Second quarter

The new quarter is here. So are my two new classes. Well, they aren’t ‘new’ classes since I taught the same subject (composition) last quarter. My first hour class is small - 12 students. But they are a typical first hour class - quiet and unresponsive. I hate first hour. My second hour class is a bit larger - 16 - but that’s nothing to complain about. And like last quarter’s second hour class, this one is lively and energetic. They’ll be a fun bunch.

My Advanced Writing class is plodding along toward their research paper. Over the weekend I graded their film reviews. Their analyses of theme and film technique were pretty weak, so I’ve decided to show another film this week and really hammer them on analysis since that is a skill they’ll need for their research paper later this quarter.

After their second film review, I move on to the literary analysis unit that I blathered about last week. Then we’ll move on to the comparison and contrast paper and then focus on the research paper and getting their second novel read.

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Yesterday afternoon I had to run over to Hugo’s for groceries. As I walked in I noticed a young couple - and immediately I thought ‘white trash’ as they stood there waiting for their taxi and decked out in threadbare clothing, hats on backwards, gold jewelry dangling about, and homemade tattoos etched on their arms. Then I heard their baby, resting in one of the Hugo’s grocery cart/stroller combos, imploring “Stop it, Daddy, stop it!” The little girl said this about 10 times in the five seconds it took me to walk in, survey them, grab my cart and enter the store. I gazed back at the father and it appeared he wasn’t doing anything to threaten her. But she kept shouting, “Stop it, Daddy, stop it!” Soon other people were looking at them. The couple were oblivious to the scene.

As I walked into the store, my heart began to seize in my chest. I felt a cold sweat on my forehead as the child’s cries sounded again and again. There was something so desperate and innocent in her begging. Then the thought hit me, “Why does that loser get to have a child?”

I realize I was stereotyping him and judging a book by its cover, but I couldn’t help it. I’m just being honest. But that pleading tone in his daughter’s voice, “Stop it, Daddy, stop it!” cut into me.

I continued down the aisle but I began thinking about how innocent the little girl was strapped in to that chair. How incessant she was. She wasn’t even mine and I found myself willing to do whatever that little child asked of me.

I couldn’t help but dread what other things that child will beg her father not to do in the future.


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We celebrated Veteran’s Day yesterday with a morning assembly. The vets always put on a nice show for the student body. Sometimes they bring in speakers - with mixed results. The host has now read from the same notes at least two years in a row. He even read the same poems.

I always cringe when the old veterans march in. I cringe because I wonder how our students will relate to them and if our students will show them the respect the vets deserve. Usually, this is never a problem, but it was this year.

I was stationed up in the balcony. Unfortunately, the kids from the ALC came over and were seated up there (I don’t know why they stick them up in the balcony where it is dark and anarchy can break out - especially when the teacher in charge of them is absolutely clueless). Sure enough, a few blathered throughout the presentation - right under the ALC teacher’s watch. A few had their cell phones out and were texting others. Another couple whispered in each other’s ears.

The disappointment wasn’t confined solely to the ALC kids though. Seated on stage were the boys and girls state attendants from our school. They are called up each time to give a recap of their experience over the summer from boys and girls state. They boys did a fine job. They sounded prepared (I even proof read one of their speeches). However, the girls did terrible. The first one actually mentioned how she was ‘stuck’ down at girls state! She also talked like she was totally unprepared. The one who followed her up was just as bad. Both are nice girls, but they sorely disappointed all. The final girl representative saved the day. She sounded as if she was the only one who had a brain in her head.

I really wish there was some way to bridge the gap between how the vets were raised to be respectful to their elders and how the younger kids are raised to be entertained by their elders. Then the students might be able to get something out of the event rather than suffering through what many consider to be the old geezers who rattle off a few war stories and dates and names that they’ll never remember.

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Last Friday was our second inservice day of the year. It was also the best. By far.

The most interesting aspect for me was a presentation on gangs by Gary Russell from the Evergreen Shelter Program in Bemidji. Having spent four years of my life living in Bemidji, it was shocking to see slides of gang graffiti on places I have been.

What I found most interesting (and useful) was how Mr. Russell talked about breaking kids out of the ‘gang’ mentality. This entails challenging their core beliefs that their gang is their family and offers them everything they need. Once he can attack their beliefs and reason them into a corner, he is able to achieve that epiphany where the kid realizes that all of his beliefs about his ‘gang’ are false. Then his belief structure collapses, and so does his involvement in the gang. I like this because it’s an intellectual approach to defeating the brainwashing that gangs do. I’ve heard stories about angry parents saying “My kid will NOT be in a gang and that’s that” when they are confronted with the fact that their kids in in a gang. Of course, this tends to drive the kid deeper into the gangs. So reasoning them out of the gangs by soundly defeating their core beliefs really made sense.

While thinking about this, I decided that that is really what I’m trying to do in composition. I want to challenge what they kids think they believe. By using prompts, I hope to get kids writing (and thinking). Now I need to do a better job challenging their beliefs. I had one girl first quarter write about her love for alcohol. I turned this over to the counselors and SAT team and chastised her for writing about this in school. But did I do anything to cure the problem? No. I can do more.

I should have developed a series of prompts that would have challenged her to look at her love for booze and see if it’s real. Or is she being peer pressured into it? Is she doing it to fit in? Is it bringing her true joy? How does it enhance her meaning and individuality? Is that how she wants to be defined the rest of her life? Is that what she wants for her daughter? These are some of the issues I could have raised to challenge her belief and, hopefully, shake it some.

Mr. Russell also talked a lot about dealing with Native American kids in gangs. As a way of challenging their beliefs, he talks about the Native’s “Circle of Life” which is comprised of four colored parts - yellow, black, white, and red - to represent the different peoples of the world. Then he talks to the gang member about what it means to be part of the circle. He asks the Native American gang member what it would be like to be a member of that circle two hundred years ago. You had to be a skilled member of your community. You had to be a hunter, a story teller, a father, a leader, a warrior, a negotiator . . . all of these things were done not just for your survival but for the survival of your community. All of that kept them a vital part of the four part circle of life. But what do gangs do for that circle of life? They automatically restrict you from other members of your community. Crips hate Bloods and so on. You are not uniting but separating. They take that fourth part of the circle of life and reduce it down to a sliver. How is this helping?

I want to use this in my composition class. I just read an article a few months ago about today’s youth being the most isolated in American history. Very few have close friends. The reasons for this are clear enough - technology separates kids (instead of going out and hanging out on the playground, many are on chatrooms or isolated playing video games), having fewer siblings (I think of my brother in law’s family - 10 kids - how could you ever feel alone with all those people around), lack of parental involvement (parents working late and wanting to have a life distinct from that of their children), and so on. How can I develop a series of prompts to analyze this and get kids to try to connect to a larger community?