On Wednesday Oscar and I were looking for a pool and a guy passing stopped to ask if we needed directions and ended up chatting with him for some time. Truman is a mature aged student at the University of Washington getting his teaching credentials although he's been teaching math (not maths here) at university for some time but wants to teach at high school. After a long conversation comparing the education system here and in Australia we discovered that teachers in both countries face similar challenges. After I told him about my work, he invited me to speak to his classmates about some of these issues, which sounded interesting (does that mean I can claim this trip on tax ?) He invited us over for a BBQ on Friday to meet his wife Audrey, a professional writer who has done some teaching, his children, classmates and his lecturer - who were keen to hear about conditions for teachers in Australia. Sadly they were talking about the same issues teacher in Australia face, data driven curriculum where they test more than they teach. Even more concerning here is the emergence of charter schools which are essentially private schools which still receive funding but are run by third parties who have financial interests, some of them major corporations. Many of these charter schools have managed to exclude unions completely. Amidst all the teacher talk we had a great afternoon, they had two cats and two rabbits much to Ruby's delight, particularly as Henry the rabbit really loved being held and patted.
It's been really hot here and as the apartment does not have a.c by the end of the day it's pretty warm inside, we really have been "sleepless in Seattle" so tonight decided we'd eat out and not even pretend we would get to sleep at a reasonable hour. Last night we watched a documentary called inequality for all which is really worth watching if you can find it, about the widening wage gap here, challenging some assumptions about how to grow an economy (watch out Australia). So when I read this morning about a local restaurant which has started paying staff $15 per hour minimum wage, which is due to be introduced in two years here, rather than the transition rate of $11, recently increased from the state highest rate of $9.47, of course I felt compelled to give them our business as well. Even if it's a marketing ploy I think it's a win-win. The restaurant has increased its prices and advertised that patrons no longer have to tip, almost heresy here but it seems the sky hasn't fallen, the place was packed, didn't look about to go bankrupt to me. As I went to pay, our waitress told us we didn't have to tip as they were now getting $15 per hour and when I told her I knew about that and that was the sole reason we had chosen that restaurant she said many people have reacted the same way, the restaurant has waiting lists every night, sales are great and patrons are vocal in their support. Let's hope this is the start of a movement, $9.47 is NOT enough to support yourself on here and paying people a just wage is paying off for the business too. Speaking of life struggles, we read more today at the aquarium about salmon and their treacherous journey upstream, a recurring theme in this state and its neighbours.............and then really enjoyed eating some this evening, Oscar had Chinook and I had Coho. Ruby stuck with cod, perhaps she had more empathy for the upstream battle of the salmon.
As we arrived home we saw the two girls next door trying to get a sofa off a u-haul ute which looked a bit ambitious. We offered to help and found ourselves, along with another neighbour lifting a large couch up a narrow external, twisting staircase into their second floor lounge room. They were very grateful as there was simply no way they were going to be able to do it by themselves. To get it up the first turn of stairs we had to climb on the garden wall and hoist it over the railing with Oscar holding one end and the other four of us at the other end. Lovely girls and lots of laughs, nice to meet some more locals.
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