A Young Girl's Ideals

"In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart." This is a quote from Anne Frank's diary. In these days of terror and hatred, I wonder if she would still believe this.

Anne Frank had to live in fear for two and a half years before she was finally captured and sent to a concentration camp. In that time, she never stepped foot outside, never talked to her friends, and the only human contact she had with the outside world was from the people who brought her family food. She heard the horror stories of the persecution of the Jewish people throughout Europe, and even knew about the camps. How is it then, that she still held this optimistic hope that people were still good at heart?

I often look at the world we live in today, with all the war, hatred, fighting, and senseless violence, and wonder if people really are good at heart. I read somewhere that it is human nature to fight, that human beings instinctually have something within them that makes them want to hurt their fellow humans. This thought makes me very sad. The last thing I want to do is hurt someone, yet even at our own school, I see people doing just that every day.  I watch as young people push, punch, kick, hit and bully their fellow classmates, all in the name of fun. Who is it fun for? Are these people really good at heart? I see our youth growing up in a culture where violence is normal, and often wonder if we have lost the ability to care about others.

On the other hand, I know that people do care, and that maybe Anne was right, and people really are good at heart. I try to talk to my students on a personal level as often as I can, and when I do, I find that they are caring, good people, who just want someone to share that caring and goodness with them. I know that inside everyone there is the ability to show compassion for others. This became very evident for me when I had my own personal tragedy this past month.  When my father passed away, my students made a sympathy card for me that I will treasure forever. I don't treasure it because of what it says, but because for me, it represents the goodness inside every person. If only for a few moments, my students were able to put aside all their negative feelings, and show me that  "in spite of everything, they were really good at heart." I can never thank them all enough for that.

So, I think Anne Frank was right. There are influences in the world that make people do horrible things to one another, but in spite of it all, they are still good at heart. My hope is that there is no one in the world with an evil heart, and that we all can someday break free of doing cruel things to each other. My hope is that we can all show the goodness in our hearts, and leave behind all the negativity that makes us do things we regret.

Thank you Anne Frank, for continuing to give us hope!

War: What is it Good For?

In light of the recent news on bullying in schools, and the fact that we've been reading The Outsiders  in class and have just read about the big rumble, I thought it might be a good time to blog about fighting.

In the book, Ponyboy talks about why people fight. Sodapop fought for fun, Darry for pride, Two-Bit for conformity, and Steve for hatred. Ponyboy himself said he couldn't think of any good reason for fighting, except maybe self defense. While all of these reasons seem legitimate, what's the point? Does beating someone to a pulp really prove that you're better than they are, or that if you pound on someone, you'll fit in with the rest of us?  To me, it just doesn't make any sense.

How can it be fun to fight someone? I don't see how a person could enjoy hurting someone else physically. Maybe the fun is in the competition, to see if you're better than the other. I sometimes wonder though, what pleasure do bullies get from hurting other people?

Pride and honor were the number one reason my students said they fight for. They feel that the only reason to fight someone is to prove you're better than they are. I think the sport of boxing falls into this category. Boxers fight to become the champion, the ruler of all those who dare to challenge. At least in boxing, the fighters are of equal weight, and they wear gloves. I never understood how a bully could ever be proud of beating  up someone half their size.

Conformity. This one just doesn't make sense. Why would anyone get into a fight just to be like everyone else? So often we see in the news that a student was bullied by a group of other students. Most of the students know that bullying in wrong, but they are led by a "ringleader" with the hopes of being accepted.  One student in class labeled this as students being "sheeple".  I couldn't agree more. When the need to feel accepted by others outweighs common sense, there is a problem.

What if you just hate someone so much that your rage takes over, and you just have to let it out? Is that a good reason to fight? Too often these days, I hear students say they "hate" someone. What is it that fills young people with such strong emotion? What can we do to help alleviate some of that emotion to help young people control thier urges to hurt one another? These are questions that I wish I could find the answers for.

So this leads us to self defense. When someone hits you, you should hit back. It has been my experience that this only escalates the problem, and bigger problems ensue. I've been very lucky. In my life, I've only been in one fight, and I was the victim. I didn't fight back. I got hit 4 times, fell to the floor, and I started crying. The person who beat me up, of course, bragged all over school about what a whimp I was. The fact remained, I was still in school, he was suspended for 2 days. Who won?

In the end, the question remains, why fight at all? There are so many other ways to resolve conflicts...a good chess match, a debate, mediation, avoidance, counseling, or even sitting down and just talking to the person you have a conflict with. To me, there's no point to fighting, it never proves anything, and many times, all it does is make things worse.

What's your opinion?

Reflecting

I was talking to my students yesterday, telling them that I had an epiphany. We were reading a reflective essay on tornado chasers. After reading the essay, we then wrote our own relection on what we read. The students then exchanged papers and reflected on each others comments. It was then that I realized that what we were doing was blogging on paper!

For weeks, I've been trying to figure out a way to get the students involved in this blog, and the tornado chasers article finally gave me the answer. If I put a blog on my blog page for students to comment on, this give us all yet another avenue of discussion that we might not get in the classroom. I quickly put together a mini-lesson on blogging and how it could be used in my ELA classes. Some of the students seemed quite interested and excited about getting involved with all the discussions.

For now, I will be using the blog as extra credit, with each post students share worth extra credit points. Reflection is a great tool when trying to implement new strategies into the course of study. Though we often reflect, I sometimes wonder if we really act on our reflections.

My classes change constantly, and though each class learns the same material, it oftentimes is delivered differently from class to class. This is because I always evaluate (reflect) on every class I teach. I figure out what went well, and what didn't go so well, and alter the instruction to suit the needs of my students.

This tool can be used by students as well. I always want students to journal. In relecting on a day's events, we can sometimes see what things we could do to improve our quality of life. Sometimes writing things down helps us to make better choices, as we can see on paper what our options really are.

Were it not for reflection, my students might not have been able to see this blog, and it would have gone unnoticed among the thousands of other blogs out there. I think we should all take time each day to reflect, and in that reflection, make good choices for ourselves and those around us.

Music is the Fabric of Our Lives

Our class just finished writing an essay about their favorite songs. What struck me as most interesting about these essays was the fact that many of my students are able to look beyond the literal meaning and rhythmic dance beats of the songs they like and were actually able to delve into the deeper meaning of songs and how they affect them.

Music plays a central part in almost everyone's life, and we depend on it to cheer us up when we're feeling down, give meaning to our lives when all seems hopeless, occupy our minds when doing some unpleasant task, (like writing essays?) or simply just to feel the sheer joy of listening to a song that means something to us.

I know that whenever a particular song is played on the radio, it brings me back to the memory that I've associated with that song. For example, I remember the day that Elvis Presley died. I was working with my father on a construction job when the song "In the Ghetto" started playing. After it was finished, the DJ came on and announced that Elvis had died. Whenever I hear that song now, it brings me right back to that hot summer day, and how sad the faces were on so many people that day.

I've posted a list of my favorite songs on this blog. That list changes from day to day, as music flows in and out of my life. The only constant will be my number one all time favorite song, "Thunder Road" by Bruce Springsteen. I first heard this song as I was heading off to college. It was 1982, and as the now-familiar harmonica started playing, I knew right then I would love that song forever. This song of hope and independence has stayed with me for the past 28 years, and I've always felt a kinship with the words that Mr. Springsteen offers us all at the end of the song. It's exactly how I felt that day as I left Deposit, heading off for my future...

"This is a town full of losers, and I'm pulling out of here to win...."

What is Family?

We've just started reading The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton. This is a story about gangs, friends, and family. It got me to thinking, just what is a family? Of course, there's always the family in the traditional sense, a mom, a dad, brothers and sisters, and maybe even a pet, but family can be more than just who we're related to. Family is part relationship, part ideal.

Here's what I mean; In my life, I have my wife, brothers and sisters and parents, and all my other relatives, and they're my family. But I also have my school family, those people I work with every day, principals, teachers, and students. Of course, I have a different relationship with all of them than I do with my relatives, but they're family just the same. I depend on them for support, I help them when they need me, and we laugh and cry together.

Family can come from other areas too. Say you play an online game, the people you hang out with there are your family as well, or a club you belong to, or a team you play on. These can all be considered family. I guess what it all boils down to is this, you can have family in many parts of your life, whether it be emotional, in activities, or even in the workplace.

Family is just that, family. It's people you depend on, and can depend on you whenever you or they need it. I think cultivating these type of relationships is very rewarding, and I'm going to work hard to keep all my families strong!

What good is Grammar?

My students and I just finished working on an essay about the pros and cons of texting and internet lingo. The next unit of learning for these students is proper punctuation. This led me to thinking, if everyone (or nearly everyone) texts and uses internet lingo, what's the point of teaching proper grammar and punctuation? I mean seriously, if I can tell someone I'll "brb" instead of be right back, why not use the abbreviated text and save myself some time? Who really cares if I put a comma after each item in a series, or that I end my sentences with periods, as long as I get my meaning across, right?

Consider this:

"On June 6, 1944 soldiers stormed the beach at Normandy."

While this sentence may seem correct, it really isn't, because in reality, 150,000 soldiers stormed the beach that day. A simple misplaced comma can upset the entire meaning of what we are trying to say. Another great example of this is this funny little story:

A panda walks into a bar. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.
"Why? Why are you behaving in this strange, un-panda-like fashion?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda walks towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.
I'm a panda," he says, at the door. "Look it up."
The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.
"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

The English language is all about communication and making sure that others understand what we mean. We all need proper grammar and punctuation in our lives to ensure that everyone understands what we really mean when we write.

A Beginning

You always need to start somewhere, and thus, here we are at my first post. Welcome to my world. I hope this page will serve as a forum for me, my students, and others to discuss books, writing, and other topics of interest to those who study the English language.