veterans

each year, our country celebrates those who have served in the armed forces, and especially those who have sacrified their lives unselfishly so that we may live in freedom.  this year, i am approaching this day with even more reverence that usual.  perhaps it is that our school is having a veteran’s day program, but i’ve done that before.  perhaps it is that several of my colleagues are veterans, but i’ve had that before.  perhaps it is that so many of my friends and family are either veterans or active duty, but that has been the case for many years.  perhaps it is that my grandfather proudly served and his loss is still so fresh in my mind, maybe.  maybe it is that our  country is in a place wehre we are so busy looking out for number one, so bent on creating controversy out of everything, that i feel we are forgetting that the controversy we create involves real humans, with families and loved ones.  that we are not just speaking our mind for or against ideas, but that those thoughts involve friends and neighbors.  maybe it is because of the tradgedy at ft. hood.  i’m not sure, but i hope that you will keep in your thoughts today that you would not be enjoying whatever it is you are doing today if it weren’t for the sacrifices of so many brave young men and women over the more than 200 years that america has endured.  even those who live to share their stories sacrifice more of themselves than we will ever know.  take the time today to lay aside your politics and be truly thankful to someone who risked his/her life so you could express your opinions.

a comment on merit pay and a call to action

in my blog browsing this morning, i came across this post from an oklahoma state senator.  in it, he briefly, but pointedly discusses many of the exact concerns that classroom teachers have about merit pay (esp. when tied to standardized test scores).  right now, thankfully, there is not a lot of public discussion about teacer merit-based pay in my state, but if there were, i would be arguing many of these same points.  i urge you, teacher or not,  to be active in your state’s political process especially now.  this has the potential to drastically change the future of our nation and i, for one, cannot sit idly by and watch it happen.

stolen

ok, i admit it, i completely stole this from rachel at listen and learn, but it was waaaaaay to good to not share here.

Perception

I received this in an email from a friend yesterday, and I thought it was too good not to share with all of you. It really does make you think…what would your reaction have been?

Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approximately two thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later:
The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes:
A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes:
A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children.. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.

45 minutes:
The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

1 hour:
He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before, Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people’s priorities. The questions raised: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made….. How many other things are we missing?

Life is too short for a long story.

a bit of a snob

i’ll be the first to admit that i am a bit of a snob when it comes to coffee.  my mother fresh ground whole bean to brew our morning coffee most of the time i lived at home (and still does – starbucks, mind you).  so, when i moved out on my own, it was good coffee or none – and on a college budget and then a teacher’s salary, that usually meant none.  to say that i was excited when they put an actual starbucks in my sleepy little town would be an understatement.  and, what’s more, i had to drive past every day – that familiar green logo stirring desire in me and filling my nose with that wonderful aroma.  i stopped every time i had a little money to spare.  then came the downturn in the economy and the announcement that starbucks corp was going to close several hundred underperforming stores.  and guess who’s favorite little shop was on that chopping block – that’s right, mine.  now, sometime during the short life of the starbucks at home, i had a bit of an affair.  see, i like to shop local too.  this was my dilemma, i could be faithful to my original love, or i could begin to see the new local coffee shop (we’ll call it dj’s) who boasted fair-trade coffee, catchy slogans, hot breakfast and friendly help.  and, if i’m being completely honest, their coffee was just plain better.  the problem was that they were in the next town over and starbucks was comfortable and convenient, but not for long.  a few months after the announcement (about a year ago) the windows were darkened with black fabric and that familiar green logo no longer beckoned me. and, i took a job in my home town, which meant that those side trips to the other coffee shop were simply out of the question.   i must say that i went through what i can only assume are symptoms of depression and withdrawal.  sure, i have an espresso machine at home, but sometimes it is just nice to have someone else do the work.  so imagine my elation when i see, hanging over the sunmarked paint where my beloved starbucks logo was, the announcement that dj’s was opening a store in that exact location! (cue clouds parting and angels singing heavenly tunes).  so this morning, i blog to you while casually sipping 20 oz. of pure quad-shot caramel macchiato ecstasy.  happy tuesday everyone!

the budget crunch

our state had an emergency legislative session a couple of weeks ago, where they developed a plan to compensate for a projected $600+ million budget shortfall.  of course, education funding was cut, though only by 1% – at least that’s what they want you to believe.  that 1% cut was only the tip of the iceberg.  that 1% is the only one that most people will pay attention to, because it is the most obvious cut.  the other cuts were sneaky and the average person probably doesn’t even realize that those cuts have anything to do with education.  they cut grant money and they cut indian affairs money – two cuts that create HUGE monetary losses to local districts.  in the district where i taught last year, elementary art and music teachers are paid from the elementary fine arts grant and are now being told they may be out of a job at christmas.  teachers in my current district have been told that we may be asked to work a day with0ut pay in order to continue to pay educational assistants, because there is not enough money to pay everybody’s salary.  i work here half time and, after insurance, retirement and taxes, i bring home (ready for this) $432 twice a month.  one day of no pay would reduce this amount to about $375 – for half a month.  i brought home almost that much checking groceries PART TIME at the local grocery store for $6.25/hour and didn’t have to worry about doing any prep for work AT ALL.  i love my job, i really do, but i am not sure that i can afford to continue working as a teacher if i see ANY cuts to my salary (unless they decide to offer me a full time position here, which is highly unlikely).  right now, all i can do is hold my breath – and wait.

on school, students and snow

this morning, i woke up to about an inch of fluffy white snow.  we don’t typically get snow in october, but i remember a few odd years growing up when we had to modify halloween costumes last minute because there was snow on the ground (or still falling).  yesterday, we all knew it was actually going to snow.  remember me telling you about our weatherman?  well, he said it would snow, but mr. d, at the charter school said, and i quote, “weatherman, i don’t need no stinkin’ weatherman.  have you seen the kids today?”  makes me think.  as teachers, we really are so in tune to what our kids are doing that we can do something as complex as predict the weather.  how many times has that happened to you?

origin of trick or treating

tlc gives a brief overview of halloween’s origin and then delves into the possilbe origins of trick-or-treating on pgs 2 and 3 of this article.  it claims that the practices of mumming and souling (providing protection for a h0me or praying for souls in pugatory) are probably predecessors to trick-or treating. 

about.com revokes this lineage, saying that too much time passed between the end of mumming and the begining of american trick-or-treating.   here they project that it was most likely adults who invented trick-or-treating to curb excessive vandalism.

confirming some of these stories and adding in the celtic beliefs that souls desired to be fed is this site written and maintained by and unknown source.  the home site contains information on many different holiday celebrations and the webmaster seems to do quite a bit of research.

origin of the jack-o-lantern

a seasonal feature from the catholic update gives this tale of how a man bargained with the devil to add more time to his sinful ways before he repented and died.  this is one legend of how the jack-o-lantern came to be.  the history channel recounts a similar story here.  wikipedia insists that this legend is completely fictional and that the association of carved pumpkins (or other vegetables) with halloween is a completely north american tradition – although it does admit that europeans have been carving vegetables as lanterns for many years.  read about it here.

origin of dressing up on halloween

the most accepted historcal reason for dressing up relates back to the celtic celebration mentioned in yesterday’s post.  some people will say that the celts dressed up in order to scare off the spirits that were allowed to cross through into the world of the living and thus save their own souls from posession by another spirit (read here).  others will say that they dressed up to confuse the spirits so that no harm would come to themselves (read here)  a slightly different take on the story here says that people dressed up so that they could be closer to the spirits.

origin of halloween

the origin story of halloween as a holiday is widely agreed upon.  it traces back to celtic festivals that celebrated the end of the harvest and the beginning of the dark, winter times.  it was a time when the celtic people believed that the veil between the world of the dead and the living was thin enough to allow spirits to pass through.  honoring your ancestors was a common practice during this festival, called samhain.  you can read a good article about it here (the history channel’s website) or you can this article at wikipedia.

a related holiday celebrated at a similar time in another part of the world is mexico’s dia de los muertos (day of the dead).  you can read about dia de los muertos traditions here. 

many people use all saint’s day to honor the saints on or around november 1.  all saint’s day first appeared as a christian (specifically catholic) church alternative to the celtic samhain.  you can read about the western catholic celebration of all saint’s day here.  christianity today also has an interesting perspective on the merging of holidays with pagan roots into decidedly christian holidays.