Mamacita says:   What, no Quotation Saturday?  Apparently not.  I’m busy thinking up reasons to put off grading essays and quizzes, trying to keep the cats off the countertops, and harvesting pink roses.  I’m also in a bit of a snit – so what’s new? – because some of my students’  topics and content are making me think, and dagnabit, it’s the WEEKEND.

More and more, I am of the opinion that our teachers are being taught to teach our students how to take a test, and not much else. My students’ comments are forcing me to consider the possibility that our teachers are being taught to teach our students to squelch their natural curiosity and focus on making their marks heavy and dark.  I greatly fear that administrations are, directly or indirectly, threatening teachers with expulsion if they deviate in any way from the newly-beaten path of making them responsible for their students’ behavior, rather than the other way around, which is also known as “the right way.”  I am much afraid that our students are being discouraged from asking questions because those tests are only interested in answers, and not always the best answers, either.  I sometimes suspect that most of our movers, shakers, innovators, scientists, artists, musicians, and philosophers would not survive in our public schools these days.  Tiny, narrow people who thrive inside the box are prospering, while those who dwell outside the box are running for their lives.  I do not like the fact that our schools are catering to the lowest possible common denominator while telling our average and gifted kids that their lot in life is to wait for something that will never come to pass.

This goes against my much stronger opinion that our teachers are supposed to encourage our students to discover and appreciate the wonders of the universe, their own places in said universe, and various skills to help them take care of themselves, and of others, when they’re grown up and on their own.  Oh, and also that it’s proper to eventually be on one’s own and not dependent on anyone else for your bread and butter, with the occasional smear of jam and possibly a pizza or two  IF and ONLY IF one can pay for it with honestly earned money and not someone else’s.  Silly me to think such thoughts.

So, yeah, instead of other people’s wise, well-thought-out quotations, all you get this Saturday is stuff out of MY head.

“Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings” has become “Every time a bell rings, a child has to force himself/herself NOT to think about yet another subject that should rightly be fascinating but which has been edited and censored and otherwise beaten down to fit inside that little box lest it inspire someone to greatness.”

Because we can’t have any individual greatness, you know; it’s not fair to the OTHER students who wouldn’t recognize greatness if it bit them on the ass and called them by name.

I might dare to remind whoever crosses my path – and aren’t y’all LUCKY – that, in the words of Madeleine L’Engle (see, you’re getting your famous quotation after all – “Like” and “equal” are not the same thing!!!!!

I might also dare to remind you that the entire universe is a big game of “Six Degrees of Separation” and that those who don’t know enough to make any connections are losing.

The answer isn’t really “Kevin Bacon,” you know.

The answer is “42.”  And if you don’t know why, be afraid.  Be very afraid.