To reveal or not to reveal...

One of the more difficult things for me to decide when writing my blog is how much of my personal life I should talk about here in my open diary.  I have explored some blogs that are so personal they take me aback.  How are people so willing to share with strangers?  Aren't they nervous that they might say something untoward or outrageous?  What if, by revealing true feelings and episodes, they piss off a friend or relative? Some blogs take off pictures and resort to initials as a mark of anonymity; others use pseudonyms while still others just don't care.

I certainly edit myself.  This is not a tell-all, it is just my musings although I try to be open and honest in my writing.  So, let me ask you - do you think the blog should be a place of  broad revelation or cautious discussion?  Should I air my dirty laundry or show you only my Sunday best?  In the age of Taxi-cab confessions and an abundance of reality television, how over-the-top do we need to be in order to get somebody's attention?  I opened this blog with a picture of me and my daughter, Caroline..... have I said too much?

Drama, trauma, and no honor....

Well, hell, I suppose I should be Happy, and I am, but I am also confused.  See, I posted a LARGE reward for the return of my ipod, I sent out the word among the ne'er do wells of my acquaintance, and I said a few prayers.  So, I shouldn't have been surprised to get some hits, right?  If only it were that easy.  

First, one of my students tells me he knows who stole my ipod; he saw it, held it, and talked to the guy.  Bingo!  But, since we were talking on the d/l and not mentioning any real names, I get confused and think he is talking about another guy......  Then, a girl tells me that while she was working at the local pawn shop, yet another student tried to pawn the ipod but the shop refused cause it was all too shady. (Yeah, I know, who knew that pawn shops took the high ground!) Then, the hall monitor tells me that one of her charges implicated a third suspect.  Frankly, I was back to thinking that the entire school was in cahoots...

Thursday, I have a confrontation with the first student - he denies, denies, denies, and then tells me he knows who took the damn thing.  Friday, the kid comes to my classroom with the ipod and tells me he stole it back from the kid who took it.  I'm thrilled.  I love the irony of the kid stealing from the thief.  I tell him to come back on Tuesday for his reward.

Tuesday, no kid.

Tuesday night, I get a call on my cell phone  from the kid (Yikes!  They have my cell phone number!) and he is agitated and it sounds like he is crying.  "Mrs. Haywood," he yells.  "I can't live with this guilt.  I stole your ipod.  I don't know why I did it.  I don't know what's wrong with me.  I'm sorry."  The kid is a wreck.  He tells me that he stole his sister's ipod and pawned it and now he has been kicked out of his house.  I want to tell him he's a craphead, but I take a deep breath and I tell him, once again, that everything he does is a choice and that he can choose something different whenever he wants.  And because he is calling at night on my cell phone, I tell him that he needs to start listening to God and that God loves him and that he is worthwhile.  Then I offer to help him get into a vocational program.  He tells me he is headed north to live with a friend who can get him a job and hook him up with another alternative program.  I know the friend he is talking about - he's a druggie who never finished high school.

"Okay," I say to the kid.  "You know my number."

I got my ipod touch back, the ipod-stealing kid is out of my hair......so why do I feel so bad? 

Reading is good for you...

We just started a school wide reading program at the high school where I teach. After much deliberation and a little library luck, we decided on Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game as a good first book for what we knew would be a resistant group of teenagers.  But, oh mylanta (I know, it's so goofy, it's cool) I wasn't prepared for the maelstrom.  Here is a litany of some of the complaints:  "It's Science Fiction!"  "It has swear words!" "I don't understand it!" "It's too easy."  "This is stupid (retarded, gay, dumb, boring, etc)!"  "It's a religious book!"  Okay, now I have to pause and just take a little umbrage on this silly last statement.  Ender's Game is a science fiction book that takes place in a quasi-dystopia society where government extends control to things such as family size and religion.  Can I make something clear?  Just because one says the word "religion" in a book, doesn't mean that the book is religious.  I've gotten so cranky over the incessant whining that I resort to saying "Suck it up!" to all whiners.  I think I'm going to make my students read the book twice; that'll teach 'em.

First you lie...then you steal...

About ten days ago, I left my classroom unoccupied to teach a class in another building. While I was gone, someone stole my BRAND NEW ipod touch.....yeah.....it just pisses me off recounting it here.  The problem with someone stealing from me is that I suspect everyone and it makes me want to think of the worst of all.  I just took a new 9th grade class and I wonder if it was one of them?  Maybe the kid I hollered at in the hall the other day?  Maybe my chronic skippers or the known drug users in our school?  Maybe it is someone I wouldn't normally suspect.  I put the word out to all my kids, offered a reward, and was SURE that I would get the ipod back right away.  No such luck.  

I taught in one of the poorest barrios in El Paso, TX and in a school that catered to low income students in Louisville, KY, and no one ever took anything from me ever.  I grew up in a small town in Alaska where no one locked their doors and people left their car keys on the floorboards of their cars in case anyone wanted to borrow a vehicle.  I don't steal and I am flabbergasted that anyone would steal from me.

One student told me it was my own fault for leaving my ipod unattended.  I suppose he is right, but, what the hell?  My Mom used to tell us kids, "First you lie, then you steal, and then you murder."  Of course this was her way of keeping us from stealing the chocolate chips, but it sure worked.  

You've got to be an optimist to be a Democrat......

..and you've got to be an humorist to stay one!!  Will Rogers said this pithy truism sometime in the early part of the 20th century, and I appreciate his guidance in this election year.

Since I "came out" as a Dem, everyone wants to talk me out of it, like if they only tell me this one terrible thing about Clinton or Obama, I will come to my senses and get back on the McCain Train.  So, I've been thinking about my politics very carefully.  Okay, I'm not a Drudge reader like my brilliant husband, or an article clipper like the effervescent Ann Rankin, or a lifelong Dem-on-principal like many of my amazing friends, but I am smitten with Barack Obama.  

Yep, if Obama asked me to, I'd go steady with him (sorry, honey, it's his rhetoric).  When I was 22, I campaigned for Terry Miller, the Alaskan Gubernatorial Republican Candidate. I door-knocked, and rallied, and held my breath when he spoke.  He lost and, except for Ross Perot in 1992, I've had no real bouts with political fever or fervor......until now.  

Color me blue, baby, I'm in for the long haul.

My First Caucus

I don't even know where to start, but today I volunteered to represent my precinct as a delegate for Barrack Obama! I've always been politically active, but casting a vote for a Democratic candidate makes me feel like I'm batting for the other team.  I think I've been a Dem in my heart for some time now, but I have conservative values that I have felt were better matched in the Republican party.  Whoooooo.......I feel kinda free, like I just took my bra off and decided not to shave my legs.  

The caucus was CRAAAAAZZZY.  The planners didn't plan well so there were long lines and lots of confusion, but the process was rejuvenating.  

I'll bet you'd (hmmmm, I think my readership is kinda low, so maybe I'm just writing to myself here) like to know why I am supporting Barrack Obama and why just saying so makes me feel like I'm a part of something enormous?  Stay tuned......

What's this all about?

So, my blog is called "Thinking about reading"  because I was hoping to use blogs in some of my English classes, but I hadn't counted on the blog police at the high school where I teach deciding that blogging is something high schoolers shouldn't do.  Now I have a blog with no true purpose except maybe a place to talk about books.....and my beautiful grandbaby.  Oh, and I'm prepared to fight the good fight to get Edublogging into my high school.  See, my plan is to give the assignment this highfaluting name of Edublogging (nope, I didn't invent it) to get it past the firewall.