Missionary Sadness

We dropped James off at the MTC today. It should have been the happiest moment ever, but the other boy from the ward who was leaving at the same time as James and who also had his farewell on Sunday with James came over with his Dad and told us he had decided not to go. It burst our bubble. The world was great and we were happy for both young men. We had spent the summer preparing James and now I am filled with sadness for the young man who did not go. We have said our prayers for him and I hope he will stay active in the church. I feel sadness for his parents too. We have spent the summer discussing and comparing plans and preparations. We attended the Temple with them, I taught him the temple preparation lesson, Oh, the pain I feel for a young man who is not even mine. Please pray for him that he will find the courage to serve the Lord.

Bad Teacher Myth

What is a bad teacher? It seems to be one I do not agree with. After 30 years as a teacher, I have found a few "bad teachers". They were teacher haters, student haters, alcoholics, or just having a rough time in life because of divorce, death or some other personal tragedy. In every case, they lasted less than 2 years and in most cases only one. They weed themselves out or are dismissed as soon as their problem affects students. So why are we stripping the teaching profession of its security? We want to discourage future teachers from entering the profession. This will ensure we get the worst possible candidates and keep them at the bottom of society where they will stop making noise and allow politicians to do whatever they want whenever they want with us and with our children.

For those of you who read this and are expecting a more spiritual message, its hard to post spiritual when I feel like a target stuck full of arrows.

Will it be there for your children?

I keep asking myself if public education will be there for my grandkids? As I see lawmakers move to privatize it and give us all tax breaks/voucher or whatever they want to call it, I want to know where will it stop? I see us moving to a system of haves and have nots. Even with all of its flaws, we have the best system of mass education the world has ever known. When we compare our kids in poverty with kids in poverty in every country around the world, we win. When we compare our privileged with the rest of the world, we win. Yet lawmakers want to destroy years of collaboration in guise of saving money or removing all of the bad teachers the 'union' forces them to keep. I can't help but draw a parallel to the Book of Mormon when people had because of their ability to gain an education.

3 Nephi 6:12

12 And the people began to be distinguished by ranks, according to their riches and their chances for learning; yea, some were ignorant because of their poverty, and others did receive great learning because of their riches.

Are we headed to a generation of ranks?

First week finished.

First week of school finished. Average room temperature, 90. Need more fans. Need more water. Could use a new position, but I only have 5 years till I can retirement. Can I make it or will the District get so mean that I won't be able to tolerate their idiocy.

Sorry folks, this is not very uplifting. Thank goodness for the Temple. This is where I go to relieve the stress of the world. I would go tonight, but I have no energy left and Diane is just as exhausted as I am after her first week teaching 6th grade. I will suggest we go tomorrow.

Visiting Temlples

So, this summer we've been to all the Temples in Utah except two and we'll get to them in the next couple of weeks before James leaves on his mission. It never gets old. It doesn't matter what is going on around you, when you are done, you feel wonderful and relaxed. Like yesterday. I was given what to say to James before he leaves. It is so wonderful to have the Lord whisper to you what he wants you to tell others.

Summer fun

I feel like I have been on a roller-coaster ride. For anyone who doesn't know, James got his mission call to Oregon, Portland mission. His farewell is Sept 11 at 11:00 am.

My work decided they would disrespect us and sent a sign or you're fired letter to a contract that strips teachers of all basic protections.

We went on a vacation and visited 3 temples, Manti, Montecello, and Vernal. We also visited 4 corners, Hovenweelp, Mesa Verda, Strawberry, and Flaming Gorge.

Did you ever notice that when you prepare a lesson you feel the Spirit? I do. It is even stronger when I give it to a class.