I love it when charity organizations are clever; it is often so difficult for them to target the group that they want to target. In this case, a skin cancer prevention group posted an advertisement for a free trial of tanning lotion that "triples the effect of the sun." The full story is here.
Showing posts with label social justice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social justice. Show all posts
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Friday, August 12, 2011
The Pro-Life Battle Cry: "I want to adopt your baby!"
My husband just sent me the link to this blog, which encourages Christian families to adopt special needs and abortion-bound babies.
God has really laid it on my heart that when the time comes in which we could adopt, the place to go is really outside the abortion clinic. As a moderate Malcolm Gladwell reader, I do believe that the marketing and convenience of an idea can make all the difference in whether the idea succeeds. If I were a woman who didn't feel that she had options, I would be looking for an instant out. If, instead of saying, "there is a nebulus family out there who could help you raise your family," we said, "Right now, we want to see you through your pregrancy and adopt the baby you have," it would be more concrete and more of a real option.
And let's face it, what is cooler than saving lives?
God has really laid it on my heart that when the time comes in which we could adopt, the place to go is really outside the abortion clinic. As a moderate Malcolm Gladwell reader, I do believe that the marketing and convenience of an idea can make all the difference in whether the idea succeeds. If I were a woman who didn't feel that she had options, I would be looking for an instant out. If, instead of saying, "there is a nebulus family out there who could help you raise your family," we said, "Right now, we want to see you through your pregrancy and adopt the baby you have," it would be more concrete and more of a real option.
And let's face it, what is cooler than saving lives?
Friday, July 29, 2011
The Beautiful Tree: A Personal Journey Into How the World's Poorest People Are Educating Themselves by James Tooley
The Beautiful Tree is a great book for anyone interested in effective models of education in international development. The main thesis is that there are private schools for poor children in the slums of almost every developing country that are out performing their government sponsored competitors. Throughout the book, Tooley meets with development experts and influential politicians who all share one common belief: private schools are only for the wealthy. Tooley makes a great argument for why the private schools are often better: because if parents are unhappy with their children's education, they take their kids and their money elsewhere.
Tooley also exposes the inefficiency of the IMF, and argues that government-sponsored schools are a western model that doesn't even work perfectly in the west, and that this model is imperialistic. He backs his argument with historical records of private schools that existed well before the IMF was ever created. I think that he gets a little heavy handed with his argument that western school systems are imperialistic, but he also does an excellent job testing kids in both government and private schools and he shows that the kids in private schools learn better than their peers. He also provides lengthy data that the kids in private school are mostly gender mixed and that their parents earn paltry sums, but value education. The private schools are very cheap.. most are less than $10 for a school year in the slums of Hyderabad, India.
Conclusion:
A good read, I would recommend it!
Tooley also exposes the inefficiency of the IMF, and argues that government-sponsored schools are a western model that doesn't even work perfectly in the west, and that this model is imperialistic. He backs his argument with historical records of private schools that existed well before the IMF was ever created. I think that he gets a little heavy handed with his argument that western school systems are imperialistic, but he also does an excellent job testing kids in both government and private schools and he shows that the kids in private schools learn better than their peers. He also provides lengthy data that the kids in private school are mostly gender mixed and that their parents earn paltry sums, but value education. The private schools are very cheap.. most are less than $10 for a school year in the slums of Hyderabad, India.
Conclusion:
A good read, I would recommend it!
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