More Work To Be Done!

Well, AOL just crashed on me & luckily I saved this before it did so lets try posting this again....

Well, I woke up about 7am & as I tried to fall back to sleep I realized I had another headache starting so I got up. Ugh! Not sure what is it? Weather maybe? Hormones? Ugh!

Got to the computer & another "headache" reading the NY Times article "In Many Public Schools, The Paddle Is No Relic".  Yes, this was in a southern state of TX. They have a map in the article showing what percentage per state. It reminds me of when I was working on my PhD at Mississippi State University. I had an educational psychology class where all but one other guy and myself believed in paddling. These classmates of mine were mostly older principals & superintendents of the state. The one gentleman who did not believe in it was still traumatized from having his hands broken from paddlings by his principal. This class period was not handled well by the professor! He allowed it to get into a hostile environment with one particular principal attacking me saying, "I Knew You Were Not From Here"...go figure you can tell right away when I talk! No, appreciation for multi-culturalism is not great there.

Well, little did I know this would make such a difference & is one of my reminders how one voice can make a difference & how every event can change the world or a small piece& then lead to a chain reaction! I had no clue what would be the result of this one class periods heated discussion. Turns out everyone but myself did their final paper & presentation on corporal punishment. I didn't know ahead of time. Just one after the other got up & presented their papers on the topic. Now there is one piece I should mention first. After this conversation this young, brand new professor asks me to sit down to talk to him in his office when I went to pick up my test results. He says, "I'm not sure you noticed, but not many people seem to like you in class!" HA! I'm still shaking my head & laughing now! I smiled big & said, "Really????" (Place HUGE sarcasm here!) I then said, "Well, you know I'm not here to make friends, I'm here to get an education!" and I left his office! I don't think he expected this from me. Those who know me would not be surprised! So with each student getting up doing their paper/presentation on this & finding out the research does not support corporal punishment it was quite interesting! I tried not to look at the professor because I knew this had to be not only a message to me to believe in myself even when everyone disagrees but it might just be a message for him. And I should add he was not from MS either!

Now the last presentation the last presentation was from the woman who was a principal & used paddles (one for girls and one for boys). She was the one that said "I Knew You Were Not From Here!" She got up & the first thing she said was, "You all know I was very hard on someone here that day we discuss corporal punishment. I want you to know after reading the research I no longer paddle my students." WOW! My heart just sank thinking of all the students who would be saved from this! Oh, and that day, I was sitting right next to my professor! OUCH!

Ok, so now I read this article this mornning & it isn't like I didn't think it still existed & I changed the whole world, but it was just a reminder that there is more work to be done! I spend a great deal of time with this with my students as well. I will be sending a letter to the principal! Nicely! For some reason their school website's Contact Us had all the links for emails off...wonder why! :-) I'll be sending him one of my handout (I'll post next!) I give my students (you can read if you want) and an very interesting article, which I have a school but I'll try to post the link for you next week. It is just frustrating sometimes, but I guess to have a small impact in changing the world for the better is a great feeling. If you like to write the principal etc here is the school link: Everman School  They also have an interesting 80% or Better School policy where all students are expected to get 80% or better on all work! Hmmm! Wonder what happens if they do not.

It just always gets me how they call the South "The Bible Belt" but do they really get what Jesus was all about? Where did they miss he was about LOVE? I just can't imagine he would want this!