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An Unexpected Gift

Friday, October 30th, 2009

The buzz began during first period: “There’s no water!  What’re we supposed to do?!”  “I dunno, but I REALLY gotta pee!”  The Pavlovian reflexes spread like wildfire: the moment they knew they couldn’t go, everyone had to.

During the break between classes, I squeezed apologetically into line for a bagel.  (Teachers are allowed to cut, but I felt guilty anyway.)  As I ambled back upstairs munching, I passed the vice principal.  “So, we get to leave now, right?” I joked.  “We’ll give it 15 more minutes,” she answered, completely serious.

I swallowed and returned to my classroom, where the students were gathered in a whispering huddle of misery.  “Omigod, I have to go SO bad,” one moaned.  Inwardly, I rolled my eyes.  Girls.

The bell rang, and eight pairs of eager eyes were trained on me – silently, for once.  “It looks like they’re going to cancel school,” I said, smiling.  A series of high-pitched noises ensued: they had not dared to hope for this!

No sooner had I closed my mouth than we heard the click of the PA system.  “May I have everyone’s attention, please.” You could hear a pin drop.  “The county has not been able to give us any more information about the water main break, so we have no choice but to close sch – ”

The poor secretary never finished her sentence; or, if she did, it was drowned out in a chorus of shrieks and cheers that ran the length of four hallways on four floors, from the mouths of hundreds of giddy teenage girls (and probably a few teachers, too.) Immediately, they began making plans to go to lunch together on their day off.

I knew I wouldn’t be going out to lunch; I had so much catching up to do, grading and planning, that I’d probably be there until the final bell rang anyway. (I was.)  But something about group giddiness is awfully infectious, and  I couldn’t help but be filled with wild joy along with the rest of them.

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Posted in School policies, Virtues, Writing | 2 Comments »

Remember the Ladies.

Sunday, October 11th, 2009

So said Abigail Adams in her famous letter to her husband, the President: “Remember all men would be tyrants if they could.”

As husbands are wont to do, he laughed her off, saying, “We know better than to repeal our masculine systems.”

My American Lit class read this the other day, and rather than take it as an opportunity to talk about women’s rights (the obvious answer, and one I am frankly sick of hearing about) I wanted to discuss the honorable tradition of speaking out about a cause, even if it’s nearly hopeless that anything would happen.  I assigned them a brief reflection: write a letter to the President asking him to remember the __________, inserting the name of a group they thought needed an advocate.

Their answers were fascinating.  They wrote about abused children and animals, teenagers (“We get a bad rap — give us a break!”) and the middle class (“Some of us are just trying to make a decent living.”)  They shared their outrage and despair quite willingly.  It was a good discussion.

I didn’t answer the question in front of them; I prefer not to let my opinions influence the direction of their thought, even though we frequently disagree.  But I’m sure you know what I would have said.  Remember the Armenians.  Because you promised to. Because genocide will not go away.  Because I’d really like to prove Hitler wrong.

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On Safire

Sunday, September 27th, 2009

One of my political and grammatical heroes, William Safire, left this world today.  His unabashed conservatism was refreshing, but so was his dedication to our wonderfully complex language — he delighted in idiosyncrasies and condemned sloppiness.

A few years ago, my father gave me “How Not to Write.”  It’s great fun to read, and I imagine Safire enjoyed writing immensely — airing the grievances that accumulated during a lifetime of work in journalism.  The book consists of fifty common mistakes, each contained in a wittily incorrectly-phrased rule.  I’ll list ten of my favorites here, and if you beg and plead, I just might list ten more:

  1. No sentence fragments.
  2. Avoid run-on sentences they are hard to read.
  3. A writer must not shift your point of view.
  4. Do not put statements in the negative form.
  5. Make an all out effort to hyphenate when necessary but not when un-necessary.
  6. Don’t use Capital Letters without a good REASON.
  7. Reserve the apostrophe for it’s proper use and omit it when its not needed.
  8. Write adverbs correct.
  9. Everyone should make sure that their pronouns agree with its antecedent.
  10. I’ve told you a thousand times to resist hyperbole.

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Procrastinate Today! Don’t Put it Off!

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

A dear friend has this bumper sticker displayed prominently in her classroom.  I couldn’t agree more.  I got up early to prepare for my class this evening, as I am woefully behind on reading.  However, I ended up reading a very interesting post on Crunchy Con about the “growing awareness and emotional maturity” of a young Russian girl.  Her father made a documentary about her, “Anna,” by asking her a series of simple questions every year for twelve years.

I’m probably about as aware and emotionally mature as I’ll ever be, but I found the questions intriguing, so here you are:

What do you love the most? God, of course, and my family and friends.  But I also love life.  I love grilled flatbreads with garlic dipping sauce (thanks, Gretchen!)  I love movies that make me think.  I love digging in the dirt and mowing the grass.  I love airports (minus the TSA screenings) and Bombay Sapphire and Vermeer and Schubert.  The good moments, as a Tralfamadorian might say, but the bad ones too, because without those, there would be no learning — and above all else, I love to learn!

What do you hate the most? Apathy.  I know it’s a cliche, but it’s true.  People who don’t care — about their work, their homes, their attitudes, the effect they have on others and on the world around them — they add darkness to the world.  That, and Crocs.  And un-righted wrongs.  And Michael Jackson’s music, dancing, and death-extravaganza coverage.

What scares you the most? The thought that I might not be doing the right thing with the unknown number of days I’ve been given on this Earth.  I’m not trying to be dramatic.  I really worry about this quite a bit, especially with regard to my job.  I wish there were some way to know I’m in the right place.

What do you want more than anything right now? Materially, nothing.  I have been blessed beyond my wildest dreams.  Intellectually, I want stronger discipline, but that’s something I can only give myself!

What do you expect from life? Struggle and redemption.

What does the homeland mean to you? Speaking from a comfortable, coddled perspective, not very much; in fact, I am growing increasingly dissatisfied with it.  We are so fixated on personal happiness and material goods.  And I have never felt very attached to the city or country of my upbringing.  Of course, that might be different if I were forcibly moved elsewhere.  Like I said, coddled.

I want to hear your answers!  Comment below or link to your blog.

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So, Tell Me a Little About Yourself.

Saturday, April 4th, 2009

If you’ve ever sat for an interview and heard these words, you know well the kind of fear they inspire.  Rightly so.  Where in the world should you start?  Talk about your professional goals, to show how driven you are?  Make a joke about your favorite TV show, to make yourself seem approachable and human?  Mention your family and friends, to display your loyalty?

This is exactly the reason I force all of my high school juniors to undergo an interview.  They are horribly nervous.  Professional attitudes are so rare today that few of them know how to properly execute a handshake, dress nicely but modestly, and speak about themselves with confidence and positivity.  We work on all of those things, but by far the toughest area is the dreaded Open Question.  “What do you admire most about yourself?”  “How do you approach problems?”  “What do you think is most important?”  Without the chance to brainstorm, outline, write and revise (as they would in the case of an essay question), they panic.

So, the first activity we do in preparation for the interview is a questionnaire meant to evaluate their personal strengths.  They love to write about themselves. (I wouldn’t be surprised if a watered-down version of this handout were floating around on Facebook somewhere.)  The difficult part is to get them to see their answers from an interviewer’s perspective.  You like to go on vacation?  Could you rephrase that as “I like to travel,” or better yet, “I like to explore?”  Can you see why one answer would be preferable to the other, while all three remain true?

Before I hand out the list of questions, we do a few samples together.  I tell them to make a list of all the things they’re good at, everything from studying for tests to organizing the refrigerator.  Then I have them pick their top five.  They pair up with another student and talk about what these things say about them, and from there they select their top three.  Then they share one of those top three with the whole class, including a brief explanation of what they think it says about them.  In this way, they can compare notes and gather ideas from their classmates in a non-threatening way.  After modeling that process several times, I give them the full list of questions, ignore the groans and tell them to take their time and give me thoughtful, complete answers.

You want to see the whole list, don’t you?  Oh, fine.  Here it is, adapted from The Truth About Getting In (Chapter 6: “Selling Yourself”) by Dr. Katherine Cohen:

(more…)

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