Archive for February, 2009

« Older Entries

I know, I know . . .

Saturday, February 28th, 2009

It’s only an MSNBC survey.  But seeing these statistics just galls me.  Please vote for the just recognition of the genocide that inspired Hitler to ponder extermination of the Jews with the famously chilling question, “Who, after all, remembers the Armenians?”

If you really want to know what happened to the Armenians, there is plenty of historical evidence out there, in addition to memoirs and movies that have powerfully portrayed the disastrous results of sweeping these events under the rug.  I take comfort in knowing this President will do the right thing.  But still, ignorance continues to spread.  An entire generation of young Turkish men and women have been raised to believe the death of more than a million people was justified; when I visited the country a few years ago, they all said, smilingly, “We have no problem with the Armenians!”   A nice thought, but pretty depressing, considering how few are left to live out this problem-free existence in their former homeland.

My greatest hope, for all the children God puts in my life?  That they will have the courage to acknowledge evil wherever they see it, regardless of the political or social implications.  That they won’t let us remain silent for a century after the next atrocity takes place.  Because, unfortunately, I’m sure there will be a next atrocity.  There always is.

Tags: ,
Posted in Current Events, Vices | Comments Off

No Thing I Do Don’t Do No Thing But Bring Me More to Do!

Saturday, February 28th, 2009

The situation with my friend and colleague is much worse than anyone had imagined.  She’s going to have surgery followed by four months of off-and-on chemotherapy, and then radiation after that.  The doctor says no work for at least a month, and it sounds like I may have these classes more or less for the rest of the school year.

I took a deep breath and opened the folders of lesson plans yesterday.  A Modest Proposal and Anna Karenina, which I’d read recently.  Paradise Lost and The Importance of Being Earnest, which I’d read when I took AP English a dozen years ago.  She Stoops to Conquer and Tess of the D’Urbervilles, which I’ve never read (and now that I’m slogging through both, I can see why.)  I suddenly feel like my mother in her most recurring nightmare: it’s the day before the final exam and I’ve forgotten to study.

Plans for this weekend: canceled.  New plan: to read and study for the AP English test, so I can bring these kids through it.  Oddly, the shock and anxiety of my friend’s illness hasn’t really registered.  I just know that this is the best way I can help her now — this, and the most fervent prayers.

Posted in Faith, Literature | Comments Off

A [High-School] Freshman at 21

Friday, February 27th, 2009

One of my weekly reading assignments in grad school is to pick an article from the National Council of Teachers of English website and review it.  Sometimes it’s a formal review paper, and sometimes just a discussion, but I always learn something interesting.  Even if you aren’t a member of NCTE, or even an English teacher at all, there are always interesting articles there.

This week, I read about Dallas teachers who are being given high school classes of mixed-age students: anywhere from 12 to 25 years old.  Good God.  As if your freshman year weren’t bad enough, you’re supposed to participate in classes with “kids” twice your age?  Not to mention that many teachers are recent college graduates, with the potential to be younger than their students?

Rob has an interesting perspective on this.  He started teaching at a community college before he had completed his own bachelor’s degree.  At 23, he had students who were more than twice his age; community colleges attract a lot of second-career students, and architecture is attractive to a lot of people who don’t really know what it’s all about. (Which is not their fault.  Shows like Trading Spaces help promote the delusion that they just sit around and build bookshelves out of paint cans and nail guns.)  In most of his classes, he has a mix of recent high school graduates and older professionals.  This can be an advantage, as when a student complains that she can’t finish her project because she’s sooooo busy with her after-school job and a new puppy.  He can point across the room and say, “That guy has a full-time job, too, and a wife and three kids, and somehow he manages to get his work done.”

High school and college are different, though.  High school should be a safe place, where you can take classes that “don’t matter” but help you discover who you are.  You should be able to voice your opinions without fear of embarrassment; it’s embarrassing enough to be honest in front of your peer group, but to be honest in front of someone who’s 8 or 10 years older is a different story.  To say nothing of the increased possibility of statutory rape.  Sorry, but it’s true.  Someone’s got to think about it.

Posted in School policies | Comments Off

Folding

Thursday, February 26th, 2009

Four days until you leave.  I survey the bedroom and ask if I can help.  You shrug: “I’m  mostly done.”

My eyes fall on a pile of clothing mounded on top of your largest suitcase. “Want me to fold that?”

You shrug again. “Okay.”

My coat still on, I reach eagerly for something to do. I take your green sweatshirt, the one with the owls, zip it up, turn it around, tuck the arms and hood under.  Smooth.  Fold.  Smooth.  Fold.  Smooth.  Fold.  Flip.  I reach for a white lacy peasant blouse.

Next to me, you are sorting necklaces.  You pick out one, wooden beads and a large red plastic charm shaped like a jewel.  “Do you want this?  I could never figure out how to wear it.” Oh, dear sister, how could you think I could make fashion sense out of something that eluded yours?  But I take it, because it is yours, was yours, now will be mine to remind me of you.  It goes in my pocket.

A floaty black dress with a satin sash.  Smooth, fold, fold, fold, fold, tuck. “I’m not skinny enough to tie that,” you say, “so I just let it hang.”  Every girl has two or three dresses like that, things she should really let go but can’t because they’re too pretty.  “Or maybe I should cut them off?”  But I think they look sweet just dangling, like Stevie Nicks or a dark angel.

Fluffy brown socks.  Smooth.  Tuck.  How will I be able to say goodbye?

(more…)

Tags:
Posted in Writing | 4 Comments »

A Teacher’s Worst Nightmare

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

My dear friend Mary was a teacher for many years in a religious school, as I am, and knew well the extra labor and reduced income that comes with such a job.  She once had a first-day-of-school dream that just about tops all others: when she arrived at school, there was mass chaos, kids running everywhere.  Somehow, the principal hadn’t hired enough teachers, so Mary was asked to teach two classes.  She did her best, lecturing from the hallway between the classrooms and trying to keep an eye on two bunches of wiggly middle-schoolers.  Her lesson plans were misplaced, and there were lots of other mishaps, but at the end of the day, whew!  She had done it.

And then, of course, she realized she wasn’t wearing any clothing.

My school put forth a similar proposition to me this morning, though under very different circumstances.  The head of our department, a woman about my mom’s age who is the picture of health, was recently diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer.  We’re all reeling from the shock, and I rashly offered to do “whatever I could” to help, never imagining that might include the miracle of coexistence in two classrooms.

It’s actually not as crazy as it sounds.  My Creative Writing class is very small and working on the school’s literary magazine, a task that requires them to do a lot of independent work.  The class I’m going to substitute for is AP English, where the students are extremely driven and also will be working independently — practicing essays, mostly.  And really, there was no one else.  The assistant principal said, “It’s either you or me,” pointedly reminding me that she’s a Calculus teacher.

Amazingly, I’m excited about this opportunity.  I’m ready to give the Creative Writing students an opportunity to prove themselves as independent adults.  I’m thrilled about teaching AP English, which I counted among my favorites from the day we received the summer reading list, roughly 5 times as long as the other class’. More than anything, I’m curious as to whether I can do it; I’m also adding another class, Honors English, which works from the same curriculum but at a slightly less accelerated rate.  Both are for several weeks, possibly longer, depending on how my friend feels after her surgery and treatments.  My most fervent prayer is that she’ll bounce right back, of course, but I’m grateful for the opportunity to try something new.

And I can’t wait to tell Mary about this.

Posted in Literature | 1 Comment »

« Older Entries