This week I received e-mails from two of The Gods, my Amherst professors. They congratulated me and wished me luck on the coming school year, my 47th. Of course I had some dogs for teachers in college. But these two were among the very best, really outstanding. It was also nice to hear how they are doing, their projects, etc. I still think the book, Teaching: What We Do, should be required reading for all prospective teachers. The 15 or so essays by Amherst professors, most of them mine, outline some of their lessons, how they are created/developed, etc.
I wonder why there was never any protest, never any media mention of the Che Guevara tee shirts that were sported by some of the $15/hour demonstrations. In the newspaper on Tue, a photograph has some idiot, front and center, wearing a Che shirt. I say "idiot" and mean it. This guy doesn't know that engaging in such a protest in Che's Cuba would have likely resulted in his execution. Che wasn't his given name; it was Ernesto Guevara. Let's not even touch his disdain for freedoms of speech and the press nor his utter hatred of the concept of legal rights. He was a blood-thirsty, cold-blooded murderer. He actually admitted that he liked the killings. How many tens of thousands did he have executed? How many did he enslave? How many did he slam into prisons for years and years? How many tens of thousands more Cubans died trying to escape his prisons, torture, and executions? And yet his shirt is worn. Nobody protests, not like Robert E. Lee or Jefferson Davis. And it's utterly amazing that many of the biogs, etc. are sympathetic toward Guevara, treating him as a hero. Heck, he initiated Castro's gulags. Which of the Lamestream media will be the first one to point out all this? They were quick to jump on Lee and Davis, rightly so. What about Che??????
Throughout the summer I watched people on their devices. At their kids ball games, parents can't even watch their kids--playing baseball or football. In restaurants, diners at the same table can often be found on their phones or I-whatevers, ignoring their fellows. Walking in the woods, on the trails, two or three can be seen looking not at nature, but on their devices. What a waste, for all of them? They can't watch their kids, something they will regret later; well, maybe they won't. Why bother going out to eat with others? Save the time of going to the woods.
But even more, what is this costing us? We don't engage in conversation. We don't talk to each other. If a question arises, everyone just turns to their devices to find the answer. Oh, they get the answer, but they lose out in the long run. Instead of wracking their brains, discussing and having dialogue, Google gives them the answer. What about the the process, the thought process, the searching through one's brain/memory? No wonder we have people still wearing tee shirts celebrating Che.
This week I was led to remember 45 or more years ago. As a beginning teacher and newlywed, two or three times a week Karen and I had Chunky Soup on rice, bulk rice at that, for dinner. One night a week it was the all-you-can-eat spaghetti at Little Caesars--oh, it was terrible, but cheap, 99 cents. It appears many teachers aren't doing much better in 2017.
From out of nowhere I remembered this one, too. Each winter the Detroit Tigers would host/sponsor our summer baseball team banquet. I think it was held at DiMambro's Italian Restaurant on Schaefer in Detroit. When saying a little something about each player, the Tiger scout who emceed said this about me, "He's the second-best centerfielder in Detroit..." I thought that was pretty cool. But others waited to hear the rest, trying to figure out who was the "best." Then he added, "...behind only Mickey Stanley." I thought that was even cooler! So did my date. (Yes, I actually had one. That's probably why she went to the prom with me!)
I have some thoughts again about the quest for a $15 an hour minimum wage. But I'm tired and will hold off on those until later in the week.
Wednesday, September 6, 2017
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