Things My Students Say Part 1

I had a PPt slide that had Smurfette on it, because I was trying to be funny, and a student of mine said, "I would do her and her blueness." MMMmmmK. This is the same student who, yesterday, said a "dirty douche" would be considered physical capital (this is an Econ class). He's not serious; he likes to get a rise out of me and make his classmates laugh, but sometimes he goes to far or is just annoying, not funny. I wish I would have started recording the stuff he has said since the beginning of the year. There's a running joke about him in the class that if I had put a penny in a jar for every time he said something ridiculous, we could afford the biggest pizza party the school had ever seen. Maybe I really should start doing that! This kids really does have some bizarre things in his head. What's interesting is that I looked him up on Facebook (for an entirely unrelated reason) and one of the "pages" he belongs to is something like "I can turn anything you say into something sexual." Not very appropriate but definitely reflective of his personality. I wonder what he would be like as a boyfriend. Not for me of course, oh my GOD no, but for some unsuspecting high schooler. I don't see him as boyfriend material because he seems to have such pent up sexual frustration or something. He wouldn't know how to treat a girl right. Another student I have, in a different class, would definitely be a good boyfriend. He likes this girl in the class, but she is dating someone, and this girl likes my kid too, but she feels guilty breaking up with her boyfriend. I feel so bad for him because he is a good kid, and he truly cares about this girl, but she won't do the right thing. Her boyfriend is Mormon and she feels like she can't do that to him. Whatever. Wow, listen to me, getting into the teenage drama. I can't help it. I have no real drama these days, so I live vicariously through my students. I don't remember high school being as anxsty as it is these days, and I really don't think it's because I'm so far removed from the period. I just honestly don't remember there being so many fights (physical and emotional), girls getting pregnant, students being disrespectful to adults, and on and on and on. When did this all become normal? My girls talk to me all the time about wanting to kick this bitch's ass, or beat this bitch down, or how they are the "other woman". It truly shocks me because I SWEAR school didn't used to be like that. Back then, if you said something about someone, you didn't really get confronted with it. Now, you'll get your ass kicked for it real quick. Girls are bigger fighters than the boys in some cases.

It's getting late and I'm rattling...

Haiti

I would really like to stop hearing about Haiti. Haiti this, and Haiti that; Haiti had another afterschock; Haiti is still in chaos; donate to Haiti, Haiti needs help, Haiti Haiti Haiti Haiti Haiti Haiti Haiti Haiti Haiti Haiti Haiti Haiti Haiti Haiti Haiti Haiti Haiti Haiti Haiti Haiti Haiti Haiti Haiti. God damnit, it's everywhere! When I sign on to FishWorld, I get a popup asking me to adopt a special fish for Haiti. When I sign on to ZooWorld, another popup about Haiti. There are little messages in the corner of my TV screen that want me to donate to Haiti. "Text Haiti to 990999 and you will automatically be donating $10 to the Haiti Relief Fund." NO! What about all the people here, in America, who need help? What is it about our own country that makes people look the other way, yet they'll move heaven and earth to help another country and their people? I'm so tired of it. I honestly think it has something to do with our desire to make ourselves out to be the "big brother" of the world, the band-aid, the healer. I wish people would get their priorities straight and fix our country before spending a dime on, or lifting a finger for, another country.

Testing Testing, 1 2 3

I have nothing of any importance to say today; just wanted to test out the blog. That sounds funny now that I say it out loud or, rather, type it quietly. What is there to "test?" I've never officially blogged before (MySpace doesn't count) so maybe I was unsure of how it worked? Nah, I think it was just something to say, and now I've said it, so let's move on.

I do want to say that I'm annoyed someone already has the URL I wanted. I thought I was being pretty clever with wanting to call it "history rhymes" but apparently I wasn't clever enough. I had to put a dash in between history and rhymes, so now it's not as fluid as I would have liked. Can't always get what you want, eh?

Oh, and why that URL in the first place? One of the things that annoys me about being involved with history as a passion and career is that I always get slapped in the face with that dreadful saying, "those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it," (and any of the 1001 versions of it). My all-time favorite quote contradicts that saying: "History does not repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme." That's how I view history; not as an endless cycle of repetition but as a consistent echo of the past. History cannot and does not repeat itself, because the characters and the game are always different- they can never be replicated with 100% authenticity. Sure empires fall, that's a given, but they don't fall for the same reasons, and they are not the same empires to begin with. So history, to me, does not repeat itself, it rhymes, hence the URL.

And with that, I must watch Jeopardy. It keeps my brain on its toes.