It's not looking promising...

I am only on page 36 and already I've read "faggot" more than once and references to male prostitution. I'll keep on trudging. In the introduction the editors mention Lord of the Flies and I'm thinking a good companion. But, we'll see. I like the prose, though I haven't read much, if any, translated works I am seeing that perhaps the prose could get in the way of a good read for some students.

Next read..

A book that has the word, "penises," on the very first page. There is a huge introduction that students will find odious to say the least. Well at least many of my former students. I am not certain, though I am barely into the book that this is a book I would share with an entire class. I will have to finish the book to see if, with parental permission, I would recommend to any student.

What am I reading?

The Boy Who Dared: A Novel Based on the True Story of a Hitler Youth by Susan Campbell Bartoletti. A very easy read, especially for middle school students. The story is told in the first person omniscient from the point of view of Helmut Hubener. The story follows Helmut from his 14th year to his 16th when he is executed for treason for listening to the banned BBC News and posting leaflets throughout Hamburg, Germany in 1942.
What struck me about the story is Helmut's determination to get the truth out and the cost he paid for doing that. The novel illustrates how bystanders can and do cause genocide to happen by doing nothing. It also shows how fear can lead people to betray loved ones and colleagues for fear of being arrested, tortured, and executed yourself.
Every time I teach about the Holocaust I wonder what I would have done. Would I let my friends and family be taken away to save myself. Or would I, as some did, try to stop the Germans at the cost of a beating, imprisonment, or death? I can't answer that question with certainty. I know what I feel I would do and I would rescue as many as I could. The risk would have been great, but rescue is much less likely to cause my family to be hurt.
The novel is designed for young adults to read and is not graphic in its detail. There is a section at the end of the book with pictures and a short biography of Helmut's friends Karl and Rudi. There is also a discussion guide on Scholastic that I have not yet to explore www.scholastic.com/discussionguides

All I can think about is that I have no money...

and that hurts me to my soul. I have no control over what certain people say about me that I must put into each application. I hope that these people say neutral things about me, that they don't let their personal issues with me fog up my ability to get a teaching job.
This is the longest time I have not been teaching since 1994. This is the first time in my life that I think I could lose everything because of my inability to better manage my savings over the summer. I haven't ever been this disabled by a lack of money. I know that my father is probably trying to pound his way out of his grave to berate me for my lack of foresight.
Summer is always hard for me. But the past 8 or so summers I have been teaching summer school and I have used that money to at pay up bills so that I am not in the spot I am in now.
I am a burden to my family and I would so rather have them be a burden to me. My daughter is the only one working right now and Burgerville has cut her hours because there were family issues this last week and she took time off. So, they cut her hours. Her husband is being the stay at home dad, but should really be working. I could watch the girls, I mean I am getting no interviews so why not help them out that way.
I am hoping that Tuesday will be a good day and I will be having to arrange interview times rather than automatically saying I can be there whenever.

Bullied: A Student, a School and a Case That Made History

Biking week two

So, still the same distance, but faster. Not sure if that's a good thing or not. I still ache, but I am guessing that may take awhile before I can bike a distance and not ache. Monday I followed to horny squirrels for a bit before they tumbled into some blackberry bushes. Today, I came around a corner and a deer was standing on the path. We stared at each other for awhile and then she trotted off as I followed. She did the cool hopping thing as we both sped up and then detoured into a clump of bushes. That's what I like about biking at Minto Brown. It is so beautiful and so near town and there is wildlife around each corner. About halfway through my current path there is a bald eagle nest with the proud parents and one fledgling. I wonder about the wisdom of having the next platform on top of an electric pole, though it and the others always have nestlings. I have noticed the duck population is smaller than when I used to walk with Rasta and Mocha. Guess they aren't as reslient as the geese on State Street.

Geese, geese, and more geese

Read a post from Humane Watch talking about HSUS supporting the killing of geese. I'm sort of on the fence with this issue. Eons ago I seem to remember that there was fear that Canadian geese would go the way of the Dodo. So, fast forward to Salem, OR 2010 the Canadian geese have interbred with domestic geese and the progeny do not migrate, they stay along Mill Creek all year long. They have adapted to the environment so well that if a car tries to hurry them along by creeping up on them as the "migrate" across State Street, they stop and honk and honk. I've sat behind creepers and it can go on for 2 or 3 minutes. The reason the stick around? People feed them bread. Which also feeds the rats and pigeons. And the geese poop everywhere! Anyway, shooting them as HSUS and New York City want to do could sort of be ok if they took the meat and fed people with it. It would be interesting to see if there is a way to give them birth control. You wouldn't want to eliminate the species, but reduce the number as humanely as possible.