In Advance of the Broken Arm
Marcel Duchamp. 1915.

Today in class I showed this picture and asked my students write about it. I had them take special notice of the title and make connections from it, to the picture. There were some great entries in the students journals.

Use your imagination and see what stories you can come up with. Maybe I will publish the best one in the next blog I post.

So far so good. Today we wrote and discussed the Chinese Proverb

- Talk does not cook Rice.

It was a better discussion than I thought it would be. Many of the students had very unique responses to what I thought was a very simple and to-the-point idea. It goes to show that it all depends on the tools each of us is packing around with us. Each person will look at the world in so many different ways. I love this and I have to say that my love for this concept has been the driving force in my love of literary analysis. I wish I would have been able to see this in my high school lit. classes. It could have made a huge difference in my life. I guess this guilt, or regret, is the driving force in my teaching. If I can get one student to look at the world in a more understanding and accepting way, I will feel good about what I have done.

I understand that I can't save the world, but I also understand that I have the ability to perhaps save one life. I don't propose it is a person's ability to understand the world that will save them, but it may be the fact that they can understand themselves through the world that does.

Bad news everywhere!

It seems like so many people are getting sick, getting in plane crashes and even dying. Every day seems to bring new news of more bad things going on in the world, and to so many people we know.
Many of my Provo friends may know that our friend Stephanie (Clark) Nielson and her husband were in a horrible plane accident in Arizona recently. They received severe burns and will be trying to heal for a long time. So, I wanted to be sure and post on my blog, a button where those who want to, can go and make a donation to her family and support their recovery. I think there are probably hundreds of friends who can only say good of Steph. I cant remember a single time when she was rude or negative about anything. Help us as we pray for her and her little family. Here is a link to her blog: http://www.nieniedialogues.blogspot.com/
and to her sister's where she give great updates on how things are going: http://cjanerun.com/

We also found out last night that another friend from high school had past away in her sleep this week. Tammy Thelin had a 7 year old daughter and our prayers will be with them as well.

On a more positive note my mom's recent double mastectomy (yeah, hard to believe that can be good) has gone as planned and she is healing well. The surgery was on the 15th of Aug. It came with a free vacation in a hospital room for a few days; a vacation she is glad to be done with. She has had all the drain tubes and pain pumps removed and is now just working on building up her strength again. Thanks for all the prayers and kindness.

New School Year

A new year is here and the summer is gone, giving way to the changing leaves of the aspens and the coming of a new season of football. I'll be teaching 11th grade English this year with a focus on the literature of America. I love American literature so I'm really excited about it.
My ideal teaching experience would be to teach my students to learn to look at the world with a more critical, yet understanding and tolerant point of view. Asking themselves, why things happen and not simply acknowledging that they happen, seeing that the things going on around the world matter and they matter the them.