What’s interesting in the news today?

1. Welcome to the new norm in employer healthcare plans.

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2. An interesting read from a teacher leaving the profession.

From TheWaPo  “To pursue this calling, I worked hard to earn the title of “classroom teacher,” but I became quickly disillusioned when my title of teacher did not in any way reflect my actual job. I realized that I am not permitted to really teach students anything. When I was in middle school, I studied Shakespeare, Chaucer, Poe, Twain, O. Henry, the founding fathers, if you will, of modern literary culture. Now, I was called to drag them through shallow activities that measured meaningless but “measurable” objectives.

Forced to abandon my hopes of imparting the same wisdom I had gained through my experiences and education, I resigned myself to the superficial curriculum that encouraged mindless conformity. I decided that if I was going to teach this nonsense, I was at least going to teach it well. I set my expectations high, I kept my classroom structured, I tutored students, I provided extra practice, and I tried to make class fun. At this point, I was feeling alright with myself. I quickly rose through the ranks of “favorite teacher,” kept open communication channels with parents, and had many students with solid A’s.

It was about this time that I was called down to the principal’s office with a terse e-mail that read only, “I need to speak with you.” Clueless, I took down my grade sheets, communication logs, lesson plans, and sat down as an adult still summoned down to the principal’s office. “I need to talk to you about these students.” She handed me a list of about 10 students, all of whom had D’s or F’s. At the time, I only had about 120 students, so I was relatively on par with a standard bell curve. As she brought up each one, I walked her through my grade sheets that showed not low scores but a failure to turn in work—a lack of responsibility. I showed her my tutoring logs, my letters to parents, only to be interrogated further. Eventually, the meeting came down to two quotes that I will forever remember as the defining slogans for public education:

“They are not allowed to fail.”

“If they have D’s or F’s, there is something that you are not doing for them.”

And then it gets worse. It’s time for some accountability in all areas of public education.

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3. This is probably the weirdest story I’ve read in a while. Is exorcism a “cure” for PTSD? Or is this just a cult type operation preying on those suffering from it?

From TheNYPost  “The 2005 tragedy haunted him when he returned to his home in Savannah, Ga. At night, a tall, shadowy figure crept into his room. Sometimes the Black Thing would threaten to kill him; other times it would choke his dead best friend.

The dark figure, a “Destroyer demon,” punished him, he said, “for killing and for living.”

Without answers — his PTSD diagnosis offered little explanation — he went to the one person he felt could save him: a minister who offered $199 exorcisms out of his trailer.

Daniels, profiled in the book “Demon Camp” by first-time author Jennifer Percy, is just one of many deeply troubled soldiers suffering from the after-effects of war who are so desperate for respite they undergo exorcisms at a fringe Pentecostal retreat.

Bear Creek Ranch, in Portal, Ga., is ministered by Tim and Katie Mather, a husband-and-wife team that has conducted over 5,000 exorcisms, some of them on veterans.”

Like I said, weird.

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4. Facebook is being sued for trolling the private messages of users for advertising purposes.

From TheDailyMail  “The social networking site, is accused of monitoring messages and website links sent between users so they can profile what people read online. This in turn allows the website, which has 24million UK members, to charge more for the information.”

“Facebook apparently tracked such messages so they could collect data on the interests of people who use the site. Advertising agencies and marketing companies are then allegedly sold this information so they can build up profiles of a person’s interests, and target them accordingly.

If the linked webpage contains a ‘like’ button, Facebook will activate this so any company who has been ‘liked’ will see the person is interested in their products.

Google, Yahoo! and LinkedIn are among six companies facing accusations of intercepting communications for profit.”

Facebook is denying the claims.

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