And it just keeps getting better!

This week, at a hastily assembled meeting, our Superintendent of Schools informed us that the County Probation office may have to potentially close down one-half of our juvenile hall next year due to severe budget cuts, thereby affecting the COE (County Office of Education) juvenile hall teaching staff. He handed out pink slips to 22 of 48 teachers to prepare for a "worst case" scenario. It was painful to watch as teacher friends found out their fate that evening.

But wait, it gets better! The news just said that global warming may have helped cause the Japan earthquake, so now I feel guilt too! I just knew that using my fireplace, driving my car, eating meat and drinking milk (because cows produce methane), using up my old light bulbs, etc. would come back to hurt the planet. I knew it! My apologies to the earth, Japan, and to you reader, because as we all know, duh!...Mother Nature can be tamed by well intentioned environmentalists, and I'm not doing my part.

With all the unstable, worldwide events in the news recently, I look inward, Yoda-like, and realize that if I was more of a devout Mexican-American, intrinsically linked to my dark-skinned Mayan ancestors' apocalyptic 2012 calendar, and, believed that guy from history...what's his hyphenated name?... Nostradamus-Perez-Rodriguez? I might think some dark days lie ahead.

In light of all this, I'm considering a new exercise program, a regimen of extreme flexibility, perhaps yoga; so if the shit hits the fan, I'll be able to bend over, and kiss my ass goodbye!

Ay dios mio!

Earth Hour

Compiled a list of a few comments I read on various blogs that I felt noteworthy. Certainly worthy of discussion in a classroom.

Re: Earth Hour 2009

"Its funny, sitting here thinking that Afghans are struggling to survive, while the world is concerned with Earth Hour. Sorry, but its a joke! Participants will feign outrage at their neighbor for not turning off lights, but not a word against an enemy who will happily kill them 'for a cause' " - me via twitter

"Why do we home school? Could it be because across America, children can't read or do the most basic math or logic problems, but, boy, they sure can re-cycle! Is there so much time on our hands that we can spend all of it "tilting at windmills" (or wind farms)? Heaven help us. Maybe those who die at the hand of Islam are the lucky ones -- the rest of us have to witness the rapid decline of western civilization at the hand of the College Marxists... " - hecowe

"When you turn out the lights, you are ... uh, like ... in the dark. Right where libs want everyone to be." - Anonymous

Teachers: I know I might lose some of you here, you can see where I stand on this issue. That's alright, I understand. I've presented only one side, you have your opinions too, I respect that. But when it comes to kids in classrooms, we owe it to them to present BOTH sides of an issue. As teachers, we should encourage discussion based on fact (not emotion - for teens, is that possible?), and let students decide for themselves what they believe. I think this will help stimulate them into becoming thinking, participative citizens. To do otherwise, is unfair, selfish, and borders on teacher malpractice.

So come on, have a discussion in your classroom. You don't have to know both sides of an issue, just be knowledgeable about how to facilitate a discussion without it getting out of hand. i.e. one speaker at a time, respect for the speaker, strive for facts, not emotion - teach them the difference, etc. Good luck.