Ok, now it's hot...

I just checked the weather, and it's 82 degrees with 44% humidity. That sort of depressed me because I was definitely feeling hotter than that. I wanted to be all helpful to M by weeding the front garden so he can lay some mushroom manure down with my dad. But I can only pick up, like, 4 weeds before I have to seek shelter from the sun. Unfortunately I can barely keep my eyes open past sunset, so it's not really an option to wait until later. Now, I don't want you to think I am one of those complain-y pregnant ladies. But really, all I can think about is being hot and tired. And on the off-chance that somebody who rides the 67A in the morning would read this, it would be ok for you to give me your seat. Because I still have morning sickness. And on a side note, I think that morning sickness is supposed to subside in the first trimester, when you can still comfortably lean over the toilet seat. Luckily I go to yoga twice a week, so I am surprisingly nimble, otherwise the bathroom could be a lot messier.

Summer is just flying by. Because I took 3 classes, plus with working, I have not had too much time to bum around town and enjoy my favorite season. However, the building I spend all day in is air-conditioned to Arctic temperatures, so I guess that's a blessing. But I have only 2 days left of classes and I am done for the semester! I can't tell you how happy I will be to have a few weeks off. And really, I am cutting down to part-time this fall, so I will have a much more relaxed schedule. Here's to hoping that next semester provides better intellectual stimulation than this one. We had a very odd discussion on "diversity" today in one of my classes in which people shared insights on the following topics:

1. Jehovah's Witnesses
2. Kwanzaa
3. Taking Mandarin Chinese as an elective language

What's a teacher to do when teaching Reading in the Content Areas (title of class) and faced with such issues of diversity (or whatever)?

First of all, I have to say that a very nice lady named Pearl stops by our house pretty much every Sunday on behalf of the Jehovah's Witnesses...almost as good as the Welcome Wagon lady. Here's the thing, Pearl, along with many other religious people (like Jews) either participates or abstains from customs as a matter of choice, and because it sets them apart from the rest of the us. So, if a little kid in your class doesn't participate in the Halloween parade, you don't have to feel that bad. He's doing it so he will be saved. Don't make a thing of it.

Second, most African-Americans I know do not celebrate Kwanzaa, perhaps because the guy who invented it in the sixties did so as an alternative to Christmas because "Jesus was psychotic". (Ok, so I wasn't expecting that quote to come up when I googled "how many african americans celebrate Kwanzaa", but it is in Wikipedia, so it must be true.) Anyway, I think it's safe to say that most African Americans celebrate Christmas.

Third, my teacher told us today that Mandarin Chinese was now "the most popular language to be offered in schools as an elective language, even more than Spanish." Now, I am not knocking the value of learning to speak Chinese. It's a global market after all. However, this seemed rather absurd to me, so I looked it up, and quickly verified that Spanish and French continue to be, by far, the most popular languages taught. You can read more about foreign language education in Center for Applied Linguistics report here.

Anyway, my point is that it has been a rough semester of listening to this lady present unbelievable (and usually un-cited) "facts". She's a nice enough lady, but seriously, this is graduate school...I expected more. Plus there are a bunch of inexperienced soon to be teachers in the class, about to be unleashed whose minds have been cluttered up by this nonsense. I mean seriously, knowing what Kwanzaa is Will Not help you connect with your black students. Or your poor students. Or your poor AND black students.

But at least it's air-conditioned...