What a Week

This week is homecoming. Longtime high school teachers come to homecoming with mixed feelings, or at least I do.  Dress up days, classroom interruptions, strange schedules, high expectations by some seniors, low rewards for some seniors, many adults running around trying to make student's lives special.  The King's and Queen's assembly has become the bellweather event of ignorant excess.  This year at least the girls wore dresses that covered most of their bodies and the boys weren't imitating porn stars too much. I use the term ignorant many times and get strange looks.  Its definition  is from its Greek Root meanings: no or lack of knowledge.  People just don't know what they are saying or what they are doing.  And in this day of internet knowledge access that is alarming.  A world of information is at your fingertips, but if you don't use those tools, you are just as your grandparents were before the www.

So this year the distressing lack of knowledge was displayed in the names given to the nominated couples.  The theme was The Hunger Games. I haven't seen the movie, but I gathered that a pair of "contestants" were selected from various districts to "compete." In the movie I was told the districts were numbered.  Our Leadership Class didn't number the couples; they let the couples choose names.  Maybe I'm a bit sensitive but Brown Skinned Bombers, Westside Whiteys and Crackers don't seem appropriate for public consumption at a high school.  And the couples that chose these names were celebrating their choices.  I usually call that reveling in their ignorance.  But I guess if our leaders in the capitol are doing the same, why shouldn't we in the lowlands do the same.

For me the bigger news was the deaths of two women that helped shape my life.  The first was a neighbor.  Always calm and steady. Her son, my brother and I roamed the block growing up.  She, and my mother, were the steady influence in my early years.  This woman's former husband was one of my baseball coaches.  Once she was a teacher for a bit in the 5th grade, and I got to see her calmness in the classroom.  One of those school memories that may have guided me into teaching.

The second woman and her generosity came at a tumultuous time in high school.  Her youngest son and I were classmates and teammates.  Her influence showed me the Christian way of helping others.  I was invited to family dinners after Sunday church that showed the love of Christ.  The last time I saw her was a few years ago and she still was the same.  For someone I hadn't seen much of in years, this one hurts.

So we move on to the end of another week