When a Textbook Sticker is Church Establishment

I actually had a different approach when I was in high school. I REALLY did not like to analyze books and their symbolism. I took Honors and AP English my first two years. My first year was wonderful and I learned a ton. My second year was pretty decent too. However in the senior year, we had to read things like The Scarlet Letter among others. I really did NOT like the Scarlet Letter. I studied up on the book (no not Cliffsnotes)so that I knew quite a bit (at that time anyway), and read enough to get the gist of it. But I simply did NOT like that book. I did well enough on my essays to get a good grade. It was fun later in the year to actually read part of the Bible. It was pretty cool to take my old King James Bible to school. BUT I wanted to do more reading and writing, not analyzing, so I switched to a College Writing class for my last semester of high school. I absolutely loved it. We studied books like some of the Dickens books (among my favorite classics) and wrote a lot of "neat" papers. Then to top it all off, the teacher turned out to be my second cousin (unknown to me when I signed up for the class--she had come from a distant state actually). I still count it as one of my favorite classes ever.

No, I do not live in New Jersey, but I do imagine there are at least some good teachers there (not saying I am one).

Evolution is mysticism. The idea that some single celled creature figured out how to grow arms, legs, fins, brains, etc all by itself is absurd.

I wonder what those who believe it have for their geneological histories.
I do believe that some points of it are relevant (e.g. living things do adapt to their environments) , but that it did occur through a guided hand and we all know who that was.

The truth is that no one knows absolutely for sure. Even we who believe in creation cannot explain exactly how it happened. It'll be nice to have science lessons on the other side.

I appreciate your respect for the parents. It's a rare thing. I do think that it goes both ways. My approach is that parents and teachers need to work together to bring about success. It reminds me of an instance that happened several years ago. I rode the bus and walked everywhere for about 10 years, about my first 8 of teaching. One bus driver mentioned that the students of a particular high school were always courteous and respectful as they got on and rode the bus. I urged her to tell that to the principal. She did just that. The principal was astounded, remarking that that was the first time that anyone had ever come into his office with something other than a complaint. It was written up in the school newspaper and there was a big to-do about it. I don't think that such needs to be treated with fanfare, but we as teachers really do like to hear the positive as well.

I remember my high school principal (I could go on and on about how cool he was) who would actually give students compliments, remarking sometimes about how good we were at football games. It gave me a feeling of pride to hear him say things like that. My principal is still a legend in my hometown, even though he passed away several years ago. I have never met any parent or student who had a bad thing to say about him. After him, there followed a lady principal who you rarely saw, but I understand that the current principal of my high school is a very good one.

It really keeps me going when I have a parent tell me something positive and makes teaching all worth it.

I do appreciate your efforts for your children. It's nice to see parents who care.

My daughter recently organized a company function. One of the caterers had a group of young teens working at the function.

I encouraged her to call the catering company and let them know how polite their teens were.

That kind of feedback is rare and it's important to give positive reinforcement.

We always took the time to thank the teachers who cared about the kids, not just complain about the bad teachers.

I had one child go thru the public schools here in NJ and one in private school.

Some of the public school teachers were outstanding and some of the private school teachers were dreadful.

We always made it a point to be responsible for their education. Offering supplemental enrichment for every class.

We enjoyed every minute of it.......

I had one child go thru the public schools here in NJ and one in private school.
Some of the public school teachers were outstanding and some of the private school teachers were dreadful.

We always made it a point to be responsible for their education. Offering supplemental enrichment for every class.

We enjoyed every minute of it.......

As a teacher, I love your attitude. My father and mother the same way. Education took priority in our house, TV was limited--homework came first. We were still involved in sports and church heavily as well as with our friends (not on a school night though), but my parents made sure we did our homework. Seven of us graduated with high honors, 4 of them being 1st or 2nd in their classes (not including 2 in college too). My brother is currently the top student in his junior class. My dad and mom realized that they already had a choice on how to educate their children and they took full advantage of it. I think that more than that though, my mom said the most important thing to her is that we turned out to be good kids. And we all have. We haven't gone to Harvard or Yale, but we have been successful in our fields (including my sister as a stay-at-home mom) and have strong families. This has continued the legacy of my grandparents who also espoused strong values (my grandfather was a superintendent, principal, teacher, and a president of the state teacher's union for several years).

It sounds to me like you are spreading a great legacy to your children.

There are all kinds of teachers wherever you go. I classify myself as one of those dreadful teachers. But for some dumb reason I have good relationships with parents. I have not ever figured it out, because I know that most teachers are much better than me. To be honest, I think there's more at work and I think that I'm blessed by the guy upstairs because there's some things that happen that there is no rational explanation for--literal miracles that I am still amazed at. I hope that my good luck continues.

It's funny because whenever this one student would have a bad day in school last year in my class, his mom would blame his sleeping habits or something else, but not me. Now she blames the teacher each time. I guess it's just perceptions.

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