Consumerism January 7, 2009

Over the Christmas break I decided to get a job because I had one whole month off of University.  How wonderful I thought! No finals, I might as well get a job… bad idea.  First of all, I feel like I didn’t have a break at all, and second, I worked retail.

I learned a lot while working at Ricki’s clothing store in the mall, but more than anything I saw consumerism in a new way.  Our store gears their clothes to 20-30 year old business women.  The clothes are quite expensive, but made well.  As I got better at being a sales person I found myself lying to people saying things like, “you can never have too many black sweaters” or “that looks so good on you” even when I didn’t like the shirt at all.  I have helped convince people to buy something when their first reaction walking out of the change room was disgust.  I was a catalyst for consumerism.  Our goal for Ricki’s this year was to reach 1.5 million in sales at our store.  We got there 2 months early! (Year end is in February)  What is wrong with our world? All I hear is talk about the recession, and financial crisis, yet we are bigger consumers now then ever!  We surpassed all of our last years sales goals even though this year we are apparently in financial crisis!

Did you know that in Canada alone, people spend 35 billion on Christmas presents?  Do you want to know something numbing?  The estimated cost to solve the world’s water shortage is 13 billion.  Check out this video about Christmas and consumerism… think about it, even though Christmas is over.

Invisible Children December 19, 2008

For anyone who has not seen this documentary, you need to.  And anyone who has seen it, knows what I am talking about.  What a horrifying situation that is happening in Sudan and Uganda.  Children are being abducted out of their homes while they are sleeping so they can be enlisted in a rebel army.  Other children are shot and murdered in front of their faces so the children will be desensitized.  These children never get a chance to go to school, and when they are asked to draw a picture of ANYTHING, they draw blood, guns and death.  These are children! Anywhere from 5 years old to 14! As teachers, we are taught to be suspicious of any our student’s drawing that have to do with violence at all, and here, all this children can draw is violence! Don’t get me wrong, I am not undermining the importance of abuse in the home, or any type of violence our children come to school with, but it sure puts things into perspective.  What is being done to protect these children in Africa from the reality they face everyday.  Please go to www.invisiblechildren.com and donate, or buy a t-shirt or a bracelet.  Every little bit helps.  I don’t know what else TO do, but I do know that this makes me want to go to Africa even more now after I convocate.  Watching this movie tonight has re-sparked my passion for children, and I want to do everything I can, all the while knowing that all I really can do is pray.

Is our world getting better or worse? November 5, 2008

This is an interesting question to think about.  Here are some statistics and information to chew on for both sides.

1) Cancer has gone crazy. “Based on current incidence rates, 39% of Canadian women will develop cancer during their lifetimes. Among men, 45% will develop cancer during their lifetime.” -Canadian Cancer Society

2) For the first time the United States has a president that isn’t white!

3) According to World Health Organization, someone around the globe commits suicide every 40 seconds.

4) In Canada, people don’t need to pay for healthcare.  They are taken care of for free.

5) WHO estimates that one third of the world is well fed, one third of the world is under fed, and one third of the world is starving.

6) Human rights are becoming a global issue and people who were once denied rights like voting, and education are now part of their democratic system.

7) A six year old was shot in school… by another six year old.

There’s many more… but these are just a few of the goods and bads of our world.  So, are we progressing? Or are we regressing?

Interesting links about humanity regressing – rob bell the gods aren’t angry

Scientific Truth September 11, 2008

As I was writing my journal for an Ed science class I am taking, I started to reflect on what we were learning and how we teach.  I have been thinking a lot lately about scientific truth, and how there really is no standard to measure scientific truth with. If you would like to read the whole journal entry click here.  But if not, here is an excerpt with some of my thoughts.

 ”For this reason, I honestly think that we as teachers need to be very open minded when teaching Science.  In my own opinion, I think that the scientific theory of creation should be taught in schools along with evolution. I have studied many creation science journals that use evidence to back-up creation just as evolutionists find evidence to back up their beliefs.  I also think that children should get to choose whether they believe they were ”created” by the Big Bang, or whether they were created by God.  Another positive thing I see about teaching creationism is that it relates to the whole child; it incorporates spirituality along with the intellectual side of science.  It gives children meaning in their own life.  I think we as teachers need to be the first ones to question society’s norms, and we need to be critical and challenge the pre-conceived ideas that we all have in our heads.”

As teachers, we have the responsibility to be critical AND open minded about science.

Kindergarten August 14, 2008

Who really remembers their Kindergarten teacher anyway? You are 4 or 5 years old and you come to school so you can play in the sandbox, and climb on the monkey bars.  Can a Kindergarten teacher really have any effect on their students at that young of an age? 

I have been thinking a lot lately about how lost our teenage world seems.  When Jon and I were at my parents house last night, my mom came home at 11:00pm fuming.  She had just driven by some kid getting the crap kicked out of him across from a local elementary school.  When she stopped and backed up, everyone ran away… including the kid.  The week I wrote my post about teen girls, was the same week I dealt with a lot of issues with a couple of the teen girls I know.  What is happening to our teenagers?  The reason I am connecting Kindergarten with teenagers is because I am questioning my choice of grade levels to teach.  I am specializing in Pre-K to 3 but is that where I should be?  My heart is definitely for young children.  I love how they learn and how they begin to understand things, but I am beginning to think that if I really want to have an effect on students, I should teach high school, or a higher grade where they may need a little bit more guidance.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand that my job as a teacher is not to “fix” students.  I don’t have the power to make choices for them or deliberately pursuade them to act a certain way… but I CAN see with my own eyes that a lot of the teens I meet need help, support and love.  I know young children also have issues that need help and support, but the teenagers of today were three years old once! Does a Kindergarten teacher really make a difference?

No matter what grade I teach, my job and passion is to educate.  I want to educate my students about maths, sciences, language and grammar, but I also want to educate them about life, love, relationships and society.  Right now I don’t plan on changing what I want to specialize in, and as of this September 08 I will be pre-interning in a Pre-K class, but these past couple weeks has sure opened to my eyes to see that there are some other options open for me if I want to take them.

Teen Girls August 8, 2008

Suicide, rape, drugs, alcohol, sex.  These are normal words now a days. WHY?!? What kind of impact to we as teachers, youth leaders, parents and friends have on the teenagers we are in contact with?  Sometimes I feel like no matter how much we care for them, or instruct them, or warn them, they still fall into trouble.  When we send kids to high school, we are sometimes sending them into a waiting death trap.  There is so much crap in high schools these days it makes me sick.  It breaks my heart to know that beautiful young teenage girls can get walked all over by high school guys who think they have the right to do whatever they want.  It makes me sick that rape is more common than we think.  It makes me sick that drugs and alcohol are the NORM in high schools today.  It makes me sick that majority of high schools kids can probably name one person they know who has been killed before the time they reach age 20.

Where have we gone so wrong? What can we do to fix any of this? The cheerleaders I coach, the youth group girls I work with all face the same issues… self confidence, pressures of sex, the pressure to drink.  Don’t get me wrong, these were all issues I faced in high school as well, but why do they seem to be so much harder to overcome now then they were even 5 years ago?

I want teen girls to know that they are SO valuable.  I want them to know that they are made in the image of God and that they are worth something!  I want them to know that they don’t have to be physical with guys to be accepted.  I want them to know that the way they live their life can make them unique… NOT the crazy shirt they wear to try and make a statement.

I am going to try and be an example to the teen girls I come in contact with and I pray that God will do a mighty work in high school girl’s lives.

Workplace hunger June 17, 2008

Why is it that when I’m at work I am more hungry then when I’m at school or home.  (A side note, I also sneeze more at work then anywhere else but I’m going to stick to talking about hunger.) I sit at a desk everyday and work on the computer and walk back and forth to a literature room… but is that really enough over-exertion that I am constantly hungry? I’m also really bad for walking to the lunch room and buying M&M peanuts from the little 25 cent vending machine.  What is it about work that makes you hungry?!? It might be that people are so bored all they can think about is how hungry they are, or maybe there’s something in the air that does truly make you hungry.  I know physical activity can make you hungry but can mental activity make you hungry? Maybe it’s all the thinking involved with a desk job. (You can read that sentence as sarcastic or literal. Make it fit you and your job.)

I have also noticed that it’s sometimes hard to eat healthy meals while at work.  The people at my office go out to eat a lot. My boss is awesome for that because she puts our meal on the company credit card, but it sure makes it hard to eat healthy when you could have a free lunch. The other problem is that I only take a half hour for lunch, and I go home, so I gotta have something quick. Then when I come back to work I’m usually still hungry and it becomes a viscious cycle.  If anyone else has this problem or even better, has a solution… let me know!

Blog on Blogging February 14, 2008

For the last month I have been an official blogging buddy for Kathy Cassidy’s grade one classroom.  My buddy is Mathew.  I try to comment on his posts as soon as they are posted.  These blogging exercises have been a great tool for his writing and my teaching.  My buddy is such a great writer already, but it is so good to see him grow and use the advice I am giving him.  I mostly try to remind him of spelling, or grammar that he’s probably seen before.  I also try and comment on the content of the blog. I have mentioned that I would love to see him talk about new and interesting things going on in his life.  This type of journaling is so interactive.  Imagine, a global audience at the age of 6! It is so great to see the grade ones progressing in their writing while having fun.  I can’t wait to see what else Mathew is going to write and how he will continue to grow in his writing.

The Cries of the Hurting February 7, 2008

We try so hard to fight for social justice and equality among humans but today was another example of how our world is a desperate and hurting place.  I went out for coffee with a friend of mine who is in social work. She was telling me the story of a little girl she works with.  I’m going to call this little one Rebecca.

The vicious circle of poverty and abuse repeated itself in Rebecca’s life.  Rebecca is 3. Years ago her grandma, a teenage mom got fed up and tired of caring for her new daughter, (let’s call her Daisy)… so the new mom put Daisy in a dumpster and left her.  Clearly this would have a traumatizing effect on a young child and this little girl grew up with some serious issues.  To no surprise, Daisy also became a teenage mom herself.  She again had a little girl, Rebecca.  I am not sure what pushed Daisy to the extreme, but Daisy also felt the need to abandon her child.  A year and a half ago Rebecca made the news.  Her mom had locked her, at 1 and a half years old in an apartment for 48 hours.  The police had to break the door down to rescue the child.  My heart is breaking as I type this.  Put yourself in that room. What did Rebecca do for 48 hours?  Could she even crawl? Imagine the horribleness of sitting in a dirty diaper for 2 days.  Can you hear her hurting, desperate little cry? This is the cry of only one of our many hurting children in Regina, our country and this world. 
As my friend was telling me this story, a disheveled man walks up to us in the coffee shop and asks us for money. As he talks, a bit of saliva leaks out of the side of his mouth and he is somewhat slurring his words.  He tells us that his car broke down on the ring road and he needs money for gas. I search his eyes, questioning his motives.  In my heart I doubt this man actually needs the money for gas, and I don’t want to fuel an addiction, but my friend and I pull out a small amount of change anyways… scared that he might actually be telling the truth.  I try to offer him help, so I ask if he needs a ride, and he tries to tell me his plans but they don’t really make much sense.  I tried to call my fiancee, but there was no answer. I don’t know if I should call a cab, or drive him myself.  My friend and I both know we can’t drive him ourselves, but he tells me he is going to the nearby Safeway.  That was the last I saw of him.  Since I left the coffee shop I have been questioning my actions and I wish I could have done something more.  Was this man just another product of poverty and addiction and has he resorted to begging for money? Or did he actually run out of gas? There’s also something I need to address, and I have left it for last. Would my actions/opinions/doubts have changed if he was white?

Here it comes January 2, 2008

The new semester is coming quick and I am trying to get myself into school mode.  I still have so much to do that should have been done over Christmas break… oops! As I reflect on the past semester I realize how my views of education have been challenged and molded. Not so much from the theorists and philosophers, but from my profs and my peers.  I never knew I was so easily motivated by people’s opinions and ideas, but I see myself being changed in front of my own eyes.  I took a Kinesiology class this past semester that emphasized health and wellness in children and adults.  We as teachers and role models, were encouraged to change our lifestyle so we can be an example to the kids.  It has worked! My fiancee and I have decided to exercise daily, and not eat junk food before our wedding.  I know that there will be times where a chocolate bar is needed or there is a day without some push-ups, but I truly want to try and get healthier; for myself, and my future students.

The one thing I am really excited for this next semester is our class discussions.  I find that I get along quite well with education students, and I love hearing their ideas for change in ”the classroom.”  I am also taking two non-education classes which will be interesting.  I am taking a Christianity class and a Philosophy class.  I can’t wait to see what other ways I will be challenged to grow this semester.