Gumbo - it's whats for dinner

Yum! Chicken, sausage, shrimp, okra and all kinds of seasonings. This is one of my very favorite things to eat. Normally, there would be crab claws in there too, but they are out of season right now. Gumbo is the Swahili word for okra, so it truly isn't gumbo unless you have the okra. I don't make this very often, but every once in a while nothing else will satisfy my taste buds. We usually have this Christmas Eve. When Nate and Meg were engaged we invited her over on Christmas Eve for some gumbo. She got confused as to what it was called and when her Dad asked her what she was going to do Christmas Eve, she said "Going to Silvesters for some guano." (bat poop) Nowadays, we call it guano as much as we call it gumbo. However, this is a very tasty soup so I imagine it taste nothing like guano. You must also have some rice to serve it over, and some crusty bread (I like baugettes the best) to serve with it. Anyway, we are having some tonight!

Election '08

Even though I disagree with Glenn Beck over public schools, there are a lot of things I do agree with about and more importantly, he really cracks me up. So, I saw an election sign on Lance's blog, so I thought I would post my own. :)

Father's Day

Father's Day is tomorrow and is always a bittersweet day. My father passed away 15 years ago and I miss him. I wish he could be here to know his grandchildren and great grandchildren. He was a funny loving guy and someone you could talk to. He was a retired Air Force veteran. I remember talking to him on the phone when I was at BYU and he asked me how my money was holding out. I told him that my debts were all paid but there wasn't much left over and he said "Not even a quarter to buy a candy bar with?" and we both laughed. A few days later, I got a card from him with a quarter taped in it. He did those kind of little things that could always cheer you up. I could always count on him to stick his finger in my ear when I was pouting to which I would always respond " Da-ad!!" He would never let me sass my mother. He was hardworking and I always knew that he loved me.




Missing you Daddy. Happy Father's Day!

Relections on a particulary difficult school year

Well, my summer break officially began on June 4th at 2:30pm. I must congratulate myself for getting through this 2007-2008 school year without a) seriously injuring a student and b)resisting the tempation to take up alcoholic beverages or mind altering substances.

We had 130 students and approximately half of them were underachievers and intent on doing anything other than schoolwork while at school. We lectured, we rewarded good behavior, we had parent/teacher conferences, we had parent/teacher/student conferences with the principal thrown into the mix most of the time. We gave detention, we gave fun Fridays, we had after school tutoring, morning tutoring, lunch detention, lunch tutoring...it just didn't seem to matter what we did, we just weren't getting through.

As much as I lectured these kids and got onto them about proper behavior and treating each other with respect, and all the eye rolling and huffs and puffs in response, I thought the school year would never end.

I teach with the best group of teachers you could ever ask for. Each of us has a different teaching style and usually each of us can reach a different group of kids and nuture them and we have some positive experiences along the way. That wasn't happening with these kids and it really wasn't until the last week of school that we finally realized that we had done some good along the way.

One of the positive things that comes from having this kind of year is that you learn so much about truly effective discipline. The other good thing is that you realize that this type of class doesn't come around very often. Thank goodness for that.

Teachers get very little respect in the United States. Constantly on talk radio, public school teachers are bashed, particulary by people like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity. They dislike all teachers because of the teachers union. They want choice in public education. They have never seen a group of dedicated teachers who truly want the best for the students go through a school year like the one I just went through. And on that subject, I have an opinion I would like to share about choice and the voucher system particularly. If you pass legislation that would give vouchers to parents to take their children to any school, public or private, then you are also going to have to give those vouchers to parents who homeschool their children. I know many families who successfully homeschool their children and who would continue to do so. The problem comes in when parents in the lower socioeconomic bracket discover they can get a lot of money for their children if they educated them at home. That will induce a lot of parents who are ill qualified and undereducated themselves to pull their children out of school in order to boost the family income. What you will end up with is whole generations of people with little or no education. Crime, unemployment, and a welfare state will result.

Public education in the US has its problems, yes, but it still allows a good ecucation for all of its people, even insures it. Those who want to change it need to think the process through very carefully and work all consequences of change before they alter it.