"First Stars" 100 Million Years Younger Than Thought

File this one under "Scientific Precision" ....or Pretension. 


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2942976/The-stars-universe-formed-100-MILLION-years-later-thought-Planck-satellite-reveals.html#ixzz3R0Db0HNm

"The first stars are 100 MILLION years younger than we thought, Planck satellite reveals," declares the Daily Mail headline. 

Astrophysicists expect this earth -- pardon....cosmos-shattering discovery to shed light on the "dark components of the universe."

The 'dark components' consist of invisible dark matter and dark energy, both of which are still unsolved mysteries whose natures are unknown. 

Isn't speculation regarding invisible forces possessing mysterious, unsolved natures a bit closer to theology than science?

Stay tuned for further developments on the vacillating age of the stars and the Cosmic Microwave Background.

 

A Brief Response to Bill Nye

This week, National Geographic published an interview with the lauded Science Guy titled "Why Bill Nye Calls Evolution 'Undeniable' and Creationism 'Inane'." A predictably incendiary repartee has ensued. 

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/01/150125-bill-nye-science-guy-evolution-creation-book-talk-culture/#

Here's my two cents.


Mr. Nye (The Science Guy) has drawn much well-deserved positive press as a science advocate for many years. Still, the realm of science is the scientific method alone, so when he speaks of evolution filling him "with reverence for our place within the cosmos," he is in no way speaking scientifically; he has abandoned the observable for the unobservable -- the physical for the metaphysical.

His underlying assumption about origins is that we're the product of some primordial tryst of stardust and gravity, according to the article's closing section. But where did the stardust come from? Or gravity?

Has the law of gravity eternally existed? "In the beginning was gravity" sounds awfully religious for so rational and scientific man as The Science Guy.

Mr. Nye is free to analyze scientific evidence as he pleases and even dabble in metaphysics on the side if it floats his boat, but in the end he unwittingly exercises faith (believing in what one cannot empirically prove) to the exact same extent as any Muslim, Christian, or Hindu, etc., etc.

To the extent that he builds an entire paradigm upon what he assumes has existed eternally, he should more accurately wear the moniker: Bill Nye, the Religious Guy.

A Brief Response to "Human Facial Expressions..."

The French Tribune just posted a piece linking the development of human facial expressions to "environmental stimuli." You can find the article at

http://frenchtribune.com/teneur/1422092-human-facial-expressions-originated-adaptive-reactions-environmental-stimuli

Citing Adam Anderson, a Cornell human ecology professor, the article states:

The current theory supports the Charles Darwin's 19th century theories on the evolution of emotion. "These opposing functions of eye widening and narrowing, which mirror that of pupil dilation and constriction, might be the primitive origins for the expressive capacity of the face," said Anderson.

The question of Darwinian evolution accounting for the development of emotion and even facial expression as a conveyor of emotion is a red herring.

The real question should be whether or not Darwin's system can explain the development of the cellular machines that control and regulate the tissues of the face and the muscles necessary for said expressions. 

Furthermore, can Darwin account for the genetic coding of the systems related to facial expressions, or any genetic information whatsoever?

The obvious answer is no.

Darwinian evolution quite nicely explains variations within an already existing species, but it is powerless in accounting for the origins of any micro or macro biological system.

By focusing on superficially plausible though unobserved macro-scenarios, Darwin's Disciples distract attention from their Achilles' heel: the highly observed, intricate cellular machines that bear all the earmarks of precision design.

Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Kindle

To whom it may concern:

This is in response to your recently advertised 30-day trial for Kindles.

I am a teacher and have used Kindles in class in conjunction with book studies. They have not been at all conducive to the classroom. Students cannot take them home (since purchased at such high cost), so I cannot assign reading at home and must therefore rely on class time for students to complete all reading. It has tripled the normal time it would take my classes to read a book.

Inconvenience aside (ironic, considering the device's touted convenience), I also will not purchase or promote Kindle, or any other reading/ book application, regardless of platform because the popularity of such technology could very well lead to the elimination of physical books in the near future, which a corporation's demand for limitless growth must necessitate.

Physical books possess the innate capacity to survive decades without a reliable power source. If the electricity goes out, physical books retain all usefulness. Kindles (and the like), on the other hand, would quickly consign themselves to no more than expensive plastic paperweights in such an event.

What will a paperless world do in the event of an EMP attack or solar storm sufficient to collapse "The Grid"? H.G. Wells imagines such a scenario in The Time Machine, in which mankind's malignant addiction to technology leads to its utter collapse (I would offer to let you borrow my copy of the book, but sharing has become nearly as outdated as paper-based text. So, for the sake of modernity and progress, I'll #KeepItForMyself).

I recognize that I represent what is likely an overwhelming minority. The masses, no doubt, perpetually swing from swoon to climax at the release of each successive, highly addictive gadget, contraption, iThis, iThat, and Smartwhatever. Their acutely addictive nature is, no doubt, the reason for such ostensibly benevolent invitations to Free 30-Day Kindle Trials.

The name Kindle itself stands in a blaze of irony. And I wonder if it isn't intentional. What, precisely, do they hope to kindle? A love for reading or, perhaps, the pyres of book burning? If your people intend the former, is it the device that excites interest, or the content of the literature? Has the populace become so dull as to mistake packaging for substance? No doubt your quarterly earnings statement would suffice to answer.

Or is the Kindle popularity due to the increasingly warped and superficial nature of human sexuality in our society? I suppose books are too fat to be loved and cherished, when skinnier, sleeker, sexier (which is to say, more technological) substitutes can be purchased at irresistibly attractive rates.

Yes, I am likely a minority. Give me slow food cooked at home over McAnything, hand-written letters rather than text messages, time with a person not FaceTime.

And yes, give me a library holding a finite number of physical volumes over an electrified contraption loaded with hypermegaterrabytes of compressed files. 

Birds in and around Allensville, Kentucky

My grandmother, Grandma Jean we call her, is a lover of creatures. She feeds just about anything with fur or feathers. Above all, she loves birds and maintains a small avian oasis in her backyard. When I would visit as a child, I would shoot straight for her kitchen window, looking for gold finches, cardinals, hummingbirds. Some seasons a robin would nest in the window sill beside her sink. My brothers and I would watch the soft blue eggs, waiting for the little ones to break free.

At home with my parents, who lived on a wooded dead end, I'd often spot larger species -- hawks, osprey, vultures, and the occasional pileated woodpecker, drilling dead trees with its unmistakable Morse code.

The early fascination has grown up with me. Now that I live south-western Kentucky, among fields the row croppers rotate from wheat to soybeans to corn, I see birds I had only known from field guides -- meadowlarks, quail, common night hawks, Mississippi kites, eastern bluebirds, indigo buntings. 

The last one I mentioned -- the indigo bunting -- is one that has just recently begun visiting our place. On Monday morning, two indigos darted in front of me as I drove out the half mile gravel driveway between my house and the road.

A Gathering

I woke this morning thinking naught but a confirming text message stood between me and a snow day -- or an ice day, to be more specific. Instead, I scraped thick ice off my borrowed 18 passenger van (usually used to transport seasonal farm hands) before motoring the 4.9 miles between the Adams homestead and my school.

This iciness is a recent change, as last week's warmth and sun followed by wind and torrential rain hinted at April. Between the downpours lay Saturday afternoon and early evening, and my industrious wife took to the yard as I prepared Sunday's sermon. 

After our landlady sent a group of men in late autumn to take out several of trees in the front yard -- trees which served as a sort of privacy fence at the house end of our half-mile gravel drive --  many of their branches still littered the front yard. 

Taking a half broken metal rake, she combed the yard clean of more than one season's debris into several heaps. By the time I finished my studying and outlining, she ready to begin hauling her work about 75 yards away to the edge of the field where a gaping sinkhole frustrates the yield of row-croppers.

She gathered. I carried. 

Soon, work complete, we retired to the house. 

_________________________________________________________________________________

A Gravestone Made of Wheat

A couple years ago I met a girl. Or shall I say re-met a girl. The kind of girl who makes you want to figure out what life is about.

One night at her parents house we watched one called Sweet Land, a little known film from a few years ago. Set in the rural Minnesota shortly after WWI, the film follows the difficulties surrounding the marriage plans of a new German immigrant to a "Keillorian" Norwegian Bachelor Farmer.

Stunned by the film's visual and narrative beauty, I scoured the Web for "A Gravestone Made of Wheat," from which the film was adapted. After reading the story, I came to a startling conclusion. For the first time, I think, in my life I thought a film told a better story than a book. Several plot changes, such as the historically compelling additon of a banker who preys upon "Bigger Better Faster" believing farmers creates a conflict between Man and Biblical Beast that the original narrative lacks.

The young couple evokes Wendell Berry's understanding of ecomony in their relationship and work. In the films penultimate scene, the couple brings in the wheat harvest by hand after being ostracized by the rest of the community.

As Khalil Gibran wrote in The Prophet, "Work is love made visible."

To Jelal ad-din Rumi

Having been an English Literature major in college, I am often guilty of ignoring the rest of the world's stories, essays, drama, and poetry. My sin is not one of prejudice so much as ignorance. Occasionally, someone crosses my path and shares a writer who wasn't born one of the British Isles sometime in the last thousand years.

One of those someones is Aaron Weiss, a humble, spindly man from Philadelphia. Meeting him, one could believe in his city's name. Although he is a poet and a singer (or more accurately, poem-shouter) of the band mewithoutYou, he is a listener. Most nights, still covered in the sweat of frenetic concert dervishes, Weiss listens one by one to the line that has gathered at his feet. With poetic lines such as Why not let's forgive everyone/ everywhere, everything, and If your old man did you wrong/ then maybe his old man did him wrong, the gathering is not surprising.

After my first time seeing his band, I waited to see him too. Other lines of his poetry seemed to fit his stance towards others - No clever talk nor gift to bring/ requires our lowly lovely king./ Come, you empty-handed/ you don't need anything. 

Seeing first hand the care he offered hurting folks, and the way they fed on such attention, I wanted to know who fed him -- what writers have helped him see more clearly God and creation within God and man within creation and God.

When I arrived at my turn, he stuttered through a few familiar names, as well as Scripture, and then he mentioned Rumi, an early Persian Sufi poet.

Since I'd heard of neither Rumi nor Sufis, I made that my next mini-research project. As it turns out, he lived in 13th century Persia (modern day Iran) and inherited a leadership position at a religious school at just 25, and was very much within the religious "in-crowd."

Around a dozen or so years later, he met an ascetic named Shams. As a result of their friendship, Rumi transformed to embraced asceticism. Rumi's change prompted such controversy that (allegedly) Shams was kidnapped and killed, probably at the hands of Rumi's son.

Despite (and possibly due to) the pain of that loss, Rumi continued in ascetic Sufism, typically expressed through poetry. As a Sufi, his basic goal was to experience/ sense/ feel/ know the fullness of God every moment.

And, interestingly, Rumi made some jaw-dropping statements regarding Jesus. Here's one:

In the fire of the Divine love,
behold I saw a whole universe
Each particle there possessed Jesus’ Breath.

I'd encourage anyone interested in Christianity, faith, life, art, and/ or poetry to read up on his life, not because he was perfect or always spoke the whole truth, but because his work reveals beauty and compelling affection for Jesus.

What I have learned this semester that might not necessarily be overtly graded

Here is a top ten list of a few of the lessons I have learned over the past semester at Whitley County High School.

1. A teacher’s effectiveness is proportional to the planning that goes into each lesson.

2.Planning itself isn’t enough. The planning must be intelligent, reflective, and undertaken in light of what is known about the individuals within a class and the class as a whole.

3. Time management is essential. Teaching is a commitment that requires saying no to other potential commitments.

4. Growing as a teacher requires constant learning.

5. Growth in terms of methodology must be accompanied by growth in terms of content knowledge and understanding; otherwise, methods are hollow.

6. Student A may not learn at the same pace or in the same way as Student B. A student is an individual and must be treated as one.

7. The best students have learned to teach themselves.

8. The way a student performs and behaves in class needs to be understood within the context of the rest of student’s life.

9. Sleep deficits haunt.

10. Peanut butter and jelly isn’t as appetizing in December as it is in August.

Blogs for the week of November 9.

Clearly, it’s very nearly a month past November 9th. I am hoping, however, that late is better than never. Here is what Dr. G asked us to blog about this week:
This week in your blog I would like for you to find out what community resources exist in your school/community that are available to help you teach. Report in your journal (one day) what you did to find out this information, who you asked, what you learned. A second day (yep, only two days this week!) post a list of the resources that you found.

In preparation for my unit, I talked with my ST, Mrs. Manning, about community resources, and specifically about people who might be able to come in as guest speakers. She encouraged me to set up a meeting with WCHS’ assistant principal, Mrs. Rice, the former chair of the English Department at the school.
A few days later I was able to sit down with Mrs. Rice. After discussing resources and my unit, she agreed to speak on the first day of my unit on the importance of language. Other resources include libraries in the area – the high school library, community library, and University of the Cumberlands library. In addition, I have a tight-knit relationship with the English Dept. at UC and have used them at different points throughout the semester as a resource for deepening my understanding of writing, literature, and grammar. Several of the professors would be willing to be guest speakers and have offered to assist when possible.

It's been upwards of forever.....

since I have written in my blog.

The last few weeks have felt like a single day punctuated by occasional naps. The combination of teaching all of my supervising teacher's classes, planning my unit (and navigating the murky waters of Kentucky Teacher Internship Program forms and documents), being actively involved in a handful of ministries at my church, planning for my leadership project, tutoring a student for my collaboration project, and holding down a part time job (so I can eat) have proved to be the perfect storm that has doomed my blog these last few weeks.

My approach to this blog from the beginning was for it to be primarily for sifting through my experiences and sorting out my thoughts on life and education (which are largely the same thing). In the thickest part of the semester, I have reverted to survival -- a crisis to crisis mode of living that typically excludes critical reflection.

Over the next few days I hope to highlight some of my classroom experiences that stick out from the otherwise muted landscape that has been my recent life.

In the meantime, here is my reflection on the results of my collaboration project.

Using the assessment data collected, describe the impact of the collaboration plan on this student’s learning and describe possible next steps.

The collaboration plan outlined above is actually the second I attempted this semester. My initial collaboration plan involved a student in one of my supervising teacher’s classes. My ST and I had been working on that particular collaboration for about two weeks when the student was removed from our classroom and placed in a full collaboration classroom. Because of that unforeseen turn of events so early in the plan, I felt it necessary to develop another; however, the time that I have had to implement it has also been short.

I spoke with staff members from Cumberland Valley Comprehensive Care (henceforth, CC) on October 26th, and set an appointment with Jerry for the following Thursday, the 29th. In my conversations with CC staff members, they gave me further information about Jerry, his struggles, and some ways they thought I would be able to help him.

In my and Jerry’s first meeting on the 26th, my initial goal was to get a feel for his attitudes and feelings about language and reading, and see what his interest in reading might be. Once I met him and sat down with him, I could tell that he has many struggles. Although not at all unpleasant, his disposition seemed nervous and unsure of himself and his surroundings. His speech was slow, and his vocabulary was closer to that of an early elementary student than a 14 year-old.

As I began asking the questions I had prepared for our first meeting, I realized that I was treating Jerry like a case study or an information source rather than as a person. I was sitting in front of this child, taking notes on his life and struggles. Right in front of him. Once I realized the insensitivity of my business-like approach, I put my notebook and pen away. And then I asked him, “Jerry, what do you like to do when you get home from school?” At this, he began to open up – he told me about his and his family’s horses and about how he recently broke a two year-old. So, for the rest of our meeting I asked him about horses.

Through our first meeting, I came to understand that before it is possible to “help” someone with any difficulty, struggle, or deficiency, one must treat that person like a person. An essential aspect of treating one as a person is understanding that beliefs, misconceptions, and subsequent behaviors are the natural overflow of one’s experiences, pains, joys, disappointments, and desires. Jerry’s struggles with language and reading have not developed in separation from any other aspect of his life; there are ways he has not been nourished and nurtured throughout his life that have led to, among other things, not being able to read. Thus, illiteracy is a symptom of a deeper problem. Addressing the symptom without first treating the root is narrow-sighted, ineffective, and inhumane.

When I came to the realization that Jerry needed more than another specialist offering a given service in his life, it changed my attitude about the collaboration project as well as my approach to it and also to Jerry as an individual. First, I began trying to treat Jerry as my brother (I do, in fact, have a brother his exact age); I ask him about his life, what has been good, and what has been not so good about his week. Beyond that initial dialogue, I do help him review class work (which at this point is working on basic phonics) and read with him. But it is my desire and effort to care about and nurture him as a person first and foremost; without that deeper context, he would be “my project,” a resource I exploit for the purpose of attaining a degree.

In addition to my meetings with Jerry, I have had the opportunity to meet with both of his language teachers, Mr. Struck and Ms. Perkins, at Whitley County Middle School. They have given insight into Jerry’s progress thus far as well as class format, curriculum, and goals. Both of Jerry’s language classes are designed to help with severe literacy deficiencies. Ms. Perkins also informed me that the format of the class is focused on mastery; thus, all students receive the same grade. In light of that information, it has not been possible to chart his progress through his grades in his language classes.

Although I will not be able to measure his application of internal progress being made nor numerically represent how much he has learned, I believe that this collaboration is in the process of being a success. I say in the process for two reasons. First, literacy is a process that varies from individual to individual due to a variety of factors; thus, one should not assume that steps A, B, and C necessarily lead to result D within a desirably short period of time, even if certain statistics indicate that it is likely to happen. Jerry may not learn to read better; he might not ever be “successful” in terms of academic achievement, which is not to say that it is not possible. On the other hand, I believe that by treating him with patience, care, and respect, his literacy will grow at its own unique pace; at the same time, I believe he (and I as well) will grow as an individual because more of his basic needs are being met. Furthermore, this collaboration in is in the process of success because I am not going to stop meeting with Jerry when I no longer need him to help me make a grade (which is not to say there is anything wrong or shallow about having such a project in a class; rather, a project is only as substantial as a student handles it, and it is my desire to continue the connection that has begun developing between myself and Jerry). Growth may not happen as quickly as I would desire, but with time and patience, it will.

Just another Wednesday

For both of my loyal readers, here is an example of what I've been working on lately. It's a little section from part of the unit I am planning.

3. Key Concepts/Big Issues/Essential Question Focus:

For this unit, I want students to understand the difference between independent and dependent clauses and then be able to identify them in the context of sentences and paragraphs. Students will then apply their antecedent understanding of clauses to correct punctuation. To extend application into “real world” uses, students will prepare for and complete a pre-ACT grammar test; using correct punctuation is a central understanding assessed by the test, and although the class has been able to cover some grammar issues such as parts of speech, we have not yet been able to given punctuation sufficient consideration.

Although students will, in the end, apply their study of fundamental elements of English grammar to “real world” assessment, the unit will begin by addressing the question of language and test-preparation. Contrary to popular belief, doing exercises in a test-prep book will only teach one how to take the test; it will not teach one all that he or she needs to know whether being assessed or not. Prep books may be necessary (or at least helpful) tools, but they are not sufficient; language would be just as essential if it were never formally assessed.

___________________

Fun, fun.

Laying it down.

For the first time today I had all my STs classes without her being on campus. She has a 17 month old son who came down with some kind of illness and had to stay at home. So, it was my first chance to see how the students would respond to the absence of higher authority. For the most part, the day went as smoothly as it does when my ST is in the room or has stepped out a few minutes.

However, during 5th period, which is the class that has the most taxing effect on my energy and patience, a slightly more difficult than usual bell-ringer was enough distract them from the task at hand. The bell-ringer was a sentence that contained a misplaced phrasal modifier and a passive voice verb, which in the students' defense was more difficult than correcting verb tense or adding necessary punctuation.

As much as I wished that their literacy skills were sufficient to be able to at least understand my explanation, their difficulty in doing so was not my main concern. Rather, I encountered an all too common attitude among students: the belief that the importance of language is subjective -- as one of my students expressed, "It doesn't matter what I say or how I say it as long people know what I mean."

Typically my classroom demeanor is calm, and I try to be as light-hearted and goofy with the students as I can. But at this student's comment, I snapped. At one time in my like, this would mean raising my voice and asserting how right I am as opposed to how wrong other involved parties happen to be. But I made a decision long ago to never deal with my students in such a way. Instead, I lowered my voice (so that students would have pay closer attention), slowed the pace of my speech, and explained my belief about the importance of language. Among other comments, I shared with them:

Language will either enslave you or set you free. I am here because I do not want you to be someone else's slave.

My seriousness caught the students off-guard. Some of them it probably didn't benefit; but they heard a perspective on language that was new to them. And perhaps something, over time, will come of it.

"Use Whitley County Language"

Today, I had another opportunity to talk with one of my classes about the underlying importance of language. It's so easy to get caught up in the daily minutiae of teaching or attending class that it also becomes easy to lose sight of the foundational reasons for being there in the first place.

Similar to the events that have caused the same conversation in different classes, a student expressed that understanding correct grammar does not matter as long as one's audience understands what is being said. In fact, after the class arrived at the correct answer for a certain grammar mistake, one student interjected that I needed to use "Whitley County Language."

At this point, we started a conversation about misconceptions the outside world holds against Appalachians -- that they are all ignorant cousin-marrying hillbillies, for example. We also talked about the fact that most of them do not read and care little for language. I expressed to them that it is impossible to know oneself apart from a growing understanding of language. If one can learn to read and appreciate a piece of literature, one also becomes more able to read oneself and others.

Finally, we spoke about the beauty amidst difficulties they've experienced growing up in Appalachia. What they did not realize is that they are part of a unique people, dialect, and culture; however, without appreciating and seeking to better understand language, they won't be able to understand themselves, family, and culture, nor will they be able to express their unique perspective and understanding.

Through our discussion, the students got a glimpse into why I am there -- that my goal is not to pile homework on their backs but to help them -- in the end -- to think more clearly and to understand and express their individual and community identities.

More weight.

Recently, my junior English class read The Crucible, Arthur Miller's poignantly scathing critique of the Red Scare woven into a stylized account of the Salem Witch Trials. And over the last couple of days, we watched a recent film adaptation of the play. The film was well made -- cinematography, casting, performances. The students' response to the film was emotional, and rightfully so; how could one be unmoved by the hideous consequences of false assumptions, categorization, fear, and "faith" run a muck? We also had a solid discussion that began with a student assuming out loud, "Well, I'm glad nothing like that happens any more."

The assumption was a great segue into the fact that the class would soon research other examples of mass hysteria in American history: the Japanese-American internment during WWII, the Red Scare/ McCarthyism, and the anti-Arab actions of citizens and the Federal government in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. As the class continued, I shared enough information about the examples to whet their appetites for further study. And they expressed a certain level of appropriate outrage.

So, then, with online research being on today's educational menu, I again led my students across the hallway to the library to computer lab B -- the technological equivalent of the nose bleed section at a minor league baseball game. It's in the back of the library. Some of the printers don't print. The computers are slow. Some don't work at all. It is a constant uphill battle -- a stalemate between stalling hard drives and certain stagnating students. As it turns out, computer lab B is a self-contained metaphor of my experiences of integrating technology thus far. Whereas technology, in theory, speeds research, writing, work, and life in general, and whereas it is supposed to be Popeye's trusty can of spinach for sagging academic forearms, thus far it is has been a constant frustration.

That is not to say that no learning has taken place -- to the contrary, in fact. Students who would learn in most situations still learned; those who struggle through and do their best struggled through and did their best; and those who put forth minimum effort put forth less. In the lab there are so many more distractions -- a larger room than normal full of many more students than usual and plenty of other visual stimuli, constantly malfunctioning equipment, students sitting in closer proximity to each thereby increasing the temptation and feasibility of copying other students' work. Thus, the initial difficulty of managing a classroom of 30 teenagers is instantly multiplied.

At a certain point, I noticed that one of the students was very obviously getting answers from another student. This particular student is a constant challenge in the classroom. He combines a passive-aggressive disposition with a quick wit and sharp tongue. Although by far the most disruptive student as well as the one who puts forth the least effort on a daily basis, he may well be the most intelligent; despite failing the first 9 weeks of the class, he scored a 25 on the ACT. When I asked him about what he was doing, he was truthful; he stated precisely and with confidence what he had done. After I offered a different suggestion on the issue of academic honesty, he replied:

Well, why shouldn't I? It's worked for me this long.

And in a certain way, he is right. It has "worked" for him. It has, indeed, kept him from doing work. And, perhaps to his credit, it has liberated him from the sense of duty and responsibility to established socioeconomic and/ or cultural assumptions that preys upon and exploits the honest efforts of so many.

But what fruit will his assumptions bear in the long run? Although I have no desire to be needlessly cynical, I fear the outlook is bleak. According to the US Census Bureau, around 35% percent of Whitley County residents collect disability; less than 50% have jobs, and about 25% live below the poverty line -- which is twice the national average. Although it can be fallacious to reason from one's experience in a single classroom to a city, county, or region as a whole, it seems that local culture is pock-marked by cycles of generational dependency and sense of entitlement.

Since it seems that the motivated students are becoming, to a certain degree, self-educators (and will always be learning if that is the case), I feel drawn students like the one I have discussed -- it's the students like him whom I want to influence most. It's not that I (necessarily) want him to buy into academic pursuit and the way it is typically understood and conveyed in the modern secondary school. Certainly, school and academics are not for everyone; however, learning to desire and seek out the truth is indispensable to living a whole life. Thus, I hope to instill a love for knowing the truth that transcends the classroom, diplomas, academics, culture, and even language.

But is that what I am doing? Am I speaking truth? How can one do it in the first place? It could very well be that my best efforts to that end could be antithetical to it.

And now as the workload piles up -- the normal work of a teacher, the work of a student, and the subsequent tension of idealism confronted by a litany of assumed practicalities -- I find myself questioning if I have the courage to speak the reported words of Giles Corey from Act IV of The Crucible as slabs of rock were being gradually placed on his chest that he might falsely confess to witchcraft:

More weight!

Grammar and Motivation

To reflect on my recent observation, I had to complete the KTIP Task C form. Here's a look into some of my thoughts:


ANALYZE AND EVALUATE YOUR LESSON WITHIN TWO DAYS OF POST OBSERVATION CONFERENCE
1. Explain how you determined the levels of student performance on your objective(s). Attach rubrics
or criteria used in this determination.

I determined student performance based upon reading each worksheet in light of the attached rubric.


2. Sort the students’ performances into three categories and determine what number of students met the criteria in each category:

• Below criteria: __10__ # of students
• Meeting criteria: _16___ # of students
• Exceeding criteria: __0__ # of students

3. For each category, describe the students’ strengths and learning needs, if any.

•Below criteria: Most students below criteria put forth little or no effort and did not use class time in the computer lab wisely. Through conversations with 3 or 4 of these students, I found that openly admit to having no motivation and would rather either fail or copy other people’s answer than put forth any personal effort; however, this may not be the case for the rest of the students below criteria. Others seemed to struggle with basic reading comprehension and not following written directions.


•Meeting criteria: Although most students met criteria, they struggled with writing in complete sentences, spelling correctly, and using correct syntax. Even those who clearly put forth a good faith effort and attempted to give thoughtful answers struggled to express those thoughts clearly and with accurate language.


•Exceeding criteria: n/a


4. Reflect on the following:
•What does the analysis of your students’ performances tell you about the effectiveness of your instruction in meeting your students’ needs?

I am constantly aware of my students’ literacy deficiencies. I believe that the instruction ultimately could have no better than limited effectiveness because the students performed in accordance with their respective levels of literacy and desire to learn. I believe they need significant remedial language work. How can one understand literary themes or research about an historical era without first possessing the skills to do so?

•Describe any patterns or trends in your students’ performances. How could these patterns or trends be used in planning and instruction?

Because of this and past assessments, the unit I am designing focuses on key building blocks of language that most have not acquired.

•What knowledge, skills, and/or resources could help you increase your instructional effectiveness?

Because the students problems stem from root-level literacy deficiencies, I believe I would be able to instruct more effectively if I had more knowledge of linguistics. A resource that might prove beneficial to the students more immediately would be a course devoted to the study of remedial grammar issues. I don’t believe the problems that have mounted over the course of their lives can be mended quickly or easily. It may take individual tutoring, which is something I have done in the past and would be more than happy to facilitate; however, the workload inherent in student-teaching would not permit me to do so. But it remains a desire of mine; big problems never have big solutions; instead, real solutions will have to be small, humble, and (most likely) individual.

5. For each category of students, how will you differentiate or adapt instruction to move them forward?

•Below criteria: Again, for the below criteria students, motivation seems to be the defining difficulty. Considering the world view expressed by certain ones in this group, neither the fear of bad grades nor the desire for good grades sway motivation one way or the other; “real life” connections like “going to college” or “getting a good job” are equally ineffective. On the one hand, I deplore what seems to be little more than laziness; on the other hand, there seems to be something about the System that they simply do not buy – and if that is the case, I feel that those students possess a certain understanding that alludes many higher-performing students. But at this point, I do not know how to motivate such students. Although I want to, I question whether or not I can do anything about it; it rarely leaves my mind.


•Meeting criteria

In addition to the upcoming unit focusing on grammar, I will make a concerted effort to model clear, thoughtful responses to try to help students express their developing thoughts.

•Exceeding criteria

N/A

6. Describe how you have reported or plan to communicate learning results to students and parents.

On each worksheet, I made suggestions for clarifying and adding significant details to their research and writing. In addition, I pointed out recurring grammar issues and briefly addressed the problem. I will allow class discussion and questions and comments when I return the worksheets tomorrow.
______

So. There you have it. I'm always open for suggestions.

Another Friday, another observation.

Today was the culmination of several busy days and longer than anticipated nights. Since the second week of the semester I have tried to be in bed by eleven each night, but this week the pile of work before me led me to extending my bedtime a bit. In addition to regular homework and grading and left-over work from last week, I have also been planning my lesson for my second observation that happened today.

Yesterday when I arrived home from school, I discovered a couple of things: (1) I had only sent my prof one page of my lesson plan, and (2) my complete lesson plan was on my teacher's computer out at WCHS. No big deal, I thought. I would just go out to the school, log onto my ST's computer, open my lesson plan, and email it to my prof. So, I drove out there, logged on, and then the lights flickered and turned off as did the computer. It's a lame excuse right up there with "the dog ate my homework," but it's true: the electricity went out. Luckily, when I went back later that night, the lights were back on, and I was able to get in the necessary paperwork.

During my observation I tried something new -- taking my 5th period students to the computer lab to start work on a cumulative assignment that required online research and source documentation (a new concept for most of the students). And I planned to try to fit both into the same lesson. It was a bold strategy, to be certain. And it was difficult. One thing that I have noticed is how difficult it is to cover all the material that I believe is important for students to understand. And today there was so much to do -- DOL, vocab quiz, intro to citation, taking the class to the library, and help them navigate research and an associated worksheet. Although I "covered" everything, it all felt rushed. I wish I would have had time to devote more than just part of a class to the important idea of citation, and more than just part of a day on how to find research.

But that constant push seems to be characteristic. There is so much to cover, and so many of the students are behind in terms of grammar, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. And I run into the temptation to try to teach them everything, and I forget that learning takes time and patience. I typically feel inadequate when I try to make up for the years of language deficiencies that plague students, but I don't quite know what else to do.

But still, I question how healthy it is for students and teachers to be under the strain of the constant push to cover large amounts of material, quickly assess "learning," and move on hoping that somehow everyone "got it."

There must be a better way.

Playing catch-up.

From Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community

By Wendell Berry

THE JOY OF SALES RESISTANCE

Dear Reader,

This is a book about sales resistance.

We live in a time when technologies and ideas (often the same thing)are adopted in response not to need but to advertising, salesmanship, and fashion.
Salesmen and saleswomen now hover about us as persistently as angels, intent on "doing us good" according to instructions set forth by persons educated at great public expense in the arts of greed and prevarication. These salespeople are now with most of us, apparently, even in our dreams.

The first duty of writers who wish to be of any use even to themselves is to resist the language, the ideas, and the categories of this ubiquitous sales talk, no matter from whose mouth it issues. But, then, this is also the first duty of everybody else. Nobody who is awake accepts the favors of these hawkers of guaranteed satisfactions, these escape artists, these institutional and commercial fanatics, whether politically correct or politically incorrect. Nobody who understands the history of justice or of the imagination (largely the same history) wants to be treated as a member of a category.

I am more and more impressed by the generality of the assumption that human lives are properly to be invented by an academic-corporate-governmental elite and then either sold to their passive and choiceless recipients or doled out to them in the manner of welfare payments. Any necessary thinking—so the assumption goes—will be done by certified smart people in offices, laboratories, boardrooms, and other high places and then will be handed down to supposedly unsmart people in low places—who will also be expected to do whatever actual work cannot be done cheaper by machines.
Such a society, whose members are expected to think and do and provide nothing for themselves, will necessarily give a high place to salesmanship. For such a society cannot help but encourage the growth of a kind of priesthood of men and women who know exactly what you need and who just happen to have it for you, attractively packaged and at a price no competitor can beat. If you wish to be among the beautiful, then you must buy the right fashions (there are no cheap fashions) and the right automobile (not cheap either). if you want to be counted as one of the intelligent, then you must shop for the right education (not cheap but also not difficult).

Actually, as we know, the new commercial education is fun for everybody. All you have to do in order to have or to provide such an education is to pay your money (in advance) and master a few simple truths:

I. Educated people are more valuable than other people because education is a value-adding industry.

II. Educated people are better than other people because education improves people and makes them good.

III. The purpose of education is to make people able to earn more and more money.

IV. The place where education is to be used is called "your career."

V. Anything that cannot be weighed, measured, or counted does not exist.

VI. The so-called humanities probably do not exist. But if they do, they are useless. But whether they exist or not or are useful or not, they can sometimes be made to support a career.

VII Literacy does not involve knowing the meanings of words, or learning grammar, or reading books.

VIII The sign of exceptionally smart people is that they speak a language that is intelligible only to other people in their "field" or only to themselves. This is very impressive and is known as "professionalism."

IX. The smartest and most educated people are the scientists, for they have already found solutions to all our problems and will soon find solutions to all the problems resulting from their solutions to all the problems we used to have.

X. The mark of a good teacher is that he or she spends most of his or her time doing research and writes many books and articles.

XI The mark of a good researcher is the same as that of a good teacher.

XII. A great university has many computers, a lot of government and corporation research contracts, a winning team, and more administrators than teachers.

XIII. Computers make people even better and smarter than they were made by previous thingamabobs Or if some people prove incorrigibly wicked or stupid or both, computers will at least speed them up.

XIV. The main thing is, don't let education get in the way of being nice to children. Children are our Future. Spend plenty of money on them but don't stay home with them and get in their way. Don't give them work to do; they are smart and can think up things to do on their own. Don't teach them any of that awful, stultifying, repressive, old-fashioned morality. Provide plenty of TV, microwave dinners, day care, computers, computer games, cars. For all this, they will love and respect us and be glad to grow up and pay our debts.

XV. A good school is a big school.

XVI. Disarm the children before you let them in.
Of course, education is for the Future, and the Future is one of our better-packaged items and attracts many buyers. (The past, on the other hand, is hard to sell; it is, after all, past.) The Future is where we'll all be fulfilled, happy, healthy, and perhaps will live and consume forever. It may have some bad things in it, like storms or floods or earthquakes or plagues or volcanic eruptions or stray meteors, but soon we will learn to predict and prevent such things before they happen. In the Future, many scientists will be employed in figuring out how to prevent the unpredictable consequences of the remaining unpreventable bad things. There will always be work for scientists.
The Future, as everybody knows, is a subject of extreme importance to politicians, and we have several political packages that are almost irresistible—expensive, of course, but rare:

1. Tolerance and Multiculturalism. Quit talking bad about women, homosexuals, and preferred social minorities, and you can say anything you want about people who haven't been to college, manual workers, country people, peasants, religious people, unmodern people, old people, and so on. Tolerant and multicultural persons hyphenate their land of origin and their nationality. I, for example, am a Kentuckian-American.

2. Preservation of Human Resources. Despite world-record advances in automation, robotification, and other "labor-saving" technologies, it is assumed that almost every human being may, at least in the Future, turn out to be useful for something, just like the members of other endangered species. Sometimes, after all, the Economy still requires a "human component." At such times, human resources are called "human components," and are highly esteemed in that capacity as long as their usefulness lasts. Therefore, don't quit taking care of human resources yet. See that the schools are run as ideal orphanages or, as ideal jails. Provide preschool and pre-preschool. Also postschool. Keep the children in institutions and away from home as much as possible—remember that their parents wanted children only because other people have them, and are much too busy to raise them. Only the government cares. Move the children around a lot while they're young, for this provides many opportunities for socialization. Show them a lot of TV, for TV is educational. Teach them about computers, for computers still require a "human component." Teach them the three Ss: Sex can be Scientific and Safe. When the children grow up, try to keep them busy. Try to see that they become addicted only to legal substances. That's about it.

3. Reduce the Government. the government should only be big enough to annihilate any country and (if necessary) every country, to spy on its citizens and on other governments, to keep big secrets, and to see to the health and happiness of large corporations. A government thus reduced will be almost too small to notice and will require almost no taxes and spend almost no money.

4. The Free Market. The free market sees to it that everything ends up in the right place—that is, it makes sure that only the worthy get rich. All millionaires and billionaires have worked hard for their money, and they deserve the rewards of their work. They need all the help they can get from the government and the universities. Having money stimulates the rich to further economic activity that ultimately benefits the rest of us. Needing money stimulates the rest of us to further economic activity that ultimately benefits the rich. The cardinal principle of the free market is unrestrained competition, which is a kind of tournament that will decide which is the world's champion corporation. Ultimately, thanks to this principle, there will be only one corporation, which will be wonderfully simplifying. After that, we will rest in peace.

5. Unlimited Economic Growth. This is the pet idea of the Party of Hardheaded Realists. That unlimited economic growth can be accomplished within limited space, with limited materials and limited intelligence, only shows the unlimited courage and self-confidence of these Great Minds. That unlimited economic growth implies unlimited consumption, which in turn implies unlimited pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth, only makes the prospect even more unlimited.
Or, finally, we might consider the package known as:

6. The Food System, which is one of my favorites. The Food System is firmly grounded on the following principles:

I. Food is important mainly as an article of international trade.

II. It doesn't matter what happens to farmers.

III. It doesn't matter what happens to the land.

IV. Agriculture has nothing to do with "the environment."

V. There will always be plenty of food, for if farmers don't grow it from the soil, then scientists will invent it.

VI. There is no connection between food and health. People are fed by the food industry, which pays no attention to health, and are healed by the health industry, which pays no attention to food.

VII. It follows that there is no connection between healing and health. Hospitals customarily feed their patients poor-quality, awful-tasting, factory-made expensive food and keep them awake all night with various expensive attentions. There is a connection between money and health.

In this Christmassy atmosphere, an essayist must be aware of the danger of becoming just one more in this mob of drummers. He (as a matter of syntactical convenience, I am speaking only of men essayists) had better understand with some care what it is that he has to sell, what he has to give away, and certainly also what he may have that nobody else will want

I do have an interest in this book, which is for sale.
(If you have bought it, dear reader, I thank you. If you have borrowed it, I honor your frugality. If you have stolen it, may it add to your confusion.) Most of the sale price pays the publisher for paper, ink, and other materials, for editorial advice, copyediting, design, advertising (I hope), and marketing. I get between 10 and 15 percent (depending on sales) for arranging the words on the pages. As I understand it, I am being paid only for my work in arranging the words; my property is that arrangement. The thoughts in this book, on the contrary, are not mine. They came freely to me, and I give them freely away. I have no "intellectual property," and I think that all claimants to such property are thieves.

I am, I acknowledge, a white Protestant heterosexual man, and can only offer myself as such. I take no particular pride in my membership in this unfashionable group, nor do I consider myself in any way its spokesman. I do, however, ask you to note, dear reader, that this membership confers on me a certain usefulness in that it leaves me with no excuses and nobody to blame for my faults except myself. In fact, I am only grateful to my parents, my family, and my friends, who have done their best to make me better than I am. On my more charitable days, I am grateful even to my enemies, who have sharpened my mind and who have done me the service of being, as a rule, wronger than I am.

I am well aware that you cannot give your thoughts to someone who will not take them, and I am prepared for that. I would like to be agreed with, of course, but the rules of publication require me to be willing also to be disagreed with, to be ignored, and even to be disliked. Those who are moved by this book to disagreement or dislike will take discomfort, I hope, from hearing that some of my readers treat me kindly.

Kindness from readers is something that no essayist (and no writer of any other kind) has a right to expect. The kindness I have received from readers I count as the only profit from my work that is entirely net. I am always grateful for it and often am deeply moved by it.

But kindness is not—is never—the same as complete agreement. An essayist not only has no right to expect complete agreement but has a certain responsibility to ward it off. If you tell me, dear reader, that you agree with me completely, then I must suspect one or both of us of dishonesty. I must reserve the right, after all, to disagree with myself.

But however much I may change my mind, I will never agree with those saleswomen and salesmen who suggest that if I will only do as they say, all will be fine. All, dear reader, is not going to be fine. Even if we all agreed with all the saints and prophets, all would not be fine. For we would still be mortal, partial, suffering poor creatures, not very intelligent and never the authors of our best hope.

Yours sincerely,

Wendell Berry

P.S. Last summer, for example, I read a newspaper article announcing, in the
awestricken voice of the science journalist, "a new generation of technological inventions—most of them involving some variation on the home computer." The two inventions specifically described in the article were electronic newspapers and something called "hypertext."

The benefits of the electronic newspaper apparently all have to do with convenience: "These screens will display a front page with an index. The user can tap a pen to the screen to call up a story, flip a page, turn a still photograph into a TV news scene, or even make a dinner or theatre reservation from an ad."

Hypertext "makes it possible to create all sorts of linkages and short circuits within a text." And this "is extremely useful in organizing technical material so that the reader can efficiently select which parts of a text to read." The reason for this, according to a "consultant," is that "usually you don't want to read everything— you only want to read what you don't know . " Hypertext "is reader-friendly and makes it easy to chart a path to the desired parts." Thanks also to this invention, "creative writing professors are teaching courses about how to write hypertext novels that literally go in all directions." These novels are "interactive":

In reading a hypertext novel You may follow the point of view of a chosen character, or you may chose the outcome you like best, or you may wander off into subtleties beyond anything James Joyce could have imagined. The possibilities —and the stories—may be endless.

This opens up new realms of choice and creativity. In some ways it frees the reader from being merely a passive receptacle of the " author's genius (or lack of same)
Dear reader, I hope you will understand at least somewhat the disgust, the contempt, and the joy with which I have received this news.

It disgusts me because I know there is no need for such products, which will put a lot of money into the pockets of people who don't care how they earn it and will bring another downward turn in the effort of gullible people to become better and smarter by way of machinery. This is a perfect example of modern salesmanship and modern technology—yet another way to make people pay dearly for what they already have (the ability to turn the pages of a newspaper or respond to an ad; the ability to read and write, to choose what to read, and to read "actively").

I read about these things with contempt because of the nonsense and the falsehood involved. For example, no real comparison is made in this article between paper newspapers and electronic ones. The stated difference is simply that one is newer and somehow easier than the other. And what exactly is implied by the use of a machine that makes it possible to read only "what you don't know"? is this perhaps what we call "skimming"? But how do you know, without reading or at least skimming, whether you know or do not know what is in a text? And what of the pleasure of reading again what you already know? The assumption here is that reading is an ordeal, of which the less said the better. And don't we remember that television was once expected to produce a new era of general enlightenment? And now will we believe that the electronically stupefied will turn from their soap operas to "hypertext" and indulge themselves in "subtleties and complexities" beyond the powers of James Joyce? And are we to suppose that readers of, say, James Joyce have hitherto been mere passive receptacles of his genius? And haven't we known all along that the stories are endless?

My joy comes from my instantaneous knowledge that I am not going to buy either piece of equipment. When the inevitable saleswoman comes to tell me that I cannot be up-to-date, or intelligent, or creative, or handsome, or young, or eligible for the sexual favors of so fair a creature as herself unless I buy these products, dear reader, I am not going to do it.


Somewhere is better than anywhere.
—Flannery O'Connor

Networking and essential questions.

Today began a series of college presentations during 3rd period senior English. And when I say college presentations, I mean small community/ technical college presentations. Although I feel the presentation today merits serious criticism, it is not because I have anything against such schools; in fact, I attended a junior college for my sophomore year and had an excellent experience.

That said, the presentation this morning personified much of what I believe is wrong with the philosophy of modern society and education. First, all that was said encouraged the students, to borrow a popular military slogan, to "be an army of one"; students should do what ever they want to do as long as it makes plenty of money. I may be over simplifying the presenter's position, but I believe that is the essence of her message. Because this particular school touts its education as "cheap," "quick," and "easy," they hold that it will be the fastest and quickest way for one to start making money. And why should one want to make money? To get the stuff one wants. It's the quickest path to buying and selling.

From there, the well-intentioned lecturer went on to explain that the importance of language is communication. And the importance of communication is that it is useful in Business. And Business can only happen as the result of networking. The reason that networking is important is that it is how to get a job, find customers, and (ultimately) make money.

Furthermore, networking doesn't happen on its own. And the best (and probably only) tool that makes networking possible is technology. Technology, above all, is desirable and good. Technology, apparently, is the double-edged sword of networking: it costs money, but it also makes money. And it is impossible to buy or sell without technology.

An example given during the lecture of the indispensable good brought to society via networking and corresponding technology is (drum-roll)....Guitar Hero. The video game. And there is a litany of reasons that makes it a veritable Holy Grail: (1) it is technology, (2) because it is technology, it costs money, (3) as consumers gather together to play it, networking happens, (4) subsequent networking results in featured songs being downloaded from the Internet (more technology and more networking) by the millions.

This, apparently, is life's vital substance: the fulfilling of one's wildest materialistic dreams. Of course, access to the dream-come-true comes at a price (more money, and the cycle restarts).

During the presentation, I wrote down several statements that I found to be so disturbing that I wanted to remember them. Unfortunately, that paper mysteriously vanished. Still, I came away with several questions:

Is God's holy gift of language only important because of one way people use it?

Is human worth to be measured in terms of economic participation?

Is making money inherently, by its very nature, good?

Even assuming the product is legal to produce and sell, what if it is poorly made, unnecessary, conducive to forming addictions (and I'm not just talking about drugs and alcohol), or antagonistic to one's health or development in other ways?

Can anyone calculate the actual long-term cost of dependence upon technology?

For all the video games, computer programs, information, and perceived monetary liquidity we now have, what knowledge and wisdom has been (whether intentionally or not) sacrificed?

What, in the end, is good?
__________

I fear what education and society are becoming by either ignoring or being unable to consider such essential questions.

Back to the County, a place apparently lacking Official Diversity.

Today I returned to WCHS after school was canceled last week due to widespread illness. I must say, despite having a solid experience at Williamsburg, I am thankful to be back with my own supervising teacher and my own students. At the same time, I feel a certain sinking because I know this week will be all the more intense -- the weight of two weeks crammed into the final five school days before fall break. There are fears of sickness leading to more cancellations, and students are ready for an additional half-week; already, several have begun "packing it in," as my former college suite-mates often said, meaning to cut one's losses, put forth no additional effort, quit.

One specific struggle this week is going to be completing my homework from last week (which I wasn't able to complete without access to certain paperwork only available on campus) on top of homework for this week and preparing for my second observation, which is coming up on Friday.

Returning to my experiences last week, on Thursday I had the chance to participate in an interview/ meeting regarding UC's Education Department's re-accreditation. Two nice ladies sent from the State interviewed me and a few other undergrad and grad student-teachers. Although they asked questions on a variety of topics, the topic we discussed most was our experience of "diversity" (or lack thereof) in our placement schools and classrooms.

According to the US Census Bureau, the racial makeup of Whitley Co., KY, is:

-98.37% White
-0.76% multi-racial
-0.69% Hispanic/ Latino (of any race)
-0.34% Black or African American
-0.23% Native American
-0.20% Asian
-0.09% other races

I'm not entirely sure that those percentages add up to precisely 100, but the picture is clear: the vast majority of people here are of mostly European descent. It is rare to see anyone who is not white without being on the college campus. And the State is apparently significantly displeased that student-teachers are not in schools with more skin-based diversity.

I have no doubt that the diversity standards set forth by the State originate from good intentions: teaching in inner-city Chicago would be vastly different than teaching in Whitley Co. Furthermore, they believe that a teacher should be able to teach in any situation or place. They then, it seems, assume that the way to prepare education students for such situations is to put them in places where there is an acceptable ratio of white people to non-white people. Clearly, the ratio of whites to non-whites in Whitley County is significantly lob-sided; therefore, schools in Whitley County (and by extension, all of Appalachia, which tends to be predominantly populated by European-Americans) are unacceptable for student-teacher placements.

And there is a certain logical progression from proposition to proposition to conclusion.

However, I question the State's purely skin tone-based understanding of diversity. According to Webster's Dictionary, "diversity" means:

The inclusion of diverse people (as people of different races or cultures) in a group or organization.

So, yes, racial differences are a piece of the puzzle; however, the State has completely ignored the fact that Eastern Kentucky and Appalachia offer a unique and typically misunderstood, caricatured, and belittled cultural experience. Being a native of the Midwest, the language, values, religion, customs, and overall worldview is starkly different than my own. My experience living here over the last four years has been no less diverse than if I had moved to Gary, Indiana, or Kensington, PA (inner-city Philadelphia).

In fact, in many ways, my experience has been more "diverse." I grew up as a city kid. My county in Indiana is the smallest in terms of square mileage in the state, but it leads the state in terms of population residing in government housing. I lived for well over a decade one block away from the projects. I played baseball in the inner-city league alongside friends (both white and black) who lived in the projects or who were on some form of government assistance. My home was located in a predominantly African-American voting precinct. My family and I had a paper route for a few years in our immediate neighborhood that further acquainted us with the lives of our neighbors and instilled a more tangible sense of community within the inner-city. I attended school in Louisville's west side, a part of the city feared by friends of mine who grew up in upper middle class subdivisions and schools. My childhood and teenage years were steeped in inner-city life and experiences.

Leaving the city life of Louisville and Southern Indiana and moving to Appalachia was indeed a culture shock. But for the first four years here, most of my time was spent on the campus where most people differed from me very little. Still, I learned certain things about the culture -- the accent and dialect, the pastimes (four-wheelin', huntin', muddin', and other words with truncated present participle suffixes). I also learned that there is a lot of need in the area -- health care, addiction counseling, education, jobs, and often even basic necessities.


However, it wasn't until I began student-teaching at Whitley County that I began to face Appalachia's litany of needs on a daily basis. And those needs have faces, stories, hopes, fears, and dreams. Being in the school has been jarring and has caused me to question my assumptions about education, stewardship, and ministry.

This place and its people are different than I am in every respect save skin color and ancestral continent. In fact, since being here, I have found that culturally speaking the Indian-American pastor of my church (who is also a local medical doctor) and his wife (who also educates their children at home) share more similarities with me than any of the students I have encountered. They and I speak the same sterile, accent-less, "non-regional diction" native to the Midwest, are highly educated and well-read, and feel at home in the traffic, busyness, and building-littered skylines of urban life. These two Indian-American friends of mine, one of whom of was born in India and grew up in Chicago and the other who was born and raised in New York City, seem to have a corner on the diversity market, yet they readily and often admit that they are culturally more "white" than the local people who are actually of European descent.

And yet, the State maintains that my experience at WCHS through the Education program at UC lacks diversity. What would have truly lacked diversity is if I would have gone back to a school in inner-city Louisville. That's old news to me. I have lived that life. I know the people and lived alongside them, and when I say them, I mean "us," because that is who I am to begin with. Furthermore, several of my students at WCHS have taken it upon themselves to teach about life as an Appalachian and member of the Whitley County community -- everything from pointers on the accent to offers of free tutorials in dressin' a deer. There is very clearly a cultural barrier, but together we are trying to learn about each other, and I am trying to become a part of this place.

Historically, Appalachia has been forgotten by the rest of American culture. The region and its people have been exploited for their natural resources and labor, ridiculed for being backwards and ignorant rednecks, for being primitive and simple, and have been summarily disregarded as being unable to provide anything of value or substance for the rest of society, except for, of course, the coal that keeps the everyones lights on (while depositing the remnants of destroyed mountains in headwaters, streams, creeks, and rivers).

By disregarding the cultural diversity of Appalachia and Whitley Co., the State (whether intentionally or not) both participates in, perpetuates, and encourages the further marginalization of this place and its people. Though I doubt they are listening (nor would listen to a lowly student-teacher), I strongly recommend that they reconsider their position -- to extend their thinking and priorities beyond numeric representations of skin-deep diversity to account for potentially stark cultural differences between people of like color as well surprising similarities between individuals of differing color. Furthermore, I suggest they spend a considerable amount of time studying the life and work of Wendell Berry, a fellow Kentuckian who has explored the struggles, strengths, sins, and beauty inherent in the Kentucky/ Appalachian experience. For starters, I would suggest his essay, "The Prejudice Against Country People." In it he states:

Disparagements of farmers, of small towns, of anything identifiable as "provincial" can be found everywhere: in comic strips, TV shows, newspaper editorials, literary magazines, and so on. A few years ago, The New Republic affirmed the necessity of the decline of family farms in a cover article entitled "The Idiocy of Rural Life." And I remember a Kentucky high school basketball cheer that instructed the opposing team:

Go back, go back, go back to the woods.
Your coach is a farmer and your team's no good.

I believe it is a fact, proven by their rapidly diminishing numbers and economic power, that the world's small farmers and other "provincial" people have about the same status now as enemy civilians in wartime. They are the objects of small, "humane" consideration, but if they are damaged or destroyed "collaterally," then "we very much regret it," but they were in the way--and, by implication, not quite as human as "we" are. The industrial and corporate powers, abetted and excused by their many dependents in government and the universities, are perpetrating a sort of economic genocide--less bloody than military genocide, to be sure, but just as arrogant, foolish, and ruthless, and perhaps more effective in ridding the world of a kind of human life. The small farmers and the people of small towns are understood as occupying the bottom step of the economic stairway and deservedly falling from it because they are rural, which is to say not metropolitan or cosmopolitan, which is to say socially, intellectually, and culturally inferior to "us."

In addition, in "The Joy of Sales Resistance," Berry outlines the assumptions of modern education, business, and politics (which are largely the same thing). Among such assumptions is:

1. Tolerance and Multiculturalism: Quit talking bad about women, homosexuals, and preferred social minorities, and you can say anything you want about people who haven't been to college, manual workers, country people, peasants, religious people, unmodern people, old people, and so on. Tolerant and multicultural persons hyphenate their land of origin and their nationality. I, for example, am a Kentuckian-American.

Of course, Berry isn't the only necessary reading. And I've not arrived at an answer for how to best prepare teachers for the "real-world" of the classroom. But I am looking, reading, and thinking. And thus far, coerced pigment diversity seems an ineffective and myopic (albeit well-intentioned) solution.