Losing my touch

For years I was famous for my chocolate chip cookies. They were fabulous and well loved by many. I baked them almost weekly, and was so comfortable with the recipe, I could do it without measuring the ingredients. I could fly through the preparation on a Saturday morning and have them baked by the time to run errands. Everyone who knew me knew of my chocolate chip cookies, and they loved to receive these tasty treats. My husband especially loved these cookies.

Budget crunches hit the school system in which I teach. Department budgets were drastically cut, but the supplies for the department kept getting more expensive. I teach in the business department and we use reams of paper, cases of ink cartridges, and since we have our own copiers, plenty of toner cartridges for those. We also like to reward our students for good work so we occasionally treat them to a pizza lunch. We print up awards to give out for good grades, good attendance, completion of classes. The paltry budget from the school district would not pay for all these things, so we looked around for ways to make money. Being business persons at heart, we knew we could use our entrepreneurial smarts to fund our department.

For many years we had sold Otis Spunkmeyer cookies for a food fair day and made good money at it. Why not do this on a daily basis? We ordered the dough, the bags, and Otis provided the ovens. Our workroom next to our office became a bakery each morning. We found just the right selections of cookies to offer and in the right quantity for a $1. The bags of cookies literally flew out the door during each passing period. Each day, for 6 minutes, we sell 60 bags of cookies, each containing 3 freshly baked, still warm, cookies. The receipts provide us the funds to do what we need to do to keep operating as we want to. Entrepreneurship at its best.

Because of these cookies baked each day at school, I no longer had the heart to bake at home, especially cookies. I quit and I lost my touch. Today, when making a batch of chocolate chip cookies, I had to look at the recipe, and I had to measure. A skill I had developed was no longer so easy to recall. I still used a half pound of butter, but this time it was organic; the brown sugar was sucanat, another natural food; the chocolate chips were no longer Nestle, but rather an organic dark chocolate in the form of squares. I even used unbleached flour which I carefully measured, so unlike my years of just dumping the amount in that looked right. The cookies are tasty, different from the ones I made years ago, and I wonder if my friends will still find them as appealing. Instead of losing my touch, maybe I’ve only changed by touch.

Black Friday vs Good Friday

There is a new movie opening today, “What Would Jesus Buy?,” which is very appropriate for the day after Thanksgiving, also known as Black Friday because the retailers finally make a profit. Black Friday is the day known as the biggest shopping day of the year. This is the day I stay home if I can, away from the crazy people who lined up the day before at Best Buy to get some new electronic gadget that they perceive to be their life saver.

One man, on the noon news broadcast, who had been in line at Best Buy for two days, claimed he spent $7,000 on electronics. I was aghast. I don’t spend that much in a year for clothes, or food, or even house payments, all the basic necessities of life. I give away approximately that amount, though. The idea of paying that much to a retailer for more “stuff” to put in my house is ludicrus to me.

So, what would Jesus buy if he were shopping? He wouldn’t BE shopping, but he might be in the marketplace so as to interact with the people. Jesus might only need look at the gadget in the man’s hand who spent $7000 and get him to change his mind, to realize the need in the world for food and clothing for the hungry and the poor. What kinds of medicines would $7000 buy for the AIDs victims in Africa? Could $7000 bring a homeless person in off the streets into an apartment with simple furnishings? Would Jesus’ presence in the marketplace be just enough to get people to rethink their garish lifestyle, their desire for more “stuff”? Would His presence on Black Friday create such an uproar that shoppers would return their purchases to the shelves, leave the buildings, and go and do good for mankind?

On another Friday, long ago, Jesus did that. He left this world behind and gave His life for all of humanity. His purchase that day was made with his blood. And we call that day Good Friday.

The achievement gap

Teachers get blamed for everything. If students don’t do well in school, it’s because the teacher isn’t interesting or caring or well prepared. The teacher didn’t try hard enough, didn’t call home enough, didn’t encourage enough. The lesson should be jazzed up, made better, worked more diligently.

Because I teach in an inner city school with all the inherent problems, I see so many students who come to school totally unprepared for and uninterested in school. Asking them to sit still, be quiet, work all period, organize their work, turn in their work, is daunting, but I do it everyday. The teacher is too demanding. The teacher doesn’t understand the situation from which the student comes. It’s ok if the student misses class to take care of smaller siblings, a sick parent, or to work a job to help with the bills. No one says no to a parent who wants to pull their child out of school for a week or a month to return to Mexico for a family visit. This is all part of the culture. Teachers need to be more compassionate.

Then the tests are given and the students are not prepared because they haven’t been in class. The scores are low, and again the teacher is blamed. If you had tried harder, worked harder, cared more, the students of color would have done better. The achievement gap would be diminishing.

I have worked harder, cared more, done more, and it’s not enough to please everyone. After 18 years in the inner city school, working with kids from severe poverty, I am discouraged and feel beaten down. When will it get better? I truly believe that we should be producing a better student, but it is not happening for every kid. Too many are being separated by the achievement gap. Poverty is only part of the equation; culture is also an issue. Someone needs to speak against parents taking their kids out of school for a myriad of familial reasons.

Another day in the life of a teacher

Ah, Friday before a 3-day holiday.  This is one of the reasons I chose to become a teacher for a new career after working in publishing and sales.  We return to a 4-day week before leaving for a one-week Thanksgiving break.  Where in the “real world” do you get those kinds of vacations?  I keep telling my students, “become a teacher, or you’ll find yourself with 2 weeks of vacation a year.”  They usually moan, and lament, “no, I don’t want to deal with kids!”   Where are we going to find future teachers? 

So many teachers are coming up on retirement age, and yet we see few student teachers signing on for this profession, especially after student teaching at an inner city school.  It’s not just the students who cause people to flee, even though my students seem to think that.  It’s also the issues of constant testing, constant criticism of teachers, constant bureacracy.

I will definitely enjoy my 3-day weekend.  It will give me an extra day to grade projects and enter grades into the computer.  It will give me an extra day to plan the next week’s lessons.  Of course, even when I plan, the tyranny of the moment can change all those plans.  Just like next week, I had planned a checkpoint for my Marketing I students’ big project, but then today I realize I will be gone all day for a district meeting and will have a substitute.  So, there go my great plans.  But it doesn’t stop me from making those plans.

Tomorrow is a new day.