Soapbox Moments #1 and #2

OK OK. I know it's been awhile. Fine. Longer than a while. This semester has flown by, as most of them do - my recital is over - there's week left of school before finals. Pure craziness. But enough with that stuff.

#1. This past week I went into a local elementary school to observe a friend, a first year elementary music teacher, teach her morning classes. Her classes were mostly minority, in fact, almost totally, and it was a really interesting experience. They had just opened up a new kindergarten class in the school, and they took the rug from her classroom to give it to that room. Her classes came in, the day before a holiday, to sit on a cold tile floor and they were, of course, crazy! Her next class consisted of six immersed ESL students who were native Spanish speakers together with another class of regular students. It was pretty obvious that they understood more of what was going on than they wanted to let on, and most of them proceeded to sit around and giggle and make fun of the rest of the class's activities. Anyway, it was a sad reminder of the real life issues that teachers face in a classroom every day - and that's just before they start teaching! Sam Seaborn from the West Wing:

"Education is the silver bullet. Education is everything. We don't need little changes. We need gigantic, monumental changes. Schools should be palaces. The competition for the best teachers should be fierce. They should be making six figure salaries. Schools should be incredibly expensive for government and absolutely free of charge to its citizens, just like national defense. That's my position. I just haven't figured out how to do it yet. "

Honestly. We can do better.

#2. That same morning we went down the hall to help with a Voyager reading program class. The children - 3rd graders I think - had the day off and were working on some Thanksgiving themed activities - coloring and creating cornucopia placemats and doing Thanksgiving pilgrim word finds. I sat down and were helping a group of guys and chatting with them. We got to talking about Thankgiving plans and food and what their favorite Thanksgiving food was. They couldn't tell me whether they liked pumpkin pie, or pecan pie, or cobbler, because they had never had those things. Lest we ever forget how very very blessed we are this holiday season.

We got to talking about what they like to do after school, and they all answered "play video games." I asked them what games they were and the responses I got were Grand Theft Auto: Vice City... from all 3 of them! They liked the game because they could blow things up and punch people and shoot people. 3rd graders! Here's a user review from a quick google search (rated 5 stars):

A Real Kill
This game is sorta like the Kill Bill movies because in Kill Bill the woman who wants revenge will stop at nothing to kill her nemmisis bill and in GTA Vice City Tommy will also stop at nothing to kill people but not only that but all of the following
Steal peoples cars and trucks.
Form a gang.
Kill police and the army.
Kill other gangs.
Kill paramedics.
Kill school kids.
Kill teachers.
Get drunk on big nights.
Comit hit and runs.
Go to partys.
Go to clubs.
Go to casinos.
Gamble.
Drink.
Kill celebirtys.
Kill millionares.
Kill People.
And
Rise up the ranks as Vice Citys most dangerous criminal.
and thats all hope you liked my reveiw of Grand Theft Auto Vice City and if you think Grand Theft Auto Vice City is good then get it I got it.

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME.