It's a Winter Wonderland World out there!
 

 Right above this tree is where the moon would be if it were not hidden by clouds and snow.  So much for staying up to see the Lunar Eclipse tonight.

 Home, where the heart is!

The empty chair by the fireplace where I'm headed as soon as I finish with these pictures!!

 Snow falls softly outside, a snow globe world where all is silent in a blanket of white.   Huge flakes falls, adding volume to beautiful, awful piles of snow.




 

Merry Christmas! A Savior Is Born! (E-Card)

Over-Stimulated Teens

Over-Stimulated Teens

The amount of words and ideas that I am unable to use due to over-sexualized boys this year is amazing. Story Topics like "My favorite Toy" (Okay it was dumb to have on a list -- one I procured from another school) in a list of 50 ideas, resulted in the disruption of 30 students for several minutes. I am appalled at the lack of parental supervision, at the lack of control over these children.

For 25 years I've taught public school adolescents and have never had a group this reactionary. It makes teaching tantamount to walking on eggs. I can't even remember what previous triggers have been this year; they are many and diverse. The entire English language is mostly off-limits to these little boys who have been subjected to an adult-oriented world that I can only guess at. They listen to music that contains vocabulary and innuendo that I neither know nor want to know. They watch the trashiest of TV programs and apparently believe that the world does or should operate on such lurid devices and with total lack of principle.

How does one teach common civility to such ill-bred children? How does one even have conversation, much less encourage them to explore memory and imagination when such as been contaminated by the basest and vilest that American media can offer?

I'm not ready to give up, nor am I ready to blame the victim, for I do see them as victims as much as little girls whoa re treated as sexual objects by perverted family members, other adults, or even by the same adolescent boys.

How does one go about rescuing the most vulnerable among us from the vile filth to be found online, in media and very possibly in their own homes?

Indeed, it seems as though this year will be spent putting Band-Aids on damaged psyches. However, at the same time, I must encourage them to find a healthy outlet for natural energy to be expected in adolescents and find some manner of helping them drain off the disgusting putrification that has collected due to damaging experiences.

Heaven help us all! No wonder I'm exhausted on a regular basis. It's a battlefield out there. Pray for teachers!! Pray for Students!!! Pray for parents!!