National Day on Writing - a few minutes late

I’ve been sitting on this for a while, and haven’t posted it because I’m a bit timid. I’m a Christian. There’s nothing that I think more about than Biblical literature, interpretation, and application. But this subject is a bit different than anything else I’ve written about, so expanding into new territory isn’t easy. I figured today, on the National Day on Writing, I would be adventurous.

Four weeks ago I started going to an old school, proper Sunday School at Jefferson Avenue Baptist Church where a friend of mine leads the class. They started a series on the book of Philippians, which is one of my favorite books in the Bible, so I decided I would try it out.

The study started out by looking at Philippians 1:1-26. I was surprised by the idea of Christ’s work in Christians as a process. This is something that had occurred to me, but never quite so explicitly from the Bible. Personally, I had grown weary by the idea that when one “becomes a Christian” everything changes. We are physical beings, with urges and impulses and drives that become so ingrained within us that they become almost impossible to break—almost. But through the work of Christ, over time, change occurs. I think it’s pretty cool, even if it is a little crazy.

The verses that stand out to me, that encourage me in my thinking are Philippians 1:4-6, and 9-11.

In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

Later, after confessing his desire for death more than life and pleading with the Philippians to have the same attitude as Christ, he persists in his emphasis on process oriented Christianity in 2:12-13.

Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

Now, chapter 3 of Philippians is probably my favorite chapter in the entire Bible, and in this chapter, specifically verse 12, Paul looks toward his goal and realizes he has far to go.

Not that I have already obtained all this*, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 

*This refers to verses 8-11.

Paul is a man who, if we believe the Bible, heard and saw a blinding vision of the Lord, and this experience transformed him in an amazing way—he stopped persecuting the Church and Christians, became a Christian himself and was himself persecuted. But still this transformation was not absolute or complete. Paul uses words and phrases to represent a process or journey oriented life in Christ. This often is not what is represented in the modern Church, and often not what is presented by Christians as they live their lives. Often I have encountered a Christianity of immediacy and perfectionism, and experienced nothing but a stifling mood. According to Paul, and his letter to the Philippians, this should not be. Why not approach life in Christ as a journey in coming to know Him more? Why not approach living as a Christian as a process in coming to know Christ more, and allowing that experience to change oneself? 

The Sunday School class was really fun for me to attend. It was good to meet some new people, and experience a new a different church experience apart from the one I’ve had for the past nine years. It’s always good to be challenged in my thinking, and I’m grateful that I’ve been exposed to new ways of reading one of my favorite texts. 

write now

Another week has gone by without posting to the blog. Some days I haven't even written. I've had meetings, classes, conversations that have been positive and productive--and those are understatements. I've actually written two posts this week, but I didn't publish them; I couldn't convince myself to. I'm still thinking; I'm still considering and contemplating. A lot is going on--in my life, at home, at school, and consequentially in my brain. It's more to process than I want to put out there, but I still feel to push to put it out there. I'm getting more and more scared about sharing though.

These are my thoughts today, October 15, 2010, during third period, 10:23 am CDT.

education reform

Tavis Smiley, in his show with Geoffrey Canada, CEO of Harlem’s Children Zone, and Davis Guggenheim, director of Waiting for Superman:

Some of this Geoffrey, you came out of the classroom, before you were running a school you were a teacher. Some of this to me, I think words have meaning, I think language is important. I want to be frank about this, this term “Race to the Top” which is this administration’s approach to this. This term “Race to the Top” disturbs me. One, education, pardon my English, ain’t a race. It’s not a race; it’s a guarantee. Every kid in this country ought to have access to an equal high quality education. The very notion of a race to the top means by definition that somebody’s going to win, somebody’s going to lose, if it’s a race. I don’t understand how we’re going about solving the problem starting with the language and the process itself.

I really enjoy the fact that Tavis Smiley, (1) let’s his feelings be known, and (2) challenges his guests. It makes me happy that these things happen, but truthfully, in these situations, as a good host, he offers his guests the opportunity to rebut his statement and make their argument stronger.

I haven’t seen Waiting for Superman. Much, if not all, that I’ve heard from the really good teachers that I am connected to, the classroom teachers who spend much more than 8 hours a day dedicated to their craft, their students, their community, is negative. I don’t recall a single one talking about the positive movement that could come to education with this movie. I’ve heard positive publicity from Oprah and NBC’s Education Nation, both of whom are absolutely massive movers of misinformation and superficial thinking.

I also haven’t seen Race to Nowhere, a movie also about education reform. I haven’t heard much about it either, from the classroom teachers or from the media hype machine. I may not see either, simply because I fear being emotionally worked up without being able to respond intellectually. I’m a whole lot more likely to react out of irrationality and anger rather than respond after deep thought. (That’s something that I’m actually working on here.)

So how do I respond to this situation? I don’t know. Mostly what I notice is that the teachers in my school, the smallest building in our district, far on the outskirts of the city, don’t seem to be aware of some of these issues. Truthfully, I need to be more aware of the local issues that are present within our district and city, while I also want the teachers in my small school to be aware of these larger issues that seem to be setting fire to large cities that eventually may affect our small school.

On a barely related note, these are the things I’ve learned about Davis Guggenheim from his Wikipedia entry, in no particular order: he's married to Elisabeth Shue, who's been "hot" since Karate Kid; he was born in St. Louis, MO; he directed and produced An Inconvenient Truth, also a fairly provocative documentary; "he directed Barack Obama's biographical film, which aired during the Democratic National Convention;" he directed It Might Get Loud, a really cool documentary about the electric guitar, told from Jack White, the Edge, and Jimmy Page, and given to me by my brother; and he was an executive producer of the movie Training Day, a movie which scared me in its fierceness and brutality. 

newspaper

I'm trying to get things going with the school newspaper. I really don't have a plan other than creating a space and a time for the kids to write about what they want, create something that they want, and to put it out for the school. There are some things that do "need" to happen. That need extends from my perception of what the other teachers expect. Certainly there are comparisons all the time, statements regarding how things are and how things were, and judgments made about each. I'm competitive by nature, and I don't want to hear something negative about my work. I want to do a good job. I would gladly accept someone pointing out faults or shortcomings of the newspaper, while also telling me what they think could/should go in there; I wouldn't accept the murmurings and whispers about the faults and shortcomings. More than anything, I want to listen to the students and what they want in the newspaper. I want to get them writing, creating, editing. That was the most fun time today, turning them loose on the computers with "assignments" that they chose or they created, and seeing them go to work. They encouraged one another; they challenged one another. It was a really fun experience. I'll be having that time and space available every Wednesday--whoever wants to come is welcome. I think that'll create something really, really cool. And I believe that will make my job better, meaning more enjoyable, and I think it will make PV a better place. I've got to believe it, otherwise I'm not sure I have a reason for doing it.

25 words

Sara jumped right in to the 25 word story hashtag on twitter, and I am totally jealous of her writing ability. I wish I was that creative and that crafty with words. I've been thinking and composing for some time with a 25 word story in mind, but I'm not courageous enough to post to twitter. So here, tonight, I'm cranking through some stories. Maybe I'll grow more confident as I continue to try, and actually publish them.

Story: It wasn’t just sillybandz arrayed across her desk, it was also her hope for a future: an airplane, the sun, seashells, high heals, a sailboat.

Memoir: One image from my evening: sitting cross legged in my living room, munching on corn-on-the-cob, watching soccer, and monitoring the tweet stream. 

Story: It wasn’t the sourness of the pickle that caused her face to screw-up. He did really just say, “I think I shat my pants.”

Memoir: Size fourteens are strewn about in every room of the house, testimony to tired feet and lazy legs. Exhaustion means I can fall asleep anywhere.

Story: She couldn’t understand the words he chose. She knew it was coming. She actually thought she felt the same. But his words left her unsettled.

Story: Her back was turned and no one else would tell. They quickly exchanged papers. This time, he got the A and she got the D.

Story: He wouldn’t call it greed, poor judgment, or dishonesty. He would call it bad luck or blame it on someone else. He would never learn.

I think I'm going to try this out with my students. I've done $2 summaries, where every word "cost" 10 cents, so they basically have 20 words to write a summary of the learning for the day. But a 25 word story is challenging because they've got to be creative with the language, not just summarize. I guess I think both activities are good for being precise in the use of language--summarizing is an important skill, but so is telling a story.