El Rico

I hesitate to write this. My mom told me a story about a boy today that blatantly said that he wasn't going to have a Christmas. My mom works at a magnet school that is in historic Annapolis and caters to the creative arts, but some of the kids that go there are there by proximity. After she had talked to the school psychologist and the boy himself. She realized that he wouldn't have a Christmas that most of us experience. He will experience waking up in a dorm with other foster kids to another morning. He's under the warrant of the state. His mother is out of state and will not likely return due to her status with the state. I feel so compelled to write this just for prayer. I tried looking up the place, East Point, where he is living, but apparently Maryland wants that concealed. Just pray for him as he encounters another lonely Christmas and somehow realize that he is not alone. 

Slumdog Millionaire.

I found this movie oh so lovely. I knew that it was highly rated but I didn't know that it would be oh so awesome. The kids in this story epitomize the children of India and after about seeing them run around for 5 minutes, I wanted to adopt one. Danny Boyle never lets his audience down. 

Janet Jackson

Night number two of our annual church Christmas performance and this year I am in the production. I'm dancing and stomping to the beat of a garbage cans. Last night, I set the standard (the lowest standard, that is) and ripped my pants as I did a squat move in front of the gazing eyes of our audience. I was mortified and hurried off stage. Tonight I came to the show late, on purpose, hoping that everyone would just have forgotten about this wardrobe malfunction. But I was completely WRONG, people that hardly even know me came up to me and gave me a huge smile and said "got a good pair of pants!" AND on top of it all the people in the audience that saw this flaw apparently were all men. A couple of them told me. Even my pastor approached me with a grin from ear to ear. What a memorable night for them. I must say, I took the comments like a champ. 

Random

One of my kids said "QUEFF" in a loud, high pitched voice today in class. The class laughed. I told him "inappropriate!" 

I wanted to laugh too. 

Adulthood

Sometimes when I'm teaching, I'll hear under someone's breath, "Why do I need to know this?" I'll turn to them and explain that one day they'll understand that the Virginia Plan took the form of the House of Representatives and the New Jersey Plan was conceptualized to form the Senate, but really deep down I want to say, "there is going to be a lot of crappy things that you'll have to do in your life and doing this reading and worksheet is going to prepare you for it." As I was reading an article for one of my classes today I came across this quote from John Ogbu: "whatever else education may be, from the standpoint of society it is preparation of children for adult life as adults in their society conceive it." We have high and noble expectations, but really when is anyone going to ask you about the Great Compromise? We want to conceive adulthood as a chance to use what we've learned, but really it's just working, paying the bills, eating, and sleeping...at least for some of my students. Whose adult life are we talking about?