Reader's Digest

I almost became a Reader's Digest story Monday Night. I was working alone at the store (becuase we were slow), and it was about 9:30, (we close at 9:00), and I went towards the front of the store to start vaccuming. I notice right then, a car pull up and park right in front of the glass windows/doors. He turned off his lights, and never got out of the car. Obviously he sees me, and I am alone. I have the only car in the parking lot, the other 3 buisnesses around us are closed (T-Moblie, Subway and Citibank). This makes me nervous because I'm there alone and he is watching me. I instantly got a creepy feeling, like I shouldn't leave the store. I go back into the back room and to the finiancials ect., and then come out again, and it is 10:00 p.m. and he is still there in his car. I am really scared at this point. I turn off all of the light except the 2 little ones we keep on, and wait. I figure if he sees the lights off and me not leave, he will think I left through the back door. So I then watch him sit there. I decided to call my roomate. Now, my roomates NEVER answer the phone, because they know its going to be for me. So my roomate Michelle tells me later, the phone had rang earlier and she haden't gotten out of bed to get it, but when the phone rang when I called, she felt a sudden panic like she needed to run and get the phone. I asked her to come and drive up in front of the store and just be there while I walked out. She said okay. (I love her!!!) So I creep up to the front of the store, and slowly the car outside turns on only the parking lights of his car, and slowly pulls out and drives around to the back of our store. Just then my roomate pulls up. I lock the door and run (with all the store garbage in my hands) to my car. Just as I got in, the car pulled back out around from the back of the store! So he had only one of two motives. One- he was checking to see if I had left out the back door, or 2- he saw me waiting for him to leave and he just slipped around the back long enough for me to feel safe and leave the store! Scarey! So, he slowly pulled out by me in the parking lot onto the main road and was totally staring at me when he pulled out. I wrote down his license plate number, but I don't think there is anything I can do really. Anyway! I almost became a statistic~. I have never been more scared in my entire life! Luckily the Lord watches out for us, because if I had not come out and vaccumed when I did I would not have seen him pull up, I would have just thought it was a parked car out by the door. Also, my roomate seriously felt panic that she needed to run to the phone when I called! Whew. Be careful girls! And I am telling my boss I am either quitting, or never working alone again. It's just not worth it!

What We Apparently Did Not Learn

In class yesterday we watched a halarious video made by Harvard and the Smithsonian Institute. They went to Harvard/MIT graduation at Cambridge, MA, and interviewed graduating seniors. They gave them a seed to hold in one hand an a peice of a log to hold in the other. They asked them to identify where the weight of the log/tree comes from. Our teacher asked us the same question before the video. The Harvard graduates responded the same way we all did. They grow and get their weight from water, sunlight and minerals in the soil and the photosynthesis that takes place. The Harvard Institute then interviewed 7th grade Earth Science students and they responded the same way.
The video then went on to point out that actually the weight in the log/tree is carbon dioxide. That through photosynthesis the carbon dioxide in the air does what it does and compresses ect., and is turned into energy ect., that that is where the weight and mass comes from--carbon dioxide. They interviewed one specific 7th grader before and after his unit on photosynthesis, and after learning all of this asked him again what trees are made of. 70% water he said, and 30% soil minerals.
The whole funny part of the video was that no matter what students seem to learn through 7th grade Earth Science, or after 20+ years of school and a Harvard degree, the ideas a student enters a classroom with, are the same ideas he leaves with! They were not saying that students don't learn anything, but in large measure it is very, very hard to implant new/correct ideas to replace old/incorrect ones. Funny huh? The trick then for education is how to get those new ideas to stick~.