21 Feb 2013
by Stu
in assessments, Charter Schools, Democracy, Dialogue, Dumbing Down of Education, Education, Education Reform, Elementary Education, High School, High School Education, Learning, Middle School, Middle School Education, Principals, Private Schools, Schools, Teachers, Teaching, Uncategorized
Tags: classroom management, Education, lesson plans, literacy, Parents, PTA, students, Substitute Teaching, Teachers
Yesterday, I left some suggestions for classroom teachers in what substitutes need. I’m sure there is more to the list, as each classroom and school differs from another.
As I mentioned, Substitutes also have a responsibility, and I’ve heard from teachers and students alike on things that need to be done:
Substitute Teachers
- Be on time.
- This means, to me, being at least fifteen minutes early to where you are supposed to report (usually the main office).
- Dress appropriately.
- Ask for a security badge if not given one automatically.
- Ask for the Substitute Folder if it is kept in the main office.
- Make sure you have CURRENT attendance sheets.
- Come prepared with at least one pen: don’t assume any will be left for you.
- Get to the room you need to report to and read the lesson plans from start to finish.
- Hopefully, the teacher will have left you all material you need with the lesson plan.
- If not, round it up/locate it before the students come in.
- If the teacher assigns a Study Hall or Individual Reading for that time period:
- Do not:
- Read the newspaper; text; be on the computer; discuss your personal life; comment on other classes/schools; listen to your own music with ear plugs; etc.
- Do:
- State you are in charge
- They have work to do: do it
- Take names if they are disrespectful to you
- Keep your calm
- Leave the classroom, especially the teacher’s desk/work area, as you found it.
- Leave the teacher notes on how the day was: good and not so good behavior.
- Don’t leave a novel: just highlights/bullets
- Some schools use some sort of feedback system, whether online or paper: follow through on it.
- If you are working with any classroom aides or paras: thank them for their help at the end of the class/day.
- When students say “..the teacher always lets us…” well, that is up to you and the feel of the kids, but more times than not the teacher does not let them do whatever they’ve just told you.
- Apologize, tell them you have no notes to that effect, and they’ll have to do it your way for today. Tell them you’ll leave a note for the teacher that you said no. They’ll usually stop at that.
20 Feb 2013
by Stu
in AIE, alternative education, assessments, Bullies, Bullying, Charter Schools, Creative Process, Dumbing Down of Education, Education, Education Reform, Elementary Education, High School, High School Education, Learning, Middle School, Middle School Education, National Standards, Principals, Private Schools, Reading, Schools, Teachers, Teaching, Uncategorized
Tags: Arts in Education, Charter Schools, Education, lesson plans, literacy, respect, students, Substitute Teaching, Teachers
I am sure there are many jokes that can be made out of the title/subject line of this post. That is not this posting.
Today, this is for the normal classroom teacher.
The next post will be for the subs! Teachers, do not fret. Not picking on you, but there are things that are forgotten in the rush with all you have to do.
TEACHERS
- Do not assume that the sub knows ANY of your procedures, unless you know them/they’ve been in your room before.
- From A to Z: lay it out. No confusion for the kids, no confusion for the sub.
- If you write up daily procedures ONE TIME, you have that ready to go.
- This is true with Picking Up Students in the am (where they are; what row; etc) and especially Dismissal: these procedures vary from school to school, and if a sub works more than one district, it can be confusing, and the safety of your students should not be left up to chance.
- If you have “special” names for something, please explain it (i.e. “Switch-a-Roo”: I had NO idea what that was, and it was only between two teachers who used it in the same grade).
- Don’t treat a sub like they are stupid, though.
- All they want are detailed lesson plans, things lined up for them to use (they don’t’ know your room, know where the copy room is, break room, etc.), and what your signals are for classroom management.
- Do NOT say “Just make it a Study Hall” or “Have them do independent reading” unless that IS what YOU would do during that time period.
- Study Hall or Independent Reading instead of actual work is futility for a substitute, and the kids normally take advantage of that fact.
- Have the sub collect the work you assign so the students DO SOMETHING and are held accountable for it.
- Telling them to do work and then allowing them the choice to finish for homework? Another disaster for the sub.
- Homework is homework. Classwork should not be interchangeable.
- Lay out your plans carefully, step by step, so that when you return, your classroom was run the way it would be if you were there.
- Do not expect the sub to be proficient in all core subject matter.
- If there is an answer sheet, please provide it for them.
- Please provide times for all subjects (when the change is, bell is supposed to ring, etc.). Simple, yes, but not everyone does it.
- If the students need to be brought to another room, please provide that room number, not just Art or Music, or that teacher’s name.
- If your school allows you to give a heads up on who has an IEP, please provide that. I know this is a tricky one, as things should not be left out that a student could read. There should be a way to let the sub know, not for judgment sake but for a heads up, to be aware who needs modifications for, who might do something that appears disrespectful to the sub but is normal for that child, etc.
- If you have an Aide/One-on-One in the room normally, please give them a copy of your plans as well to help the sub out (as well as make it easy on themselves}.
- Please make sure your Sub Folder is current with students attendance sheets, allergies, dismissals, etc.
- When you have a change in the classroom, please update your Sub Folder.
- Please find out, if not automatically given by the office, which usually does NOT have the info, a Substitute log-in so they can use your Smart Board, etc. This will save time and frustration all the way around.
- Please indicate who can help the sub out if needed by teachers you are surrounded by/work with on a regular basis.
- If you encounter a substitute in the school, at lunch, etc, please be welcoming. It goes a long way to be made to feel welcome as opposed to being dismissed as “just a sub”
- Some of your students will do that already; don’t do the same, please.
Again, I will write out something for Subs, as I’ve heard enough stories about what subs shouldn’t do in classrooms, but do anyway.
Thanks.
16 Jan 2013
by Stu
in AIE, alternative education, Alternative Schools, Arts, Arts In Education, Arts Integration, assessments, Bullies, Bullying, Charter Schools, Debate, Dumbing Down of Education, Education, Education Reform, Elementary Education, High School, High School Education, Middle School, Middle School Education, Parents as Reading Partners, Principals, Private Schools, Professional Development, Schools, Social Engagement, Standardized Testing, Teachers, Teaching, Testing, Thinking
Tags: Anti Violence, Arts in Education, Charter Schools, consequences, detention, Hate Crimes, literacy, Parents, PTA, Turn off the Violence, zero tolerance
Zero Tolerance and School Safety
The Time is Right to End ‘Zero Tolerance’ in Schools
Zero Tolerance Schools Discipline Without Wiggle Room
Zero Tolerance and Alternative Suggestions
The above links will lead you to sites on both sides of the debate over Zero Tolerance in schools. I leave it to you to read them, make your own conclusions.
I won’t summarize them, but give you some observations:
A school with a strongly worded rules on dress code and school behavior online, with the consequences for infractions clearly stated. Syllabi/Lesson Plans, posted online as well, readdressing the same concerns. The conduct rules are posted in the main office as well.
What was seen: two students being taken out of the school in hand cuffs by police officers; not one student dressed in the very well laid out dress code (hoodies and hats were worn; scarves as head wear; tee shirts with graphics; etc); students walking around the hallways by the front door guard, near the main office, sitting on the floor; a school official hugging a student (one “rule” was “no contact between students of any type, hugging mentioned); a student walking into the office, talking to a secretary, her trying to send him on his way to class but he cut his class, as he came back in less than fifteen minutes later to “hang out”; and during the classroom change, uncountable number of cell phones and electronics being used in a school they are supposedly banned.
This was one school, but I’ve seen variations played out in many.
I made a mention of this, at times. to various teachers or staff, and the answer is almost always the same: a shrug of the shoulders, or the complaint that no one enforces it, or they can’t enforce them. They don’t get support from any number of sources (parents, the principal, whoever).
I’ve also seen schools where the parents are very involved and supportive, where the rules of conduct and dress are enforced. Are there still problems? Of course. You are dealing with a wide variable of situations. Yet, when rules don’t matter, consequences are basically non-existent…
I haven’t written here in quite awhile. Observing what I have in the last half a year (really, last four years) has sometimes left me dumbstruck. This experience just left me shaking my head.
What do you see that will work?
30 Sep 2012
by Stu
in AIE, alternative education, Alternative Schools, Arts, Arts Administration, Arts Advocacy, Arts In Education, Arts Infusion, Arts Integration, Arts Reform, assessments, Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Creative Process, Creative Thinking, Creativity, critique, Debate, Dumbing Down of Education, Education, Education Reform, Elementary Education, High School, High School Education, Home Schooling, Learning, Middle School, Middle School Education, National Standards, Parents as Reading Partners, Principals, Private Schools, Professional Development, Schools, Social Engagement, Teachers, Teaching, Teaching Artist, Testing, Thinking
Tags: Arts in Education, Curriculum, Education, grammar, literacy, Parents, PTA, punctuation, Spelling, students, Teachers, Teaching Artists, teaching for the test, test taking, writing
“My spelling is Wobbly. It’s good spelling but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places.”
A. A. Milne
“I don’t see any use in having a uniform and arbitrary way of spelling words. We might as well make all clothes alike and cook all dishes alike. Sameness is tiresome; variety is pleasing.”
― Mark Twain
“God, don’t they teach you how to spell these days?”
“No,” I answer. “They teach us to use spell-check.”
― Jodi Picoult
It goes like this: I’m at a school and giving the class a handout. I’m reading it along with them so I can answer (hopefully) any question that arises. The first page is a list of vocabulary words (the day’s “Do Now” is: “Why do you need to increase your vocabulary?”); the following pages (parts A & B) are fill-in-the-blanks based solely on those words. The kids are struggling already. The answers are on the first page given: they just have to read, go back to the list, circle the correct letter or fill in the blank.
Part C is different: it’s a journal entry that asks them to think. All well and good, but then it says (and I’m only slightly paraphrasing here):
“Don’t Worry About Spelling.”
That in itself boggles my mind, but it’s not the first time I have been mentally gobsmacked (hmmm..is that possible, since a gob is a mouth? Don’t care: I’ll follow Mark Twain from his above quote. So yes, I am dumbfounded).
I wrote about a previous experience with third graders before: in assisting a student with a written assignment, in my trying to help them correct all their spelling errors, which were many, I was informed that the school administration did not want that. If the word read like it sounded, then that was good enough. I informed the teacher that I’d rather be fired for trying to help the student spell correctly then to dumb down. Nothing more was ever said to me on that subject.
In the case of the above hand out, this was High School. Six and seven grades higher, and “don’t worry about spelling” is emblazoned on the paper. Scary. Just plain old scary.
On a recent interview, I was told by the interviewer that they had to discard so many resumes and cover letters due to the amount of grammatical and spelling (many homonym) errors that a normal spell check system does not catch. I’ve heard this before, and I’ve kicked myself in the head the few times I did not proof read a cover letter as well as possible, catching that stupid mistake that makes me sound like a dolt.
So…the schools say “don’t worry about spelling.” The job force, which is getting stricter and harder to break through, IS looking at these things.
Scary…just plain old scary; and very, very sad.
Public schools need to raise their standards and return to a more traditional, classical educational learning method.
What we are churning out is not working.
What do you think?
14 Sep 2012
by Stu
in AIE, alternative education, Alternative Schools, Arts, Arts Administration, Arts Advocacy, Arts In Education, Arts Infusion, Arts Integration, Arts Reform, assessments, Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Creative Process, Creative Thinking, Creativity, Drama Teacher, Dumbing Down of Education, eBooks, Education, Education Reform, Elementary Education, Engaging, High School, High School Education, Home Schooling, Middle School, Middle School Education, National Standards, Parents as Reading Partners, Principals, Private Schools, Professional Development, Schools, Standardized Testing, Teachers, Teaching, Testing, Thinking, Uncategorized
Tags: Arts in Education, Charter Schools, Education, literacy, Parents, PTA, students, Teachers, Teaching Artists, Theater Education
While I have been slumbering, figuring out what to say/do with this blog, someone “liked it’ this morning: rereading it, it gave me a renewed sense of purpose. I am job hunting, and that has taken over most of my concentration. Today I have two interviews, both for Director/Manager of Education position in arts administration. This post already has helped clear some of the cobwebs I’ve laid in my own way. Thanks for the like, Isurrett2.
bornstoryteller
One of the most disturbing things that I have heard from a student was:
“Why should I try? I’ll only be working at McDonald’s.”
I was an Artist-in-Residence for a year for a large school district in Westchester County, NY. Still early in my profession, that statement was both a shock and a revelation of a point of view I had never considered before: low expectations given, and projected; leading this student to live that that is all they can do. The young lady who said that to me was in a ninth grade repeat class. Most of them, I was told much later, were on their THIRD repeat of ninth grade.
Yes: she was a third timer.
It was not that working at McDonald’s is such a negative job, but the expectation of that is all she could expect in life is. There are jobs that many would never…
View original post 343 more words
07 Jun 2012
by Stu
in AIE, alternative education, Alternative Schools, Arts, Arts Administration, Arts Advocacy, Arts In Education, Arts Infusion, Arts Integration, Arts Reform, Blogging, Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Corporations, Creative Process, Creative Thinking, Creativity, Democracy, Dumbing Down of Education, Education, Education Reform, Elementary Education, High School, High School Education, Home Schooling, Learning, Middle School, Middle School Education, Principals, Schools, Social Engagement, Teachers, Teaching, Teaching Artist, Thinking
Tags: art class, Arts in Education, budget cuts, Charter Schools, Curriculum, dance class, drama class, Education, kindergarten, literacy, music class, Parents, PTA, school budgets, sports, students, Teachers
Harrisburg school budget to cut Kindergarten, Art, Sports
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania schools eliminate Kindergarten
The Danger of Cutting After-School Programs
School Budget Cuts: How Students Say Slashes Are Affecting Them
Please read the links above first. I’ll wait.
Now…
I’m completely blown away. Schools are probably the last place we should be cutting budgets, since the future of our world depends on the children. We propagate the species to continue, and I would hope we’d like to leave a better world, and give our kids the chance to advance.
Doesn’t seem like it.
These types of cuts will not happen in private schools. These schools have the means to make sure all the educational hurdles we are facing does not happen to their academics. They’ll continue to have Kindergarten, Art programs, Sports programs, and have a more well rounded student in the long run. They’ll take working models and stick with them, instead of futzing around like the public sector does.
As part of the public, we should allow all children the best education possible, no matter the social/economic happenstance of the family/community.
02 Jun 2012
by Stu
in AIE, alternative education, Alternative Schools, Arts In Education, Arts Infusion, Arts Integration, Arts Reform, assessments, Charter Schools, Creative Process, Creative Thinking, Creativity, critique, Debate, Democracy, Dialogue, Dumbing Down of Education, Education, Education Reform, Elementary Education, Engaging, High School, High School Education, Home Schooling, Learning, Middle School, Middle School Education, Principals, Private Schools, Professional Development, Reading, Schools, Social Engagement, Summer Camps, Teachers, Teaching, Teaching Artist, Testing, Thinking
Tags: After School, Charter Schools, Chicago Schools, Curriculum, Development, literacy, Longer School Day, Longer School Year, Obama, Parents, PTA, students, Teachers, Teaching, Team Teaching, Theater Education
Chicago Wants Longer School Days; Foes Want Details
Longer School Days That Work
Obama Calls For A Longer School Year
Iowa Considers Longer School year
Speak Your Piece: Longer School Year, and Better
I was just on an interview for a job I would love to have. One of the questions I was asked was about the working hours: would I mind working the longer hours this new school would schedule. What struck me is that it needed to be asked at all: there are many, many reasons why extended school time is needed today.
Before I continue, these are MY opinions from what I’ve observed in the field (I have taught as a Teacher, Teaching Artist and as a Substitute Teacher); I’ve left you five links above for others on the subject. Object if you must, but do so with justifications and always keep it civil.
I have heard from too many educators that there is just not enough time in the school day to accomplish all that must be done. I’ve experienced it myself: you just get things going, and they have to rush to another class instead of investing the time needed t o really explore. I’m not talking about busy work, which I have seen in an abundance. Actual student engaging moments get cut short many times.
We have a shrinking teacher base, due to budget cuts in places there should not be budget cuts. Classrooms are overcrowded. Tests and evaluations and rote “learning” practices shove aside a real chance for connections and actual learning.
Yes, we should have more teachers, more classrooms, and less students per class.
With the changing economic realities, parents are not always home until later in the day. The idea of Mom always being home after school is antiquated in many parts of the US; that has changed, but the schools have not changed with the times. There are after school clubs and such already in place; but again, the idea for a longer day is not just social activities (which they do need to foster as well, since much of home life gets truncated that way).
Double blocks of teaching (80 to 90 mins) during the day gives the teacher and the class to work on projects. The time constraints we have now means that there are only three classes per day that way. A longer day would allow more constructive work.
Advisory meetings, portfolio work, special projects that have a true impact and are not busy work (again, seen too much of that), planning sessions; individualized work (NOT study halls: I saw, in one location, 12 students on computers playing Halo in study hall; not making that up, and it was not my place to stop them)…there is so much that can be accomplished with proper time use.
The long summer breaks were originally set up by agricultural needs: farmer kids needed to work on the farm. School came second.
Education should not come second in anything we do.
10 May 2012
by Stu
in AIE, alternative education, Alternative Schools, Arts, Blogfest, Blogging, Bullies, Bullying, Corporations, Creative Process, Creative Thinking, Creativity, critique, Debate, Democracy, Dialogue, Dumbing Down of Education, Education, Education Reform, Engaging, Language, Psychology, Published Author, Published Writer, Social Engagement, Thinking, True Stories, Women Writers, Writer, Writing
Tags: Amendment One, Anti Violence, Arts in Education, Civil Rights, Democrats, Education, Fanatics, gay marriage, Hate Crimes, Law, LGBT, Liberals, literacy, North Carolina, Obama, Parents, President Obama, PTA, Religious Fanatics, Religious Right, Republicans, Teachers, Theater Education, writing
What Is Important?
Washington Post: NC Passes Gay Marriage Ban
Supporters and Critics Wait for What’s Next
Here’s how I see all this:
You can believe in what you want. As long as it’s not hateful or harmful to others, I’ll even listen to your POV if you promise not to try to ram it down my throat, or try to convince me that your belief is the only right way.
Democrats and Republicans do many wrong things, for the wrong reasons: there are lobbies/big money that have no concerns for the people of this country, only profits.
The blame game is what is hurting this country. I read a series of posts on FB, an anti-President Obama thread, that were volatile and negative spewing. The main thrust was, from the person who started the thread, that he feels all Republicans should say NO to anything coming from an opposing POV.
No listening and judge on individual merits; no attempt to compromise; no attempt to work for the betterment of all the people in the country. Just Say NO was his mantra…and then he and others complained that “the liberals” only spout and don’t listen and run away from a fight.
[Side Bar: As to arguments about Bush Bashing…one thing to disagree with the man, which I do. I have my reasons: my two biggest complaints are: his getting the news of the 9/11 attacks and just sitting dumbfounded in a Kindergarten classroom, not making a move, not directing the country, not showing any action; the second is, when asked about his greatest achievement in office, he talks about a fish he caught. Joke or not, to me, it’s not funny. I’m not even going to go into the economic state of the union he left for whoever won the election to pick up after him. Nope. Not going there.]
Before any civil rights acts, inter-racial marriages were forbidden, as were inter-religious ones. They were, for those days, their own “war on marriage” which, yes, I have seen slogans for.
The President spoke his mind and made a stand: he believes in same sex marriage. He did not say any other state of marriage should be nullified, nor did he exclude anyone. He did not say, in any way, that this was a war on marriage. He did not say we all must believe as he did. Many won’t, and that is their prerogative. He is, if anything, advocating the civil rights of the “rest” of the country for consenting adults in love to get married.
If you don’t want to be married to someone of the same sex, or a different religion, or a different skin color, or a different nationality, then: JUST DON’T. But, don’t impose your own POV on someone else.
Why then, as a straight man, am I so behind repealing an amendment based on hatred and bigotry?
I’m also a JEWISH male, and if anyone wants to talk about history of abuse and hatred against a people, then let’s talk. We got ya beat by thousands of years.
It’s time to let things that are NOT important to the running of a country go, and focus on what we can do POSITIVELY and for the GOOD OF THE PEOPLE. The civil rights of American Citizens are being crushed under foot by those who say they love this country.
You love this country, then show it. Stop forcing your negative religious beliefs on others and do something positive with all that energy.
Fight poverty
Fight human trafficking
Fight hunger
Fight injustice (and you better believe this is injustice)
Fight for a stronger economy
Fight to bring our schools back to a place of prominence
Fight for a way to bring this country together, instead of continuously tearing it apart
09 May 2012
by Stu
in AIE, Arts, Arts Reform, Budget Cuts, Bullies, Bullying, Creative Process, Creative Thinking, Creativity, critique, Debate, Democracy, Dialogue, Dumbing Down of Education, Education, Education Reform, Engaging, Learning, Social Engagement, Thinking
Tags: Anti Violence, Arts in Education, gay, gay marriage, heterosexual, human rights, lesbian, LGBT, marriage
Homelessness
Hunger
Violence Against Women and Children
Violence, period
Education (providing the best; promoting and supporting a healthy structure)
Unemployment
Health Care for all
…the list can go on, and please feel free to add on to the list of “Important Things.”
Yet, we as a nation focus on something that is NOT Important in how the country is run, how the lives of the people are improved on, how we can help to strive for a better future. We seem to be fixated on something that obfuscates real issues:
Who Can Marry Whom.
Used to be interracial marriages were illegal. Inter-religious ones were kinda verboten. Segregation issues (against Blacks, Jews, etc) were the standards. All along these lines, those barriers came down, and…unless it is hit with personal prejudices and bias, had not affected your life in any real way. You may not like it, still, but really: beyond sensibilities…?
If marriage is so sanctified (there again: marriage is NOT only a religious ceremony, and hasn’t been for a long time: civil court marriages anyone?) then why do so many heterosexual couplings end in divorce? Why do so many wind up cheating on their spouse (Yeah, looking at you, Newt)? Why do so many in POWER (talking money power too) think it gives them the right to abandon that sanctity for the trophy wife, the mistress, the pursuit of affairs outside of wedded bliss? How many heterosexual wives were jettisoned for younger models, straying outside of “under God”, etc?
So, about me…
I’m not gay
I’m not Black
I’m not a woman (which also brings up: why can OLD men in the Senate tell a woman what she can do with her body?)
I’m not overly political, but I lean more towards the Democrats than Republicans; I feel Libertarians have more to add to the discussion, but are too extreme for what we are now.
I AM for HUMAN rights and freedoms, ones that have nothing to do with a political agenda but one that should strive for the betterment of humankind. Except for committing violence against myself or others, I have no right to say to another: “hey, I don’t like you doing that, it offends me, so I will stop you from doing it.” I just don’t have that right.
Thomas Jefferson wrote the phrase about “separation of church and state,” and while it is not in any formal document, I feel it should be.
The freedom of religion and of speech is set in constitutional stone; you can believe in what you want, and say it as well, but don’t push it on me.
I may not (and don’t, in this case) share your point of view.
Repel Amendment One, and put all this effort into something that will help other people, not bog us down in negative things.
What would happen if we put this much energy into doing something positive?
We are a very Un-United States.
***My own Amendment: 5/8/2012 at 4:00 pm EST:
01 May 2012
by Stu
in Blogfest, Blogging, Booking Agents, Creative Process, Creative Thinking, Creativity, Debate, Democracy, Dialogue, Documentary, Dumbing Down of Education, Education, Learning, Legends, Myths, Published Author, Published Writer, Short Story, Social Engagement, True Stories, Women Writers, Writer, Writing
Tags: Celebrations, Childhood Memories, Conspiracies, Death, events, Hate Crimes, Holidays, May Day, Obits, PR, Public Relations, writing
Dancing around a maypole at Barwick-in-Elmet, Yorkshire
A man’s work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened.
~Albert Camus
All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.
~Martin Luther King, Jr.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May
~Shakespeare, Sonnet 18
May 1st, May Day
From Wikipedia:
May Day is related to the Celtic festival of Beltane and the Germanic festival of Walpurgis Night. May Day falls exactly half a year from November 1, another cross-quarter day which is also associated with various northern European pagan and the year in the Northern hemisphere, and it has traditionally been an occasion for popular and often raucous celebrations.
Coincidences on international workers day:
- 2011: President Obama announces the death of Bin Laden
- Why were we subjected to a long wait of TV news time before he came out to announce it?
- 2007: President Bush announces “Mission Accomplished” re: the “major conflict in Iraq has ended.”
- Announced on the USS Lincoln warship: Honest Abe…ahem
- 1945: the death of Adolph Hitler is announced
- 1707: Great Britain is formed, merging England, Wales and Scotland.
There are a lot of “big” events on May 1st (and I am sure you can find more on other days: that is not the point here); I just did not list them all. You can do some of the research yourself HERE. I just find it bizarre that three major events in less than 100 years occurred.
My feeling, and all it is is a feeling, no facts (so, yeah, kindly refrain from nasty comments: I’m allowed my feeling on this matter):
Starting in 1945, it feels like something Winston Churchill would have put forward, using a people’s day holiday to make a huge political announcement. It adds gravitas to the whole thing, big an event as it was unto itself. Someone savvy in PR in Bush’s cabinet could have taken notice of this and used that date to push the (erroneous) message out, bolstering the president’s “history” for future generations. Using the ship he did was overkill, imho. Lastly, with all the Bush bashing, what better day to upstage the 2007 announcement but to bring forward the death of another monster, and then make us wait with bated breath, probably smoking a cigarette and biding time to heighten the effect once announced.
Makes me wonder what the next “big announcement” on a May 1st will be.
*****************************************************
Hi All…I’ve been away since mid March for a variety of reasons. In April, I spent the majority of my time writing everyday for my Tale Spinning blog, creating an interrelated anthology series. Please take a look HERE.
I’ll be back with BornStoryteller The Creative Series (still have guest posts that I never got around to sharing with you) and one or two other series ideas. That will all start soon, and I’ll do my best to keep a schedule going.
Thanks for sticking around, and thank you all for reading (and commenting) on BornStoryteller.
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