Mob Mentality

Last weekend’s local teenage mob and police action was the subject of some discussion at my school. A few of the kids were there, and everybody wanted to know what went down. So we had this awkward conversation before we could return to the glorious banality of Week 20 vocabulary….

Flossing

It wasn’t anything that didn’t happen to Charles Dickens, or to kids in Afghanistan, any day of the week, or any kid at Children’s Mercy down the street-– I mean as far as level of sadness and unfairness and the forcing of a child to know how sad and unfair things really are. Reading about […]

How

I had a migraine yesterday, and I came back to work shaky and tired, so when a kid this morning murmurred, “I hate her,” because I wouldn’t let her turn off the air conditioning and roast us all in our own juices, I murmurred to myself, “I hate you more.” Not so she could hear me or anything. Just under my breath, in the style of someone wildly immature or completely insane. I don’t hate her as a general rule. I just hated her in that particular moment.

Eating Your Words

There is a difference between kissing and talking about kissing. There is a difference between dating and marriage (apparently). And there is a difference between reading and memorizing, which is actually what I’m considering here. I took my students to a writing workshop last week, and one presenter explained the importance of memorizing poems. That […]