in the trenches

Swine flu

I have been reading, at length, about the furor over the 2009 H1N1 Swine Flu vaccinations.  It goes against my usual grain, as I generally stay away from reading about anything very controversial - something about not liking conflict - but this has really drawn me. 

I am certainly not against ALL vaccinations.  I mean, believe me that most of us are grateful for Jonas Saulk's polio vaccine.  But this particular article made me pretty steamed because it endorses blatant propoganda and moralistic bull: Is Swine Flu Vaccine Refusal Unethical?  This article covers the controversy over whether or not people should be coerced or feel morally obligated to be vaccinated, and how millions of Americans are concerned over the safety of the vaccine. 

I am of the mind that I should have a say over what goes into my body.  There are some things I can't control - for instance what fertilizers and pest control growers use on produce or what antibiotics and hormones cattle and poultry have been given or even that my plastic wrap becomes cancerous when heated in the microwave.  But the things that I can control I want to know more about.  We keep hearing about drugs rushed onto the market and then soon after being removed for safety reasons.

And not just once, either.

I understand that many in government are eager for a vaccination because flu season is here and H1N1 is becoming more prevalent, but I also understand how good drug testing is done, and there is no way there has been enough time for that process to have completely or satisfactorily taken place.  In the 1975-76 swine flu outbreak, there were over 500 cases of Guillian-Barre Syndrome associated with the government-endorsed vaccines, and they ended up cutting the program short because of it (see LA Times 4/2009: "Swine flu 'debacle' of 1976 is recalled", which is a fantastic article all by itself). 

I'm really just afraid of history repeating itself. 

The student, whose paper topic I detail in the title of this post, literally cracks me up on a daily basis.  Two weeks ago, I was discussing satire with my ninth graders, and asked if anyone knew what it was, just as an intro.  To which my lovely comedian of a student replies, in all seriousness, "Satire?  Miss, isn't that one of those guys who's like, half goat, half man?"

I paused to gape.

Then replied myself, "No...that's a satyr." 

He is now referred to as Satyr-boy.  By his entire class.  Luckily, he takes it all in stride. 

But I keep coming across such gems as, "Miss I'm starving!  I can't eat 'cause it's Yom Kippur, and I hate this way of getting rid of sins!"

"Raisins remind me of old people."

At least, when my job gets crappy (and I'm in a good spot, so I don't want to try my luck too much), I can always just come right down to my kids, and it improves immensely. 

This is a topic that has occupied my mind for several years, and I am as guilty, maybe more, as everyone else.  But when I read something I know I will probably disagree with, I try (really try) to hear those opinions and try to at least see where they are coming from.  It's hard.  Sometimes I literally have to force myself to keep going.  Sometimes I have to swallow my own response.  Sometimes I can't manage it, and walk away angry and fuming to myself for days.  But I have noticed lately that fewer and fewer people choose to hear someone out, allow new information to change their mind, or even display an understanding of the concept that "not everything you believe is true."  For instance, I can believe that my foot is green - but unless I dipped in in green paint or have a severe case of gangrene, it's probably not true, not matter how much I believe it. 

It seems to me as though the trend looks like this: whatever plausible information one hears first, that's what one believes to be true, given one's feelings on the subject.  I was reading book reviews on Amazon.com for Many Children Left Behind: How the No Child Left Behind Act is Damaging Our Children and Our Schools, and found one reviewer who believes it to be "brainwashing and propoganda" and that everyone should read Education Myths: What Special Interest Groups Want You to Believe About Our Schools - And Why it Isn't So instead.  But it's the same thing from the other side.  Go to the reviews for that book and you'll find other calling it "brainwashing and propoganda" as well.  I am finding that once we have our inclinations one way or another on a subject, a complete paradigm change in required to shift that opinion. 

Are we so obsessed with being right that we can't abide by admitting that we might be even just a little off base, or lacking in a little information?  James Redfield in his book The Celestine Prophesy describes a conversation as the exchange of energy.  In his story, the energy is visable, and you can see it in civil discourse as the combination of each individual's energy working together.  However, when the conversation turns to one person insisting that another is wrong or that he is right, that person is stealing the other's energy.  Now, I don't know about visible energy fields (as I can't see them, myself), but I know the feeling.  When in conversation, I can feel it when I've "won" or "lost" a conversation.  But I've just come to realize that if I've "won" the conversation, then it wasn't a conversation at all. 

It was an argument. 

Discourse comes from the equal exchange of ideas and equal consideration of the points on all sides to come to general conclusions - but that can't happen if everyone is right in their own mind.  I see it in the town hall meetings about health care reform, where people are screaming from the audience.  Those screamers aren't interested in getting answers from the speaker; they are only interested in getting their own point across.  That is not discourse.  We can't run a country that values individuals and compromise with the attitude that "I am right and you just need to listen to me." 

So it seems we have two distinct issues that contribute to the same problem and they are two sides of the same coin: asertiveness of point and defense of point.  In both cases, there is a "winner" and a "loser".  Since I hate it when I lose and I feel guilty when I win (in this particular circumstance), I call for some withholding of pride and certainty of self.  I call for some civil conversation.  Actual conversation, rather than arguments. We can't all be right...so lets consider someone else's side.

IMG_1196

When the world says, "Give up,"
Hope whispers, "Try it one more time."
~Author Unknown

10860

Most of you know I'm walking in the Tampa Bay Breast Cancer 3-Day.  I am still soliciting donations in all amounts (I think that you can't donate less than $5.00 online, but even just that much helps me out!!).  My training is going pretty darn well, and I am about on target.  While I was travelling, I couldn't get ALL of my walks in and man, did I feel it when I got back on schedule.  That'll teach me, eh?

My Breast Cancer 3-Day Fundraising Page!

Funny how it seemed to take so long to get to 100, and 200 is so close!  My short walks have been replaced by what used to be long walks, and my long walks are pretty much hikes.  What's nice is that the training schedule is good for working people...short(er) walks during the week, then Saturday and Sunday have back-to-back longer walks.  So this weekend I'll be doing 12 miles Sat. and 5 miles Sun. after walking 5 and 6 two days this week.  As I walk, I think about how it's not any more difficult to walk 12 miles as it was to walk 5 in the beginning, so 20 miles doesn't look quite as intimidating as it did a few weeks ago.  I'm still getting used to the 20 miles 3 days in a row thing, but it's coming!!!  I appreciate donations in any amount, and you can donate more than once (I have!!) so thanks to all who've helped me and the Susan G. Komen Foundation out!!!

Teaching

I am enthusiastically waiting for the school year to start in two weeks, as I'm sure many others are.  That enthusiasm was a little hard to come by for a while, though.  Since my district implemented the College Board's English curriculum for 6-12 called SpringBoard, I have been wondering how to keep a decent attitude since everything I do is laid out for me and uses little creativity or imagination of my own.

Last year was our first year with the curriculum, and I was excited to try it.  I was in the middle of my masters degree coursework and it seemed like it was in-line with everything I was learning, but upon using it found it to be devoid of any writing, grammar, and vocabulary instruction, and never fulfilled the promise of being able to raise students' enthusiasm and test scores (indeed, our school dropped 2 letter grades because of the drop in FCAT testing scores for reading).  Apparently, that curriculum has been in-force for 8 years, and was due for a revision.  Again, I tried to be optimistic, hoping that some of those things that frustrated me would be adjusted.  And some of them were.

But I was still wondering why I was disappointed.

SpringBoard is a skills-based curriculum with the general idea being to teach the students skills that will be built upon in subsequent years using high-interest, low-difficulty (in most cases) material.  Which is great.  But what it doesn't do, and the revision didn't fix, was move on to at least higher-level difficulty passages.  The skills are taught, but rarely reinforced or practiced.  So now I know what I need to do, and I'm excited!  I finally have a way to use my brain to make this situation a better one for me and my students!  

I am going through my curriculum guide trying to find passages and works that I can supplement with to make sure that skill reinforcement happens.  It will be trial and error, but hey.  This is my third year of teaching, and my third curriculum in this district, so all I can say is that at least I was able to prepare ahead of time for this one :-)

Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit by Daniel Quinn

  My rating: 4 of 5 stars
When I was in college, this book changed my life.  Now that I am a bit older, I respect Quinn's ideas and goals in creating thecaracter of Ishmael and his dialogue with Alan (a la Carlos Castenada), but I can see a certain naivate in his thinking, and a distinct lack of follow-through. 

The interpretation of the Cain and Able story, though....that was a nice creation, true or not.  
 

View all my reviews >>

SC

Sitting in a hotel somewhere in Birmingham and have had an interesting couple of days.  Driving up to NC was a quick breeze-through, although I did have a tractor trailer blow a tire in front of me in South Carolina so that made for an adrenaline rush for a moment or two.  The trailer was in the right lane, while I was behind it in the middle lane, and there was this douchebag who decided he was going to pass me on the right, behind the trailer, and then scoot in front of me.  I feel bad calling them a douchebag since they got a windshield full of rubber and debris, but hey...at least it wasn't me. 

Got to J's around time expected, which was awesome because I had left an hour late (see my procrastination post), but had swollen feet to show for it.  I really need to make sure I stop and walk around more often. 

We ended up skipping Charlotte for the night since J's friend was still in DC, but we did stop so she could grab

Rte 49 through the Uwharries

So we got to roam around campus a little bit, and it seemed every piece of architecture was inspired by sexual organs.  I don't feel the need to explain, merely show. 

There were some pretty parts, too, and if you go there, you'll soon have buns of steel with all those stairs...

So we left Charlotte with the goal of making it through Atlanta before stopping for the evening.  Driving through northern Georgia was a treat, and the kudzu!  OMG!  It covered whole stands of trees, took over grassy areas, and turned whatever it covered into some kind of shape...bears, old men, clowns (we're imaginative, what can we say?).  J turned to me and said, "Who needs clouds?  We've got kudzu!"  We also had the most amazing sunset, but that might have been because of my sunglasses. 

Well, we got through it with no problems, and decided, as we were having dinner at a Sonic, that we would press on to Birmingham.  I didn't realize that we would be pasing right through Talladega and that there were so many mountains, or I would have waited to do the drive until morning so that we could see.  Oh, well.  It was midnight by the time we found a hotel after getting just a little turned around in Birmingham.  A piece of advice...there are very few hotels off of the interstate.  What's up with that?!  I actually had to turn around and go back through the city with my GPS to find a hotel in a place that looked like we'd survive the night :-) 

Here we are, though, bright and early...well, ok, it's 9:30, but we're off to go play!