Beavis or Barbie

We will say Beavis or "Ken" so as to not make it a gender statement. If you have two students in your class Beavis and Ken both who acheive a 68% in your classroom and they need a 70% to qualify for the next course level (not grade level), and Beavis never turns in his homework, sluffs class, and is disruptive, and Ken always comes to class, always turns in his assignments and is respectful in class, do you pass either one of them? Studies show American teachers pass Ken, and fail Beavis. Is it fair? What complicates the issue is obviously to be acheiveing the same grades as Ken, Beavis has to be performing much higher on the exams. I went with the passing Ken and not passing Beavis, but is that just supporting "the system?" Or is that teaching responsbility and rewarding it? Pretty hot topic in class today. Opinions?

Going Back to High School

Have you checked out this year's fashions? Do they hauntingly remind you of the things we wore in high school? Okay, not all of them, we were not in tights under the mini-skirt era, at least not in high school, but the long sweaters, the vests, the polyester dresses with wild prints on them? Stripes everywhere, and even the colors I have forbade myself to wear ever again---navy blue, maroon, and dark green. All you have to do is pick up a copy of Chadwick's of Boston and realize that this fall's issue could have been the same one I looked at in Nesha R's livingrom during a young women activity in 1995. Well, appropriate then that my 10 year class reunion is this next summer? Should I go wearing exactly the same sweater I wore in highschool? I probably still have a few...Not to mention the Red Hot Chilli Peppers are hip again, Greenday...haunting in a way isn't it? Strangely I have gone back to wearing almost the exact same hairstyle I wore in high school too. The thing that is weird to me about it all is it makes me strangely feel like where did the last 10 years go? :)
Additionally for my class work I have been for the last year going into high schools and observing classes and yesterday a 17 year old boy kept staring and smiling at me, and I was whoa, here is where I draw the line on flashing back to highschool!
P.S. My sister is going to her first high school dance, Homecoming with Dillon Griggs, and doubling with our neighbor boy Garrin Bergeson. What happened to these kids...weren't they 5 just yesterday?

God Bless America

And God bless George Bush. I hope everyone caught his speech last night, whether live at 7:00 pm in the Mountain Time Zone or any of the various replays on the cable news. I know its not always popular to like the president, but he is a God-fearing man, and I stand behind him.

I have been thinking recently that a lot of the lack of presidential support has to do with our generation's built-in or learned skepticism which I have written about before. Therefore I don't blame people for their various levels of support for George Bush or any of the other presidents we have had or will have. I however increasinly admire my grandparent's generation, they were truly one of the greatest generations. Whether you argree with the politics of that time period or not, they supported the country, they supported the leaders, they remember WWI and WWII with feelings of honor, patriotism, and duty. In large part many of them firmly believed that God was directing the path of this country, and that He still does. I highly recommend a visit with your grandparents for an idea of really what it used to mean to say you were an American. And I hope our generation, to the extent that we can, can in some measure rekindle that fire for God and country, whether we are democrats, republicans, or somewhere in between. United We Stand.

Sensory Experiences

Some mornings you wake up and your body continues to sleep, and only your senses are awake and moving. You mind and body are so still that you almost are in a dream, and your senses feel for you. You almost soak in everything around you in awe. This morning I awoke late, to the sound of pouring rain falling in cadences on the tin of the car port, fall haze shrouding the mountains out my back window. Even now at 10:30 in the morning I feel like I am walking in a dream. My senses are making me think of things that language can't quite describe. I am feeling this feeling:
The feeling you get after hot chochlate.
The feeling of wet, sandaled feet walking through cold, dewey grass.
The sensation of awe you feel at fall leaves rustling in the breeze.
The feeling of warm flannel against your skin.
The feeling of a much needed compliment from someone who knows all your weaknesses and loves you despite all of them.
The sensation of running to make the last entrance time into the British Museum.
The tug of your backpack loaded with concepts you don't quite understand but desire to learn.
The feeling of your date picking you up at the door and you are anticipating a wonderful time, and you are arrived upon just the right outfit.
An oldie-but-goodie like Oklahoma or My Fair Lady making you anticipate a ficticious life with someone as handsome as Carey Grant.
The innocence of the desire for romance you feel at 14 when boys are off limits, but you are picking out your future prom dress from a bride's magazine.
Warm, warm, and oh, so warm again, Campbell's soup that mom gives you while you are sick, tucked into the couch, with soda pop and crackers--and no school.
Hiatus.

Jonah, Jonah, Jonah.

Jonah and the Whale. Was the whale an act of justice or an act of mercy on the part of God? Think about it. I've been thinking about it a lot since I taught a 45 minute lesson on Jonah on Sunday, and I am going to go with mercy. God knew that Jonah was not going to obey him, and was going to get thrown overboard the ship. The scriptures actually tell us that the Lord prepared a whale for Jonah. I am not going to say it was a pleasant experience...but it was merciful on the part of God, who could have just drown him--.

Was I the only one who mixed up Jonah and Pinochio as a child?