LisaJ here again.

Wow. Now here’s a story that just disturbed me to no end. Little Javon Thompson’s mother, 21 year old Ria Ramkissoon, became a Christian at a young age, but when her local pastor disappointed her by pleading guilty to molesting young boys, she left her church and was taken in instead by what is now being described as a dangerous religious cult (I’d like to make the point that even plain ‘ole regular Christianity is a dangerous cult, but that’s beside the point). This cult, called 1 Mind Ministries, is headed by a 40 year old, I’m assuming woman, who calls herself Queen Antoinette, and it appears that the relatively small group lives together and operates under the extremely god-driven Queen’s direction.

What happened to Javon, Ms. Ramkissoon’s little boy, in 2005 is what has me so disturbed. The ONE year old child was denied food and water for two days because he wouldn’t say “Amen” after finishing his meals. This outrageous punishment killed him, and none of his caretakers intervened to save him. Police say that the group viewed this child as a demon, and that they left his lifeless body in a backroom of their apartment for more than a week while they simply prayed to god to raise Javon from the dead. Instead, the boy’s body began to decompose and no resurrection occurred, obviously.

Reportedly, after the cult members accepted that Javon would not be resurrected they stuffed his body in a suitcase. His mother lovingly added mothballs and fabric softener to the contents of the suitcase, and occasionally sprayed some disinfectant inside. The case, with the child’s body still inside, was found earlier this year, after it had been stored behind a home in Philadelphia when the cult relocated to New York City, over a year earlier.

Javon’s mother Ria and four other cult members face first degree murder charges in this case. Ria’s mother, however, contests that her daughter was brainwashed by the cult. Her attorney has recently declared that “the members of this cult, who were more than twice her age, were calling the shots,” and that “she bought the program hook, line and sinker.” So because this young woman was reportedly brainwashed, does this then mean that she should not be prosecuted with her child’s murder? To put this into perspective for myself, I was raised catholic, and there are certainly many faulty decisions I made while growing up that I consider to largely be the fault of my indoctrinated mindset. But murder? I have a really hard time swallowing the brainwashing excuse as justifying your active involvement in your child’s murder. And besides, even if her supposed brainwashing is really at fault here, someone this stupid to allow someone to talk her into effectively killing her child, under the guise of god, should be put away where she is no longer a danger to herself or anyone else.

This disturbing story highlights perfectly the dangers that society faces for teaching people to believe in whatever god they’re confronted with, instead of thinking for themselves.

Guestblogger Sastra checking in:

A few years back the little Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in my area asked me to give a brief talk (!) on the topic of my choice. Seems they were looking for speakers, any speaker, and had noticed that I tend to talk a lot. So I considered the sorts of things that appeal to me, and the sorts of things that might appeal to them, and decided to try to see if I could put together an interesting speech on “Science and Human Rights,” based on the idea “that concepts such as human rights, democracy, and science are historically linked together through similar foundations and assumptions.” I studied and filled myself with great arguments and quotations by such luminaries as Jacob Bronowski and John Dewey, shook it all together, and ended up, as I recall, driving through a blizzard to pour my impassioned argument out on a polite and appreciative crowd of about 6 people (I think (hope) the blizzard was more of a factor there, than it being me.)

Since PZ graciously gave me permission to write on “whatever floats my boat” (unless it be kiddie porn), I’m going to drag out my old notes and give a quick condensed version of my basic theme. It’s ambitious, but I think it might be relevant to Pharyngula. One of the popular stances taken by some religious apologists recently is that the methods of science grew directly from the underlying theology of the Catholic church. You also frequently hear the popular claim that the very concept of people having rights “makes no sense” without a theistic, not to say Biblical, foundation.

I’ll try then to make the secular case: that the human-centered values and rights which we see today as universal, eternal, and even self-evident have actually grown out of our recent past – and were influenced by how we did science.
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Brought to you by guest blogger LisaJ:

Canada lost two soldiers serving in Afghanistan this week. This marks the 89th
and 90th Canadian soldier to be killed since starting our peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan in 2002. Master Corporal Josh Roberts leaves behind his fiancé in Manitoba, and Master Corporal Erin Doyle leaves behind a wife and a young daughter. These stories are just heartbreaking. They are both very young men, and they’ve had their lives just ripped right out form underneath them. Their families’ lives have undoubtedly been shattered. What’s more, breaking news this morning tells us that a female British-Canadian aid worker, along with two American and Trinidadian colleagues, were also killed in a militant attack in Afghanistan yesterday. This is sickening. This is three of my own fellow citizens in one week, and I know that doesn’t even compare to the countless others, largely civilians and American soldiers, who will have lost their lives in Afghanistan and Iraq this week.

Everytime I hear of one of these stories I just find it so tragic, and so I should. These people have selflessly given up their lives for the rest of us. In this case, I find it especially selfless since it’s not really our war that the Canadian soldiers serving in Afghanistan are fighting. I imagine that most people here will agree with me when I say that I find the death of any soldier, of any nationality, serving in Afghanistan or Iraq right now to be an awful, tragic, horrible, sickening, unfair and unnecessary loss. It just makes me so angry every time I hear of another death or injury, because what the hell are they all doing there anyways? (Note: the previous statement was not meant to imply that I don’t know what their role is in Afghanistan. I understand that they are there to protect the Afghan citizens, and I am not trying to undermine their role here in this statement. I just think it’s unfortunate that they were sent there in the first place). I have so much respect for these soldiers, and I just cannot imagine how heart breaking it must be for themselves and their families every day, not knowing what may happen to them at any moment. Just imagining having to say goodbye to a loved one who is heading off to serve in such dangerous battlefields makes me sick to my stomach. The pain and grief they must feel everyday must be unimaginable. For all of you here who have served or who have loved ones serving, my hats off to you, you are strong, wonderful people and I feel for you everyday.

I know a lot of us here have strong opinions that this war shouldn’t even be taking place. It’s this aspect of the whole damn thing that, for me, makes these deaths all the more horrible. What saddens me more is that even I, who is so horrified every time I hear of another dead or injured soldier, find myself grieving pretty quickly and putting the faces and details of these soldiers lives to the back of my mind. This is an unfortunate adaptation of the escalating death count in this war. I guess as the numbers pile up it just gets harder and harder to remember them all, so their stories slip away much more quickly. This is a sad fact, but not entirely unnatural. I mean, we can’t all walk around grieving for our lost soldiers every day, that would prohibit us from functioning normally, but it’s just sad when their names and faces start to get lost in the shuffle. What we should be able to take some tiny amount of solace in, however, is that soldiers who are badly injured will be well taken care of when they return home by the government who sent them to war in the first place. Now I’ve heard a lot of stories of injured American soldiers who have to fight tooth and nail to get any kind of medical compensation for their injuries, and many don’t ever get the payments they are entitled to. But this can’t also be happening in Canada, right? Well reports this week show that Canadian reservists, which reportedly make up 20% of the 2500 Canadian troops deployed in Iraq, who suffer significant body trauma, such as the loss of a limb, receive sub-par long term medical care and compensation upon their return home. Apparently they’re getting it right with some soldiers, the ‘career soldiers’, but not these reservists who have apparently made the mistake of just selflessly stepping in to help out in this particular war. It looks like they’re working on fixing this issue, but I’ll believe it when I see it. Just another example of how our society and government has its priorities really screwed up. These soldiers should get nothing but respect from our governments. You lose a limb for your country, you should be adequately compensated and given as much care as you need, end of story.

Anyways, here’s to all of our soldiers and their families who are giving the ultimate sacrifice in this war. And here’s hoping that our governments get it together one day and treat these soldiers, aid workers, diplomats, and everyone actively involved in the war and relief efforts the respect and honour that they deserve.

MAJeff here with his espresso.

A few years ago, when I was teaching back in Minnesota, there was a group of us first-year faculty who got together every Wednesday night for beer, pool, and chat. We had to switch bars a couple times–once because some folks weren’t feeling very comfortable with the war-mongering in our usual bar when we were there during the invasion of Iraq, and another because I spent an hour getting harassed by some of the locals (it was an hour because I refused to give up public space, but threats of violence told me an hour was long enough)–but we kept at it for the year. Several of us ended up leaving town after the spring, so I don’t think it kept going. I’ve not found something like since.

One of the things conversation turned to every night was teaching. Of course, some of it was complaining about our students. But a lot of it was of the, “What do you do when…?” or “How do you…?” or even “Class rocked today!” I don’t have the citation handy, but one of us even published an article based on those weekly drinking excursions. (In the literature, it became about “peer-mentoring.”) Coming from Sociology, Biology, English, Art Education, Math, Women’s Studies, and Computer Engineering we often didn’t have topical course information we could share. But, we talked about our classroom time, students with difficulties, difficult students, and the fact that none of them had ever heard of Billie Holliday. Those Wednesday nights with colleagues were honestly some of the best experiences of my teaching career.

I was reminded of those evenings recently. A few years ago, I was asked to put together a “Nuts and Bolts of Teaching” workshop for new Teaching Fellows where I’m doing my PhD. These are grad students who’ve spent time as Teaching Assistants but are preparing to teach their own classes for the first time. I didn’t do the workshop this year (I created it and taught it the two previous years), but had to find my materials for the Professor who was taking it over. The department used to have a semester-long course on teaching, but it had fallen by the wayside. Now, there’s a one-day workshop.

I’ve taught at six schools in the past 7 years. Other than that one year–when I was an Assistant Professor who had to go through orientation, where I met all those drinking teachers–I’ve never had the kinds of opportunities to engage in that “teaching talk.” My best friend here in Boston and I used to have those conversations quite a bit. But since the Department moved me from our shared office to one in a hallway all by myself, we don’t see each other as often, and rarely get to spend that kind of time talking about our teaching.

Now, one thing going on here is simply being adjunct. As I’ve described it to my students when they asked why I wasn’t sure if I’d be back the next year, we adjuncts are nothing more than “temps.” We have the same lack of job security and, generally, non-benefit status. We’re easily exploitable labor. And, we’re evidence of how little value teaching has. Regular faculty can get time-off for research; then we temps get hired. We may not contribute much in terms of building up departments, but to managers concerned with the fiscal bottom line, we’re a bargain. Some of us are pretty good, too.

My best friend here in the city teaches with me. We used to share an office, but because of scheduling issues, I got moved to another office; I’m now the only person in an entire basement wing of the building. We don’t get to talk much about teaching, like we used to, because we just don’t see each other as often. I admit that my friend and I are somewhat exceptional in being among the best instructors in the department. (I’ve got the evals to back it up.) But, there’s often very little opportunity for adjunct people to work on improving our teaching skills. I’m starting my sixth and final year at this school. Several of the places I’ve taught, including, this one, have any number of programs put in place to assist faculty in improving their teaching. Often, adjunct aren’t even made aware of such opportunities, and even if we were, we wouldn’t be eligible for them. More of the people teaching students aren’t provided opportunities to improve their skills. We’re teaching more and more of the classes, and the primary concern often isn’t our teaching ability, but the cost of our labor.

I’m not complaining too hard here. Adjunct positions have allowed me to teach at a wide variety of schools, to gain incredible experience, and–because I love teaching–to work on my own skills (albeit on my own). It’s frustrating, though, to have very strong skills in an area that is so devalued.

Teaching is a wonderful profession.

I really, really like my students. It’s an amazing experience to every year watch a new group of young people discover new things, about themselves and the world around them. It’s a little overwhelming, sometimes, to be a part of that process. And, it’s cute as hell when you can see the “EUREKA!” moment on their faces, as are the contorted facial expressions during exams. It’s heartbreaking when they come to my office to chat about their relationship problems or being denied and apartment because of their race. It’s a bit overwhelming to realize the role we often play in this young people’s lives.

The classroom is my happy place. And that seems to come through to my students. I’m still amazed when I run into them on the train or at a conference or when I receive an email out of the blue. It’s incredible to hear how I’ve touched people, even those who just sat in the back of the room being quiet.

So, here’s to teachers and to teaching. Here’s to the people that moved the folks reading this. Here’s to my HS science teacher, who was actually able to interest me; here’s to my undergrad Voice Instructor, who let me break down crying when I was struggling with coming out of the closet; here’s to my MA and PhD advisors, who taught me about being actively engaged scholars; and here’s to the folks I TA’d for in my PhD program, who taught me it’s ok to be me when teaching. Here’s to the folks toiling away, doing good work, inspiring and instructing.

Here’s to teachers. Who are the teachers for you, and how did they inspire you?

Posted by LisaJ

I find it astounding in this day and age, with the many grand scientific discoveries and advances we’ve seen and in our increasingly technologically dependent world, that a large proportion of our population (at least in Canada and the US, with which I have more personal experience) seems uninterested in understanding and learning about science. We have a wealth of information available at our fingertips and an educational system with the potential to accommodate any type of scientific mind, but yet we science-minded individuals are not in the majority. We are a culture that largely breeds an aversion to science. Now I know that I’m generalizing here, and that some individuals living in North America aren’t able to access these opportunities so easily, but that of course is part of the problem.

Now I’m not saying that I think everyone should become a Scientist, I just think it’s sad that more people aren’t embracing the wonders of science into their daily lives. Science is everywhere. It has the power to explain anything you want to know about the world, and it opens our minds up to bigger and bigger possibilities everyday. Science is beautiful, and to embrace it is to enrich your life dramatically. But so many people aren’t doing this, and they are really missing out in life. I see it myself everyday with many of my friends and family members who choose to tune out whenever science is brought up or who quickly cut me off with the ‘oh, you’re so smart, that’s too hard for me’ line. And they’re entirely comfortable to just walk away, carry on, and not understand.

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