Election 2004 postmortem (part 3 and final, I hope)

This was sent to me by my friend Shahana. Today was quite a fruitful email day, I must say. Check out Marry American, What will they think of next?

Election 2004 postmortem (part 2)

This was sent to me by my friend Hans (yes, of Hans and brother Franz fame). It is originally sent out by Ira Glass or NPR's This American Life. I think it really sums up how I feel and how I do think that the future we (meaning those who have the same values as I do) want for this great country.

 
      The Supreme Court is not the only power in this world.
      We, the abolitionists and colored people, should meet
      this decision, unlooked for and monstrous as it appears,
      in a cheerful spirit. This very attempt to blot out forever
      the hopes of an enslaved people may be one necessary
      link in the chain of events pereparatory to the complete
      overthrow of the whole slave system.
 
If it is the case that Bush was elected largely, or at least decisively, by those who, standing athwart history screaming "STOP!", are casting symbolic votes in an attempt to stop abortions, stem cell research and gay rights (and are therefore immune to evidentiary arguments, much less the public policy consequences for them of Bush's health care and economic policies), then it is well to remember that although their actions may indeed do a lot of damage in the short and even medium term, they cannot in fact succeed in stopping abortion rights, gay rights or stem-cell research.  And their children and grandchildren will live in our world, not theirs, just as black and white children play together in Southern schools today regardless of the "massive resistance" of the fifties and sixties after Brown.
 
Rapid social change always in America has provoked a politicized fundamentalism. That is what we are seeing.  We need to remain steadfastly oppositional to it; we need to resist the impulse to become discouraged by it; we need to adopt and implement a strategy of limiting the damage in the short run and planning for the long run (beyond the next election).  And we need to have our own faith, the faith that the tide of history moves with us, and that our values are more predominant today than they were 50 years ago, and that we are prevailing.  Setbacks, however serious, cannot alter that if we keep fighting; that is what scares and angers them, and produces elections like this one.  But it is also what should energize and renew us.
 
As Mr. Douglass, who faced bleaker times than we face, said: Stay Cheerful. (And keep fighting.)
 
Ira

You go, Ira!

Election 2004 postmortem

I have little to say other than I will come to the table with a positive attitude and continue to believe that President Bush is doing what he thinks is correct. Time to rally around the troops and become one nation again. Alas, but sometimes I really feel the situation really is as drastically depressing as this...

Can it all be so simple as this?

The two weekends a year I DISLIKE my job, a lot

The tuition at The Head-Royce School for an Upper School this 2004-05 academic year is $21,685. Yes, you read that right. So it is no wonder that the consumers at this school, the parents of my students, expect to receive detailed reports on their sons and daughters progress and achievement (or in some cases, lack of achievement) during the first quarter of the school year. Therefore, twice a year, I hunker down and write one-third of a page comments on each and every one of my students. Even though this year, I have the fewest total number of students I have ever had, 59, it was the most painful experience. I just couldn't get myself to get into a groove where I would knock off a big chunk in one sitting.

I do, however, play a game with myself to make it somewhat more "fun". Instead of writing comments of students in alphabetical order by last name, I put each student's name on a piece of paper into a bowl and then randomly pick out a name to write about. It provides a small moment of fun during this painful process.

I will post a sample of one my better comments:

Jeffrey -- I love the fact that everything you do is done with flair. A couple scenarios. Entering classroom: “Insert grand sweeping statement here” followed by a half-fling of the backpack onto the floor and then dropping yourself into the chair ending with your torso and head slumping onto the desk itself.” Correcting a mistake make by Mr. Chen (Jeffrey is correct): Hand raised straight in the air with great gusto, “Mr. Chen I think that you might want to change that because of the other thing.” Chen agrees and you go into an upper body victory dance. Correcting what he thinks is a mistake by Mr. Chen: (insert back and forth discussion with you, Eric, repeating your same point) At some point Mr. Chen tells you to put a sock in it. You slump back in your chair in a miffed mood. A classmate accidentally unplugs a bank of computers in the lab one of them being the computer you and your partner are using to do the Sketchpad test: “I’m gonna kill you!” This said over and over while jumping around in circles. Threats and lots of flailing your arms around and throwing your body into it too. 4 minutes later, 3.5 minutes after the computer has been rebooted, you and your partner continue with your work. I decided that a description of your behavior that always puts a smile on my face was going to be more interesting than “you are doing a fantastic job, Jeffrey”, which by the way you are. Keep doing your thing, Eric. I expect that you will continue to do achieve great things in this class. Average: 349/357 =97.8%