art of storytelling...1

Once upon a time there were three guys and one girl who walked through a forest. The forest was mostly green, but there was a patch in the middle that was complete darkness. From the bottom to the top, it was blacker than a thousand midnights in the bottom of the ocean. They sought this place because inside, despite the journey, all of their grandest wishes could come true in this place.
The three boys knew one another from childhood. Raised in the same house, by the same two people they called mom and frank. The girl was the only child born to mom and frank and her three brothers, born at different places but reared as one, protected her as if they all had the same blood running through their veins.
The girl became ill one day and found herself on the earth in front of their home, unable to get up on her own and barely able to hear the frantic voices of her youngest brother and oldest brother begging her to wake up. She realized that she wasn’t asleep; she knew she wasn’t dreaming. But what she didn’t know was how to calm their voices.

The remaining brother and frank joined the adopted siblings in their desires for the girl in front of the house they all lived in, together, to wake up. She heard a strange voice, one unfamiliar, join her family chorus and despite her numbness felt a hand attached to the voice hold her face, and caress her cheek. It was a comfortably warm feeling that drowned the pleas of her family and held her ears at attention.
His message, it was an unmistakably male voice, is only known to her, but when he held her hand she suddenly rose and got up to the delight o those around her. They hugged and kissed her and frank demanded a celebration that very night. For his one and only daughter was with them.
While her family and friends celebrated, enjoying the revelry of life and their perceived abundance, the girl whispered to her brothers, each one while alone, to meet her at an appointed time in the land next to the house that led to the forest. They pledged secrecy of the meeting to her in their whisperings and watched the clock in the house with discretion until the appointed time had arrived. The boys looked at each other soundlessly, not wanting to break the pledge to their sister, and awaiting her arrival.
A light shone on the ground and following it to the source, they found an open door from the side of the house and the girl in the doorway. The night’s lamp shone from the moon when the door closed and lit her path to them awaiting her, standing side by side. She went along the line, whispering to each one a private word and leading these three, this band of brothers, into the depths of the forest.
Each worked harder on masking their fear than anything else. The further they went, the bolder she became, the more hesitant the steps behind her. The darkness she sought, more powerful than that draped on the trees, animals, and the place that was the forest was at the top of a hill. At the bottom, she stopped the caravan and looked at all of them.
She asked, simply, if they loved her.
They did.
She asked, simply, if they trusted her.
There was a pause, brief but defined, although their response was the same.
She began walking up the hill with their steps following her. When the darkness changed, their hands could not be seen in front of them. The youngest brother closed his eyes but became more afraid when he realized that he could see more with his eyes closed than when they were open. The oldest brother, aware of the safety of his sister, reached out for her, his panic growing with each air-filled grasp. He gritted his teeth to remain silent, gripping tightly to a promise he’d made earlier.
The voice that their sister had heard earlier that day, a deep smoothness that doused their apprehensions the same way it had for the girl while she lay in front of their house, calmly demanded light. They did not know that the forest around them remained in its swarthy glory while the darkness they stood in became light.
“Because you have loved and trusted in those that believe in Me, you will walk in the light.” The boys looked at their sister in a new light. She had loved them enough to bring them to the ultimate protection.
The End.

American Children need to be brainwashed

Look, to be honest, I'm lukewarm about the work of the Obama Administration so far. I know he's a "Democrat"; I know he's a "liberal"; so under those all-too-American classifications, that relegates him to spending money like schools waste paper. He's been pretty gung-ho about it out the gate, however. Nevertheless, only about seven months in, you still have to give the man a great deal of credit for having to cure all the ills of the years post 1999.


Moreover, HE'S JUST SEVEN MONTHS IN! Give him a chance to change the world. Rome wasn't built in a day and all other cliches that lend themselves to giving one time.


But to his detractors...this is just ridiculous.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20090903/pl_ynews/ynews_pl888_1

My favorite idea is the one that there is going to be some sort of hypnotist show put on by President Obama during this presentation. Exactly what socialist magic is he going to perform, in front of schoolteachers and students, and, well, an entire nation?

It's not as if he is going to declare war on a country that his father gave weapons to. I jest.

The accompanying lesson plans bother some, what with their socialist propaganda pushing questions such as, "What resonated with you from President Obama's speech?", "What is the president asking me to do?", and the most dangerous, "What would you like to tell the president?"

Those are critical thinking questions that any middle school English teacher would ask about juvenile literature.

Relax. At some point, we'll need to be angrier over the fact that there are some schools that don't even have the technological capability to watch the address, rather than the fact that the leader of the nation wants to tell its future to do well in school.

The disparity between the haves and have-nots in education is still a gulf whose shores can not be seen from either side. You can believe the hype if you want, but I know for a fact that this No Child Left behind deal is not making our students more competitive in the global marketplace, it's only raising SAT scores. Unfortunately, with the economy the way it is, most kids can't afford to take the SAT anyway.

I taught for four years and there was never a presidential address directed at students. This should be welcome. It opens up critical thought-provoking conversation during school rather than the drill and kill testing methods that, whether you believe it or not, your child's school has implemented.

This speech is going to be about the importance of school and staying with it. The importance of actually keeping your butt in the seat and your mouth shut and not texting or twittering or, ahem, blogging or posting something on your friend's Facebook wall. The president of the United States of America, unlike his predecessors, is going to actually talk directly to school children and ENCOURAGE them to stay in school.

One parent was quoted as saying, "I am taking my son out of school that period of time. School is for learning, not for indoctrination."

So you're taking your kid out of school for 15-20 minutes of a message you probably don't give to him anyway?

He's not trying to sell them on universal health care, not trying to convince them the bailout is working, nor is he attempting to campaign for their vote. Unless they're in 9th or 10th grade, they won't even be able to vote in the next election. And quite frankly, if you have a child that will be eligible to vote in the next election but is in middle school, the president's 15 minute monologue should probably be low on your priority checklist.