Perspective

There is something to be said for gaining a new perspective on life. Today I was reviewing a teacher's manual for the Government class I'll be teaching, while looking at it I saw things I didn't like and things I thought were great teaching tools. I imagine it works that way with all text books. But what really struck me was what happened when I went back to visit my old job recently, a job in the corporate world.

On a daily basis I conducted audits, worried about Sarbanes-Oxley, and held people accountable for their typos and written errors. And now, I'm repsonsible for children. Regardless of how little difference the "real world" thinks teachers make, or how underappreciated they are, teachers do something meaningful. Everyday they impart knowledge on to the future, and kids walk away with the imprint of that experience left on them. No one will ever remember that I initialed audits that were compliant, but there's a chance that one child will walk away with at least some kind of respect for the thing I am most passsionate about.

So here is to Corporate America, you can have your money, and you can have your ego, I'll take my Teacher's Edition any day.

America Heart Bologna

Leave it to me to relate lunch meat to politics, but I had an experience yesterday that I can't keep to myself.

So I work part-time in a deli, and we can leave the details there, but what happened to me yesterday speaks volumes about life here in teh USA. So an older woman comes up to the counter yesterday and asks me for some Lebannon Bologna. And I said 'Excuse me?' and she said "LEBANNON" to which I replied, "Lebanon Bologna?" and she said yes. Now granted the relationship between Lebanon Bologna and the war raging right now between Israel and the Hizbullah is kind of a stretch, but hear me out.

This woman, this adult human being, could not pronounce Lebanon. Lebanon is the name of a country, a country that just erupted in violent war. And she couldn't even get the name of the lunch meat correct. What this says to me is that people are ignorant. Ignorant of the world around them, ignorant of their role on the world stage, ignorant of everything that doesn't show up on their doorstep and blow their heads off, regardless of how many other people are facing that very situation. So here is to the Israelies and Hizbullahs in Lebannon, even if bologna is the only legacy American's will ever know.