The Golden Compass

I'm not sure exactly how I feel about this Golden Compass controversy, but maybe if I hash it out here on the blog I'll get somewhere.

I read all three books. I read the first one before it was even published in the US. It was called Northern Lights in England. I really liked it. It was intriguing, thought provoking, a good yarn as well. Much later I read the next two books. The second and third books were also good but I didn't like them as well and I HATED the ending of the third book. I didn't like them as well because there were things in them that made me sad and some things that made me uncomfortable.

What people are saying about Philip Pullman's atheist views is absolutely true. That is what he believes and he doesn't try to hide it. That's the stuff that made me sad. I wasn't angry with any of it because even though it was clear that the author is doesn't believe in God and is against the Church, the things that he said made me think about where he was coming from. I know it's hard to believe that a man who wants to fight and even kill God isn't being offensive, but it really wasn't like that. It was just sad. Not pathetic sad, broken sad. It made me long for things for Philip Pullman that he certainly doesn't long for for himself.

I also thought he had some things to say to the church that need to be heard. He has an outsider’s point of view that is much more revealing than any insiders point of view. As painful as some of those things may be, they still need to be heard.

What I hated about the ending had nothing to do with God. I thought the ending was a cop out. He had spent 1500 pages or so building this amazing world and putting forth such innovative theories and philosophies and then he wraps it all up with the most trite and clichéd ending ever written. I was bitter for a long time about it. Besides it was weird.

Should kids read the books? I guess it depends on what you mean by, "kid." That's a pretty broad term really. My son is nine and I think he should wait. Wait for what though, I don't know. I don't really know any kids with strong faith that have read the books, so I don't know if it caused them to struggle with their faith or not. And is it bad for kids to struggle with their faith? Isn't that how it becomes their own? If Christianity is true and a kid had been taught that truth and has lived with that truth, can a story really take that away? On the other hand, kids walk away from the faith they were raised with every day. They walk away for all kinds of reasons, so I guess a book could be a reason. The only two kids I know who read it didn't pay much attention to the religious issues brought up in the books. They just liked the story and the science in it.

I guess my bottom line, after all this typing, is that parents should wrestle with the story and the ideas for themselves and then decide if their kids should read the books. I don't think that they should let emails or religious groups do their thinking for them. I guess it's no surprise that I came to on this subject. I nearly always conclude that people should do their own wrestling and not be afraid.

Movie Rave/Friend Rave

While Ginger and I Love, LOVE, the Kyra Knightly/Matthew Macfadyen Pride and Prejudice, we decided to try something different last night. Ging has been wanting to see the first Cate Blanchett Elizabeth movie, so that was the pick. Great movie. Cate Blanchett is AMAZING. I already loved her, but it's still nice to know that you have such good taste.

Anyway, we had the most interesting movie EXPERIENCE of our recent history. The movie was so intriguing that before we were far into it we had to stop and google all the historical characters. Then as the movie ran we had to keep stopping it and filling in the history knowledge gaps for each other. To top it all off, when we were through we went back and googled everyone we hadn't googled the first time. We were so into it that we didn’t' even realize it was 12:30- way past two "old" ladies bed times.

So, here's my recommendation: 1. See Elizabeth, starring Cate Blanchett, 2. Watch it with someone who loves history and wants to learn knew things AND doesn't mind if there's talking through the whole darn thing :-) 3. Go google baby!

What's Up?

It might just be me, it seems we have a bit of an inconsistency in our societal rules about sex.

I started thinking about this because as a fifth grade teacher I'm always telling the girls not to waste their time on boys; they have more important things to pursue in life. Multiple people have told me that I'm wasting my breath. I've also been told that the only way to keep my own girls from getting pregnant before they're married is to teach them about birth control. I'm not against teaching them that. Nor do I think that all the girls I teach will heed my advice about boys, but these two responses have gotten me thinking.

There seems to be an expectation that all people will engage in sexual activity when they are not married and that seems to fine. At the very least it is impossible to expect people not to do so. On the other hand there seems to be agreement that once you are married you're expected to only have sex with that person. To do so with anyone else is considered wrong.

I don't get it. Why is it reasonable to expect people to have self-control in one situation and not in the other? Is it because in the married situation the people have a release for their sexual urges? Does that, then, make it ok for married people who are apart for a length of time to have sex with someone not their spouse, or do they still have to maintain self-control?

Like I said, something just doesn't add up for me here.

One of those Newsweek "My Turn" Articles I've Been Wanting to Write

Poor Thanksgiving, that forgotten holiday lost between the better-dressed holidays of Halloween and Christmas...

Ok, I'm done with that lament. I actually have something to say about Christmas.

A week or so ago I was reading On the Banks of Plum Creek, by Laura Ingalls Wilder, with Rachel. We were reading about Christmas. Laura and Mary wanted to give something very special to Baby Carrie (now a toddler) that year. Ma offered them all of her buttons to choose from so that they could make a button string for Carrie. Ma's button collection was made up of buttons that she had been saving since she was a little girl and even buttons that her mother had saved as a little girl. (That part right there is enough to get me going on materialism and short attention spans of today.) Laura and Mary looked on them as vast and incredible treasure. Every day while Carrie napped the girls tried out different buttons in different combinations and different arrangements. On and off went those buttons until it was the day before Christmas. When Carrie found the button string in her stocking the next day she was wild with joy.

Seriously. Can you imagine being wild with joy over a button string? I've read other stories of Laura's life in which she and Mary got oranges for Christmas and considered it a precious and exotic gift.

Perhaps it's crossed your mind that the Christmas we celebrate is too commercial, too expensive, too over the top. It's crossed mine; I won't lie. But I've been thinking that maybe the fault doesn't lie with Christmas. Perhaps the problem is with the rest of the year. If you, or your child, wants/needs a new dress, do you wait for it to be Christmas to go get it? Nope. You just go and get it. If you want a new game even you just go out and get it. It is really Christmas all year long. New socks? Get a package of six. New CD? Download it in your itunes in about 5 minutes.

See what I'm saying? Christmas almost HAS to be crazy with stuff you don't need just to seem like it's something special. To Laura and Mary life was made up of so much more than stuff during the rest of the year that an orange really was exotic. It is kind of funny that people get all worked up about the materialism of Christmas, but don't notice that that's pretty much how it always is around here.

Maybe we should shed some stuff in March and September and build meaning in our lives with something other than "stuff" in February and October. I bet Christmas would become more holy without even trying.

Shout Out, sort of, To My Friend Lara

In some ways this is my third part to my high school rant. Of the comments that I got on my two previous posts, Lara's was the most sympathetic to the study and the numbers that they showed. "Interesting," I thought. Then I thought about it some more. I can see why she would be harder on the schools than other people. In her job she has to try and convince teachers to try new things. Sometimes that goes really well and the teacher is enthusiastic and takes the suggestions and runs with them. Sometimes it doesn't go so well. They want to do what they've always done and are completely convinced that the entire fault of the not learning lies with the kid. Having seen the results of listening or not listening to the practices that Lara tries to teach teachers to use, I'd say she's got some ground to stand on in blaming the schools for negligence.

On the other side, I've sat an MANY parent teacher conferences and said, "Listen, you need to make sure your kid does her reading homework every night. She is way behind and even though I'm doin' all I can for her at school, she needs to practice on her own." After I make this speech one of three things happens. Sometimes the parent totally gets it and cracks the whip and homework magic happens. More likely I get one of these two responses. "Yep, yep. We'll get right on it," and absolutely nothing changes, or "We don't have time for homework because we have sports, church, family things, whatever." That’s the kind of thing that makes me want to tear my hair out!

I know; there are two sides to every story. All I'm sayin' is let's share the blame. I don’t expect one person or group to just up and shoulder the burden alone. No one group of people caused the problem. Parents send kids to school with a lot of baggage and expect the school to do all the work. Schools get overwhelmed, some would say lazy, and don't even bother to do what they can do.

I guess we're not even on the same side, the side of the kid. It's like I said at the end of my last rant, we could get messed up in blaming and never move on to solving. But other than what I do with my fifth graders and my own kids at home, I really don't know how to help. I really want to, but what can I do?

Which leads me to rant 4, super teacher movies, but that's for another day.

Rant Part 2

I've decided I'm not done ranting about the "dropout factory" schools. I have two more beefs- for now.

I once read that there is a correlation (I know, that doesn't mean causation) between the size of a kid's vocabulary when he/she enters Kindergarten and his or her success in high school. Did you notice that I said "ENTERS" kindergarten? Who was in charge of building that vocabulary, hmm?

I'm also mad about the reporting on this study. On our local news' website the area Superintendent was given the chance to air his dissenting view. He says that the State of MI numbers show much higher rates of graduation. The story went on to focus on the fact that the state does not count students who are in jail as being dropouts because there are education programs for them while they are incarcerated. This was the only portion of the discrepancy between the State of Michigan numbers and the Johns Hopkins numbers. It made it seem as though some 75% (the percentage that Johns Hopkins has dropping out) of this area's students are in jail! That's just irresponsible reporting. What the heck high school did those reporters graduate from anyway?

I realize there's a huge danger in, on both sides of this fight, placing blame anywhere. We can get so caught up in trying to win the debate about who's fault this is that we have no energy left to do something about the problem. So, if we all acknowlege that we have some work to do an then get busy and do it, we might get somewhere.

I once heard a brillant man say that we should pick up our cross daily and follow him. The shame of kids not graduating from high school is on all of us, on all of our crosses. Are we preachin' now?

Alright That's It. I Have Had It!

Maybe you've heard, but probably you haven't. Johns Hopkins University has released a report about high schools that that they are calling "dropout factories." Four of them are in my adopted West Michigan hometown. Argh! Was not all that I said when I saw the local coverage of the story.

I get that there are some things that the schools should be doing to get more kids to graduate. But how 'bout a little sharing of the blame here? I am willing to share the credit for my young student Johnny/Juan/Ju/Jovante if the student and the family and the community will share some of the blame. Come on people!

These kids who drop out of high school obviously had parents at one time; where the #@$* are they when the kid drops out? Did they do all they could do for Johnny/Juan/Ju/Jovante? Did they read to him when he was little, make sure he did his homework when he was in middle school, keep him involved and doing healthy activities? Did they feed him nutritious food around a table that had at least one adult present for multiple meals a week? Seriously people, if you don't do you part, why does the school have to perform miracles to "fix" your kid? We're only human too!

And don't get me started on all the white and Christian (black and white) people who move out of these schools instead of sticking around to fight for quality at the schools. Oh no, their babies are more precious than other people's babies. Gotta go. Whatever.

Alright, this post was more of a rant than a coherently argued case for working with schools instead of treating them like the enemy, but sometimes I just get tired. Maybe later I'll calm down and say something more logical and less emotional.