One Strike You're Out

                 Today MOHAI shared this image of teachers demonstrating at Seattle school district office in 1971. 

NOT BACK-TO-SCHOOL DAY: The big news out of Seattle today is that teachers and support staff for Seattle Public Schools (SPS) are on strike, starting today.

That meant no first day of school on Wednesday for 50,000 plus SPS students. And that also meant no first day of school for CJ and Annabelle, who take a couple of classes a week through SPS. Obviously, the strike isn't as disruptive to our family's schedule as it is to others with traditional/full time students, so we're lucky in that regard. But this isn't about us! It's about Seattle teachers and building a better public school system in the Emerald City.

The fact of the matter is, this strike is overdue, in my humble opinion. Year after year, teachers have been told to be patient, their compensation was coming. And, it hasn't. And this year, the district wanted to extend their work day and initially proposed a total recess time of as little as 15 minutes per day (!) for students. (That's crazy? How is that even a thing?!)

If you read the very anti-public education Seattle Times' stories, they stress that teachers are asking for an 18 percent pay hike over the next three years. Of course, that would prompt most anyone to think, "Wouldn't we all like an 18 percent pay increase?"

But the truth of the matter is, Seattle teachers haven't received even a cost of living increase in the past SIX years. So if you look at no COLA for 6 years and add in the next three, for a total of NINE years, that's only a 1.85 percent 'raise' per year. Meanwhile, inflation can be computed to be over 18 percent over that same time period. In other words, the 18 percent would let them just keep up with inflation. It's no raise. Especially when the school days are longer, recess is shorter, and more and more is expected of teachers (your class better keep up with the standardized tests or else!). 

I've actually read multiple comments following news stories from people complaining about the Seattle teachers striking "again." 

You know when the last time Seattle teachers went on strike was? THIRTY years ago. Three decades. A generation and a half ago. That doesn't seem too recent to me. ... 

Naturally, we decided to show our support for striking teachers and support staff in cookie form.

We whipped these up this morning and will take them to a picket line tomorrow. 

When not baking and fondanting (that's probably not a word). the kids practiced guitar, worked on their Star Wars stories, and did some math today. We were busy!

LEFTOVERS:  Here are a couple of shots from Monday's abysmal Mariners' game. They really illustrate just how vacant the stadium was.

The kids walked from our seats (where we had sections and sections to ourselves) all the way around the stadium through the empty rows to the other side. I added a red arrow so you can spot them.

 Here they are via a small telephoto lens.

A number of kids their age noticed what they were doing and followed along in the vacant stadium parade.

MEANWHILE, IN LOW EARTH ORBIT: Check out this cool photo of the International Space Station transiting our sun!

The image above was stitched together by shots NASA chief photographer Bill Ingalls captured from Shenandoah National Park on September 6th. He must have had a heckuva lens and a sun-safe filter!

And speaking of the ISS, the European Space Agency has shared a neat animated bio about Denmark's first astronaut, Andreas Mogensen, who's on board the ISS right now.

Mogensen is on board until Friday, when he, Expedition 44 commander Gennady Padalka of Roscosmos, and Aidyn Aimbetov of the Kazakh Space Agency will undock their Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft and fly back to Earth. NASA TV will have coverage, with the following times (all Pacific) of note: 

• 10:45 a.m. -- Farewell and hatch closure coverage (hatch closure scheduled for 2 p.m.)
• 2 p.m. -- Undocking coverage (undocking scheduled for 5:29 p.m.)
• 4:30 p.m. -- Deorbit burn and landing coverage (deorbit burn scheduled for 7:59 p.m., with landing at 8:51 p.m.)
• 7 p.m. -- Video file of hatch closure, undocking and landing activities