Thoughts

The school year has begun, with fresh faces entering my team's classrooms for the first time. This being my sixth year, I've noticed a few things about what happens when you remain in one place for awhile. For one, you establish a reputation, good or bad. Far less of me was known to my first homeroom and to my fellow teachers than is true now. One of the first comments from a student this year related to what others have said about me. Happily, they were good things. In the same way, my fellow teachers know me enough to involve me in some tasks and not in others. The same is true of the other teachers on the team, the "youngest" of whom-- in terms of time on our team-- has been here a year. For that reason, there is a set of definite (though unwritten) expectations placed on each member of the team, wherein we take on roles that pertain to our skill sets. This now happens naturally: while once it was unclear who would do what, it is now clear who will do what. This ha...

I hope this poem makes sense. I'm continuing from the topic of my last post (plus I think there's a little influence from the movie "The Sixth Sense," because I try to make a turn at the end). Even though the poem is a little dark (one thing I don't like about it), my point for it is to show that the things I think I see in others could actually be things I find in me. Ghosts The ghosts don’t mind me staring here Both mute and faceless all the same Their course made straight, still filled with fear, Pretending not to play this game These listless souls feign none to need Their vision pitched by nightless sky They bury deep their doubted creed Perceived within a corporate sigh First one, then all, push past their lack And find strange comfort in their plight While wars in wars leave beaten back Emerging souls that yearn for night I look to find a pitch-black dark And start to weep at what I see For then I find with no remark Their soulful featu...

Exercising at a gym seems to be pretty important in our culture, but it's kind of weird to see the social dynamics when you're there. Usually, if you're running an errand, you see others doing the same thing, going about their days and focusing on what's in front of them. The same thing happens at the gym, only everyone is relatively stationary. They don't really go anywhere, except from one machine or area to another. One might think this lends itself to lots of interaction between members, especially since they're all there for the same purpose, but it isn't true. Not only do people generally avoid talking to one another, but they also avoid even looking at one another. It is as though there is no one else there, even though there are dozens on any given day. Most people follow this unwritten rule, unless something in the environment-- say, two people wanting to use the same set of weights-- gives them common ground to interact, or unless they've alr...

A freshman English teacher had this to say in a conversation forum related to the use of letter grades in school: "[A grading system] makes [students] afraid to ask questions (because the system penalizes not-knowing), afraid to work things out by trial and error, and -- worst of all -- afraid to express unpopular opinions. None of this is what real learning is all about. Learning is messy. It involves taking risks and making mistakes. It requires you to admit your ignorance at times. But by the time most students reach college age, they have already decided that questions and experiments are dangerous, and the safest course is to memorize, repeat, and tuck everything into a neat plastic binder." To an extent, I agree with this person. I remember writing research papers in college, and when it came to evaluating the ideas I came across, I often chose not to express my opinion, because I knew they were as yet puerile, undeveloped. At the same time, I do recall that simply at...

Walking one day at dusk, I remember seeing the shadows of streetlamps, cast lightly on white concrete as the sun set. I remembered then a verse from James: "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." It wasn't particularly Earth-shattering to me at the time; but now, when I remember those times in my life when I knew little else but uncertainty and confusion, I have to consider just how much the stability expressed in that verse offered to me, and just how sustained I truly was. Maybe it was because I felt such suffuse insecurity that I couldn't see the larger plan God had-- and has-- through it all; but I tend to believe, now, that God truly does "work for the good of those who love him," even when they aren't really loving him at the moment. It is this understanding, above all, that stands as a testament to God's unconditional love; that even when we fai...