End of Term

Well, I turned in my grades a few days ago. Spring term is over. I only failed two students for plagiarism this time. (sigh...)

I had some top-notch students this term, and I am so grateful for them, because they really kept me from despairing over the bottom-notch ones. I had students who couldn't put a sentence together. I had to spend a whole class period teaching a 200-level class how to write a 5-paragraph essay (and this was at Drury, a private university, not at the community college).

The co-existence of excellent students with abysmal ones tells me that the problem really isn't with the schools. I think it's in the homes. I think that the difference is students who had parents who took an interest in their school work, who read to them, and who communicated with their teachers. And maybe even corrected their grammar from time to time.

I don't know. I know what my kids are learning in elementary and middle school, and there's no reason in the world for them not to be able to write a short essay by their second year in college.

It's very frustrating, because these students are in training to be our teachers, nurses, and businesspeople. Some of them are going to be great, but some of them should worry us. A lot.

The Problem With The Media

We were talking about journalism on one of my writing groups, and my friend Kim Wilson posted the following reflections on it. I thought they were pretty insightful, and I'm posting them with her permission for your consideration. I'd love to know your thoughts. --Kat


In my opinion, change within the media needs to start with credibility. My journalism teacher from long ago was from the old-school way of thinking. I imagine he's rolling over in his grave at what our modern day media has become. Anyway, when I think about friendly persuasion, I think about credibility. After all, how can any media source accomplish persuasion if their credibility is questioned by readers/viewers.

For what it's worth, here are some changes I'd like to see implemented among the various newsformats (television, print and electronic):

1. Correct use of terminology.

One of my pet peeves in today's media is the word "Soldier" when used as a universal term referencing military members. The U.S. Military is composedof Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines. When I see or hear the incorrectusage of "Soldier" I want to tell the reporter or anchor to go up to a Marine and ask him/her how he/she likes being a Soldier and see how the Marine reacts. This particular inaccuracy tells me the person behind the story hasn't done their homework. Servicemembers get prickly over this and rightly so. Each member chose a particular branch and they're proud ofthat branch. Most of the time, their unfavorable reaction to being called a Soldier stems from pride, not ego.

2. Higher standards of reporting.

On Monday the Trentonian (a Trenton, NJ newspaper) published an article about a police involved shooting (the officer discharged one shot). The reporter wrapped up the article with this prose: "Detectives in the copshop's Internal Affairs Unit have been summoned to investigate the incident,which is standard practice when a police officer unloads his or her heat." When I came upon that paragraph, I stopped. Certain I'd read it wrong, I went back and reread the paragraph. My first thought was, "Unloads his or her heat? You gotta be kidding me," followed by "An editor actually approved this copy?" For anyone that's interested, you can read the article in its entirety at http://tinyurl.com/5eepfa

3. Misleading headlines.

How many times have you gone to an online news site, clicked on a headline only to find the headline had nothing to do with the article? Or, the headline completely contradicted the article? I feel duped when this happens. One occurrence, I can tolerate, but after a second time, I stop visiting the site.

4. Don't be in a such a hurry to scoop.

It seems today's media is obsessed with scooping each other. I understand the concept of scooping (really, I do.) and that it's a fundamental part of journalism. However, it's gotten to the point that most of the time factual information is sacrificed for the sake of holding the title of "You heard/read it here first." I don't know about you folks, but I'd rather wait a little longer and get an accurate story, versus a quick dose of misinformation.

Anyway, as I said earlier, I believe persuasion begins with credibility. I look forward to reading what others have to say about this topic.

Happy writing,
Kim

Abby is Awesome

Sunday was the end-of-year choir concert for the middle school and high school. They also gave out choir awards, and guess who won the Performance Award, for being the best performer and having the best voice in the whole 7th/8th grade choir?????

Abby, that's who. Could you not tell that from the headline?

The whole choir voted, and they voted to give Abby that award. How awesome is my baby????

My 2nd Favorite Month

Actually, my favorite month is not April. April is my second-favorite month. I love the flowering trees, especially. Two of my favorite flowers are lilacs and dogwoods, and those are out in profusion in April. Here in the Ozarks, we have dogwood of all different colors, thought I think that maybe the ubiquitous white is still my favorite. And of course, since Easter is usually in April, it's the perfect time to tell the story of the legend of the dogwood tree.

Another thing about April that I love is that after March's cruel teasing (is it winter? is it spring? I don't know!), April might have some cold days, but it can only move toward springtime. Of course, that means not only warmth and sunshine, but also storms, which I really, really love. We've already had some excellent and dramatic thunder storms; they were incredible. There's nothing like a good thunderstorm.

In case you were wondering, my favorite month is October. But April's a really close second.

An Easter Quotation

Without Easter, there can be no reason to suppose that Good will triumph over evil, that love will win over hatred, that life will win over death. But with Easter we have hope; because hope depends on love; and love has become human and has died, and is now alive forevermore, and holds the keys of Death and Hades. It is because of him we know--we don’t just hope, we know-- that God will wipe away all tears from all eyes. And in that knowledge we find ourselves to be Sunday people, called to live in a world of Fridays.

-N.T. Wright, Following Jesus: Biblical Reflections on Discipleship

Happy Easter!

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

After a very long Lent, Easter is finally here. Holy Week was long, brutal, exhausting, and strangely and deeply satisfying. It always is all those things. The exhaustion is welcome; it's the fatigue of a race well run. Of accepting a challenge--to keep watch with Jesus--and rising to it. Sure, it takes a lot out of you. But at the end, you greet the dawn knowing that you were faithful, even when it was so hard to be.

The cold and rain didn't dampen our Easter celebrations here (and hey, the heater in my car works now, so I have nothing to complain about). At home, we hid eggs in the living room and dining room (with help from AJ, who is now too old to hunt eggs--or so she tells us). At church, we hid eggs inside the church while everyone celebrated in the parish hall.

In my World Religions class, my unit on Christianity began during Holy Week, which has never happened before. It was kind of cool. It was a nice calendrical backdrop to my lesson that the most important holy day in Christianity is Easter (not Christmas, even if you like Christmas better) (but seriously, what could be better than Easter?).

I wish everybody a blessed Easter season. 50 days to celebrate before it's back to life as usual.

Christos Anesti!

Alethos Anesti!

Denied!

Well, I ran for school board here in Mount Vernon, but I lost. :(

Yet, I am not discouraged. I have a plan for next time. Here it is:

All y'all need to move down here and vote for me.

I lost by a pretty small margin, which I calculate to be the other guy's relatives and friends. So, if my relatives and friends come down and vote, I am so in.

So, my dear ones...if you could get to work on that, that would be great.

Love you!