Because a Man Stands Up.

When I decided to start this blog nearly a decade ago, I remember thinking it would be a place where I could share my conservative views.  It hasn’t really worked out the way I thought it would.  I haven’t let it.  I have run scared from sharing some of my views because I know how they will be received within the world I work and the place I live. 

I teach in a public high school in California.   I’m not sure there is a more liberal place to be in the world.  This immediate area isn’t about a free exchange of ideas.  This is about group-speak.  Stray too far?  You are a misogynistic, Nazi fascist, homophobic racist. 

I don’t care anymore.  I’m tired of worrying about upsetting others and I ‘m tired of worrying that my employer will take such offense they will look to try and find something to fire me for.  I just don’t care anymore. 

I have shied away from writing about abortion, immigration, the 2^nd Amendment, gay marriage, etc.  No more.  I will write what I feel and let the cards fall where they may. 

Today a new day dawns for me. 

Seniors 2019

A letter to my seniors,

As we are just a few weeks until you graduate, allow me the opportunity to share with you a few of my thoughts. 

First, thank you.  Thank you for letting me stand in front of you every day and teach you Calculus and Pre-Calculus.  We all know that the material can be a bit…dry… at times, and still you were respectful to me and showed up willing to close your mouths, open your minds, and try to learn.  I am grateful for the level of respect you showed me all year.  I hear stories from other teachers of the blatant disrespect that they receive from students almost daily.  Never once have any of you treated me with anything but respect.  Please know that it goes both ways.  I very much respect you for your behaviors towards me. 

I’d like you to consider 2 things as you progress to college or the work force.  First, have a plan.  If you go to college, have a plan.  Here’s one thought.  From Sunday through Thursday, be the best college student on campus.  Go to class, go to the library, get a work-out, and study some more.  Be perfect from Sunday to Thursday.  Friday and Saturday?   Let it go.  Have some fun.  Relax, enjoy your friends and your surroundings.  Without your parents to guide you now, you are going to be pulled in a LOT of directions.  If you live in a dorm, EVERY night you will be invited to do something other than study.  It will be pretty easy to be talked into having a beer with friends over reading a boring chapter of Biology.   Sunday-Thursday?   Read the damn chapter.   Have a plan, execute your plan, and finish college with a meaningful degree in 4 years. 

Lastly, the big lie, I think, is to try to find a job you will enjoy.  I think you should try to make a living at what you are good at.  I’m good at math and found a way to make a living because I have something that society is willing to pay for.  I don’t like math.  Math isn’t…likable.  I’m just good at it.   Find what you are good at.  Find what you can do that society is willing to pay you to do.  I bet you will grow to like it too.

Good luck.  Go be honorable, moral, hard-working, people of good character.  G_d bless you and G-d Bless America..

Get SAT

The Scholastic Aptitude Test. 

At the school where I teach, the last kid I know of to “pitch a perfecto”…to put up a perfect score on the SAT…was a girl I had taught when she was a sophomore in my Honors Algebra 2 / Trig class. 

When I heard about her score, and subsequently ran into her in the hall, I asked her to swing by my room at lunch sometime because I wanted to pick her brain about her SAT journey. 

That same day, she came by my room and we took a walk around campus and talked about the SAT.  It took me one question, and then her answer to re-open my eyes about how to be successful.  As I remember it, our conversation was as follows:

Me:      Congrats again on your score.  Way to go.  So what’s the “secret sauce?”  What’s the pathway that led to the magic? 

Her:     Well, my mom enrolled me in the Kaplan SAT prep classes that met on Saturdays.  It didn’t really work for me.  I kind of felt like they were trying to teach me how to “beat” the test not prepare for the test.  They had some good practice tests though and I found those really helpful.   I went to Barnes and Noble and bought the big blue College Board SAT Book with 8 practice tests and a bunch of smaller practices sections within as well.  I did every problem in the book till I got them all right.  Then I bought the another SAT Review book and did every problem in that book.  Every night after my regular homework I spent an hour doing problems.  When the test came along there was nothing I hadn’t seen.

Me:      Cool  ( I know right?  Impressive command of the language)

For me, there are so many important take-aways.

Students.  There is no substitute for hard work.  There really isn’t a way to do less and succeed at the highest level.  Many of you haven’t learned that lesson because you found a way to succeed, even in Honors and AP classes, by doing relatively little.  Remember all those books you were supposed to read and annotate?  Yet you chose to grab the Sparks Notes instead and then only skim that!  Maybe the above SAT journey teaches us all that it is great effort that leads to great reward.  

Bees

When did receiving a B in a class become a bad thing?  Why are kids LITERALLY crying as they beg for points to be added to their grade.  “I HAVE to get an A in this class!”  

What have we done to these kids?

If you earn a B in my Calculus class, you should be skipping.  You should run outside and scream from the mountaintops, “ I AM SPARTACUS!”  You should brag to your friends, add a little swag to your step, and walk with your shoulders back, eyes up, standing just a bit taller.   You should be proud of yourself for mastering limits, continuity, differentiation, related rates, optimization, velocity and acceleration, integration, area, and volume.  You handled logarithmic differentiation and u-substitution integration.  You should, in all seriousness, be really proud of yourself.  What an accomplishment.  Mathematically, you are walking where less than 2% walk.  Congratulations.

I know you can't see this right now, but your grade doesn't matter.  Years from now?  It isn't the grade.    It is the confidence you gained in yourself by doing this.  A grade of B in Calculus?  Well done.  And all you.  Your mom didn’t do your homework for you.  You walked in and passed Calculus on your own.  As you move forward in life, know that you have done something impressive.  Let that carry you and give you confidence that “you have game.”  This isn’t like the U9 soccer trophy on your dresser.  Let this B give you confidence about your abilities as you go forward. 

And when did doing something right 85% of the time become looked down upon? 85%.  8.5 out of every 10?  There is NOTHING that I do correctly 8 and a half times out of 10.  I don’t brush my teeth right 8 out of 10 times.  I don’t dress right 8  out of 10 times.  My point is that when you think about it, 85 % is pretty impressive.  

I get it, “…..its hard to get into college.”  Well, shut up.  No it isn’t.  It is easier than ever to get into a college.  Maybe not the one you dreamed about as a kid, but there are hundreds of others that will accept you. 

At 17, begging diminishes you.  Stop it.  Take the grade you earned and do something about it next semester or don’t.  But I’m done watching kids cry over B’s.  Congratulations.  And if it is your parents that are badgering you, have them call me.   

My Week

I had a pretty good week this week.  This is noteworthy because as a high school math teacher, I’m pretty much the most hated man in America.  (After this election I may be down to number two or three.) 

In my Honors Algebra 2 w/ Trigonometry classes, I continued my deliciously exciting lectures on the conic sections.  We explored, graphed, and wrote equations for circles, parabolas, ellipses, and hyperbolas.  This is tough stuff for kids when even after they show understanding of the basics; we raise the bar and challenge them to write the equation of the hyperbola only given its asymptotes and one of its vertices.

The kids are working on conics and systems of conics both in and out of class and they are improving every day.  I taught using chalk and I taught using technology.   I taught from bell to bell.  More importantly, they learned.  Each check for understanding along the way has been outstanding.  I had a pretty good week this week teaching Honors Algebra 2 w/ Trigonometry.

In my Calculus classes, we concluded our curve-sketching unit.  Students graph nasty functions by finding both the first and second derivatives.  They find where a curve is either increasing or decreasing and where it is either concave up or concave down.  They combine this with all intercepts, asymptotes and relative extrema to sketch impressively difficult functions. 

They are killing it.  They are killing it working alone and they are killing it working in groups. Next week we review for the chapter test but we are close to ready right now.  They are learning math while not hating life.  I had a good week this week in Calculus.

Today, Saturday, me and about 40 of my colleagues hosted our Open House / 8^th Grade Welcome, “Dolphin Experience” at my school.  Incoming 8^th graders and their parents heard presentations from each department, and every sport on campus.  The band was playing and the cheerleaders were cheerleadering and we did a pretty good job of showing off what we do well both in and out of the classroom.  I  answered dozens of  from  parents about the Mathematics program here.  It was fun and I think I repped my school pretty darn well.  I had a good week this week. 

Then I went on the internet and found out I’m a horrible human being.  It seems that the debate over Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has re-ignited the conversation about how badly I do my job.  Me, the classroom teacher, I’m the problem.  I am the reason public schools are failing.   I read how lazy I am.  I read how overpaid I am.  I read how I’m a union thug drinking from the public trough.  (I really read that)  I read story after story from people who think public schools are failing because of public school teachers. 

I thought I had a pretty good week. 

Can Johnny still Read?

I spent the past 3 days in my old stomping grounds; Tucson, Arizona.  Well, that isn't exactly correct. I spent a good portion of those three days at the airport.

The first flight was the train wreck.  I was booked on a 1:00 PM flight out of San Diego, CA on Southwest Airlines.  Leaving from San Clemente, I hit the freeway at 10:00 AM.  Parking, check-in, security went smoothly and quickly and I was sitting at the gate by noon.   I checked the master board and was happy to see the plane was scheduled to be "On Time".

At 12:40, the board changed and indicated our flight was delayed and scheduled for 1:50.  So what, I got an hour.

At 1:50 we were informed that the plane was at the gate, the flight attendants were on-board, but there was no pilot.  Seems having a pilot is a good thing when flying.  We were asked to be patient and that we would leave as soon as the pilot arrived.

He never really arrived.   !:50, 3:50, 6:00.... All posted departure times that came and went with me still sitting in the airport reading a Jack Reacher novel.

The other passengers, to their great credit, mostly handled the situation with composure.  What can you do anyway?  Yell at someone who didn't do anything wrong?  We all commiserated quietly and tried to stay patient.

At 7:00 PM,  we were told our pilot had just landed and was close.  We were also then all given a flight voucher for a free $200.00.  Pretty reasonable I'd say.

At 7:40 we boarded and were in the air 10 minutes later.

So what, I got delayed.

What stuck with me is what I watched.  Both during the 7 hours in San Diego, and another hour in Tucson, I observed the end of reading.

Back in the day, (I know how much we all hate that expression, but it fits) everyone read at the airport.  Paperback books, the newspaper, magazines, text books and coloring books.

No one is reading now.  NO ONE.  Ok,  1.  Me.  EVERYONE is on there device.  Computer, tablet and phone.  I'm not really judging.  I'm observing.  I watched people spend 7 hours on their devices.  It was weird.

No one was reading.   Maybe reading is happening online?  I don't think it is.  I think we are texting, (without grammar), gaming, and watching videos.

Now if I WERE to judge, I'd lament the fact that we don't read.

The End

I used to write to help me work through my anger.  Maybe I was just trying to convince myself, but I really think by writing my feelings, I was able to "let it go" to a degree.  It was as if I could leave it on paper and walk away to face the next challenge.  Blogging has served a needed purpose in my life.

No more.  Nope.  Not now.  Now I live in a world where everyone is offended about everything.  Actually, they aren't really that offended.  They act offended.

For 10 more years I need to keep my mouth shut.  I need my job and I am convinced that there are no organizations left that don't cave to the 4 voices of feigned oppression.

I'd like to write about my feelings about the Stanford swimmer who raped an unconscious young woman.  I'd like to smash this kids face in but I'd like to write about how as a white man I'm being accused of fostering a "rape culture."

I'd like to write about the parents who don't control their children around gorilla exhibits or alligator populated lagoons.   I'd like to smash their faces but write about the difference between human life and animals.

I'd like to write about the mass shooting in Orlando at a gay dance club.  I stand with all the victims and pray that their souls are held in the hands of G-d.   I'd like to write about gun control and the Constitution but I'm not convinced that people of differing beliefs won't come after me and my employment.

I'd like to write about Trigger Warnings and Safe Zones and the refusal to entertain, embrace, and debate differing views.

I'd like to write about Feminism and how it seeks to paint all men with the same brush.

I'd like to write about poor parenting, entitled kids,  and conditional morality.

Nope.  We no longer live in a world that allows me to do that.   Now if we disagree with a policy, written word, speech or anything else, we seek to silence and destroy that voice.   I live in a world where I fear if even 1 person complains, we fire employees.  

This isn't the America my grandfather and father fought for.