01.18.2011
There’s a particular joy that arises when a toddler comes into the room and smiles. There is also a particular joy that arises when the same toddler discovers how annoying screaming is to adults and I get to leave.
“You take the good, you take the bad, and there you have The Facts of Life…”
01.17.2011
In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I’d like to share the lyrics to Tracy Chapman’s “Across the Lines.” I believe that much has been accomplished since the days of slavery and the civil rights era of the 1960s but there is still much needed that could change. It’s easy for me to say, of course, because I don’t have to walk in the shoes of a black person in the US on a daily basis, but I would like to be optimistic.
Perhaps there will be a generation where not only blacks and whites will look beyond the color of one’s skin and see each other as people first and foremost, but that such a mentality will cross over into the treatment of other minorities, religions, and ethnicities.
From her self-titled debut album, 1988
Across the lines
Who would dare to go
Under the bridge
Over the tracks
That separates whites from blacks
Choose sides
Run for your lives
Tonight the riots begin
On the back streets of america
They kill the dream of america
Little black girl gets assaulted
Ain’t no reason why
Newspaper prints the story
And racist tempers fly
Next day it starts a riot
Knives and guns are drawn
Two black boys get killed
One white boy goes blind
Across the lines
Who would dare to go
Under the bridge
Over the tracks
That separates whites from blacks
Choose sides
Run for your lives
Tonight the riots begin
On the back streets of america
They kill the dream of america
Little black girl gets assaulted
Don’t no one know her name
Lots of people hurt and angry
She’s the one to blame
Across the lines
Who would dare to go
Under the bridge
Over the tracks
That separates whites from blacks
Choose sides
Run for your lives
Tonight the riots begin
On the back streets of america
They kill the dream of america
01.16.2011
While doing some yard work today, I was thinking about my day yesterday with my 8th graders and realized that I was really proud of them. We read a somewhat difficult story in class in which there were a lot of new Lithuanian vocabulary words, but they stuck with me and we worked through it together. I’m building the curriculum as we go so these stories that we’re reading are new to me and, as a result, I can’t really predict how the lesson is going to go. The great thing about building a curriculum from scratch (and having a principal who lets you do so) is that you have total freedom but the drawback is also that you have total freedom and that you have a 50-50 shot of the story being engaging. By never having taught a story, you enter the lesson blindly, if you will. So when I’m able to grab the students’ attention enough to see in their faces that they’re thinking about my questions I’m very proud of them. And I hope I remember to tell them so next week.
01.15.2011
This morning, I was almost involved in an accident that would’ve been caused by an angry woman driving erratically.
When at a stop sign getting ready to make a left-hand turn, I noticed a car speeding down the street and decided to wait and see if the car would stop because for a moment it didn’t look like it would. When it stopped and I felt like my life wasn’t in danger, I started to turn and noticed a woman driver with a scowl on her face and a kid sitting in the front seat. There may have been a child in the backseat but I didn’t get a chance to see because mid-turn, the woman started to drive, flooring the accelerator and driving around me. I laid on the horn and yelled for only the air to hear, “You have a damn kid in the car!”
I could tell by one glance that this woman was angry and that she shouldn't have been behind the wheel. In addition to the danger she was posing, she was teaching a horrible lesson to her kid(s). I don’t know what happened to warrant such a reaction from her, and hopefully she wasn’t involved in any kind of an accident, but she certainly took a large gamble by getting behind the wheel in such a state of mind.
I’m not saying that I’ve never driven when angry. I have, and it's not right. I always feel silly once I calm down because no one else on the road knows I’m angry except that my hands are gesturing all over the place and I'm yelling or driving erratically. So what does that accomplish? We all gamble with our lives when we drive, so why do we choose to raise the stakes instead of taking a couple of minutes to calm down? And why do we increase the stakes even more with kids in the car?
I recently read something that has stuck with me: It’s better to lose a second in your life than lose your life in a second.
Be smart. Kids are learning.
01.14.2011
I don’t understand families that choose to have an excessive amount of children. The usual excuse offered is that children are “God’s gift” and though I’m not inclined to disagree, I don’t see it as a reason to keep having them.
01.13.2011
I was at the park today with a little girl I was babysitting and I closely observed the other patrons. Many were sitters, others were mom and an occasional father and grandparent were there as well.
I was reminded of the time when I would go to the park often when I babysat in college and realized that about 14 years later, there seemed to be more men involved in the child’s care. Of course, it could’ve just been the way today rolled out but nonetheless, it was nice to see some men. And not just that, they were actively engaged with their kid.
I did notice that the boys were more rambunctious than the girls which is typical, I think. One caretaker I struck up a conversation with was watching three girls at the same time and said give her girls any day; boys don’t stop. Ha!
01.12.2011
- What makes up a person’s personality? How much of it is parental influence and how much is innate?
- Why and how do some children grow up to have a different set of values from their parents?
- It never ceases to amaze me that siblings can grow up under the same roof with the same parents and yet grow up to be completely different.
- What makes a child more sociable than another? How much of a child’s hesitancy to be social because of a parent’s fears and how much is it because it’s innate?
- Why could a parent have a more challenging relationship with one child than another?
