Food for Thought

In The Beginning

In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth and
populated the Earth with broccoli, cauliflower and spinach, green and yellow and red vegetables of all kinds, so Man and Woman would live long and healthy lives.

Then using God's great gifts, Satan created Ben and Jerry's Ice
Cream and Krispy Creme Donuts. And Satan said, "You want chocolate with that?" And Man said, "Yes!" and Woman said, "and as long as you're at it, add some sprinkles." And they gained 10 pounds. And Satan smiled.

And God created the healthful yogurt that Woman might keep the
figure that Man found so fair. And Satan brought forth white flour from the wheat, and sugar from the cane and combined them. And Woman went from size 6Â to size 14.

So God said, "Try my fresh green salad." And Satan presented
Thousand-Island Dressing, buttery croutons and garlic toast on the
side. And Man and Woman unfastened their belts following the repast.

God then said, "I have sent you heart healthy vegetables and
olive oil in which to cook them." And Satan brought forth deep fried fish and chicken-fried steak so big it needed its own platter. And Man gained more weight and his cholesterol went through the roof.

God then created a light, fluffy white cake, named it "Angel Food
Cake," and said, "It is good." Satan then created chocolate cake and
named it "Devil's Food."

God then brought forth running shoes so that His children might
lose those extra pounds. And Satan gave cable TV with a remote control so Man would not have to toil changing the channels. And Man and Woman laughed and cried before the flickering blue light and gained pounds.

Then God brought forth the potato, naturally low in fat and
brimming with nutrition. And Satan peeled off the healthful skin and sliced the starchy center into chips and deep-fried them. And Man gained pounds.

God then gave lean beef so that Man might consume fewer calories
and still satisfy his appetite. And Satan created McDonald's and its 99-cent double cheeseburger. Then said, "You want fries with that?" And Man replied, "Yes! And super size them!" And Satan said, "It is good." And Man went into cardiac arrest.

God sighed and created quadruple bypass surgery.

Then Satan created HMOs.

Enjoy the Silence

Enjoy the Silence Cover Version by Tori Amos

Words like violence
Break the silence
Come crashing in
Into my little world
Painful to me
Pierce right through me
Cant you understand
Oh my little girl

All I ever wanted
All I ever needed
Is here in my arms
Words are very unnecessary
They can only do harm

Vows are spoken
To be broken
Feelings are intense
Words are trivial
Pleasures remain
So does the pain
Words are meaningless
And forgettable

All I ever wanted
All I ever needed
Is here in my arms
Words are very unnecessary
They can only do harm

Enjoy the silence

Flowers in the Window

My Reply: Yes I Will.

Flowers in the Window by Travis

When I first held you I was cold
A melting snowman I was told
But there was no-one there to hold
Before I swore that I would be alone forever more

There is no reason to feel bad
But there are many seasons to feel glad, sad, mad
Its just a bunch of feelings that we have to hold
But I am here to help you with the load

So now we're here and now is fine
So far away from there
And there is time, time, time
To plant new seeds and watch them grow
So there'll be flowers in the window when we go

Wow, look at you now
Flowers in the window
Its such a lovely day
And Im glad that you feel the same
cos to stand up Im in the crowd
You are one in a million
And I love you so lets watch the flowers grow

Lets watch the flowers grow

Chasing Cars

Your response - http://www.mp3.com/albums/20103048/summary.html

Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol

We'll do it all
Everything
On our own

We don't need
Anything
Or anyone

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

I don't quite know
How to say
How I feel

Those three words
Are said too much
They're not enough

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life

Let's waste time
Chasing cars
Around our heads

I need your grace
To remind me
To find my own

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life

All that I am
All that I ever was
Is here in your perfect eyes, they're all I can see

I don't know where
Confused about how as well
Just know that these things will never change for us at all

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

When I Fault Teachers

by Linda Schrock Taylor

I believe that most of the blame for the current blight in public education lies with the teacher training institutions. Without a doubt, they turn out poorly educated, untrained teachers. Additionally, I take teacher unions to task for not pressuring the teacher training colleges to actually teach teachers how to teach. Representing strong, competent teachers would allow each union to bargain from strength, rather than having to bargain from weakness, so one might think that unions would realize the folly of protecting too many teachers who are ineffective, unscholarly, untrained, and some even ignorant. But of course, the dues keep rolling in, regardless.

Many people generalize and so criticize all teachers for the downfall of public education. I must defend the many skilled, hardworking, caring, motivated, and very frustrated teachers who are trying their best, and achieving results, against incredible odds. I frequently hear from such teachers and believe me, their hearts are heavy and their stress comes through, even in brief contacts.

Still, too many teachers do share the blame for the eroding public educational system. My first advice, therefore, is to remove your children from public education and do it as soon as possible. The longer you wait, the longer it will take you to 'unmold' your child from the un-educational aspects of schooling – if a complete healing can even take place. It will also take time to make up for the academic lessons that did not get handled while the PC lessons towards progressiveness and collectivism were being stressed.

If you simply cannot remove your children from the schools at this time, do your 'homework' and find out which teachers are considered the best in your district, then insist that your children be placed in those classes. Demand. Do not accept 'No' for an answer. If you are unaware of which teachers are the best, ask those parents whose children have passed through the system. They will know which teachers to choose; which to refuse. There are also certain types of teachers to definitely avoid. These are the teachers I do fault for participating in the failure of the schools.

I fault teachers who were poor students, themselves; had no interest in books or scholarship; never aimed for excellence in any class, at any level during their own schooling; still have low reading, spelling and writing skills…but decided to major in education, anyway. (Love those summers off!)

I fault teachers who lack intellectual curiosity and rarely read; who never conduct research specifically focused on improving their teaching skills. Some teachers, after realizing that I do things differently in my room, ask to borrow books and materials. Weeks, even months later, most of those teachers return the books saying, "I don't have time to read them right now, but maybe I'll borrow them again someday." (I won't hold my breath.)

I fault teachers who continue to perform poorly, but never self-assess; never question the information they were taught in college. They fault the children; they fault the parents; but they never fault themselves. They continue to use ineffective teaching methods, and defective teaching materials and would not change for the world. They were 'programmed' to those roles during their faulty educations, and they would be lost without the old stand-bys to which they cling, even as public education crashes about their heads.

I fault teachers who refuse to raise their expectations to help a successful group of students continue great gains begun under a previous teacher. For example, a teacher may work to get nearly every student to automaticity with math facts. The class then moves on to the next teacher who, not only fails to expand competency with higher-level facts, but allows the previously learned skills to slip away from disuse. I have observed this same trend with penmanship, reading, spelling, and so on through the curriculum – one teacher is strong and consistent; the next is weak and careless.

I fault the teachers who teach the same way every year to every group – never modifying methods, tests, expectations, or their delivery. Such teachers fail to acknowledge that each class brings a unique combination of students, and not every group learns in exactly the same ways.

To further complicate instruction, we now have TV generations sitting in our classrooms – students who have spent hours as passive observers, rather than as active thinkers. Yes, today's children are harder to teach, so we need to adjust our methods, accordingly. Each year I adapt for new group dynamics, and I become more active and theatrical in delivering each lesson. (If parents understood the damage that television and video games are doing to the minds of their children, the video equipment would be dumped in one mass movement to clear houses of 'junk'.)

I fault the teachers who attend every workshop and in-service, then drag their students from one fad or gimmick to another, always hoping to find the one magic formula; a way to teach without working too hard; without investing too much of oneself. I especially fault the ones who buy into the illogical 'group work' and 'collaborative learning' ideas. The 'construct knowledge' idea is too asinine for discussion among intelligent persons.

Even my 'learning disabled' students see the foolishness of such fads! They arrive from classes where such trends are being used, and complain that "three kids sat while the rest of us did the work, but we all received the same grade. It is stupid!" When I tease them with, "Today we will do some group work; some collaborative learning; we will construct some knowledge. Please count off, form into groups, and teach each other to read," the laughter can hardly be contained. Of all students, these kids best understand that they are in need of special instruction exactly because of the 'disabilities' that they 'developed' in classrooms where teachers had no idea of how to teach reading! These students are more astute than many teachers, realizing that a group of kids, who know nothing, will teach each other exactly – NOTHING! But fads carry the day in too many classrooms, often in response to direct orders from principals.

I fault the teachers who notice that other teachers are being successful with teaching, but remain too proud, too arrogant, too lazy…to go ask for help, ideas and instruction from those skilled and knowledgeable professionals. Such immature and incompetent teachers abdicate their responsibility to fully and effectively meet the needs of the students.

I fault the teachers who sat silently through the years, fearful of losing their jobs, as "progressive" ideas took over the schools. Had we all battled against 'innovations' in the beginning, we might have avoided their current death grip on the educational system. I remember too many meetings where my voice was the only one raised to question the ethics; to discuss the ludicrousness of fads, gimmicks, worthless materials; to confront the lack of scholarship and logic behind the multitude of inservices, district demands and federal takeovers. My voice in one district; a couple voices in another…all together too few to hold back the avalanche of progressivism and collectivism.

Finally, I fault those principals who taught the minimum years necessary (only four in many states) to qualify for administrative certification. Too many of these individuals lack the experience and the wisdom, to assess the direction in which education is moving. They have no concept of how and why education is failing in this country; no idea how to stop its descent towards its eventual collapse. The inept members of this group rant about falling test scores – then rid themselves of the very teachers who know how to teach. These inexperienced principals believe themselves competent to evaluate teachers who have taught twenty, thirty, forty years. What arrogance!

We used to say, "Those who can teach, do; those who can't, administrate." Now there are not enough administrative slots open to handle the numbers of unskilled teachers. Now those teachers cover their inadequacies by becoming 'groupies' to inexperienced principals, thereby 'earning' great evaluations. The students lose from every side. Administrators of this ilk fail to notice, or refuse to care, that fine teachers are being driven out of teaching by principals who – never taught long enough to become competent; or for whom competency would never have developed, no matter how long they stood in front of a class.

Homeschooling? Parochial schools? Private schools? Which is your preference for your children? Think fast; respond quickly! Time is passing; your children are growing! Once these years are gone, you cannot call them back and make better decisions.

December 8, 2003