Food, Glorious Food! (Part I)

Having slept just a few hours last night and feeling grumpy, my mind turns naturally to food. It just occured to me - and I was just saying this to someone at work - that of the things I miss about a place, besides the people, of course. (I think...) Is the food. So I thought I would venture into a review of some of my favorite foods from Philadelphia first. Hopefully, I'll find yummy looking links to go with this. Anyway, here are the foods I miss from Philly (in no particular order)

1)The Italian Hoagie! The thing about this sub-style sandwich is you just can't get the taste outside of South Eastern PA. I mean, they can't even make good ones in Lancaster - the last time I bothered to try. The hoagie must be thoroughly drenched with vegetable oil to be the best. Don't you dare try puttin' mayo on it you Canucks! I also like my hoagie with a mix of both hot and sweet peppers.

2) The Philly Cheesesteak sandwich. Now this is incredible if done right. And, I have had some good ones outside of Philly. There is even a site that lists where you can get cheesesteaks in each state. I like my sandwich with lots of grilled onions, mushrooms and grilled bell pepper. If you wanna get yourself sick, then have an order of cheese fries with it.

3) I miss the pizza that was so greasy it soaked through the box by the time you get it home. They're just too healthy here.

4) Italian water ice is just incredible. This is NOT chips of ice with syrup poured over it! (Yuck!) This is incredible stuff. Rita'sis just about the best! I love the mango.

5) I just can't find a good cannoli anywhere. Another fantastic dessert that I miss!

6) I grew up near one of the best bakeries for Philadelphia Sticky Buns I must say, as I hang my head in shame, I liked to butter these things and eat them.

7) The Soft Pretzel with Gulden's brown mustard!!

8) And 'Nobody Bakes a Cake as Tasty as a Tastykake!' Butterscotch Krimpets were one of my big faves here!!!

OK, now I'm off to get something to eat. Next time - my favorite foods of Colombia!

Christmas Games

Try these Christmas Games while you're waiting for me to post again! I'm much too tired to do much but veg out lately - just finished report cards and looking forward to Christmas break!

This is an odd one - but fun when you get used to it:

Rooftop-Hop Help Santa deliver all the presents in time for Christmas day!

Play this free game now!!

This is a fun one - my type of game!

Santa Balls 2 Have festive fun by matching 3 or more matching balls.

Play this free game now!!

Empty Santa's Sack Knock the presents out of the Elves hands.

Play this free game now!!

The above one is for people who are sick of Christmas already and just wanna pound something!

Enjoy!

Let it Snow!

We've had a huge storm over the past days. This picture shows the level of snow on the top of an outside railing - this is from Sunday. We had quite the dump and it continued snowing into and through the night. Schools (I can't think of any that were actually open - this is quite rare here!) were closed yesterday and they continue to be closed today. After the snow - we got an incredibly cold Arctic wind that kept the streets and sidewalks ice-covered. There are white-out conditions on the major routes around Abbotsford and the side roads are very icy. Now, Abbotsford is often the one place in the area that has rain. We just haven't had this much snow in a long time. It's great though, because I have report cards due next week and I'm hoping to get a lot done before the weekend. So, I write this entry. This is supposed to help me 'warm up' to writing comments. Dunno if it's gonna help. Plus I'm listening to Diana Krall's Christmas CD- which is incredible. Pick it up if you can! So I'll leave you with one more picture and I'll try to get to work ;-)

He Don't Need No Steeking Gadgets!

I just saw the latest Bond movie, Casino Royale and WOW!Daniel Craig presents us with a different Bond. He bleeds, rarely looks neat and tidy and even eats with his mouth full. He is definitely the closest Bond to the original Bond featured in Ian Fleming's novels. Craig is a Bond who is polite only when it gets the job done. He is sort of the 'MacGyver' of Bonds, using whatever is at hand to pummel his enemies. His only true gadgets are ones any of us could buy at the local electronics store - laptops, cell phones, etc. He has a gun every now and then, but it usually gets lost and he just pounds the other guy. He runs after a guy more often in this film that I ever remember a Bond doing. The best chase sequence I have ever seen is right at the beginning and - get this - there's no cars involved! Well, there is a bulldozer, but only for a few seconds...
He has few one liners. He is a very cold Bond. After he kills someone, he only looks coldly down to make sure that the other is truly dead. I thought for sure he would say 'Nailed him!' after killing a guy with a nail gun, but....nothing and that shows how well done this movie is. It avoids the camp and cartoonish-ness of the previous Bonds. Brosnan came close to this kind of coldness in The World is Not Enough, but not this close. He still was too neat and tidy. I appreciated how this movie took the time to tell the story, although I did find the double and triple crossing hard to follow, but maybe that's the point - Bond is new and he's learning what life as a double '0' really is like. It's not an easy to understand this life and the only one he can really trust in is himself. And the 'bad guy' isn't always so easy to identify. It's a lesson he learns over and over in this movie and we learn it while having our breath taken away.

The REAL 'Best of Abbotsford/Mission'

A local paper here, which shall not be named here in order to sound like I'm being responsible or something, gives out 'Readers' Choice' Awards regularly to local businesses and the 5 or so regular readers fill out ballots and send them in. (An aside - this paper was on strike a while back and when they finally came back in print after a whole summer of no paper, I said to my father-in-law, 'Well, they're back!"
He just looked puzzled and said, 'Where did they go?'
"They went on strike."
"Oh, I didn't notice.")
Now, these readers are kinda weird in their tastes. Some of the regular winners make sense and I agree with, but SOME are just ridiculous.

Then comes THE POST (No website yet - it's THAT new!) A new paper trying to make its way in town. I'm not sure about the 'twin cities' thing and if that'll catch on, but who knows? Probably the only paper that will actually tell it like it is, it looks like. I notice that the POST has none of those annoyingly wasteful Plan A ads. This is good, because the ad-campaign itself could end up defeating the plan due to the high amount of tax dollars being spent wastefully by city hall to keep people from actually thinking that there is more than one option to vote for. But I digress from the news of major importance! It actually has a restaurant critic, anonymous of course, that toodles around town to find out what's really good. Now she has only written twice, but both sound great. Want a good breakfast? Don't listen to readers' choice - go to Rivers Restaurant. This week she reviewed Wee Chippie in Mission which actually has deep fried Mars bars on the menu. Hmmm...sounds interesting....
(Another aside: The Deep fried mars bar scored alot of hits on Google! Sounds terrible, awful and I gotta try one at least one time in my life!) Now I want the critic to actually find out the best Chinese food in Abbotsford, because the one that wins it every year must be bribing the paper-that-must-not-be-named, because it is not the best by a long shot. It's cheaper though, so maybe that must be the 5 readers actual criteria

Weather

One thing I will never get used to on the West Coast is how people perceive the weather. We have had a stinkin' hot summer, followed by a (pretty much) too warm fall and people love it??? Well, the people on the news here talk about how "gorgeous" each day is. That's easy for them to say as they work in central air conditioned buildings.

Honestly, we can have a stretch of months of hot, sunny days and things could be dying all around us. Forests bursting in flames, etc. And people walk around saying how "gorgeous" it is. Then we have ONE day (yes, count 'em, ONE) day of rain and everyone seems to be borderline suicidal.

On the other hand, one of my secret ways of tormenting west coasters -note: In order to survive happily in another culture - one must discover at least one way to annoy the people of that culture without totally becoming their enemy. It's a subtle little survival trick - is to walk around on a grey, rainy day with a cheerful expression and talk about how lovely the weather is. That's just fun!

On the other hand, talking about the weather here is not 'small talk' like it is in most other places....

Searching for My Denominational Connections

I grew up in a fundamentalist, non-denominational, evangelical church. This was an interesting experience that left me with a firm grounding in what the Bible says. I also learned to appreciate what a good, exegisis of the Bible through a sermon could sound like. And I desperately miss the organ, played by the extremely talented Dr. Jerry Wright. Nothing in modern church music - I refuse to call music 'worship' as it oversimplifies and destroys the true meaning of what worship is - can match the sound of a well played organ. Thank you Dr. Wright!!!

The side-effect of this experience was that I had no idea of what a denomination was. I assumed that there were two (and only two) kinds of churches. What I went to, which I called "Christian" and then there were the other churches, which are called "Catholic". I had also assumed in my black and white child's mind that only the churches labelled "Christian" were the 'right' churches. Sorry, Mom, but that's only what the little me thought!

Then my Christian life became complicated by going to a Christian High School. Here's what a conversation in eighth grade went for me:

Other student: What kind of church you go to?
me: A Christian church.
Other student (laughs, rolls eyes): Yeah, but What KIND?

I'll save you the trouble of reading further and state that eventually I came to realize there were "little" differences like, Baptist, Presbyterian, and People Who Shout Alot But Were Still White and Black Churches. That's about what I had figured on my own. Through required Church History courses I learned about Luther and figured that the Lutherans came from him. Brilliant, wasn't I? I leaned a little about Calvin and nothing about Menno Simons that I can recall. But I didn't realize that Calvin inspired denominations of his own.

Then I went to Colombia and met my future wife, Ruth, who was a Mennonite and married into a Mennonite family. I now attend a Mennonite Brethren Church and don't forget the Brethren because there are different flavors of Mennonites. I am quite comfortable now with the MB's although religion does sometimes get in the way, as, I realize now, it does with all churches.

Then I was hired at a Christian School. I assumed it was a Christian School based on the pattern that I learned though High School and through my teaching experiences in Colombia. Nope, turns out there's another denominational flavor that I needed to discover: Christian Reformed, based on the teachings of that guy I only heard a little about in eighth grade, which is called grade 8 in Canada: John Calvin.

It took me a long time to figure out what 'reformed' meant and the definitions varied and straight answers are, apparently, non-existant. I struggled when I first encountered it, not really understanding why. It forced me to read voraciously, which is a good thing that probably would make John Calvin proud, but eventually led to me rejecting which probably wouldn't. I can't embrace TULIP. Maybe in another article I'll go into detail why I reject the 5 points of Calvinism, but let me sum it up here: Free Will is just too important to reject, which I see rejected in Calvinism. I believe the real key to understanding of what "made in God's image" means is to understand free will. The real highlight here, is that suddenly, after all my reading and prayer, I can see in other's writings were I agree or disagree. For example, I read a quote from a book called Heaven Is Not My Home, which says that "God created culture" and even implies that cars are from Him too. Nope, I don't believe that - the God Image gives us free will and imagination to create something and those are People creations which, I will concede, my have God's inspiration behind it, but are, in the end our own creation.

Does that mean I undermine other denominations? No - In fact I realize that even through the most greedy TV preacher, sometimes people come to a real, genuine knowledge of Christ despite the presentation. We must, as Christians in this post modern world, realize that there is no ONE Christian worldview. Just looking at how different cultures see things make it obvious.

Now, I wait for the other shoe to drop...

Visiting Corner Gas!!

I've finally (after lots of fiddling) figured out my new digital camera (ta-dah!!) enough to post some pics here on the blog.

We (the family) just got back from our cross-Canada driving vacation and one of the highlights was that both Ruth and I got to visit the set of one of our favourite TV shows, Corner Gas! We got to visit the town that all the outdoor shots are filmed in; Roleau, SK (which doubles as Dog River) The town has a total population of about 450 or so people. Most of the indoor sets are filmed in sound studios in Regina, SK.


Our tour guide was the guy (can I remember his name? Sorry, guy...) who is Brent Butt's stand-in. Do you notice the resemblance? He really looks like a twin from the back.
It was so much fun! I'll publish more pictures of our trip later!!

Gandhi

I just recently finished reading Mahatma Gandhi: His Life and Influence by Chandra Kumar and Mohinder Puri (London: Heinemann, 1982). I have seen the film version of Gandhi's life and, while it was very well done - I wished for more of how Gandhi came to the conclusion of acting the way he did. The film was great for highlighting why he is such an impressive man and what he stood for. This book helped me to understand some of the 'why' behind his life and work. I don't want to clutter this entry any more with my words, I want to just add some quotes selected from the end of the book:

"I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and non-violence are as old as the hills. All I have done is try experiments in both on as vast a scale as I could do. In doing so, I have sometimes erred and learnt by my errors. Life and its problems have thus become to me so many experiments in the practice of truth and non-violence..."

"I look upon myself as a dull person. I take more time understanding some things, but I do not care. There is a limit to man's progress in intelligence; but the developments of the qualities of the heart knows no bounds. It is literally true in my case that God provides the man of faith with such intelligence as he needs. I have always honored and reposed faith in elders and wise men. But my deepest faith is in truth so that my path though difficult to tread has seemed easy to me."

"I have been known as a crank, faddist, madman. Evidently the reputation is well deserved. For wherever I go, I draw myself to cranks, faddists and madmen. If I had no sense of humor, I should long ago have committed suicide."

"I disbelieve in the conversion of one person by another. My effort should never be to undermine another's faith but to make him a better follower of his own faith. This implies the belief in truth of all religions and respect for them. It again implies true humility, a recognition of the fact that the divine light having been vouchsafed to all religions through an imperfect medium of the flesh, they must share in more or less degree the imperfection of the vehicle."

"I have learnt through bitter experience the one supreme lesson to conserve my anger, and as heat conserved is transmuted into energy, even so our anger controlled can be transmuted into a power which can move the world."

"Love never claims, it ever gives. Love ever suffers, never resents, never revenges itself."

"I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good it does is temporary, the evil it does is permanent. I do not believe in violent short-cuts to success...however much I may sympathize and admire worthy motives. I am an uncompromising opponent of violent methods even to serve the noblest of causes...experience convinces me that permanent good can never be the outcome of untruth and violence."

"Means and ends are convertible terms in my philosophy of life. They say 'means are after all ends', I would say that means are everything. As the means so the end. There is no wall of separation between means and end. Indeed the creator has given us control over the means, none over the end..."

"I value individual freedom but you must not forget that man is essentially a social being. He has risen to his present status by learning to adjust his individualism requirements of social progress. Unrestricted individualism is the law of the beast of the jungle...Willing submission to social restraint for the sake of the well-being of the society enriches both the individual and the society of which one is a member."

"Democracy disciplined and enlightened is the finest thing in the world. A democracy prejudiced, ignorant, superstitious will land itself in chaos and may be self-destroyed."

"By education I mean an all-round drawing out the best in child and man - body, mind and spirit. But unless the development of the mind and body go hand in hand with a corresponding awakening of the soul, the former alone would prove to be a lopsided affair. By spritual training I mean education of the heart."

Anyways...

Canadians speak English (and French, but not here in BC). Many Americans think, as I did in my early years in Pennsylvania, that Canadians actually speak the same language then....

I learned in a childhood visit to Sudbury, Ontario (most BC'ers shudder when I say the name of that city. My response always is: "Hey! Alex Trebek came from Sudbury!" ) My aunt married a retired nickel miner (How Sudbury is THAT!?!) We went up sometime in my childhood to visit them in his home town. Side note: Even MORE Canadian, they were snow birds, living in Florida half the year! I realized very quickly that "Eh?" was like the Canadian equivalent of "Aloha", which means all sorts of things.

One time my uncle was struggling to fix some mechanical monster of a thing - maybe it was a log-splitter, I kind of forget - when he told me to go across the street while he tested it. Puzzled a bit, I complied and watched as he rip-roared this thing to life in his garage. Over that loud roar, I vividly remember his broad smile and his shouting of "EH!?!" right before the thing blew up in a billow of smoke. (No injuries, other than pride..)

Another time we were at the little car race track, you know, where you actually drive the things? Whatever you call it... I went to the snack bar and in typical Philly-ish English asked for a "soda". The guy said they didn't have soda - I was stunned and asked what he had : "pop" and I had another lesson in Canadian English. Although, to be fair, most of the US calls it "pop", too. Except for the Southern US, where everything is "coke". *sigh*

Canadian English fascinates me. I even found a Canadian Spelling Dictionary on the web! Fascinating reading, btw!

Other subtle difference include: "Anyways" - I say 'anyway' - How about you? Or, in BC at least, the kids say "pencil crayons" instead of "coloured pencils" (please note the Canadian spelling in the last one!!) It took me a few years to realize that 'pencil crayon' is the English speaking way of saying the French side of the box!

My mother-in-law says 'serviettes' instead of napkins. She's unsuccessfully tried to convert me to saying that. I'm proud to say my kids are hanging in there with 'napkins'!! I have nothing against Canadian English - I just can't stand 'serviettes' for some reason.

Oh, wait, I can't stand the way 'pasta', 'drama' and 'Mazda' are pronounced. Canadians tend to say the first 'a' as a strong short 'a' sound. In the states, the first 'a' is pronounced as a 'schwa' sound. Don't know what a 'schwa' is? Check your local dictionary!! It is for this reason that I will never own a 'Mazda' in Canada. I like Hondas better, anyways.... Oops...

A Favourite Bible Verse

I love this verse. It's from The Message by Eugene Peterson. It sort of describes perfectly the approach we are supposed to be taking when thinking about the kingdom of God. I have been going through a lot of rethinking about my "worldview" ~ in beliefs and what they mean to my teaching and living life. Here's the verse:

Then you can see how every student well-trained in God's kingdom is like the owner of a general store who can put his hands on anything you need, old or new, exactly when you need it."

~ Matthew 13:52

I've always had this approach for teaching, learning to be eclectic and learn from the old and use what can be used from the new.

Now I'm not saying that I am denying the Trinity or anything, but I'm rethinking things along the lines of postmodern thinking. Thinking about things like: What did Jesus really mean when he talked about the kingdom of God/heaven? What is hell? What kernel of truth is there in things like pluralism, etc.? I'm finally starting to 'get it' and realize what is needed. So I am reading a lot of Brian McLaren right now and I am fascinated by the conversation going on through the Emergent Village site.

Anyway, that's what I was thinking during my lunchtime today!

On Control

I have a sign that says, "God is in Control" in my classroom. I haven't hung it up for a few years, because I was just having a hard time imagining what, exactly, I'm saying when I say that. Is God at a big panel, pressing buttons, pulling levers. No, I don't think that can be true. We have this big, mechanistic view of God being at a big computer. But we don't control every aspect of the computers we work on. I don't really understand how these words get from my computer screen to yours. I use it anyway. A lot of what the computer does is automatic, even though I am involved with the computer. It would do nothing on its own. I wonder if that's what it means for God to be in control.

One of the advantages of teaching the same Bible curriculum to the same grade, grade 3, for the past 8 years, is you really get to know those parts of the Bible REALLY well! I taught the Old Testament, Genesis to about Joshua, every year. I really began to think about this idea of control especially as I wandered through the wilderness for forty years with the Israelites. I wandered with them through 8 different classes of grade 3 students and I began to understand something. It came to me in a flash one day. Something that should have been obvious, but wasn't until I went through the stories over and over again: God was not controlling the Israelites at all. He only gives choices.

I love the line God gives Bruce in the movie, Bruce Almighty. God is allowing Bruce to have His powers for a certain amount of time and gives him the ground rules. The big rule is: "Don't mess with free will!"

That's it, exactly! Throughout the whole Bible, God is stepping back and letting people make choices - to choose. This really changed how I saw my classroom. I don't 'control' the class, in fact I have come to despise that word in reference to human beings. I can't think of any good that has ever come from controlling people at any time in history. In fact, I can only think of evil coming from attempts at control. I'm involved with my class - I offer choices.

So, when someone asks me, when the kids are being annoying, wild, or whatever, "Can't you control those kids?" I really, honestly, have to say "NO!" As for the sign in my classroom? I still have it up, because it makes me think. I realized that even though the kids may not read everything I put up, I DO! And I need sayings, quotes, etc, to catch my eye and make me think carefully about what I believe. Is God in control? Somehow, I would say, Yes, He is, but God don't make no puppets, either!

Computers in Education, Part 2

"I hope for some sort of peace - but I fear that machines are ahead of morals by some centuries and when morals catch up there'll be no reason for any of it."
~President Harry S. Truman (quoted in McCullough, David. Truman. p. 415)

Pres. Truman wrote this shortly after touring the rubble that used to be Berlin shortly after Germany's defeat. He actually said this before he authorized the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is an interesting comment and I wonder what we will say in the coming generations about our infatuation with technology. It makes it all the more important that schools come up with ways to incorporate the technology and guide students in the proper and safe use of technology, because they are involved, whether we like it or not! I'm thinking I should have titled this "Technology and Education", but there it is.

The first part of this article dealt with the largely downside of technology in education, but now I wanted to think and write more about why we need to incorporate even more technology in our schools.

An interesting article came out in the December 2005 issue of Educational Leadership. It's called, "Listen to the Natives" and it's written by Marc Prensky. He's coined the terms digital natives, which our students are. That is, they are the ones who are immersed in the culture. We (the adults/teachers) are the digital immigrants. We do some technology, but we speak with an "accent". We have to begin to listen to the students if we want to help prepare them for life in the 21st century.

I am becoming fascinated with the idea that we are approaching another "Enlightment" of sorts. As the postmodern culture begins to take over and leave the modern culture behind, there are new movements afoot. One of them that I am looking into very closely now is the emergent church.
Churches and Christianity must find a different way of thinking as it strives to bring the message of Jesus Christ to a different culture. But I digress....

In this article, Prensky shows how schools, as they are now, cannot prepare kids for the 21st century:

"Pragmatically, our 21st century kids' education is quickly bifurcating. The formal half, 'school', is becoming an increasingly moribund and irrelevant institution. Its only function for many students is to provide them with a credential that their parents say they need. The informal, exciting half of kids' education occurs 'after school'. This is the place where 21st century students learn about their world and prepare themselves for their 21st century lives."

It's funny how we herd kids, group them unwillingly, make them learn what they don't want to learn (and probably don't really need for the future, anyway). We make them shut up, sit still and take it in. I'm still guilty of this because I learned this way and it worked for me. The point is - it CANNOT work for today's kids!

I'm starting to feel increasingly restless with old style school and curriculum. As I have becoming more immersed in technology, I find that I can only express myself through technology. It's becoming a part of me - and it is even more a part of kids lives today. Banning the use of cell phones in schools, for example, could be leading to more problems that it will solve. The cell or blackberry has become an extension of our children's brains and they can't function without them. How about using the video games that our students are so involved in as a model of curriculum organization? It may seem silly, but many are giving it some serious thought!

An important thing to keep in mind that this doesn't mean we need lots of actual technology in the classroom. What we need to consider is how technology is actually changing the way kids think and process information. Children learn differently than the children of just a generation ago.

I get a pen and paper and it remains blank to me. I can't think of a thing to write. Give me a computer and I can't shut up! I need an electronic medium to talk out loud and give myself a voice now. How odd.... I wonder how much of an accent I still have...

I know this has been kind of a jumble of thoughts ~ maybe I'll come back and clean this up some day. Make it more presentable. But I had fun writing it and that, in the end, is what counts!

I found this cartoon and found it appropriate here. Sometimes I feel like this is what educators on low budgets are doing in the classroom...

Why Corner Gas is Profound....

I've neglected my favourite show, next to The Rick Mercer Report. That would be Corner Gas. This show is about small town life in the flattest place on earth, Saskatchewan. (Hope I spelled that correctly...) Anyway, I've haven't laughed so hard for such a long time until this show came along. I am faithfully getting the series DVD's as they become available...I'm that serious about how funny it is. I'm so interested in this show that I've suggested that we tour the town where it's filmed. Maybe we will visit Dog River!

This show does have uniquely Canadian references in it, too, which my wife has to explain to me, but I find the humor so universal. It is more 'small town humour' than Canadian humor. You'll notice as an American in Canada, I sometimes put my 'u' into words like 'humour' and sometimes I don't. (I love Canadian spelling!)

The main characters are:

*Brent - Owner of Corner Gas.
*Lacy - Brent's next door neighbor, owner of the diner, The Ruby
*Hank - Brent's best friend and rarely employed layabout (he must have inherited the house)
*Frank - Brent's crusty, cranky old dad
*Emma - Brent's wise-cracking, eye-rolling mom
*Davis - The cop who likes to 'be real' and relax
*Karen - The newer cop who likes to be careful to follow regulations.

The writing on this show is fantastic and the characters are so small town. There is so much recognition of basic human foibles and follies hiding in this show too. It demonstrates, as true comedy should, how people can sometimes just be plain silly about their obsessions and priorities. In that way this show is more 'real' than the shows that call themselves 'reality'.

The show is proof of that famous quotation: "Never underestimate the power of human stupidity." Corner Gas demonstrates that we can either laugh at this foolishness, or go insane. I'll go for the former. See you at The Ruby!

History - A New 'Hobby'

"Perserverance and spirit have done wonders in all ages."

~ General George Washington



I've just finished reading 1776 and it got me to thinking about how moving to Canada has really made me more interested in history. I think what really got me started was when I had to take two courses in order to get my permanent teaching certificate here in BC. The two courses were basic, 100 level courses in Candian geography and in Canadian history. Now, there were other teachers in the courses who were from other provinces here in Canada and they were bored out of their gourds because they had heard most of this stuff before. Me, I loved it. I didn't know any of this stuff and I really enjoyed learning about the history of Canada. I especially was interested in how Canadian and American history intertwine with each other. You can't really have one without the other and, you really couldn't ask for better neighbors. (Despite that softwood thing. For the record, though, cough up the money US - you owe Canada a bundle.....but I digress)

I really enjoyed reading A Short History Of Canada by Desmond Morton. Then I couldn't resist Canadian History for Dummies by Will Ferguson. I loved that the US tried to invade Canada at least 4 times in the early years. Lincoln actually contemplated fighting the Civil War on two fronts - and Canada's birth year, 1867 is not coincidentally located closely to the end of the Civil War....

Which makes me think of 1776, which prompted a question from my wife: "What's that about?"
I looked at her blankly: "Well, 1776...." I'm thinking it should be obvious. She basically replied with "Fine, don't tell me then..." I did very nicely explain the significance of the year.

Now, 1776 was not a year of triumph. It was a year of hardship and defeat for the American forces. It's amazing (and this is what intrigues me most about reading history) how just a little more effort from one of the sides in a different direction could have changed the course of history. How close the battle was. As an American, I tend to associate 1776 with the year (singular) of the Revolutionary War, but it was just the beginning. The Treaty of Paris ending the war was signed in 1783 - a little more than 6 years later.

That quote above is significant, McCullough indicates, because that was kind of George Washington's theme throughout the war:

"Again and again, in letters to Congress and to his officers, and in his general orders, he had called for perserverance - for 'perserverance and spirit,' for 'patience and perserverance' for 'unremitting courage and perserverance.' " (p. 293)

I have read elsewhere, perhaps in McCullough's book, John Adams, that somewhere along the way Washington realized he did not actually have to win battles to win the war. He had to keep fighting until they couldn't afford to fight any more. He knew that eventually, the British had to realize it wasn't worth it. So perhaps it was perserverance, and not brilliance strategies that one this war. There's a lesson in there somewhere...

Immigration

I was watching "Face the Nation" yesterday. They had two US senators on arguing about the latest immigration bill that either passed or didn't pass. There has been so much heated debate about illegal immigrants and the implications of allowing them to live and work in the US. It all comes down to money, though, whole businesses would shut down if they had to hire only legal immigrants - they couldn't afford all workers. It is a complicated issue, but I was sitting there realizing that it's not such an issue with Canadians, only Mexican or Latin Americans mostly. Why? Canada's lifestyle is so close to the US lifestyle - economically speaking.

These people are desparate to feed and care for their families - they'll do anything. The low pay they get seems like a fortune to them. It occured to me that the only real way to solve the problem is to improve living conditions in Latin America and Mexico. Hey! You think that's expensive - I find it hard to believe that the huge wall or fence that some are proposing would be at least as expensive, if not more. I wonder how much it would cost to make the majority of Mexicans lifestyles better. That way they won't be so desparate for jobs in the US. Lets create jobs in Mexico...put the billions of dollars we want to spend on keeping "them" out and improve their lives instead. $5 billion to improve the Mexican lifestyle will be a better idea than $5 billion on a fence!

Oh, wait...we don't want to interfere in their country's affairs....like we haven't interfered in Iraq, Afganistan, etc......

That is something that I would love to hear debated by politicians of a country one day. How can we make the other countries better? Yup, that would be neat to see!!

Internet Safety for Children

I tell the kids that the Internet is a city, like Vancouver. They need guidance and supervision to get around the city. I wouldn't take them into certain parts of Vancouver - if I had a choice. If I did need to take them into any part of Vancouver - I would make sure I, or another responsible adult, was with them.

To that end, I wanted to take some time and talk about internet safety. I have also posted some excellent links here to help you. There is one site, Netsmartz.org, that is designed for children to learn about internet safety through music videos and other activities. I encourage you to take the time to go to that site with your child.

We are at a point where we cannot just keep kids away from the internet. It is too interwoven in our lives now. It also is such a powerful tool for all people to use, whatever their occupations or interests are. Therefore, rather than avoiding internet use, we need to educate children (and especially their parents) in some basic guidelines.

Keep that city image in your mind as you evaluate your child's access to the internet. Would you allow your child to walk alone down the streets of any city with their name, phone number, address and daily schedule stuck as a label to their jacket? Yet that is what we sometimes do without thinking, by allowing our child unrestricted, unmonitored access to the internet. As we teach children about being safe with strangers, being home alone and with matches, we need to give them instruction on internet safety.

I wanted to list some things that are good for parents to know about internet safety:

• Computers should be a public area in the home, not in bedrooms.
• When commenting on my blog or the classroom's blog, do not use your last name at all...I have deleted all comments that refer to last names. Better yet, enter your comment as 'anonymous' - If it is a positive and/or appropriate comment, I will allow it to appear on the blog.
• Learn how to check 'history' on Internet Explorer or the alternative on whatever web browser you are using. This will list all the sites that the browser has been to for the past X number of days (you can reset the number of days, I forget what the default is.)
• Beware of Internet Messenger (MSN) and/or Yahoo Chat or other instant messenging programs. If you don't know what those are, talk to me or your local computer geek.
• Look for how to set parental controls on your computer and web browser. Again, talk to me or your local computer expert if you don't know how to do that.
• Make sure you sit down and talk about what your child is not allowed to post - basically, they should never give away their full name, daily schedule, phone number or location. They should never meet someone they met on-line without your knowledge and presence.

My commitment to you in regards to internet usage at school and the publishing of information on both my blog and the classroom's blog:

• I will not allow your child's full name to be posted on the internet.
• I have removed the link to the school's website to avoid any potential 'undesirables' from connecting your child to a specific location.
• I have enabled 'comment moderation' on both blogs. This means that I will preview all comments before allowing them to be posted on the blog. If they are positive and/or appropriate comments, I will allow comments from anyone.

If you have any other questions or concerns, please let me know. I'd be happy to show you how to do some things with the Internet, too, if you're unsure of your way around. Happy surfing!!

Here are some links to help you, specifically with blogging:

blogsafety.com

kidshealth.org

familyinternet.com

netsmartz.org

Look What I Found!!

I changed my profile picture to go with my title...I think it's more interesting than a personal photo. While I was googling for the photo, I came across more photos that I thought would just be fun to share here. It's amazing what an image search comes up with!!







And that's just some of them....Now I'm thinking I should change my profile picture every other day...lol!!!

On Hypocrisy

In the most recent Reader's Digest, Margaret Wente writes about David Suzuki - "Canada's Prophet of Doom". It talks about his opposition to Kyoto - even though to fully implement will meant bankrupting Canada's economy. He also opposes genetic modified foods -which he should know are really the only key to fighting hunger around the world. I wonder how consistent he is with his beliefs? George W. Bush, Suzuki says, is "the ultimate eco-terrorist on the planet." I wonder what Suzuki would say if he knew that the Bush ranch is eco-friendly? I wonder how cosistent Suzuki's beliefs are with his lifestyle.


This article made me think of a book I have just finished reading. It details how US liberals actually live and make their money. Michael Moore, for example, talks about how he owns no stock, but actually owns quite a bit. He even owns stock in the very companies and corporations that he speaks against, like Halliburton. I have had such a struggle with Michael Moore since his last "documentary" - Farenheit 9/11. When he tried to get senators to sign up their own kids into the army, I felt like shouting at him: "But parents CAN'T sign up their own kids in an all VOLUNTEER army!!!!" His criticisms of the war were criticisms of war in general. He actually had very little to say about the war in Iraq, other that the oil connections - which is no news to anyone. It was there that I lost most of the respect that I had for Michael Moore, or whatever was left of it. I have a copy of Stupid White Men which I will hand over for free to whomever asks for it, by the way - I found his prose even more irritating than the movies. The only thing he did that I'm hanging on to is Canadian Bacon, which is a really funny movie...

The books basic premise is that the major liberal spokes people like, Ralph Nader, Moore, Barbara Streisand, Noam Chomsky and Al Franken fail to live the anti-capitalist lifestyle that they say they do. None of them are doing what they're saying, in other words.

The book is a fun read, although I do want to say I'm taking it with a grain of salt. I found it very interesting that the hypocrisies are so dramatic, though.

Bibliography:

Schweizer, Peter. Do As I Say (Not As I Do). New York: Doubleday, c 2005

Wente, Margaret. "Canada's Prophet of Doom" Reader's Digest (Canada), April 2006, pp 135-138.

Bogota Memories

I wanted to write a bit about my time in Colombia (BTW - Colombia, the country, is spelled with two o's). I have tried to include a picture taken by my pitiful webcam of a poster that I have now in my computer room. It is my favorite poster from Colombia - we have quite a few - because, possibly it is the most abstract. Which, in some ways, is the best way to remember Colombia. A beautiful country, sometimes difficult to understand. Definitely hard to live in, but you'll never want to leave once you've been there a while.

I arrived Good Friday in 1989 and just about everything was closed. I had to prepare hurriedly for class on Monday. I was basically given a stack of teacher manuals and told good luck by a very tired looking mother who was filling in for the last few months and was glad her time in the 3/4 split class was over. I got to work to begin my first full-time teaching experience in the garage of the house that the school had rented.

Now for those of you who don't know Colombian history, I was living in Colombia at the time of Pablo Escobar. He was in control of the infamous Medellin drug cartel. He was a nasty, vicious sort of man to his enemies. A loving, caring leader to those who had earned his favor.

By the fall of 1989, when I returned, visa hurriedly worked out, to teach a grade 2/3 class, Escobar had begun his campaign of terror that would ultimatel lead to his dramatic and televised shooting on a rooftop by police. Escobar was randomly bombing anything, banks, food stores, etc. to protest and try to stop the extraditionof drug dealers to the US. For more details of these times, please see the bibliography below.

One time, I had just returned from a grocery shopping expedition at Carulla (grocery store) next to Bulevar Niza (mall that I lived close to) when I felt a shudder go through my apartment. I looked out my window and saw smoke rising from the direction of Bulevar Niza. My good friend (now my wife), Ruth was still there, I thought. I called her apartment and she was there - I sighed in relief. It turns out the car bomb went off in front of the Carulla, but didn't level it. One of the families at my school was actually there when it happened. The father was getting a haircut close to the grocery store and he ran out to try to get into the store after the bomb went off. The police hit him with batons to keep him from entering.

His wife and daughter were in the store. The girl must have been around 5 or 6 at the time. When the bomb went off, the mother and daughter flew away from each other. The mother looked frantically for the daughter and found her, miraculously, sitting on top of a pile of rubble that fell from the ceiling! Needless to say the family came out of it physically undamaged. The news that night said that only 8 or so people were killed but the father later told me that he saw a lot of bodies being quickly hidden by the police. The news was toned down publicly so as not to cause panic.

So you must think it was awful to work there. No, it was tense, yes, but I loved my time there. Perhaps it was because that is exactly where God wanted me at the time. How could I not feel secure in God's hands?

I loved Bogota! I love that it is the land of 'eternal spring'. It is quite situated at quite a high altitude, 8,600 feet or so. There are no extremes in climate there. It is either raining or it isn't. I can't recall talking or hearing much about the weather there, because it would be the most boring topic. Cool in the morning, warming up during the day. The sun setting at 6:30 and rising 12 hours later. Only a few minutes variance during the year.

I loved walking to Bulevar Niza. I often joked that the third floor of that mall was my 'office' to my students. The third floor had all the restaurants and the movie theater... I would vary where I would eat each night. I was single, the US dollar was strong and it was actually cheaper and easier to eat out. I pretty much would only prepare lunch and breakfast at my apartment.

I loved being able to see the Andes mountains around me. I loved that they were green and filled with trees all the way up. We had a fantastic principal, Stan Yohe, who would take the teachers on tours around Bogota and to towns just a short ride away for the weekends. Stan was a historian at heart and would be forever telling us stories about what happened here and there. We really didn't need any other guide!

And the food! My mouth waters thinking of ajiaco, - a kind of chicken stew, of arroz con pollo, of empanadas. I grew to love the traditional breakfast of hot chocolate with a young, runny kind of cheese - I think it was called campesino. I loved grabbing a bus like we grab taxis in North America. You would just wave it down and tell it to stop where ever you needed it to. I learned the buses fairly quickly, once I got my own apartment and actually preferred them over a taxi. They were not only cheaper, but it was easier for me to 'blend' in on a bus - I didn't have to talk so much...

Colombia still is a violent place, gripped in an unending civil war, but I know what the place is really like. I have seen the Colombian heart and I miss it. The violence is not what Colombia actually is - I would hope that others would discover that, too!

Bibliography:

Bowden, Mark. Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, c2001.

Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. News of a Kidnapping. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, c1997.