God be with them.

Father, please be withe people of Japan in these days. They need You. They need help, wisdom, peace and comfort. You are the source of all that. Help the Japanese people to have the love and support of the world and to see You through this tragedy.

Help us Americans to see past our own difficulties and reach out to the world in time of need. Help us to not get bogged down in the politics, the ugliness, the tensions and bickerings of our day, but to see past our own problems and help.

Rebekah

I wish I could write...

I wish I could write about education more eloquently and without so much emotion. If I could, I'd write a "tell-all" book, and boy, would I have things to tell.

I'd say how stupid it all is. I'd write about:

• How I have collected knives and look alike "dime-bags" with no action from above.
• How I have broken up countless fights and disputes which take me away from the lesson I am trying to teach and by the time I get it resolved, the time to be able to teach is gone.
• How many things have been stolen from other kids and from me and other staff members- stupid little things, important things, things of sentimental value, food, and even $.
• How students can destroy or steal property and nothing happens.
• How a student can be out of control and you have to vacate the room with the entire class and try to find a place to continue teaching with no materials or tools or student materials, so as to protect the angry child's psyche and self-esteem while he/she is then allowed to trash your room and your personal property.
• How you, as the teacher, have to arrange for in school suspension- there is no such thing as going to the office anymore.
• How you, as the teacher, can wonder how you are supposed to teach a class anything when kids come & go all day long for all the specialists they need to see and you can't even assemble a small group to teach, let alone remediate.
• How you, as the teacher, can be held responsible for so many things that are out of your control.
• How schools just put bandaids on "gaping wounds" and won't start earlier when the kids are young before so much damage has been done.
• How you are talked about by your colleagues and even administrators.
• How the suits who observe you, your students, your classroom for no more than a minute or two can somehow determine that you are a lousy teacher, that you lack rigor, that your activities aren't good enough, that you aren't good enough, that you are entirely to blame for your students failures, that the growth you see isn't growth at all.
• How administration can't/won't stand up for staff, but because of fear for their own jobs (which are also on the line) allow anything to be done to try to save their own jobs.
• How all these school visits and data days take you away from the kids you're supposed to be helping.
• How you wonder what good a sub can do if you are so awful.
• How you have to deal with all the awfulness after you're out for one of these lovely meeting days and your kids are a wreck.
• How much sorrow and awful-ness so many kids have to face in life at such young ages, and it is so normal, they don't even know it's not normal.
• How it isn't just money-poverty, but all kinds of poverty and it's tearing our kids, and our nation apart.
• How disgusted I am this year. How I never thought I'd ever feel this way. How I now buy a lottery ticket and pray it is a winner. How I'd like to walk away right now and never look back. How I can't, and it's sucking the life out of me.

That's what I'd say if I was an eloquent writer. But I'm not. Maybe you'd listen to this. I am so not in the "loop" that I don't even know much about this "Daily Show," but this interview is good. I'm going to buy her book.