This woman’s reaction to being told she is about to be a grandmother is fantastic! It reaffirmed in me how incredible it is to bring children into this world.
What an interesting idea! I’m afraid I would have likely failed this test:
If a family member posed as a homeless person, would you recognize him or her?
That’s the question a new campaign — Make Them Visible — is asking. In a video produced by ad agency Silver + Partners and Smuggler for the New York City Rescue Mission, several people come face-to-face with their relatives and significant others dressed as homeless people. However, not a single participant recognizes their mother, brother or wife.
The jarring social experiment, staged in Tribeca and Soho near the mission’s shelter, shows just how invisible homeless people are to pedestrians on the street.
“We don’t look at them. We don’t take a second look,” Michelle Tolson, director of public relations for the New York City Rescue Mission, told The Huffington Post.
Tolson explained that the ad agency and production company hired actors for a documentary video and quietly contacted each person’s family to see if they would be interested in being apart of the social experiment. While the family members were in on the ruse, the participants had no idea they were being set up, and only learned after the fact when they watched themselves walk past their “homeless” family member.
“The experiment is a powerful reminder that the homeless are people, just like us, with one exception,” Craig Mayes, executive director of New York City Rescue Mission, said in a statement provided to HuffPost. “They are in trouble and in pain. And they are someone’s uncle or cousin or wife.”
Parents in Rhode Island are being warned of a dangerous craze that involves middle-schoolers snorting Smarties.
According to officials in Portsmouth Middle School, the trend is a ‘widespread phenomenon’ that has been sweeping YouTube in recent years.
A search of the popular video-sharing site has revealed hundreds of clips where kids are seen crushing the beloved round candies into powder before sniffing them.
The Smarties snorting trend is by no means a new phenomenon; some of the YouTube videos date back to at least 2007.
In one video posted in 2010, young boys are seen making lines of Smarties dust similar to cocaine and snorting the sugary powder through a rolled up dollar bill.
The clip, which has drawn more than 12,000 views, shows the kids coughing and gasping for air as the residue fills their nasal passages and lungs.
On of the biggest issues I have with the current teacher training courses is the philosophy that teachers need to avoid emotional involvement with their students. To me, avoiding emotional involvement is akin to being emotionally distant. In University we were told not to smile in the first term of the year and we were warned that students are looking to befriend their teacher as a means of reducing their power and exploiting them.
This is of course complete rubbish. Teachers should be encouraged to connect with their students and should always make an effort to be approachable and easy to relate to. I couldn’t bear teaching if it meant I was unable to smile. And I may be naive, but I don’t see my students as schemers, but rather promising young individuals with a lot going for them.
I love the video above, because it reinforces the notion that a teacher can be respected for taking the time to connect with his students. Even if it makes him look a bit silly.
Watching the heartwarming clip above, I reflected on how impressionable young children can be. They are so willing to learn and to follow, all they need is a collection of rolemodels to set the direction.
When it comes to being a rolemodel, a teacher is not a parent and should never pretend to be an alternative or substitute to a child’s parent. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t set a positive example for our students.
After all, they are constantly looking for reminders that the world is a good place, where happiness is attainable and hurdles can be overcome.
I don’t believe in shaming bystanders too afraid to confront an aggressive stranger whilst he is bullying another. While I strongly believe in the duty of a bystander to get involved, I understand that it doesn’t come at no risk.
I think the actors did a brilliant job in ‘setting up’ unsuspecting bystanders to their concocted scenario, but I believe their summary is all wrong. Instead of shaming those who were too afraid to stand up to the bully, highlighting those courageous enough to do so would have made for a far more effective message. One young woman in particular does an awesome job at diffusing a heated situation.
Making headway when it comes to changing bystander habits should be done though promoting positive and courageous actions rather than admonishment those who let fear stand in the way of what is the right thing to do.
For a comprehensive treatment on the power of the bystander for young children, I cannot recommend this film highly enough: