DEAR ALIZARIN: At least you moved on from the 80's

Fame and obscurity.   Would you really want to be famous to the world but be called the dragon lady by those who actually know you?   Or would you want to be fifty years old still singing the adolescent hit songs you made back in the 80's?   One of the advantages or curses of being too sick to move beyond the couch is watching daytime television.  Currently, Def Leppard is on the Today show.  I must say, I never liked them in the 80's and now, watching them sing "Pour some sugar on me" in leather pants with a small pot belly poofing out their faded t-shirts is a bit pathetic.   If I walked into some local club and saw them I would walk out, yet people would pay lots of money just because they were popular back in their younger days (both the bands' and the people's).   If you can't find the fountain of youth, then denial works, I guess.  Bryan Adams, who is now on, at least has stayed in shape, got a new haircut, and a new t-shirt since the 1980's.   I still wouldn’t be terribly impressed if I heard him in a local club and didn't know who he was.  

 

After two days of barely being able to check my email, my throat infection and fever seem to be improving.   Meanwhile, I will try not to stress about what is happening in my classroom.  Anyone who thinks that teachers fake sickness to get out of school has never had to write sub plans or deal with the day after a sub.  No matter how reliable the substitute, it is a laborious process.  First, to write the plans you must plan out, word for word, what you want the sub to do in class.   This also entails, usually, rearranging your lessons to make sure it is not introducing new material, that the material is accessible and idiot-proof (a mythological idea) and there will be enough work to keep the students busy.   All the while, you know that no matter what you do when you get back there will be either no record of what was done or an account of how the students turned into little devils that would not do any work (not that it is so different than when I am present).  Despite my vow that we will plod forward, it is I who suffers as we cannot really go forward if they didn't do the prior work.   So, as you can see, except for the fact that I could not move and I can barely talk, it would be much easier to just go to work than stay home. 

 

80's band update:  they let Bryan Adams play a second song, not Def Leppard.  Probably because Bryan actually has a new song.  I don't think Def Leppard has the brain cells to write new music (nor the talent).   It still fascinates me that in all my time in NYC, I never knew one person to go out to the Today show plaza to wave to family via TV.    That is because we all hate crowds.

 

Meanwhile, students at a neighboring school are in conflict over race.   Though my school is mostly Latino, I still wonder how long it will take for the violence to spread and what could I do to help avert this type of behavior and thinking.  Though my current unit is built around thinking about the concepts of stereotyping, conformity, perpetrators, and intervening, I don't know if they really take it to heart and apply it their own lives.  Or if there is enough time for them to really build up the courage to make such changes.  

 

That was a lot of writing.  Time for a nap.

 

Love,

Lychee