fuzzy&influential

she/her/hers | fandom elder(ish) | do you remember geocities? Reblogging mainly without tags, because I'm uncivilized like that.

[unicyclehippo]

AJSJJDKSJD THE QUILTING SHOW MY GMA WANTS TO GO TO HAS A “FREE TICKET FOR UNDER 30s” IM!!!!! that’s SO funny ?? They wanna encourage young ppl SO much to get into quilting

[unicyclehippo]

what i imagine the quilting convention back room looks like

[unicyclehippo]

this is happening tmrw im soooo excited!!! my gma is bringing her walking stick for age related reasons but also so she can quote “knock those old ladies OUT of my way”

[unicyclehippo]

y’all it was so much fun, there were so many Incredible quilts there, i had an awesome time. here are some photos i took of the quilts, forgive me for how crooked most of them are, i took them v quickly bc my gma was getting tired

i wanna shout out this last one—ITS ALL THREAD PAINTING. THE WHOLE THING. it’s. i should have got a close up of it but it’s all thread painted it’s so so cool

[unicyclehippo]

& yet MORE quilts…

i wanna shout out the top picture — the skull quilt was so cool first of all & it’s ALSO the artists FIRST QUILT??? it was so incredibly cool & detailed I rly loved it. i also wanna point out the last quilt here, all of these flowers are applique & i had so much trouble keeping from TOUCHING it (which ur not allowed to do ofc). it was so gorgeous. the close up square above it is from the same quilt. just wow!

[gallusrostromegalus]

Reminder to everyone to go join your local quilt guild.

[wiisagi-maiingan]

If you can recognize how much of North America was cultivated over thousands of years by indigenous people, then you also need to recognize that a significant chunk of "wilderness" here is dependent on human intervention to thrive.

There are countless plants and fungi, from mushrooms to grasses to trees, that have been proven to do best when regularly harvested, whether it's because harvest makes them release seeds or clears away dead growth or provides more light to younger plants, cultivation means that harvesting is often to the benefit of the plant.

Which means that you also have to recognize that locking those plants away from people, even with the best intentions, can actually do horrible damage to their populations and to existing ecosystems.

There isn't an easy solution to this problem. Proper foraging isn't something that most people are taught anymore and many of these plants do not have significant enough populations right now to survive excessive harvest.

But going forward, as we work on restoring ecosystems and helping our planet (and our relationships to the land) heal, then we need to acknowledge that humans and nature are not separate entities and that we've always been dependent on each other.

[whilomm]

happy almost extremely loud sound wednesday monday everyone!!!

i cant believe its already almost extremely loud sound wednesday monday

[depsidase]

[doctorslippery]

Yep. If history gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling, you aren't learning history. You're being indoctrinated.

[dduane]

Or at the very least, you haven't tried to look under the surface of what you're being shown.

[itscolossal]

Forceful Waves Rip Across Lake Erie in Tempestuous Photos by Trevor Pottelberg

[elainiisms]

meeee

[20thcenturystarlet]

Girl photographed by Hugh Magnum c. 1909

Magnum’s photographs are notable for their informality, which was unusual for the period. I just adore the series of this girl, she’s such a beauty.

[mrarkemy]

𝗆𝖺𝗁 𝖻𝗈𝗒 𝗆𝗂𝗒𝖺𝗀𝗂 𝗐𝗉𝗉 | 𝟣𝟢𝟪𝟢 𝗑 𝟤𝟦𝟢𝟢

[dishchan]

🍁You are fabulous. Tell me something happy about this week, then pass on to as many other people as you would like to 🍁

HOW DELIGHTFUL. You are JUST as fabulous!

Something happy about this week, tho? Hmmm. I got my flu shot and COVID booster and proceeded to be wiped out the following morning. WHICH meant a nice long lie in and some superb cuddles from my cat.

[scifi-guy]

"x ship is normalizing incest-"

Buddy

If game of thrones hasn't normalized incest by now (pulling over 10 million views in the 7th season alone) then a small fandom ship most certainly won't

[lentilswitheverything]

Spn ran for fifteen fucking seasons, it ran for over a decade, and wincest was consistently one of the two or three most popular ships. And it had no measurable impact on real world abuse. Maybe you think fandom is uniquely dangerous (why, idk, but this tumblr after all) but a pretty good rule of fandom is that if Spn couldn't do it, fucking no one else is going to manage it.

[silentstep]

(link to tweet)

[omnipotina]

Settle a bet.

Who wins in a fight?

Kronk

Gaston

Voting ended onSep 7, 2023

[beemojis]

soooo true bestie

[lierdumoa]

Gaston is governed by standard 1990s Disney villain rules. He has the same vulnerabilities as Frollo or Scar. Kronk, however, is governed by Looney Tunes protagonist rules. He has no vulnerabilities.

[musette22]

Chris Evans surprises shelter dogs with cuddles and treats to celebrate National Dog Day ♥️🐾

[vergess]

Quick question, genuine question:

Why on earth does "more than half of US adults under 30 cannot read above an elementary school level" not strike horror into the heart of everyone who hears it?

Are the implications of it unclear????

I'm serious, people keep reacting with a sort of vague dismissal when I point this out, and I want to know why!

If adults in the US cannot read, then the only information they have access to is TV and video, the spaces with the most egregious and horrific misinformation!

If they cannot read, they cannot escape that misinformation.

This obscene lack of literacy should strike fear into every heart! US TV is notoriously horrific propaganda!

Is that???? Not??? Obvious???????

I know this sounds sarcastic, I know it does, but I'm completely serious here. I do not understand where the disconnect is.

[vergess]

Literacy can be broadly categorized into 3 groups. The ability to read words, the ability to read sentences or paragraphs, and the ability to texts a page or longer.

55% of US adults cannot read long texts.

The process of reading the individual sentences is so taxing due to this low literacy that actually synthesizing the total information presented becomes nearly impossible. It requires both holding onto the meaning of each sentence so that you can contextualize it with the next one, AND consciously going through the decode process of interpreting letter and word forms in that next sentence.

In general, children are expected to begin reading long texts for meaning around age 8-10, in elementary school. This is when kids normally swap from short stories to chaptered books.

55% of American adults under 30 cannot read at that level.

We know this not from some short term study or another, but from the collected data of the US Department of Education going back decades.

U.S. PIAAC Skills Map

Reliable estimates of adult literacy and numeracy skills in all 50 states and 3,141 counties, and the District of Columbia using PIAAC surve

This is the same literacy data used internationally to determine literacy rates around the world, not some kind of shock study.

55% of American adults under 30 can't read, and it's explicitly, specifically because our schools refuse to teach them, and effectively haven't been doing so for over a decade nationally and as much as 30 years in some states.

When some children are learning to read, they catch on so quickly that it appears effortless. It does not seem to matter what reading curric

The knock on effects and implications of this are horrific.

I understand that this sounds like some fuckery bullshit because it's such an unfathomably massive problem, but holy shit.

It's very, VERY real.

@firecoloredwater I can't see your replies while I write on mobile so I'm trying to just remember everything you mentioned. I hope this covered most of it?

But, basically, the reading skills to navigate an app menu or read a single sentence are not what's being discussed. The skills to read a newspaper or book, however, are.

[palominocorn]

I saw this a few days ago and it's been on my mind since.

I don't even need to leave Tumblr to see failed literacy.

I've seen many people, just in the last couple of days, completely misunderstand something and read it in a hostile way based on their own biases rather than in anything the author said.

It's weird and unpleasant when I go to fandom spaces and see someone completely misread a chapter. But when it comes to discussions on bigotry, politics, social justice? That ruins lives.

On a different note, I've started asking myself "am I sure I understand this" when reading dense texts, and taking a few extra seconds per paragraph to mentally summarize what I read to make sure I get it. So, thanks for making me a more conscientious reader, Vees.

[zharvolk]

I have a lot of friends and family who are teachers. Believe me, they’re trying to teach and encourage reading. But, as a whole, our society is very anti-education. It has been for a very long time. Especially in the last decade, they’ve doubled down on anti-education. It’s not a coincidence that the most conservative groups have pushed the idea that being educated = snobbery. They love the stereotype of simple, down-to-earth ideals that, to them and the specific manipulation they peddle, equal not being “told how to think by college professors and book-learning.” This goes hand-in-hand with the idea that knowledge through experience is somehow more and the only thing one needs than knowledge through education and reading. It’s a classic maneuver that has been done countless times in countless countries, all for very specific outcomes.

[vergess]

As this post escapes containment, that's something I want to emphasize too:

TEACHERS ARE TRYING SO HARD

Teachers, librarians and early childcare workers have been BEGGING people to pay attention to this for over a decade.

And this problem is COMPLETELY solvable. Not in the way that climate change is solvable but requires government intervention, either.

Almost anyone can learn to read, and almost anyone can teach reading.

But, learning to teach is harder stuff, so! In the mean time, support teachers and libraries.

Support evidence based teaching like

Singing the alphabet

Sound out letters to turn writing into speech they understand

Reading out loud

Having the student read out loud

Having the student recite vocabulary

Teaching spelling

That said, there are actually government programs to assist in teaching reading.

This program is run by the US Department of Education, and is intended for teachers and parents of young children. However, the literacy techniques that this FREE! PUBLIC! COURSE! offers can be used to teach literacy at ANY age.

Our brains are hard-wired to master spoken language, but learning to read is another story. Learning to read is a very complex skill — one o

That in mind, "teaching to the test" is a common and dangerous problem in the US especially. No child should be getting pass/fail tests until probably age 10 or older. Before that, the focus should be on building basic skills like letters and numbers.

The requirement that young children have pass/fail tests emphatically worsens this issue. (Testing for placement/comprehension/growth is normal and reasonable; testing to punish a child or worse a school is deranged.)

[imathers]

This video (“The Adults Who Can’t Read” by Zoe Bee) is where I first really found out about this, honestly.

[lierdumoa]

Related:

How a flawed idea is teaching millions of kids to be poor readers

For decades, schools have taught children the strategies of struggling readers, using a theory about reading that cognitive scientists have

[jediorgana-deactivated20260403]

So, I am collecting data to send in to tumblr support, trying to prove no one likes not having their icons anymore. Please vote and reblog!

Do you want the icons/avatars back?

YES!

No.

Voting ended onSep 11, 2023

[psikonauti]

Marcel Vertès (French, 1895 - 1961)

[violetsandshrikes]

if i was an animal and i knew i was being observed and researched i would do something super fucked up. but only once. never again. ruin their lives. keep them guessing.

[emiko-matsui]

sometimes a family isn't a mom, dad, and kid. sometimes it's a lady detective, a deceivingly badass catholic, a butler named mr. butler, two inseparable commie taxi drivers, a ruggedly handsome divorcee, a himbo, a lesbian doctor, a 14 year old kleptomaniac, and aunt prudence