Merry Xmas – I Mean, chi mas, I mean Χριστός mas, I mean Christmas – Part 1

Many people get themselves in an uproar when someone uses the abbreviation Xmas.  To them, it symbolizes the effort to remove the Christ from Christmas – if not to obliterate Christian overtones to the holiday.  And clearly, there are those who use Xmas with that intention.
It seems legitimate for committed Christians to get exacerbated about [...]

Parents (Teachers): You Have Responsibilities, Few Rights, and Not Much Power – Part 2

In part 1, we hypothesized that both parents’ and teachers’ effectiveness has been undermined by significant and long-term efforts to disempower both groups.  We stated that this disempowerment did not diminish the responsibilities heaped upon teachers and parents nor ameliorate subsequent blame.  In fact, blame directed at teachers and parents  has increased.  We further hypothesized [...]

Parents (Teachers): You have Responsibilities, Few Rights, and Not Much Power – Part 1.

I just retired – as of this school year – from approximately 31 years of teaching.  I haven’t retired from 25+ years of parenting.  Being a parent and a teacher causes a strange kind of schizophrenia including multiple personality (dis)order (for those of you who are running or 35 watts, this is hyperbole).  Think like [...]

Banned Book Week: Propagandized and Lied to by Marian the Librarian, Part 2

In part 1, we argued that Banned Book Week was fundamentally misleading.

We defined “banned” and questioned whether banning was actually a real problem in the United States.

We questioned the lumping of “banned” with “challenged” books as a challenge was not fundamentally in itself a problem.

We stipulated that “banning” in America, if it occurred, could be [...]

My First Post – My First Day of “Retirement”

I’m not really a “journaling” kind of guy, but for this post only, I’ll keep it in the first person.  Today the 2009-2010 school year started without me.  After 35 years of gainful employment (mostly gainful), I have joined the great baby boomer mass of retirees. 
The two complaints I have so far are as follows:  [...]

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