【 慢速英语听力】NCAA Votes to Permit College Athletes to Make Money
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AS IT IS
NCAA Votes to Permit College Athletes to Make Money
October 29, 2019
FILE - Wisconsin's Traevon Jackson dribbles past the NCAA logo during practice at the NCAA men's college basketball tournament in Anaheim, Calif., March 26, 2014.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has taken the first step toward permitting college athletes to make money from their “name, image and likeness.”
The NCAA Board of Governors voted on the issue Tuesday during a meeting at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.
The United States’ largest governing body for college sports said it understands that it “must embrace change to provide the best possible experience for college athletes.”
NCAA rules have long barred players from employing agents. It has also generally refused to let schools pay players.
The board has asked each of the NCAA’s three divisions to begin creating new rules that protect amateurism and permit players to make money. The divisions must establish the new rules by January 2021.
Board chair Michael V. Drake said in a statement Tuesday, “The board is emphasizing that change must be consistent with the values of college sports and higher education and not turn student-athletes into employees of institutions.”
Late last month, California passed a law permitting college athletes to hire agents and make money from endorsement deals. The law protects athletes who sign such deals from dismissal by their team.
The California law is set to take effect in 2023. Other states are moving on similar legislation that could go into effect as soon as 2020.
The NCAA has 1,100 member schools and almost 500,000 athletes. It has refused to pay players in most cases. But it has permitted some exceptions. Olympians, for example, can accept winnings they receive from earning medals. And major athletic conferences have been able to give players wages of between $2,000 and $4,000 a year.
The NCAA reported $1.1 billion in earnings in 2017.
I'm Ashley Thompson.
The Associated Press reported this story. Ashley Thompson adapted it for VOA Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.
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Words in This Story
athlete - n. a person who is trained in or good at sports, games, or exercises that require physical skill and strength
embrace - v. to accept (something or someone) readily or gladly
emphasize - v. to give special attention to (something)
consistent - adj. having parts that agree with each other
hire - v. to use or get the services of (someone) to do a particular job
endorsement - n. the act of publicly saying that you like or use a product or service in exchange for money
ARTS & CULTURE
Aztec Descendants: ‘Take the Dollar Out of the Day of the Dead’
October 29, 2019
People take part in the Day of the Dead parade along Reforma avenue in Mexico City, on October 27, 2019.
People around the world will celebrate Halloween this Thursday, October 31. Halloween dates to an ancient Celtic tradition in which people believed the dead would return to visit the living.
In the United States, many children are busy preparing for Thursday night. They will shout “trick or treat” as they go from home to home in search of candy or other treats.
Some children will paint their faces to look like skulls, borrowing from an ancient Aztec tradition falling around the same time. It is called Dia de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead.
The Day of the Dead spread from Mexico and Central America across the U.S. border. It has become big business in the United States. Stores sell Day of the Dead clothing, skulls made of sugar and other products for the celebration.
The Mattel Toy Company recently launched a Day of the Dead Barbie doll, and Nike has created a Day of the Dead athletic shoe. It is named “Cortez” for Hernan Cortes, the soldier who brought down the Aztec Empire.
Most people “think the Day of the Dead is just about sugar skulls and marigolds,” said Ixtlixochitl Salinas-White Hawk. She is a member of Mexico’s largest indigenous group, the Nahua-Mexika (Aztec). She now lives in Seattle, Washington.
White Hawk does not like the fact that big business and non-indigenous people have taken over the Day of the Dead.
They do not understand “the medicine and spirituality behind it,” she said. “They need to take the dollar sign out of it.”
Melding of religions
Celebrations honoring the dead date back at least to the Aztecs. They set aside a month at the end of the growing season for events honoring Mictecacihuatl. She is the “Lady of the Dead,” who guards the underworld with her husband Miclantecuhtli.
Aztecs made offerings of food, drink and flowers to the dead. Often, these celebrations involved killing innocent people, which angered the Roman Catholic Church.
In 1521, Spain destroyed the Aztec Empire, but had trouble removing the Aztec’s spiritual traditions from the native people. Slowly, indigenous spirituality and Catholicism joined together: Catholic churches were built in the place of former Aztec religious buildings, and Aztec celebrations were reborn as Christian holy days.
“They knew that they were not going to be able to make the people not celebrate our ancestors,” said White Hawk, “so they passed it on to All Saint’s and All Soul’s Day.”
She notes the Christian holidays that fall on the first two days of November, one honoring dead Catholic Saints and the other remembering the dead.
Today, Day of the Dead is three-day celebration, beginning October 31 and lasting through November 2. These days are set aside to honor generations of ancestors.
“We are not here just on our own,” said White Hawk. “We are here because our ancestors lived through hardships and struggles and gave their love for us to be here. So, we celebrate them as a way of thanking them.”
Individual traditions are very different from one family to another, but most people set up altars at their home or where family members are buried. They set up pictures of the dead, candles, flowers and some traditional foods on the altar. They believe the spirit of the dead will return for a short time to sit with their descendants.
“There is understanding that our ancestors walk with us, so we sit with them, fix their favorite meal, their favorite drink, share stories. It’s about celebrating the life of the person, not mourning their loss,” she said.
Widespread celebrations
Today, indigenous communities across the United States organize Day of the Dead parades and street celebrations.
White Hawk is a member of Tloke Nahuake, “together and united,” a dance group founded by her father, Juan Salinas. For years, he has traveled across the country to share Aztec culture through dance. The family has taken part in Day of the Dead celebrations in Seattle for years. Sometimes they invite representatives of different communities in Mexico to share the tradition with the public.
“There are stories that go with the dances, which are really prayers,” she said. “They are an expression of who we are — not who we are in that moment, but everything our ancestors did to get us to that moment.”
Dancers create their own clothing, which include large, colorful hats or head coverings made up of the feathers of parrots and other birds.
“Every feather has its own meaning,” said White Hawk. She says they sometimes dance for seven or eight hours.
She understands why non-indigenous people want to celebrate with the imagery of the Day of the Dead.
“I appreciate that everybody is…trying to find their own place,” she said. “But I feel very protective of the knowledge and culture that has been entrusted to me.”
I’m Susan Shand.
VOA’s Cecily Hilleary reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.
Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.
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Words in This Story
skull – n. the structure of bones that form the head and face of a person or animal
doll – n. a child’s plaything
marigold – n. a plant that produces a colorful flower
indigenous – adj. living, or existing naturally in an area or environment
saint – n. a person who is officially recognized by the Roman Catholic Church as being holy because of the way he or she lived
altar – n. a table used as the center of a religious service or ceremony
descendant – n. someone who is related to a person or group of people who lived in the past
feather – n. any one of the light object growing from a bird’s skin; growths that make up the outer covering of a bird’s body
appreciate – v. to highly value someone or something
EDUCATION
Foreigners Help Fill US Teaching Positions
October 29, 2019
Filipino teacher, Riva Alipin, teaching math at Aztec High School, New Mexico. She is one of eight new teachers working in the Aztec School District this year.
The New Mexico high desert is known for its beauty. The area enjoys sunny skies, and even snow in winter.
One thing missing has been teachers.
The Aztec Municipal School District serves about 3,000 students in northwestern New Mexico. But, for nearly eight years, the school district had trouble finding full-time teachers for its special education students. It instead used temporary or substitute teachers to work with children who have physical disabilities or difficulty learning.
Tania Prokop is Aztec’s Deputy Superintendent. She tells VOA Americans were not interested in the full-time positions.
Aztec is not alone. New Mexico State University reported that the state had 740 unfilled teaching positions in public schools.
A study from the Learning Policy Institute estimates that nationwide, public school districts currently have a shortage of 112,000 teachers.
This year, through a program that brings foreigners to teach in U.S. schools, Aztec has eight full-time, special education teachers. All of them are Filipinos with J1 visas from the U.S. State Department. They teach some of the children who attend the district’s six schools.
Aztec’s Filipino teachers are trained specialists in their areas of expertise. They come to teach for three years, and the visa can be extended for up to five years. The J1 visa, however, does not lead to a green card, or permanent residency in the United States.
Prokop gives high marks to the Filipino teachers, saying it has been “a wonderful experience.”
Not all of it has been easy.
Different cultures
Both the Filipino teachers and the American students have to get used to the differences in their cultures. Prokop says managing the classroom is “one of the biggest things” the teachers have had to learn.
Learning in the classroom is not just limited to reading books and doing homework.
Prokop said that many of the students have never traveled far from home.
“So to have somebody come from a whole different country across an ocean and share those experiences and share pictures and share stories and share food and we're coming up to some holidays. So they'll be sharing some different experiences with holidays.”
Treated like family
Prokop said the community welcomed the eight Filipino teachers and helped them settle into their new homes.
Riva Alipin is one of the eight. She teaches mathematics — integrated Algebra — at Aztec High School with another teacher.
“Working in America is a dream of every Filipino teacher,” she told VOA. She said she believes America provides an “excellent” chance for them to improve their teaching.
Coming here to teach in America, she said, she needed "a lot of guts.” In other words, one must be brave. Alipin also said it was “risky” because New Mexico is so far away from her homeland.
Worried about discrimination
She also was concerned about discrimination.
“There has been news in my country that Filipino teachers have been taken for granted, not by the school admin (leaders) but by the students,” she said.
“The students have bullied teachers for being a non-native English speaker. Filipinos are discriminated because of our accent” — meaning, the way they talk. But she said that, “my experience in Aztec High school proves it wrong.”
She says the students are kind and respectful.
How the U.S. is different
Some things the Filipino teachers will need to get used to? The food and weather. Americans eat different foods. In addition, New Mexico has very different weather from the Philippines. The eight teachers are excited about winter, since it will be their first snow.
Alipin found her job through a business called Bepauche International LLC.
Cheryl Marie Maghinay is co-owner of the company. She left the Philippines and moved to the United States over 10 years ago to accept a job as a teacher. In 2016, she launched her company to help other Filipino teachers find work. This year she helped place teachers in schools across the country, from Florida to Montana and Colorado.
Bepauche is based in Farmington, New Mexico, where Maghinay was a high school teacher. She told VOA almost 1,000 teachers a year contact the company. Of that number, 100 to 200 find jobs in U.S. schools.
Maghinay works with the teachers before they start in their new positions. She said it is not easy for them when they first arrive.
But she adds that the foreign teacher program increases understanding between people from different countries.
“I see the benefits and I see the beauty in diversity. You know, different people come together and learn together. Different practices and also knowledge about each other's culture. It's really, it's really nice.”
More than 3,000 teachers given visas
The U.S. State Department says 3,252 foreign teachers were given exchange visas in 2018. The countries sending the most teachers were the Philippines, Spain, Jamaica, China and France. The top five states with the most foreign teachers were North and South Carolina, New Mexico, Texas and California.
In Illinois, 138 teachers from Spain work in public schools under the visitor exchange program. The state has been taking part in the program for 22 years.
The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) told VOA it plans to hire an International Teacher Recruitment Specialist “who will be responsible for establishing relationships with other countries.”
In an email to VOA, Jackie Matthews, an official with the ISBE, said the goal is to employ teachers who speak English and can “teach in areas of need.” But, she called it a “short-term solution while ISBE continues to support ‘grow our own’ teacher programs.”
What is causing the shortage of teachers?
Matthews said Americans give different reasons, including pay, pensions and working conditions. The ISBE says another problem is that educators are not always being prepared to teach subjects where there is the highest demand in U.S. schools. Illinois’ biggest shortages are in bilingual and special education.
I'm Bryan Lynn.
And I’m Anne Ball.
Anne Ball wrote this story, with information from the Associated Press. The editor was George Grow.
What do you think of this story? Write to us in the comments section below.
Words in This Story
district – n. an area or section of a country, city, or town: such as an area established by a government for official government business
superintendent – n. a person who directs or manages a place, department, organization
residency – n. the state or fact of living in a place
manage – v. to have control of (something, such as a business, department, sports team)
take for granted – v. to fail to properly notice or appreciate (someone or something that is helpful or important to you)
bully – v. to frighten, hurt, or threaten (a smaller or weaker person) : to act like a bully toward (someone)
hire – v. to give work or a job to (someone) in exchange for wages or a salary
pension – n. an amount of money that a company or the government pays to a person who is old or sick and no longer works
bilingual – adj. able to speak and understand two languages