlooks the city and the ocean. My dad was waiting for me anxiously, haven’t seen him in five months! When I walked into the hotel 30 kindergartners from a local elementary school were singing christmas tunes, I dont think their is a cuter child than a japanese child.

Dad and I hugged it out, it was really good to see family. My dad had already made friends , as usual , with the hotel staff. One lady in particular, Kay, who is Okinawan, has a son who lives in Glendale , Az, which is where I live...small world. Kay made us reservations at a sushi restaurant and Dad and I headed over there. We had a table which overlooked the ocean and ordered four plates of sashimi and fresh sushi. We added four beers and a bottle and a half of sake and I think we both were feeling fine by the time we left. The menu was in all hiragana and katakana (japanese symbols) but I managed to order without problem. For a night cap we had a beer on our deck and watched the city fall asleep

Never Again

“Never Again”

These words were famously spoken by Elie Wiesel, a man who has come to symbolize the Holocaust. Mr. Wiesel has been an adamant speaker for genocide prevention and human rights, his call to “never again” allow a genocide to occur has unfortunately been ignored by the rest of the world.

The term genocide is a 20th century term, it was first used during the Nuremberg trials after WWII. “The term "genocide" did not exist before 1944. It is a very specific term, referring to violent crimes committed against groups with the intent to destroy the existence of the group (ushmm.org). In 1944, a Polish-Jewish lawyer named Raphael Lemkin sought to describe Nazi policies of systematic murder, including the destruction of the European Jews. He formed the word "genocide" by combining geno-, from the Greek word for race or tribe, with -cide, from the Latin word for killing (ushmm.org).

The invention of the term however does not mean the invention of genocide as an act. The Holocaust I would argue was not the first genocide of the twentieth century, Armenia which hasn’t been officially recognized as a genocide suffered massive killings by the Turks during WWI. Although the U.S. and other western countries refuse to use the term genocide to describe this catastrophe , many scholars have written and talked about it in terms of a genocide (http://www.armenian-genocide.org/).

With the creation of the ICC , the term genocide has been a touchy subject for the international community. When and where to use the term has troubled politicians and been a source of controversy for world leaders. During the Rwandan genocide the United States under Bill Clinton refused to use the word at first when describing the mass killings of the Tutsi’s by the Hutu’s. Instead Clinton’s administration chose to ignore these events and allow the murder of 800,000 Rwandans in 100 days (http://www.rwanda-genocide.org/).

For an event to be called a genocide it must meet certain criteria as outlined by the United Nations after WWII. It defines genocide as

[G]enocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Since WWII and the words “never again,” 5 genocides have taken place. Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda, Sudan, and the Congo. Except for the case of Bosnia, the international community has chosen to ignore these catastrophes and allow genocide to take place. Today in Darfur a genocide continues to happen under the eye of many Western countries (http://www.savedarfur.org/pages/background).

Sudan is one of the most volatile countries in the world. It is run by a man who has sponsored the killing of his own people, who has sponsored islamic terrorist groups including Osama Bin Laden, who has funneled billions of government dollars into his own pocket, and who is wanted by the ICC for crimes against humanity. Since independence Sudan has been in a state of chaos. After independence a Civil War broke out between the north and the south that continued on and off until 2005. This war claimed the lives of millions of people and divided the country into the Islamic north which runs the country and the christian south which has been yearning for independence. The country is also home to Darfur , the first genocide of the 21st century and has been involved in numerous conflicts and wars including the Congo Civil War, the Chad conflict, and the LRA massacres (http://www.enoughproject.org/).

In three short weeks Sudan has the potential to explode into an even bigger disaster , a Second Civil War. It was agreed upon in the peace deal in 2005 that Southern Sudan would be given the chance to vote for independence on January 9th, 2011. For the last year Southern Sudan has been preparing for the this vote that will most certainly allow independence if everything goes according to plan. However this is Sudan and nothing has went according to plan. The South have what the north wants, oil, the hold almost 80 percent of Sudan’s oil fields which allow Bashir and the Sudanese government to make massive amounts of money. The sell this oil to the French, Chinese, and Russians all who indirectly fund the Darfur genocide. Although I could explain this in much more detail , here is the quick version...

Sudan sells oil to Russia , France, and China...This money goes into the pocket of Bashir, with this money he buys weapons from these same countries. He uses these weapons to fund the Janjaweed (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3613953.stm), who go into Darfur’s villages and rape, kill, and burn their people.

Without these oil fields the government in Khartoum will get significantly weaker. The concern with many human rights activists and government officials is that the vote will either be compromised through violence and intimidation by the north or if the South do indeed get a fair election and vote for independence a war will break out between the north and the south over control of those oil fields. The U.S. has been trying to be proactive , even offering to take Bashir off the state sponsored terrorism list if he allows Souther Sudan’s independence. However nothing will be certain until January 9th and I believe there is little in the way of stopping Bashir from unleashing another attack on the South. So how we (human kind) prevent another genocide and actually allow “Never Again” to come to fruition. John Prendergrast and Jeff Millington have outlined a detailed plan on how to prevent another Civil War (http://www.enoughproject.org/publications/lessons-past-reflections-us-efforts-bring-peace-sudan).

Its unfortunate but I don’t believe the world is taking these warnings seriously, they have a tendency to ignore what is happening in Africa, Rwanda and The Congo being to prime examples. So we wait till January 9th and instead of being pro active the world will allow violence and mass killings to occur before they say Never Again.

Okinawa here I come....

Okinawa Time,

Before I left for Japan, I made a list of places I wanted to visit and Okinawa was at the top of that list, with Cambodia second. Both these places I will be visiting this year...

I leave for Okinawa in less than a week, my pops is meeting me over here from the states and we have a 14 day excursion planned , well I planned it, he is along for the ride.

I booked my flight in September on a whim , thinking worse possible scenario I travel alone, which I actually like doing. I got a round trip ticket for 800 dollars which is not to bad for travel in Japan.

So here is the quick rundown. We are staying in 5 different places in fourteen days, which includes visits to three islands. The weather outcast is not great but anything beats cold , gray, and dark skis that blanket Omagari right now.

First three days we are in Okinawa City, Okinawa on the main island, staying at a luxurious hotel The Grand Mer, this is packed with a spa, a fitness center, and a rooftop bar, the three things I look for when staying in a Hotel.

The first day we have a half day scuba course that is going to allow us to both scuba dive for the first time...its my fathers xmas present, I am such a good son. He is a better father though and deserves more than a scuba trip, we are going to spend Xmas day visiting the WII memorials in Naha , the capital of Okinawa

We then get RUGGED as my friend would say and travel for two days to the Kerama Islands, these are a set of beautiful island s about an hour from the main Island. We are taking a ferry over to Tokashiki Island the day after xmas and stayin in a rustic scuba shack called Marine House Ahern which overlooks the beach, we plan on snorkeling, sea kayaking, drinking , and relaxing,

We travel by ferry for another two days to the Island of Zamami which is again going to be spent in rustic quarters at the Nakayamagwa Guest house. Depending on the weather we hope to visit the famous Furuzamami Beach and frequent the numerous bars and dive spots on the island.

Then its back to the main island for New Years in the northern part of the Island , Nago, which is the resort area of Okinawa. We are staying in the Marriot and going to class it up for a few days, New Years is the big holiday in japan so if I know my dad we are going to have a great time...

For the last leg of the trip we head down to Naha to check out the famous Kokusai Street in Naha, filled with bars and shops owned by locals and foreigners alike. My father leave the 4th and I have one night by myself which I ll spend in the quaint Little Asia Hostel and back to Akita.....

random thoughts from tonight

random thoughts from tonight....

I really wish I spoke japanese

Why do teachers who speak english at my school never talk to me

The English teachers at Omagari love me(not cocky...they do)

My best bud at Omagari is lonely

I love walking at night in the winter

I get embarrassed easily

I am currently conflicted

Shane is the worst actor on Weeds

Nancy is a close second (she is actually just annoying)

I love Japanese beer when its served in a small glass

There is no munchie food here...I mean like the equivalent of chips, I just want some Doritos

I am always looking for the next opportunity

I know where my heart lies, I know where my soul lies....two different places

Wino Wednesdays: a jazz filled night of laughs, conversations and sleep deprivation

Wino Wednesdays

Most Wednesdays for the past couple of months a few of us ALT’s from Omagari get together at one of our houses for a little wine, food , and conversation. It goes a little something like this....

Meet at about 730 each of us bring a bottle of wine and a side dish. The person hosting is the cook and the food ranges from authentic italian pizza, fried chicken breast, to pasta and shrimp. Always delicious and fulfilling. We crack open a bottle of wine and let the good times be had, by nine thirty our candle is pretty well lit, we are almost finished with bottle number four and each of us is clawing at the last remaining pieces of desert (something chocolate). Its around nine thirty that we realize four bottle s of wine was not enough for four people...especially with Katelynn around! So we end up going to the convenience store and picking up some more....Now you would think we would learn our lesson and buy more the next time. No such luck, we all pretend that we are going to take it easy and go home early. So we usually pick up another bottle or two, maybe we decide to go with beers instead, and one fateful night we decided to buy Jim Beam! Yikes...its safe to say the next morning was not pleasant after that decision.

No matter the hangover or the lack of sleep that is a result of Wino Wednesdays it is always good for the soul. The conversation always makes us laugh (teasing alex), angry (talking politics), and confused (bec brain). It feels good, especially in the winter to be sharing a laugh during the week with friends.

The winter here (yes its winter for an Arizonian) can get you down. I can already tell its going to be a long four months of cold, snow, early days, and long nights. I look forward to many more Wino Wednesdays! Lets enjoy Wino Wednesdays together (Japanese people love saying this phrase in English, it always makes me laugh).

Education in America: A response to my solution by Alex Morse

I am going to go point by point and discuss my opinion about the policies you have proposed.
1) School classrooms are not private domains in any way. Remember the public pays your salary and trusts you with their most important commodity. They have every right to view your public classroom and see the quality of work they are paying for. Cameras are an effective way to make sure teachers are doing what they need to in the classroom every day. Not just the days the observers come and teachers put on a new face.
2) The model you propose outside the classroom mimics the Japanese one. In this model teachers are expected to be like parents outside of school hours. I see how teachers are a valuable part of the community but I in no way can comprehend that it is one of the requirements to keep your job. Families and friends make up this community and to force teachers to forgo a significant portion of their life is absurd. They would be treated no less than criminal if they were forced to do community service like this.
3) This next point is a highly controversial one. I do see how teaching how to take tests dumbs down our learning environments. But at the same time tests have their own purposes. They are successful motivators for children to learn. People in general are goal oriented and setting a goal for students is very important. This is their goal, and it is both the family and teacher’s job to make sure that goal is important to each child.
In my opinion I believe the most important thing you get out of school has nothing to do with acquiring knowledge. School gives us the basic tools to be able to maximize our ability to cope within the environment. And if tests get anything out of us it is to put in hard work, improve memory, and develop strategies. This is all while repeatedly pounding in information that has been deemed important.
4) On the topic of teachers not getting paid enough to justify their education…I agree. Their pay compared to their education is extremely low. But if you compare them to a social worker; teachers work considerable less (hours and vacation time), have undergone less schooling (grad school required) and get paid roughly the same amount. And in contrast being a teacher is a much more desirable job then being a being a social worker. This remark is justified at the large quantity of teachers that are finding it difficult to become employed.
5) Now the next point is that you stated raises should be based on performance because there is no incentive to be a teacher. The incentive to be an amazing teacher has to come from within the individual and not from the system. The truth is good teachers are just the dedicated, energetic and kind type of people. They value what their work do. I have seen quality teacher in both the young and old. The only quality that they all possess is that they care about how good of a teacher they are. As long as the demand for teachers is so high and the job has security; both good and bad teachers will be flocking into the field. This is in order from where you posted it. Point number 7 will contain more on the topic.
6) This topic concerns your idea that the school pays for furthering teacher’s education. I personally think that teachers should have the basic information that is required of them before even applying to the job. They have experienced the education they are teaching (although out dated) and they have gone to 4 more years of schooling. Teachers should know the subject manner that they have focused on and decided to teach. Don’t think I expect you to know everything about history or government but you should know the curriculum well enough to teach it. What I do recommend though is that teachers are supported for schooling in order to become better teachers and creating learning environments. But isn’t this what is suppose to be taught to everyone in the first place? I also feel like the teachers that are good already have these qualities and the ones that are bad are direly set in their ways.
7) Tenure is a tricky topic. You were talking about incentive earlier and how it is important to get teacher to want to be good. While tenure can be ridiculous and keep bad teachers in the system it also causes good teaching prospects to join the career. What is teaching if it doesn’t give you job security. There is always going to be a younger better teacher out there and teachers shouldn’t have to worry about getting replaced every year. High paying jobs such as professional athletes get perks because their job is always on the line. They can always get replaced but they make enough money to justify entering the career even if it is just for a couple of years. In order to lure in good teachers you have to show them that it is a safe job.

And last but not least. Your form of incentives.
1. involvement in the school community (forced community service in order to keep your job.)
2. ability to develop curriculum and dynamic lessons ( agreed upon but there needs to be a justifiable way to grade peoples curriculum and lesson planning’s. I don’t see their being a quantifyable way of doing this and it would make the job much much more stressful.
3. observations ( I think the cameras are a good idea. Even with unannounced observations the teacher puts in even more effort than usual.
4. test scores (getting paid more for test score could increase cheating, make teachers hate slower students, and can possible be out of the control of the teachers themselves.)
5. work outside the classroom. You cant judge someone on the amount of work they put in when they are not suppose to be paid. Kind of the same thing as number one. Besides teachers who have been doing it for a long time generally have to prepare less, even if they are changing and perfecting the lesson each year.
6. professional development. How do you quantify this?
7. further education. you should get more for what you put into it but does it make you a better teacher to be in the system longer?

Education in America

Since GWB’s brilliant move (sarcasm) to enact No Child Left Behind (Ted Kennedy had a big part of the law to!) there has been a huge federal and state push to reform education. From tying test scores to teacher performance to removing tenure these reforms have been proposed and sometimes enacted in school systems across the United States. Mostly these proposals and opinions from the people trying to reform our schools are just plain asinine. It seems like the people who run the education system have never been or forgot what it is like to be a teacher. People like Arne Duncan , Michelle Rhees, and Tom Horne may have the best intentions but their ideas in my opinion are not conducive to reforming education. Recently Mr. Bill Gates, who is a great philanthropist, activist, and leader has funded a program that would install video cameras into teachers classrooms to further evaluate their performance. Not only is this a huge invasion of privacy but again does not solve the problem of reforming education (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/04/education/04teacher.html?ref=education).

The problem with some of the reforms like videotaping classes and having test scores factor into teachers evaluations is that they only measure a small part of the role of a teacher. There is more to teaching than what happens in the classroom. In fact I find what happens outside the classroom to be far more important that what happens inside the classroom. The role of a teacher is a leader, a role model, a support system, counselor, ally, and innovator. They should not only encourage critical thinking and analysis in the classroom but should be someone the students turn to outside the classroom. Test scores don’t measure critical thinking skills and videotaping inside a classroom doesn’t show how involved the teacher is outside the classroom. Is it more important to have a student answer a multiple choice question correctly or have them learn how to solve problems and issues that arise both in and outside the classroom. I know many teachers that work tiredly at their job. They are at school an hour before the day begins and at school two hours after the day ends. They are there for students wanting extra help. They stay after for clubs, grading, and advice. Sometimes they just stay because they love the students. They attend sports events, even the less glamourous sports. They attend sparsely attended student art shows and performances. They give up their weekend to volunteer at a club activity or school event. Many people will say that this is the job of a teacher and I agree, however this effort beyond the classroom should be recognized and rewarded. Teachers can not and should not be judged by test scores or video cameras. So how do we fix the education system in the United States. I find it to be a simple solution and if a peon like myself can propose such a simple idea I don’t see why these Princeton educated morons who are trying to reform education can’t figure this out.

First of all please get rid of No Child Left Behind, it has put way to push pressure on school systems across the United States to “teach to the test”. We have gotten away from critical thinking skills and analysis because we as teachers and administrators are too worried about our students failing a state wide mandated test. These test scores show us very little about student and teacher performance. These tests have dumbed down curriculum and watered down higher level thinking skills amongst students. When I have a week and a half to teach my students about Rome and Greece, the students are forced to memorize rather than absorb and analyze about one of the most important civilizations.

Second raise the pay of teachers. Its criminal that I get paid 33,000 dollars a year with an advanced degree and four years of experience. Its more than criminal that my pay has actually decreased in the four years I have been a teacher rather than increase. Its beyond criminal that I get paid less than some old curmudgeon of a teacher that plays videos and flicks his boogers in class all day rather than teach. I know the critics say teachers only work 3/4ths of a year and they only work 6 hours a day. But the teachers day does not end at 230, if your a good teacher your day ends many hours beyond that. I think we should weigh a job on how hard someone works not how many hours. An office turd may work year round from nine to five, but he stares at a computer most of the time and goes on illegal websites when he should be working.

Third not only should you raise the pay of teachers significantly but you should have raises and pay increases that are based on teachers performance. There is no incentive for teachers to do their job well. This encourages many good teachers to leave the job or become lazy. As a teacher I not only do a fantastic job in the classroom developing dynamic lessons and encouraging higher level thinking but I do one better outside the classroom. I sponsor two clubs, stay after school one a week for extra help, stay after frequently to be a counselor for my students, I attend sporting and arts events. I support my school at functions and in the community. Does this affect my pay, not in the slightest. I would get paid the same for playing sudoko at my desk all day while my students text on their cell phones. One must really love their job to be a good teacher because that is the only incentive. Its saddening to see teachers who work so hard have to get second and third jobs to support their family, to have to leave the profession because the pay is too little. Not only do you lose good teachers because of this but you don’t attract good teachers. The best business students at colleges are destined for high paying jobs in business, the best science students desire jobs in large labs, the best math students want to be engineers. They don’t want to become teachers. Why? because their is no incentive for good performance. To add to this schools should develop and help fund teachers who desire to further their education. As I history teacher I know very little about history that I did not focus on in college. I learn what I teach from the book and if I have the time outside sources. This is no way to further my knowledge as a teacher. I would love to take more classes on the Renaissance, Modern Middle East , Communism etc. But the cost to go back to school is an entire years salary. Now I dont think school systems should foot the bill for a college education but they should make it easier and encourage teachers to further their education.

Fourth: REMOVE TEACHER TENURE. This idea is ridiculous and its actually something that Michelle Rhees and I have in common. The idea that after I teach for a couple years by job is safe for the next thirty years is beyond dumb. If a teacher has tenure it is very difficult for them to be fired. It doesn’t matter if they receive poor evaluations, fall asleep during class, fail to manage their classroom, show up late, leave early. They will be reprimanded but not fired. Again this leads to lazy and bad teaching. Beyond a teacher committing a crime their job is safe. I am a good teacher and I am not worried about being fired or let go, only bad teachers are. Which leads me to my last reform...

Fifth: Remove seniority laws. The way it works is if a school has to make cuts the young teachers or teachers with the least amount of experience are the first to go, no matter how good of a job they do. So again some old curmudgeon gets to keep his job while a young motivated teacher is let go. When a school makes cuts it should be about performance not age/years.

So how do we measure teacher performance, well I don’t have a good answer yet. What I do have is an idea of how to remove bad teachers from the system and encourage goods ones to stay. Teacher performance whatever the correct formula is should measure a variety of factors including but not limited to

1. involvement in the school community
2. ability to develop curriculum and dynamic lessons
3. observations
4. test scores
5. work outside the classroom
6. professional development
7. further education