May 19

Looking for My 'Wow Moment' in the Wonder Room: Apple Watch Meets Selfridges

Posted in: Today's Chili

For those who haven’t heard, Apple has moved up in the world.

And no, this time I’m not talking about their stock price. Instead, I’m talking about their status within the hallowed walls of Selfridges, London’s iconic department store and inspiration behind the hit TV series Mr Selfridge. Here, even the mighty Apple have hitherto been relegated to the depths of the basement towards the rear, deep in the home electrical department with the likes of Philips and Samsung for company.

2015-05-16-1431764918-1446404-FullSizeRender3.jpgNow they have a new corner boutique with a window on the ground floor – the premier site in the Wonder Room – which in turn, is the premier room in the store. Here their brethren are Gucci, Cartier and Rolex. Not so much a step up as a giant leap forward – and more importantly if you’re Apple, access to an even higher spending customer than their faithful iGeeks.

Apple’s new boutique is the London showcase for Apple Watch, positioned well away from the hoi polloi of the much larger Apple Store, speaking to an entirely new use occasion for technology.

I’ll admit it – since Apple Watch was announced, I’ve been a sceptic. As someone who gets irritated by push notifications on my mobile interrupting my day, I’ve simply never been able to comprehend why anyone want their wrist buzzing every two minutes. But as an Apple-phile, I’m open minded and wanted to give it a shot. I wanted to try it on and have a ‘wow moment’. I wanted to put it on my wrist and feel something. I wanted to suddenly understand what Apple was up to with this product. And where better to be wow-ed than the Wonder Room?

So to try a watch on, you have to first schedule an appointment online. At this point, I have to say: there’s something kinda meta about scheduling an appointment to try a watch. (Without the watch, how would I arrive on time?) Once I got over that and my brain cooled down, I arrived in the Wonder Room of Selfridges Oxford Street full of trepidation and awe, as if I was about to go on a blind date.

To set the scene, the Wonder Room is full of £30,000 watches. Apple Watch is, comparatively, the bargain of room. Nevertheless there remains something intimidating about approaching a salesperson in such a room, in spite of the happy-clappy Californian vibes.

2015-05-16-1431764994-2306423-1FullSizeRender.jpgOnce I got talking to my salesman, my first ‘wow moment’ didn’t involve a watch. Instead I was quietly impressed by the slickness of their marketing machine. Within the first 5 words of our conversation, my Apple ID was visible on his iPhone and everything I said was dutifully and discreetly tapped in.

In what felt like an act of theatre, the holy grail was then taken from it’s case and gently placed around my wrist, with a gentle snap as the magnetic strap locked. “How does it feel?”, purred the salesman.

I use the word ‘salesman’ loosely, of course. Because in keeping with modern retail trends you can’t actually buy an Apple Watch at the Apple Watch store. You can just ‘experience’ it.

My salesman was coached in small talk and I quickly realised this retail encounter wasn’t anything like buying an iPhone. I’m certain it was much more akin to the Rolex counter just across the room. The conversation focused on the provenance of the leather strap, the style of the watch face and how wearing the watch made me feel. Technical specifications weren’t mentioned once.

After spending 10 minutes stroking this watch and waiting for my ‘wow moment’, I realised it was never going to come and it was time for me to walk away. Within seconds, my pocket vibrated and lo! I had an email in my inbox with two selections. The watch I tried on (a snip at £559) and another cheaper model, which I had never actually tried but was presumably included in the email to make the price of the watch I wanted seem normal.

In spite of my best-in-class retail ‘experience’, I’m still not sold in splashing out that much money on a watch and remain faithful to my analogue MVMT. In fact, I’m still trying to work out what the purpose of Apple Watch really is. But perhaps I’m just bitter, because in spite of clearly enunciating my vowels and making sure the syllables didn’t mesh, my hands on moment with the Apple Watch largely served to remind me of one painful truth: Siri still can’t understand Scottish accents.

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May 19

5 Facebook Moms Who Need to STOP

Posted in: Today's Chili

Moms of Facebook, I need to level with you for a second. We are friensd, and most of you I adore, even admire. I steal your recipes and craft ideas. I pin your birthday parties and comment on your vacations. Your kids? They are so darn precious.

But there are a few of you who just need to STOP it. Right now.

1. “I Gave Birth So I’m An Expert” Mom

It takes a lot of things to be a mom, and I give you credit for that. When you enter the delivery unit (or baby pool in your living room), you are going to come out a different person, without a doubt. HOWEVER…

Motherhood doesn’t suddenly make us scientists, lactation consultants or doctors. Those are jobs that require actual credentials. I am NOT downplaying the mom role, so calm down. But giving birth doesn’t make you a fireman, either. Capice?

So stop it with all this expert nonsense. Unless you actually are one, in which case, please, carry on.

2. “Delivery Was A Horror Story” Mom

Please stop. For Heaven’s sake, I do not need to hear about how your child grabbed your colon and pulled it into the world with him. 1) That’s not even possible and 2) I have a graphic imagination. And those centimeter-by-centimeter updates on your labor progress? We may not be able to talk eye-to-eye again.

3. “Gerber Baby Contest” Mom

OK, I’m not even mad. I understand that you genuinely believe Tommy or Tina is the cutest thing on the planet earth. EVER. I just want to gently tell you that maybe — just maybe — every other mom on Facebook thinks the same thing about her bundle of joy. And that makes for a lot of contests and share-to-wins.

Reality check: We can’t all have babies on the front of processed food jars.

4. “Johnny Had A Poo” Mom

Your friends on Facebook love to see pictures of your child. They don’t love to hear about your struggles with his poo or pee or diaper blowouts. (UNLESS there is a hilarious story attached). You may be reading this and thinking “BUT… I get like 20 ‘likes’ on those status updates! People LOVE to know!”

I can promise you that for every “like” there are roughly five eye-rolls or “hides.” If this ratio does not bother you, post on, girlfriend… post on.

5. The “Diagnose My Kid’s Medical Emergency” Mom

Uh-oh! Jessica fell off her bike and there is a bone sticking out of her leg! What do you do? Take a picture for Instagram and Facebook, obviously. Because how else can you make sure your kid gets the proper care for such an ailment? If you have ever posted a picture of a vomiting episode, rash or bloody body part with the caption “Is this normal?” or “Should we be worried?”, you are guilty.

No, it’s not normal. Yes, you should be worried. Now take your kid to the stinkin’ doctor.

Look, mamas. None of us are perfect. I’ve been guilty of these offenses a few times myself. But on a regular basis, this kinda stuff is just NUTS. Think before you Facebook.

This post was originally featured on Mom Babble. For happier stories and parenting encouragement follow Mom Babble on Facebook.

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May 19

Being Asian-American in the Affirmative Action Debate

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No one wants to talk about Asian-Americans in the affirmative action debate. With the ruling that upheld Michigan’s ban on affirmative action, the divisive pushback by Asian-American political leaders and interest groups regarding the reinstatement of affirmative action in California, and the unsettling lawsuits by Project on Fair Representation against Harvard and UNC Chapel Hill admissions that seeks to capitalize on the insecurities of rejected applicants based on race, one thing is clear: Asian-Americans are left to converse in the backroom during any nationwide discussion on affirmative action.

As Asian-Americans, our placement in the affirmative action debate puts us at an unfair disadvantage against everyone but ourselves. Why is this? Because people on both sides of the affirmative action debate oversimplify the Asian-American experience to suit their needs. Asian-Americans are cast as the “unexplained minority exception” in the cost-benefit analysis of who “wins” and “loses” in affirmative action.

Many today feel uneasy when talking about Asian-Americans and affirmative action–and understandably so. In an education system that witnesses Asian-Americans comprising 38 percent of UC undergraduates and boasting the highest high school graduation rate of any race in the country, many speculate: Are there “too many” Asian-Americans in our education system today? Is it a disadvantage to be Asian-American in the college admissions process? Is it harder to get in?

Asian-American students in today’s education system share the anxiety. Princeton researcher Thomas Espenshade and Alexandria Walton Radford of RTI International found that Asian-identified students had to score 140 points higher on their SATs to gain admission to prestigious colleges compared to white students. Espenshade’s statistics are even more striking when comparing the admission rates and test scores of Asian-American students to students of other minority backgrounds.

But instead of constructing an objective reality of the college admissions process, Epenshade and Radford’s statistics have intensified competition among minority students who have no choice but to view college admissions as a zero-sum game. The statistics have diverted attention from the greater issue at fault: a debilitated education system that fails to account for racism, historical oppression, and ethnic diversity.

When looking closely at the anti-affirmative action legal effort Harvard Not Fair, one thing becomes clear: It did not originate from the Asian-American community. Lawyer Edward Blum, who launched Harvard Not Fair and its two sister websites, UW Not Fair and UNC Not Fair, is a veteran opponent of affirmative action. Blum uses stock images of Asian-Americans as racial mascots with the inciting lines, “It may be because you’re the wrong race.” The implication is clear: this exploits the insecurity of Asian-Americans during the college admissions process in order to carry out an attack on affirmative action.

2015-05-15-1431731335-165489-154846_1297004.jpg

Using Asian-American faces and stories in anti-affirmative action efforts unfairly creates competition and division among minority communities. For example, during debate on the proposed referendum that sought to restore affirmative action in higher education institutions in California, a number of Asian-American legislators withdrew support for the California affirmative action SCA-5 after public criticism from vocal minorities of the Asian-American community, particularly Chinese American voters in Silicon Valley and the Los Angeles suburbs. This is in spite of records showing that about 2 in every 3 Asian American registered voters in California support affirmative action. In response, a number of black and Latino lawmakers and interest groups withdrew endorsements for Senator Ted Liu, a Chinese-American facing another Democrat in his congressional race. Black and Latino assembly members also withheld votes from unrelated legislation regarding the state’s carpool system by Assemblyman Al Muratsutchi, a Japanese-American Democrat from Torrance.

The United States is quickly becoming a country with a majority-minority population, but white students still comprise over 60 percent of the college student population. As minorities, why do we have to fight over spots in the college admissions process when the “majority” refuses to budge in the first place?

The view of Asian-Americans as a “privileged minority” ignores the internal class differences that exist among sub-groups under the Asian-American umbrella. Southeast Asians drop out of high school at alarming rates: Nearly 40 percent of Hmong Americans, 38 percent of Laotian Americans and 35 percent of Cambodian Americans fail to finish high school. These sub-groups similarly face alarming percentages of poverty well above the national average, with Hmong Americans displaying a of 37.8 percent poverty rate–the highest among all sub-groups within the Asian-American community.

We as Asian-Americans cannot afford to pit ourselves against other minority groups by buying into rhetoric of college admissions as a zero-sum game. We cannot subscribe to the idea of the “Asian-American whiz kid” and disregard the significant disparity that exists within groups of the larger Asian-American community. We cannot ignore individuals who, in spite of identifying as Asian-American, still struggle to obtain a higher education and better future.

We cannot let the anti-affirmative action debate, framed by those who have historically benefitted from the current education system, rupture our solidarity with other people of color.

Hand in hand, we as Asian-Americans and other minority communities must together frame the affirmative action debate among ourselves.

It is up to us, not them.

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May 19

Top Dem Blasts Iraq's ISIS Strategy As Baghdad's U.S.-Friendly Leader Struggles

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WASHINGTON — Days after it lost a vital provincial capital in its fight against the Islamic State group, Iraq’s fragile government is now seeing setbacks in another battle: the struggle for U.S. approval and support.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee and a prominent congressional voice on foreign policy, blasted Baghdad in a Tuesday morning Christian Science Monitor breakfast with reporters.

“If Iraqis aren’t willing to fix the security problem, we shouldn’t send the U.S. military to do the job for them,” Schiff said, raising the question of whether the U.S. should expand its footprint in Iraq beyond its airstrike campaign and the 3,000 advisers it presently has posted there. He pointed to the Iraqi government’s loss of the provincial capital of Ramadi on Sunday as proof Baghdad has yet to craft a strategy that can effectively combat the Islamic State group, also called ISIS or ISIL.

Schiff argued that the Iraqi government’s main response to the defeat, which has been a call for Iranian-backed Shiite militias to retake the provincial capital, is another sign the Shiite-led Baghdad government is not effectively building support among Iraqi Sunnis. Many Sunnis have embraced ISIS for reasons that include feeling alienated by powerful Shiites.

“We’ve lost valuable time in integrating Sunnis into the military and helping them arm the Sunni tribes,” Schiff said. “I think it reflects the schizophrenia of the Iraqi regime that wants the Sunnis to be part of it but doesn’t trust the Sunnis to be part of it.

“You may have a technical victory on the ground by incorporating the Iranian-backed militias, but you may have a strategic loss if that further strengthens ISIS’s grip on the Sunni tribes.”

Schiff’s skeptical comments come at a difficult moment for U.S.-friendly Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. The fall of Ramadi breathed new life into Washington’s doubts about his leadership, and a Sunni tribal leader, Sheikh Abdalrazzaq Hatem al-Sulayman, is here this week to lobby for the U.S. to directly support Sunni tribes in Iraq, bypassing Baghdad. Al-Sulayman told the Wall Street Journal he believed Sunni Iraqis did not want help from forces linked to Iran, like the Shiite militias Abadi has relied on for help.

But bashing Abadi carries its own risks for the effort to push back ISIS and hold Iraq together, as dispatches out of Baghdad showed this week. The New York Times reported the fall of Ramadi has opened the prime minister up to criticism from other Shiite Iraqi politicians, some of them sympathetic to his Sunni-targeting predecessor, Nouri al-Maliki. These opponents say Abadi must be even more firm in supporting the increasingly popular Shiite militias rather than engaging in U.S.-backed outreach to Iraqi Sunnis and Kurds.

Abadi therefore faces critics on either side and stands weaker than ever, a point Schiff seemed to appreciate as he spoke of continuing to rely on the central Iraqi government. The challenge for the U.S. is how to pressure the prime minister enough to continue his embrace of Sunnis and Kurds without destabilizing his rule and opening the door to leaders more closely tied to Iran.

Iran’s defense minister flew to Baghdad after the loss of Ramadi, and Iranian military commander Qassem Suleimani has for months been coordinating the operations of various Shiite militias operating within Iraq.

The U.S. has a complicated relationship with Iran in Iraq, as the two for decades have been at odds, but in Iraq are on the same side. The Iranian proxy militias are also battling ISIS, and Iran’s air force has targeted the extremist group in what Secretary of State John Kerry called a positive development. But U.S. officials also say they are worried about the potential that those militias, at Tehran’s pleasure, could turn on the massive U.S. embassy compound in Baghdad’s Green Zone. Additionally, the Obama administration has been embarrassed by evidence that Iraqi units trained by the U.S. have brutalized civilians as they have fought ISIS along the notoriously vicious Shiite militias.

Schiff on Tuesday said the situation demanded the U.S. put greater pressure on Baghdad to integrate Sunni Arabs in its fight.

“We don’t want to do anything to blow this up horribly and, frankly, push the Iraqis further into the arms of the Iranians, but I do think we need to do everything we can to maximize our pressure and make sure that we’re not going to have American troops close to harm, because [the Iraqi government] isn’t willing to bring the Sunnis into the government and into the military,” the congressman said.

Concerns about Baghdad’s strategy earlier this spring caused members of Congress to propose directly arming Sunni tribes and Kurdish forces in northern Iraq instead of first sending U.S. weapons to the central government. That idea involved Congress recognizing the Sunnis and Kurds as “nations” in the 2016 defense bill, prompting loud criticism from Iraqi politicians in Baghdad and Shiite clerics who felt Iraq’s sovereignty was under attack.

Schiff, who voted against the defense bill with the provision to arm the Sunnis and Kurds, noted those sensitivities and said the suggestion of calling the Sunnis and Kurds “nations” died because of them. The Obama administration has “been very deferential to the Iraqi government,” he said. “I don’t disagree with that. But I think the lethargy within the Iraqi government … is pretty significant, and we have to put additional pressure on them.”

The defense bill, which has yet to be taken up in the Senate, still envisions at least 25 percent of U.S. assistance to Iraq going to the Sunnis and Kurds, and authorizes the administration to boost that to 60 percent if it judges the central Iraqi government is not being sufficiently inclusive of those minorities.

Iraq is receiving support from the U.S., Iran and a range of other countries — including European allies and Sunni Arab states — in its effort to undermine the Islamic State group and retake the largely Sunni areas the group presently controls.

Speaking about the Iraqi defeat this week, U.S. defense officials were blunt about the magnitude of the loss and the way reversing it may stoke even further sectarian tensions in Iraq. “ISIL’s gains in Ramadi are a serious setback for its long-suffering inhabitants,” Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a statement. Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren made clear on Monday that the U.S. envisions the Shiite militias playing a role in retaking the city, as long as they are under Baghdad’s control.

“Much effort will now be required to reclaim the city,” Dempsey said in his statement.

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May 19

Little Brown Bags Aren't Just For Lunchtime Anymore

Posted in: Today's Chili

When I was a kid, I used to worry about a lot of things. Maybe you know a kid like that or maybe you even have a kid like that. I’d like to say that one day I had a great epiphany and now I enjoy a worry-free life, but I have four kids, so you know that isn’t so. What I can say is that I have learned how to cope with my worries a little bit better than when I was kid and for that, I owe my dad.

I remember him tucking me in to bed because my mom worked nights. One night, I was worrying about something at school and couldn’t fall asleep. It seemed like every time I closed my eyes, my fears opened up wide to swallow me. A little while later, my dad came to check on me and I was still awake. I was lucky, he could have just told me to go to sleep; lots of parents would have done that, but not him.

He sat down on the edge of my bed and asked me why I couldn’t sleep. I told him I was worried, but I don’t remember him trying to solve the problem or telling me not to worry (always such useful advice). He simply nodded, stood up and said he knew exactly what to do. He went into the kitchen and came back a moment later with a little brown bag for each of us.

He opened the bag and in a very serious and somber voice told me I should put all my worries into the bag. I just looked at him. Had he gone mad? How could I put my worries in a bag? He said I could write them down, whisper or even shout them into the bag or I could do what he did and just put in my worries with my hands. Then, before I knew what was happening, he opened his own bag and promptly began to fill it. I said he could use my bag if he wanted, but he shook his head.

“Never a good idea to comingle worries.” My dad was an accountant, after all.

I must have decided to indulge him, because pretty soon, we were both pouring our worries into the bags. No talking, no advising, just filling the bags. In spite of myself, I smiled. It might sound silly to you, but I actually felt lighter. When we were finished, he closed our bags and sealed them with tape.

“Should we label them, Dad?”

“No need” he answered, “yours are much heavier than mine. I think you must have been growing them for awhile.”

Then he told me he would take them out to the balcony and put them under the chair. I could have them back in the morning IF I wanted them, or I could leave them. After a little while, we could compost them in our plants if we wanted to let them go or we could go and get them and bring them back inside.

Worries are always more manageable when we acknowledge them and move them from inside our heads to away from our hearts. In our family, a little brown bag still works really well.

When my own daughter went to camp for the first time, or when she someday soon goes off to college, you can guess what I’ll slip into her suitcase. I don’t think any of us are too old to need a little reminder that no one has to carry worries all alone. There is something simple we can do to get a little perspective and even a little rest; just pack up your worries in a little brown bag.

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May 19

Two 'Bachelorettes' Wasn't As Bad As Expected. It Was Worse.

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“I love that some people are upset about [there being two Bachelorettes],” declared Chris Harrison on HuffPost Live Monday afternoon.”[If you’re upset], it’s probably an issue you have with yourself or with other women.” As two of the women who’d had a problem with it, we’re not perfect, so we’re always willing to consider that it’s a problem with us. We decided to go into that night’s premiere of “The Bachelorette” with open minds, ready to see the female empowerment Harrison promised.

We hoped against hope that the whole two-Bachelorette thing wouldn’t be as 1950s terrible as we thought it would be. Unfortunately, it was worse.

“The Bachelor” and “Bachelorette” franchise isn’t exactly known for its progressive depiction of modern love. Slut-shamey, whitewashed, heteronormative romance is what these shows promote each season. But the one thing “The Bachelorette” has always had going for it is that a woman is in control of her own romantic narrative. Twenty-five lackluster men have to declare their desires for families, marriage and true love, wooing one woman who could at any time send them packing in tears. This season, we’re denied even such small flipping of the normative script in favor of giving straight men “a little bit of power.”

The end result was a premiere that pitted two women against each other, harping on their differences and repeatedly pointing out just how “devastated” one of them would be by night’s end.

“Kaitlyn shocked the girls with her jokes. Britt shocked the girls with her intensity,” explained Chris Harrison, introducing each of them. “One of them shed a lot of tears, the other shed something else…” (Yes, Chris, we know that the “something else” is Kaitlyn’s bathing suit bottom. Nothing more scandalous than not-even-fully-nude skinny dipping.)

The two women were essentially presented as one-dimensional caricatures of themselves, defined by very specific (and traditionally undesirable) character traits: Kaitlyn by her overtly-sexy humor, and Britt by her overtly-expressed emotion. Chris Harrison may as well have framed the season as a battle to the reality TV exile between the slutty slut and the crying trainwreck — two things that women, especially women who are trying to impress men, are never supposed to be. (And two things that men, no matter how naked or teary they get, never can be.)

Some found the whole narrative to be oddly familiar…

Defenders of the gambit have pointed to the two-Bachelor season — season 6 — as evidence that the device is neither sexist nor degrading. Jay Overbye and Byron Velvick got through it, after all! But things have changed since 2004. For one thing, the Bachelors and Bachelorettes are now drawn from the runner-up spots in previous seasons; while Jay and Byron were new to the ABC family when their season premiered, Britt and Kaitlyn both spent weeks on “The Bachelor” before being brutally dumped on national TV. Britt notably slumped in the driveway after being sent packing, wracked with sobs; Kaitlyn was totally blindsided after a fantasy-worthy fantasy suite date. Why put them through more insecurity-inducing judgment and competition, with an extra scoop of national embarrassment for one lucky loser?

But embarrassment is drama, and drama is ABC’s bread and butter. Though one could easily gather that the 25 guys all greeted both women, their approaches were sliced and diced to make each girl, in turn, look like an awkward reject. As we watched bro after bro swoon over to Britt, breathing sweet nothings in her ear, and saw Kaitlyn bravely cleaning her teeth with her tongue and grimacing in the background, it was hard not to flash back to the most public romantic rejections of our lives — the boys we flirted with at parties who were just using us to get to our hot friends, or our long-time crush who walked over to us at the homecoming dance to ask the gorgeous cheerleader standing next to us to dance. Each Britt and Kaitlyn, in their “in the moment” confessionals, copped to feeling hurt by repeatedly watching men enthusiastically show preference for their romantic rival. “I know I have value,” Kaitlyn insisted forlornly. Yikes.

Harrison’s promised empowerment and camaraderie clearly was left abandoned on a cutting room floor somewhere. Aside from Britt’s undermining comments about Kaitlyn and Kaitlyn’s overt discomfort with Britt’s presence, the two barely seemed to interact, instead flying around trying desperately to charm as many fratty, underemployed men as possible.

And here’s where the premiere got really, really grim. One thing we didn’t, perhaps naively, account for in anticipating a two-Bachelorette season: What would happen when 25 tipsy guys got together in a room to vote over which woman they wanted to go cliff-diving and eat dinner by candlelight with? The answer: The kind of objectifying, reductive conversation women often aren’t privy to. It’s a gross reality to see men pick women apart like pieces of meat to their peers, debating which one is a trophy wife and implying that two pretty faces are essentially interchangeable.

Viewers found it disturbingly cavalier:

The first night, at least, was all about what the men wanted. According to Chris Harrison, they wanted both Britt and Kaitlyn on the show, so Britt and Kaitlyn they got. Then they got to kick back and let these two women jockey for their general masculine approval, while they downed Fireball on the rocks and casually weighed the ladies’ respective value. Even “The Bachelor” doesn’t subject women to that level of humiliation.

So, Chris, maybe we do have a problem — a problem with seeing two women being reduced to sexist cliches, forced to duke it out for the affection of terrible men. But maybe (probably, definitely) it’s ABC’s problem, too.

Check out HuffPost’s new “Bachelorette”-themed podcast, “Here To Make Friends”!

You can check out our future episodes of Here To Make Friends and other HuffPost Podcasts on The Huffington Post’s Sound Cloud page. Thanks to our producer, Katelyn Bogucki, our editor Jorge Corona, and our guest Jenny Mollen.

Also, check out the HuffPost Here To Make Friends podcast on iTunes and make sure to rate and review the show, too.

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May 19

One Family's Journey Exemplifies Anytime-Anywhere Learning

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Max Silverman & Sue Wilkes

We are a family of five consisting of two parents and three children; Noah age 14, Caleb age 12, and Rohama age 10. Nearly three years ago, we began dreaming about an extended trip in which we would travel and see the world together. After many months of planning, saving, and preparing, we set off on a six-month journey that includes stays in Ethiopia, Jordan, Israel, Turkey, Spain, Italy, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, and the Netherlands.

With our oldest currently a freshman in high school we decided from the outset that it made most sense for our trip to comprise one full semester of school. This would allow him to complete his first semester of high school, miss a semester, and then return to school for the start of his sophomore year.

Oddly enough, this was the extent of our initial thinking about traveling and school. We say oddly enough, because to our surprise as we told others about our trip, the first question we almost always heard was, “What are you going to do about school?” With all of the historically and culturally significant countries on our itinerary, the last thing we were worried about was what we were “going to do about school.” We have had to learn as we go, but in a short time we have witnessed the opportunities, challenges, and surprises that come with learning on the road and in several different countries.

As parents we had good clarity early on regarding what we hoped our kids would learn while traveling. To be honest we were much more focused on how they would develop as young people rather than how they might advance their academic skills. To us this meant:

  • They would learn how to handle themselves and problem-solve in environments very different than their own.

  • They would develop an empathy and understanding of how others in the world live and sometimes struggle.

  • They would be exposed to the incredible cultures and history of countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Europe.

  • They would nurture their curiosity and develop a deeper understanding of places and people they had only read about in books or the news.

As we approach the half waypoint of our trip we are so pleased with all that Noah, Caleb, and Rohama have been learning about the world and themselves. They have each taken on volunteer opportunities in Ethiopia, figured out how to adapt to new and very different situations, and started making interconnections between the different places we have visited and the people we have met.

What we did not account for in our planning and find ourselves negotiating on a regular basis is how to handle our kids schooling. By this we mean either earning credits, staying on pace with certain courses, and/or continuing to develop reading, writing, and math proficiency. While we are far from figuring this out, we have learned much about how to do “school” while traveling and not have it get in the way of the learning that we really want to occur.

In essence, each of our kids has a “learning plan” that was developed with input from their teachers, each child, and us.

Noah was most concerned about earning the credits necessary to stay on track and be ready for his sophomore year. For him this meant exploring online options offering credits that would be accepted by the Seattle Public Schools. After researching a few options he decided to enroll in the Federal Way Internet Academy initially taking Physical Science, World History, Geometry, Spanish, and Language Arts.

After meeting with the school counselor and teachers, Caleb decided that it was important to keep up with Algebra I so he could advance to Geometry and continue his first-year Chinese studies. This learning plan needed to be quickly adjusted. While he is easily able to complete the second half of Algebra through Khan Academy, we were unable to find a suitable option for Chinese. On his own, however, Caleb explored Duolingo and decided to take up Turkish as our itinerary included one month in Turkey. While he may not continue learning Turkish after this trip, we feel this will be a valuable experience as he trains his brain to learn and use other languages.

In partnership with her teacher we decided that it was important for Rohama to keep up with math, reading, and writing. The reading and writing have been relatively straightforward. She reads books of her choosing on her Kindle and has decided to focus her writing on keeping a semi-daily journal of her travels. As she finds journal entries she likes we work together to turn them into published pieces on our blog. Math has been a bit more complicated as neither of us are trained math teachers. However, over time we found that a combination of Khan Academy for learning new content, IXL for individual practice, along with parental tutoring using a Singapore math workbook and a set of manipulatives is doing the trick.

We continue to struggle how to negotiate taking full advantage of all that we are seeing while also putting in some school time most days. Blogging has provided a great opportunity to articulate and examine what we are learning while also growing and developing as a writer. Each of our kids has decided that their writing will be focused on publishing blog posts. The combination of writing about something of immediate interest along with writing for an audience has helped them produce their best work, with minimal nagging from us.

While in hindsight, we wish we were more intentional about connecting our travels to their schooling (such as having them read books about the places we are visiting), we are finding that our kids are taking in their travels and their schooling on their terms. As a result we have witnessed them:

  • Develop a keen interest in current events and growing ability to connect them with what they are learning.

  • sharing their experiences and insights with people we meet along the way – each time sounding more articulate than the last.

  • demonstrating increasing resilience and independence at each new destination by mapping and learning about their new neighborhoods and problem-solving travel logistics.

While we are certainly not experts on how to best connect schooling, learning, and traveling, we can offer a few tips for others considering a similar journey based on our experiences and mistakes:

  • Decide as a family, in advance of travel, how much time you want to dedicate schooling on the road.

  • Set clear expectations with each child on what they need to accomplish.

  • Understand as parents that you will probably be more involved in supporting each child with their schooling than you may initially imagine.

  • Map out when and where you will have access to technology and the Internet.

  • Find ways to connect what your children are experiencing with what they are doing for schooling. This is most easily accomplished through reading and writing about places you are visiting.

  • Don’t underestimate how much your children can learn just from the experience of traveling and visiting other countries. Try not to let their schooling get in the way of their learning.

This blog is part of our Smart Parents series in partnership with the Nellie Mae Education Foundation. For more information about the project, see Parents, Tell Your Story: How You Empower Student Learning as well as other blogs:

Max Silverman is an Associate Director at the University of Washington Center for Educational Leadership. Follow Max on Twitter, @maxsilverman. Sue Wilkes provides capacity building support and training for non-profit organizations in the Puget Sound area.

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May 19

What Is About To Crash – The Markets, The Economy? Neither, Even If Greenspan (Who?) Says So!

Posted in: Today's Chili

It’s late spring, and the Chicken Littles are back. They don’t fly but they do cluck. Ever since the US economy again showed barely any growth for the first quarter of the year, and even before, there was no end to the nay-saying commentators that jumped to cable TV attention by declaring that finally, after five straight springs of false predictions of trading or commercial collapse due to this or that – this was going to be the year that everything finally falls apart, like the Titanic after it came upon the iceberg!

Indeed, the metaphor of “chickens coming home to roost” – mostly in terms of the US Federal Reserve’s “highly accommodative” monetary policy – was a common theme. Ignoring the strong economic growth in the second and third quarters of 2014 (4.6% and 5%), the strongest back-to- back quarters since 2003 with a respectable 2.2% in the fourth quarter, the Wall Street Journal and a commentator for The Hill proclaimed it was time for the Fed to acknowledge that its policy of low interest rates had not worked to stimulate the economy, even though it had repressed inflation to below the 2% target. To its critics, the Fed has failed to promote economic growth, even though three million net new jobs have been produced in the last 12 months, because productivity measures remain slack and wage growth remains subdued.

The critics then go on to predict a train wreck in both the financial markets and the real economy when everyone realizes that the Fed policy has only harmed savers dependent of fixed income securities who have seen their coupons cut to historic lows reflecting the Fed policy of “suppression” of “safe” returns, designed to force investors into riskier assets (translation: “equity securities”).

Doomsayers saw bubbles everywhere: bubbles in the US bond market and even more so abroad as the European Central Bank (ECB) at long last adopted the Fed policy of government securities purchases (“Quantitative Easing” or QE) which has pushed German “bund” yields down toward zero. Renowned bond investor Bill Gross called the German bond market the “short of a lifetime,” meaning that the extreme increase in the price of bunds on trading markets (which depresses yields) did not reflect the real economy in Europe and would eventually reverse with a bang heard round the world. But it hasn’t happened because of the ECB’s QE!

Gross’s words had some immediate effects in the US bond market at the end of April and into May as good US job creation numbers for April reversed the slide below 100,000 for the prior month and suggested to some that the Fed might actually begin increasing the base interest rate above .25% as early as June. Prices on the ten year Treasury note dropped enough to raise yields as high as 2.27% on May 11 – up a third of a full percentage point just since late April, an extremely quick increase. Meanwhile, some surprisingly strong data on the German economy and in some other EU countries triggered a U-turn in the rise of the US dollar value vs. the Euro which in turn brought the quick rise in US Treasury yields to a pause.

In fact, it is equally likely that the increase in bond yields could also reflect the return of the “bond vigilantes:” i.e., those bond and derivatives traders, hedge fund players and institutional investors – all long-frustrated with the Fed policy for reasons having to do with their own incomes. The vigilantes – as they did in the “taper tantrum” of summer 2013 – take market positions, often in the futures markets which require a lesser risk commitment, designed to force bond prices down and yields up in order to literally force the Fed to raise short term rates sooner than its own judgment would indicate in order to keep up with the Treasury market’s rapid run up in yields.

Even the main target of the vigilantes in the past, former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan, weighed in with his own prediction of doom and gloom by predicting that the markets would experience the equivalent of another taper tantrum once the Fed increases rates, as happened in 2013 when Chair Ben Bernanke indicated in May that the Fed would begin later that year to reduce and eventually bring to an end its extraordinary program of quantitative easing due to the improving economy. Treasury yields spiked to the 3% level and stocks quickly corrected over 10% as investors bought in to the fear threat that the Fed was acting precipitously. The same voices now calling for a 40% market crash or at least a very painful “correction” as the Fed contemplates beginning to increase interest rates later this year (Marc Faber and Dennis Gartman, for example) are at it again with virtually the same scripts, and for a while produced the same results earlier this May.

CNBC of course chipped in with its usual “train wreck envy,” giving folks like Faber who have been wrong five years running a free platform to talk up his book; same for Gartman and others. And it worked for a while. The ten-year treasury note yield hit a high for the year; stock markets dropped below 18,000 on the Dow, 2100 on the S&P and 5000 on the NASDAQ and the “correction” prediction proliferated on the CNBC website and most every hour of live broadcast.

But investors finally woke up in the middle of this week to the fact that the drop in oil prices to fall as low as $10 a barrel predicted by Gartman just over six months ago that would continue to impede US GDP had in fact turned into an almost 50% increase from the 2015 low in the mid-$40s to over $60! That winter weather that cut into energy sector construction and production, along with the West Coast port strike that hurt multiple sectors including retail in Q1, were well and truly over. Also, that the rise in the US dollar, which held back earnings and revenues for US multinationals and technology companies with huge overseas businesses, had come to an end as the EU had bounced off its technical bottom. The Dow rose by 192 points even on a day where retail sales (as traditionally measured with heavy focus on department stores rather than the new mobility of sales of goods) showed virtually no growth month over month.

This time around, the market manipulations of the past five springs seems to have fallen on more skeptical ears. “Fool me five times, it’s my fault” seems to be the order of the day in the markets. And the continued decline in weekly average jobless claims – a 15 year low – as of May 14, also showed that the economy might just do this year what it did last year and push GDP levels approaching 3% for the rest of the year. The Chicken Littles are taking cover for the moment!

###

Terry Connelly is an economic expert and dean emeritus of the Ageno School of Business at Golden Gate University in San Francisco. Terry holds a law degree from NYU School of Law and his professional history includes positions with Ernst & Young Australia, the Queensland University of Technology Graduate School of Business, New York law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore, global chief of staff at Salomon Brothers investment banking firm and global head of investment banking at Cowen & Company. In conjunction with Golden Gate University President Dan Angel, Terry co-authored Riptide: The New Normal In Higher Education.

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May 19

Top 5 Love Lessons From <i>The Bachelorette</i>s (Kaitlyn and Britt's Season Premiere)

Posted in: Today's Chili

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Life began again last night with the premiere of ABC’s The Bachelorette — or should we say, The Bachelorettes? After all, this season’s big twist was pitting last season’s two favorites — Kaitlyn “Potty-Mouth” Bristowe and Britt “Insincerity’s-My-Middle-Name” Nillson — against each other in a Highlander-esque cocktail party where they had to outcharm 25 fairly unimpressive guys in order to score the most roses by night’s end.

We haven’t read any spoilers, so simply going off of last night’s episode intel, here are our theories (Read: hopes):

The producers know Bachelor Nation (i.e. middle-aged, married moms who like to make themselves feel better about their life choices by watching young people make such bad ones*) will not stand for Britt winning, not with her kitten voice, her requisitely long-flowing princess locks, and her beautiful brown eyes — so colored because of the amount of sh*t she’s full of. And so they’ve stacked the party guests in down-to-earth Kaitlyn’s favor, so that we may all rejoice again once more in a melodramatic tear-fest performed by Britt when she’s quickly and unceremoniously ejected.

Either that, or…

Mr. Drunky McDrunk Ryan was just a plant who was enlisted to destroy the tie-breaking rose — while wearing a wet Speedo — in an over-the-top display of drunken disdain and disrespect for the two women and this “process,” serving two purposes: 1) Produce the requisite blackout scene every viewer of Bachelor/ette cocktail parties has come to know, love and expect. And 2) Force a tie between the two women which will magically spur the producers to decide to let the women parallel-play dating roulette for at least a little while longer (i.e. until the majority of men realize that Kaitlyn is the only viable choice).

or…

The best-looking and smartest-seeming men could not prevail over the more meatheaded Neanderthals who were hypnotized by Britt’s shiny sparkly-ness and the feelings it stirred under their loincloths, resulting in Kaitlyn’s premature departure tonight. But because of the collective yearnings of Bachelor Nation, the producers will be compelled — indeed, they’ve planned it all along! — to bring Kaitlyn back in dramatic twist that gives the remaining contestants the chance to mutiny, jump Britt’s ship and take their rightful place alongside Kaitlyn.

These are not guaranteed predictions — we can’t see the future (because we refuse to read spoilers). But we can guarantee that if you learn the love lessons imparted on last night’s episode, you’ll fare far better than pretty much all the people who’ve ever been on an episode of The Bachelor/ette“:

  1. In the immortal words of host Chris Harrison, delivered with total earnestness and not even a whiff of irony, “Change is hard.” For those of you who need help unpacking that heavy sh*t: Put your big girl pants on, expect curveballs and instead of whining about them, embrace them with as much grace as possible (which in Kaitlyn’s case, may not have been much, but at least she tried… really, really hard).

  2. Probably a good idea not to call someone you’re hoping to date, have sex with and/or marry a “b*tch” or a “ho”, even behind their back. Respecting other people is one of the first steps toward respecting yourself…Ryan.

  3. Gimmicks — a “carpool” or a “cupcake car” — are not necessary to make a good first impression. In fact, more often than not, they’ll backfire and make a bad first impression. All you need is a sense of humor, good hygiene and the wisdom not to get totally blotto on your date.

  4. Speaking as veteran sex coaches, please don’t take the name of what we do in vain. Calling yourself an “amateur sex coach” as simply a jokey come-on line is an affront, not only to the serious work we do (e.g. watching The Bachelorette with a box o’ wine and then writing snarky commentary on it), but it’s an affront to your date as well: Guaranteed she does not want to talk butt plugs right now. We should know: we’re experts.

  5. Stop touching your hair on your date! Really, please, just leave it alone. It looks fine.

*Or maybe that’s just us.

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May 19

19 Works Of Art That Show Breastfeeding Has Always Been Beautiful

Posted in: Today's Chili

With the way breastfeeding mothers are often treated in public, one would think that nursing a baby is some sort of taboo, new age practice. But as this empowering Instagram account shows, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

The images posted on Breastfeeding Art serve as an important reminder that nursing is a totally normal phenomenon that has been part of motherhood throughout history. From centuries-old paintings, sculptures and tapestries to contemporary photos and even edible art, each image is meant to provide “inspiration and cultural and historical context for breastfeeding moms,” the account description states.

Artist and mom of three Leigh Pennebaker launched Breastfeeding Art in February and in its 3+ months in the social media sphere, the account has gained over 7,500 Instagram followers.

“Collecting artistic representations of breastfeeding has long encouraged and inspired me personally as a breastfeeding mom, and sharing these images with the world is my way of standing up for mothers and babies and saying, ‘look, we will not be marginalized in 2015!'” Pennebaker told The Huffington Post. “Women, and lactating women in particular, have been celebrated, honored, and deified in Art throughout human history,” she added, noting the abundance of Nursing Madonna iconography and earlier depictions of lactating goddesses like Isis and Hathor.

“I wanted to create a space online that would highlight the historical/cultural context of breastfeeding and convey the extent to which modern-day mothers fit into a long, powerful lineage.”

Ultimately, Pennebaker hopes Breastfeeding Art will help moms feel “powerful, beautiful and supported” she said, adding, “I hope people who see it who don’t breastfeed will absorb some of the scope of the work and have a greater understanding of the normalcy of breastfeeding.”

Keep scrolling and follow the account on Instagram and Facebook for a look at some gorgeous representations of breastfeeding in the art world.

“Peaceful Snack” by @ivetteivens #breastfeeding #breastfeedingart

A photo posted by @breastfeedingart on May 17, 2015 at 3:40pm PDT

Photo dated 1898, found via Pinterest ❤️

A photo posted by @breastfeedingart on Feb 12, 2015 at 7:26am PST

“Maternity (Women on the Seashore)” by Paul Gauguin, 1899.

A photo posted by @breastfeedingart on Feb 13, 2015 at 4:09am PST

“Mother and Child” by Henri Lebasque. #breastfeeding #breastfeedingart #henrilebasque

A photo posted by @breastfeedingart on Apr 7, 2015 at 4:33pm PDT

Detail from “Milk” by Helene Knoop (b. 1979, in Drøbak, Norway). This is a self-portrait, of which the artist has said, “The eternal image of a woman and child has always fascinated me; but not until recent years has it struck me so directly as when I myself transformed into the motif. This is a painting of my first son and me. Actually, I was painting as I was breastfeeding. The color of the background had to be the color of the feeling; a bright greenish white in contrast with the pulsating skin. It is such a bodily condition, this is why there is a lack of other objects in the image.” Read more at http://combustus.com/a-graceful-lingering-interview-with-helene-knoop/#dckM7OMqZ6zzwv0d.99 #breastfeeding #breastfeedingart #heleneknoop #painting #selfportrait #motherandchild

A photo posted by @breastfeedingart on Apr 6, 2015 at 6:37pm PDT

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