Thoughts On The Run

The people who complained about the President giving the okay to kill bin Laden are probably the same ones who would have complained if he was taken alive and put on trial.

If you are a republican, Bristol Palin had corrective jaw surgery; if you are a democrat, she had plastic surgery; and if you are an independent, you do not care.

Maria Shriver found a way to kick out a republican from the house.

Hockey in May makes about as much sense as baseball in November.


Newt Gingerich dumps his wife when she has cancer and still some think he would make a good president.


President Clinton watched Al Qaida grow; President Bush watched it hide; President Obama watched it killed.


College towns like Chico, California have a lot more to offer than suburbs like Hemet, California no matter if the economy is thriving or struggling.


One teacher can have a positive impact on an entire class of students but one school board can ruin the lives of thousands by laying off teachers.


If no child is left behind, how do we know which ones are ahead?


Fantasy football; that should be how we refer to the NFL.


RIP Wouter Weylandt; I am a very lucky person.


Charles Barkley is the best sports analyst on television; the funniest too.


Everyone should have as much fun at work as Conan has at his.

Look At Our Families

As a kid growing up in the sixties and seventies, life was fun. Sure, we were in the midst of Vietnam and Watergate and I have vivid memories of young men and women demonstrating against our government but still, life was fun.

School was also fun. We still had to worry about math, science, reading, and history but for the most part, teachers made it as enjoyable as possible. Some were better than others but almost all were patient to a goof ball, class clown, who went to great lengths to avoid doing homework at all cost while having trouble sitting still in class. There was no Columbine and gangs were non existent except for in large cities.

Today, rarely does a day go by where there is not a news story about some kind of school violence. As a teacher, this troubles me greatly because I know it was not always this way.

In 1984, when I began teaching at Clifton Middle School in Monrovia, California, life was much different than it is today as a high school teacher in Hemet, California. When I began teaching, droves of "boat people" were arriving daily to southern California and filling our schools with children from far off places. Almost all came with a sense of hope for a better life despite their fears.

Our school was filled with more ethnic groups than I could count and yet it was rare for a fight to break out on campus. I took pride in the after school intramural program I established that brought many of these groups together in competition. Everyone respected the no fighting policy and I never came close to having to enforce it. I was equally pleased with the school fair I spearheaded which brought our students and faculty together in projects that resulted in food booths and games set up on our school's blacktop.

In 1986, my wife and I moved to a small town in northern California called Red Bluff where many of the students were often country bumpkins. While not always the greatest students, these young men and women were very polite. On more than one occasion, after a student was rude to me in class, several others would come up to me after class and apologize to me for the treatment I received. They always assured me it would never happen again and then they would find that rude student and "teach him a lesson."

Just the other day at the high school I work at, we had a student assembly. It was promoted for two weeks and we used an assembly schedule where classes that day were shortened. Unfortunately, during the assembly, two fights broke out and at least one student was arrested.

Had this happened twenty years ago, it would have been a major story in the local Red Bluff paper. Sadly, it did not even warrant a mention in Hemet's because they were busy covering the story of another near by high school that had seventeen students arrested after they began to fight with the school's resource officer causing police to converge on the campus and resulting in a school wide lock down. There was also additional coverage of the bomb plot uncovered at another high school somewhere else in this country.

People can blame who they want about our declining test scores and standing on the international level of academics. However, over the last twenty-eight years, I have taught at eight different schools, worked with twelve principals, seven superintendents, and countless school board members and not once have I ever heard any of these people ever say they support student violence and disrespect or suggest when it happens it is the fault of our schools. And yet, it is all too often the schools getting blamed for low test scores.

Poor student academic performance, school violence, and disrespect toward teachers, administrators, and school resource officers are the end result of one thing; a poor home life.

Monrovia, in the mid 80's, was not a thriving city on the outskirts of Los Angeles but rather a convenient place to raise a family for single mothers and unemployed adults. Still, despite this, when I called home on students who were not performing or behaving as they should, I almost always received the full support of the parent. They'd even come in and shadow their kid for a day if that was what was needed. Despite their struggles, these parents believed in education and wanted more for their children than they had.

Today, that is rarely the case despite the similarities that exist between Monrovia then and Hemet now. Parents who do come in all too often do so pointing a finger and raising their voices at the school rather than taking ownership of the problem they brought into this world.

Recently, I had a father try to convince me that the reason his daughter was behaving so poorly in class the week before was because this week she was "getting ready to have her period." Another parent claimed the note she brought to me was signed by him even after I pointed out I had two examples of his signature that were nothing alike. And last year, one mother told me the best part of her day was watching her son walk out the front door in the morning and her worst was seeing him return in the afternoon.

I would like to say these are the exceptions and not the rule but that is not the case. So hopefully, no matter your age or circumstance, when you read the stories about school violence, you will stop and think about where this disregard for our education system has its roots. Sure, the public school system is in need of many fixes but none nearly as needed in far too many homes across this country.

What The Hell Happened?

Can you help me put back the pieces of my life? Anyone, please; I woke up today and realized my world is not what it used to be or set out to be. See if you can follow and help.

I keep thinking someone slipped me something in a drink 25 years ago and I am trying to piece together the remnants of the last quarter century...mainly my career. I think some crazy Asian guy named Harry Wong did a number on me. I have no clue what happened to me but somehow I ended up in Hemet. I am just thankful to look in the mirror and see I do not have a Mike Tyson tattoo on my face. I do have a funny rash in an embarrassing spot and for some reason I crave bananas, whoppers, and ho hos. I also found out I have a strong dislike for black women of power who wear their hair in corn rows as well as disliking guys whose last name include the color green and yell a lot of nonsense.

I used to think hookers were women who strutted the streets in high boots and fur coats but now see they are emaciated addicts covered in sores and tattoos of the names of the children the courts have taken from them. When did we become a society of toothless nomads who roam the streets yelling at God while offering to clean your windshield while you park your car at Stater Brothers?

Somehow we elected a black man president whose family is from Ireland, Africa, and Hawaii while being over shadowed by a woman who sees herself as our savior while she rides on buses and forgets she has a knocked up teen age daughter and a mongoloid kid of her own at home. Wal Mart now owns what China does not want and together they have replaced the U.S. as world super powers.

I seem to recall being tossed out of a plane and into the east river just before it was flown into two large towers. However, when I go back to the scene of the crime, I see no evidence of any towers but there is some douche bag with funny hair threatening to run for president if some guy can't produce his birth certificate. I have no record of where my money went but noticed there is a shit load of taxes I pay today that did not exist back in the day. What's so special about "special taxes?"

What is really weird is before all of this went down, we used to have a governor who dated rock stars and now I see he is still governor only he is as old as rocks. Next thing you are going to tell me is that action hero movie stars have been calling the shots and threatening to destroy anyone but their maid if they get in the way.

Strangest of all is our schools. They used to be pleasant places where you could make a decent living while enjoying working with kids. If kids acted up they were sent to the Principal's office, a guy they feared, and were beaten within an inch of their lives all with the blessing of mom and dad. Now I see they are giant day care centers where kids beat each other, carry on affairs with their teachers, and sit around the quad and pound beers with their BFF, the principal.

There are two kinds of school days, test preparation days and testing days. PE is now a giant holding tank for enormous children who used to be called fat and got teased by their classmates but are now somehow considered hot and put out for anyone. Jocks were once well conditioned athletes who used to pride themselves on their athletic talent while maintaining good grades but are now a bunch of lazy asses who like to wear team jerseys but can't find the time to attend practice. Oh, and coaches are not allowed to yell at anyone because somehow now everyone has something called self esteem and if you yell at them or say anything negative it causes them to lose it and their lives head in a downward spiral.

Finally, we have a lot of TV channels. I'm not sure what is on all of them because kids use the TV to play with their wii wiis or do mortal combat with their friends. No one gives wedgies but they do text mean things about others. Good girls dress like whores and bad girls dress like ugly whores. Female teachers dress like whores and male teachers dress professionally except for me; I still wear shorts and t-shirts because I keep having a recurring dream within a dream that one day I am a PE teacher and the next a social studies teacher. Then I am a middle school teacher who becomes an elementary teacher only to become a high school teacher and all the while just wants out of teaching.

There you have it. At least what I can remember. If anyone out there can help me fill in the gaps so I can better understand what the hell has gone on, it would be greatly appreciated. Until then, how do you cure a hang over?

Black Hawk Down A Must

I finally got around to seeing the movie Black Hawk Down this past weekend. With all that is going on in the middle east and our military involvement throughout the world, I found this a particularly appropriate time to see a great film depicting the ugliness of war.
Twenty five years ago, when I taught high school in Red Bluff, I used to show the film All The Right Moves. At the time, Red Bluff was a mill town not that much different than the coal mining town depicted in the movie. I showed it because so many of my students had the attitude that high school was not all that important because they were just going to get jobs at the mill after they graduated. Most would end up marrying their high school sweetheart and then spend the next thirty-five years mindlessly working at a job before retiring. My students could not see life beyond Red Bluff.
Today, in Hemet, many of my students see few options out there after they graduate. College is not feasible to most but since this is southern California, they want to get out of this town and feel like they make a difference.
Many of my students express an interest in joining the military. The JROTC program is very popular on campus and for many who can not afford college, they see military service as a way to learn a trade they can use once their service is complete.
Unfortunately, these young men and women do not consider the possibility they may not return from duty and if they do, it may be as someone with a missing limb or two, a victim of head trauma, or just plane tortured with post traumatic stress.
Black Hawk Down does a marvelous job of depicting war in today's world. The violence is very real and serves a wonderful purpose by depicting the horrific nature of a battle gone wrong. It does not bash the military; it simply shows how despite all efforts and the best training, things can still go horribly wrong during battle.
Riddley Scott, the director, does such an outstanding job of showing us what a real battle against an enemy that is hard to locate while grossly out numbering our troops is like. He does not glorify war or make heroes out of those who die. He simply depicts it in the most realistic manner possible.
Any young man or woman who is considering a career in the military should be required to view this movie before enlisting. It will not help the military with its recruitment but it will at least allow someone who feels they are invincible because of their youth pause to think before making a final decision.
Communities all across this nation show films and bring in guest speakers to schools to expose our students to the dangers of drugs or drinking and driving. Military service should not be taken lightly. The men and women who serve our country do so with honor and we should be thankful for what they do. However, I wonder how many would choose this path after they watch Black Hawk Down.

Keep An Open Mind

Welcome to my first entry. If this finds anyone out there in cyber world, please let me know.
Why a blog? Well, for starters, I have plenty of time on my hands these days. I am getting paid to stay home from work which is something I will write about at a later date. This blog will allow me to speak my mind without the editorial constraints of the local newspapers or one of my bosses telling me to shut up. It will hopefully allow me to reach people beyond the Hemet/San Jacinto Valley while maybe serving to encourage colleagues to do the same.
Having spent the last twenty-four years of life working as a teacher, I have to admit I am fed up with the education system in this (take your pick) district, state, and nation. So yes, I will write about education issues that bug me. However, since my blog is a form of self expression, I plan to write about more than what I feel is a screwed up education system.
I love the news, sports, politics, and current events so I plan to write about these as well. I will throw in the occasional line from a favorite song, quote from someone well known, and comment from someone I talked to.
I love hearing opinions from others and really do not care whether or no they agree with me. Heck, lots of times I don't agree with me.
So, if you do not like what I write, feel free to let me know. Just keep it civil and I will too. Like the saying goes, "Keep an open mind, you never know what might drop into it."