I spend a lot of my professional time thinking and talking about "differentiation", specifically as it can play out in foreign language classrooms. Although differentiation is a current buzz word in education, it is so much more than a classroom issue.
On Sunday the children of our church put on a musical. Yes, children in costume sang and told a story but it was so much more than that. Non-singing younger girls got to wear pretty outfits and dance. A pre-teen who obviously has dance talent, had a solo role that highlighted her skills. A boy who literally marches to his own drummer played his beloved drum set! A girl who has Down Syndrome and loves super "girlie" clothes had a featured role waving a banner that matched her pretty gown. The pre-schoolers got their moment on stage, each holding hands with an older child. Non performers were ushers or had their paintings featured on the walls. I was struck not so much by the play or its message, but by the stronger message that all these kids are God's creation, that they were all created differently, and that we can celebrate the varying gifts that each has been given. Powerful!
When my kids were young, it was presumed that all children love to sing, act, and wear costumes. Not our kids! In fact, the "pressure" to be part of Christmas programs at church and musicals at school caused a lot of stress and unhappiness in our house. Fortunately, our sons were rescued by nurturing church music directors and wise school music teachers who gave them the roles that suited their gifts.
My niece is currently concerned about her toddler's speech development. As happened with our boys, number two son follows a very verbal and early-speaking brother. Number two's totally normal speech development therefore seems slow. From my perspective as a mother of two adults sons who both have prodigious vocabularies in spite of very different speech development as toddlers, I can tell her to relax.......but I know that huge stress caused by comparison and that my words won't help much.
As parents we compare one child with another, we compare our kids to our friends' kids, we compare our kids' preschool (elementary school, high school, college, graduate school, job, choice of spouse, decisions on where to live, hobbies.........) with our friends' kids preschool ...........hobbies. We compare our houses with our friends' homes. We compare our job and recreational choices with those of our friends. I actually can't think of anything that doesn't at least sometimes get compared.
I know that's a human trait that's been around forever. In fact there are two commandments out of only ten that deal with coveting. At 20% of the commandments, I guess that's a bigger issue than murder and lust!
I know we can't make comparisons and coveting other people's whatever won't go away, but I hope that just for today I can look at those I love (and even those I don't love) and really appreciate their differences, those gifts from God that make them unique incomparable individuals.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
Friday Field Trip
Today I helped chaperone the junior high French field trip to the Chicago Art Institute. The day was perfect, the docent interesting, the Impressionist paintings superb as always, the students well behaved, the adult company great, and the authentic meal at a French restaurant was magnifique. Merci, Jill!
However, there's nothing like spending a day with 8th graders to bring back memories of the 32 years I spent in junior high. I enjoyed those years in the classroom, but many inconsequential things today reminded me of how thankful I am to now be working with adults. For example...........
The day was beautiful and we arrived at the museum early, so we took the kids over to Millennium Park. The sky was the kind of blue usually only seen in Arizona. The "bean" with its reflections of Michigan avenue sky-scrapers and gawking tourists was fascinating. The architecture of the Frank Geary designed music pavilion was awe-inspiring. The skyline was magnificent.
Did the kids really see any of this? No, they were completely awe struck by a young movie star - whose name I confess I've already forgotten - who was filming near the "bean".
Now, I admit to a dose of gawking also. It is interesting, but having lived my entire life in Chicago, I'm still more awe struck by the city views.
During our museum tour, we saw a collection of Impressionist art that is among the largest and most impressive in the world. Even in Paris, I'm not sure we saw as large a collection in any one museum. The kids sat in front of Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on the Grand Jatte as though they were spending a ho-hum Sunday afternoon in Starbucks looking at a Grande Latte. What was really fascinating to them, however, were the little stools they got to carry around and how you could make a neat clang sound if you closed them really fast.
During a quick tour of the magnificent new modern wing of the Art Institute, I'd be willing to bet that not a child actually looked at a single work of art, but they did enjoy wandering through the rooms at breakneck speed.
As we drove to the restaurant along the lake front and later drove through the architecturally fascinating and trendy Lincoln Park area, students chatted or listened to the I-pods they weren't supposed to even have. Meanwhile, I was mentally back in my 20's remembering all the fun of living "downtown".
At Café Bernard, while I was savoring my authentic boeuf bourguignon, the boys were fascinated by dipping bread into their beverages and hiding food under napkins. Many girls were taking pictures of each other with forbidden cell phones. Jill, their teacher, used to have the kids taste escargot as part of this restaurant experience, but she wisely gave that up many years ago. Student palates are definitely not refined these days!
None of the above is pejorative. I've worked with 13 year olds long enough to know that, developmentally, all of the above is completely normal. I also know that many were blown away by city views, impressionist art, and French food, but couldn't admit it in front of their friends. I know they take the wonders of Chicago for granted since most have never lived elsewhere. I know that many will look back on today as a highlight of their junior high experience. I know because my own students came back from high school and said how fondly they remembered their Spanish art trip.
But I also know that it's thrilling to see a senior citizen who is utterly fascinating by one of my lectures on Spanish art. It's tremendously rewarding when they bring in an art book to show me something related to the previous lecture. I love taking house guests downtown and being able to ooh and ahh with them. I love it when foreign language teachers laugh at my jokes and "get" my weird sense of humor. I love it when they e-mail me later to excitedly tell how they used some technique in their classrooms.
Ah, it's good to have "graduated" from junior high!
However, there's nothing like spending a day with 8th graders to bring back memories of the 32 years I spent in junior high. I enjoyed those years in the classroom, but many inconsequential things today reminded me of how thankful I am to now be working with adults. For example...........
The day was beautiful and we arrived at the museum early, so we took the kids over to Millennium Park. The sky was the kind of blue usually only seen in Arizona. The "bean" with its reflections of Michigan avenue sky-scrapers and gawking tourists was fascinating. The architecture of the Frank Geary designed music pavilion was awe-inspiring. The skyline was magnificent.
Did the kids really see any of this? No, they were completely awe struck by a young movie star - whose name I confess I've already forgotten - who was filming near the "bean".
Now, I admit to a dose of gawking also. It is interesting, but having lived my entire life in Chicago, I'm still more awe struck by the city views. During our museum tour, we saw a collection of Impressionist art that is among the largest and most impressive in the world. Even in Paris, I'm not sure we saw as large a collection in any one museum. The kids sat in front of Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on the Grand Jatte as though they were spending a ho-hum Sunday afternoon in Starbucks looking at a Grande Latte. What was really fascinating to them, however, were the little stools they got to carry around and how you could make a neat clang sound if you closed them really fast.
During a quick tour of the magnificent new modern wing of the Art Institute, I'd be willing to bet that not a child actually looked at a single work of art, but they did enjoy wandering through the rooms at breakneck speed.
As we drove to the restaurant along the lake front and later drove through the architecturally fascinating and trendy Lincoln Park area, students chatted or listened to the I-pods they weren't supposed to even have. Meanwhile, I was mentally back in my 20's remembering all the fun of living "downtown".
At Café Bernard, while I was savoring my authentic boeuf bourguignon, the boys were fascinated by dipping bread into their beverages and hiding food under napkins. Many girls were taking pictures of each other with forbidden cell phones. Jill, their teacher, used to have the kids taste escargot as part of this restaurant experience, but she wisely gave that up many years ago. Student palates are definitely not refined these days!
None of the above is pejorative. I've worked with 13 year olds long enough to know that, developmentally, all of the above is completely normal. I also know that many were blown away by city views, impressionist art, and French food, but couldn't admit it in front of their friends. I know they take the wonders of Chicago for granted since most have never lived elsewhere. I know that many will look back on today as a highlight of their junior high experience. I know because my own students came back from high school and said how fondly they remembered their Spanish art trip.
But I also know that it's thrilling to see a senior citizen who is utterly fascinating by one of my lectures on Spanish art. It's tremendously rewarding when they bring in an art book to show me something related to the previous lecture. I love taking house guests downtown and being able to ooh and ahh with them. I love it when foreign language teachers laugh at my jokes and "get" my weird sense of humor. I love it when they e-mail me later to excitedly tell how they used some technique in their classrooms.
Ah, it's good to have "graduated" from junior high!
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Baaaa
I'll be hearing a lot about lambs....specifically the Lamb of God.....at church tonight and tomorrow, but today's experiences with lambs are just a tad different.
The morning started out well. My cleaning lady brought me a Polish sugar lamb. She explained that our ubiquitous chocolate lambs have no meaning for her as chocolate was very rare when she was growing up in Poland. They did, however, have these very dense sugar lambs decorated with sugar flowers and a red flag symbolizing victory over death. She told me how she would beg her parents for the lamb each year, bite off its head, and then put it down because the sugar was so intensely sweet. Cool culture lesson!
She noticed my lamb cake mold on the counter ready to be put to use today. I explained that I would be making two lamb cakes this year since we have invited twelve people for Easter. I further said that I was going to make the traditional pound cake and would also, for the first time, make a chocolate lamb cake. No, this is not the black sheep....it will be a lovely brown lamb...or so I thought.
After an hour of water aerobics to get in shape for my cooking marathon, I began to make the traditional pound cake. Now, I have been making this cake for over 50 years. It was one of the very first things I learned to bake as a child and I remember regularly making it for my grandfather because he liked it. Making this should be a piece of cake, as it were.
However...................Every year there is not quite enough batter for the lamb cake. The lamb's face is fine, but the back of his head looks flat like that of an infant who lies on his back all the time. I decided to make 1-1/2 recipe. Sounds easy, but how do you make half again more of 5 eggs? 1-2/3 cup of sugar? 1/2 tablespoon?
Well, I did my best with the measurements and filled the mold almost to overflowing. No flat headed lambs this year! Into the oven it went. After an hour the toothpick inserted in the little hole came out clean. The lamb was done...but it wasn't. Seems that 1/2 again as much batter means it needs to cook a lot longer. I didn't find that out, however, until I finished struggling to remove the two sides of the mold. This, sadly, is what I got.
OK, so now we'll make the chocolate lamb cake. Mixing, no problem. Plenty of batter, no problem. Bake, no problem. Take out of the mold, problem! This cake also needed a lot more time, so it went back in the oven resting in just the bottom of the mold. After another half hour it was baked, but, oh, what a sight!
It looks like one of those awful Learning Channel shows. "The Lamb with Horrible Disfiguring Tumors of the Neck and Chest", perhaps?
Traditional pound cake lamb #2 just came out of the oven. It has to "rest" five minutes before I take off the back of the mold. Then "rest" five minutes more until I take off the front of the mold. I know it will be flat-headed because I didn't add more batter, but will it be in one piece? Will it be fully cooked? I can hardly bear the stress of waiting.
All I know is that my daughter-in-law is coming over tomorrow to decorate the lambs. She did a great job last year. Will she up to the challenge of TLC lamb victims???????????????
Only time will tell.
The morning started out well. My cleaning lady brought me a Polish sugar lamb. She explained that our ubiquitous chocolate lambs have no meaning for her as chocolate was very rare when she was growing up in Poland. They did, however, have these very dense sugar lambs decorated with sugar flowers and a red flag symbolizing victory over death. She told me how she would beg her parents for the lamb each year, bite off its head, and then put it down because the sugar was so intensely sweet. Cool culture lesson!
She noticed my lamb cake mold on the counter ready to be put to use today. I explained that I would be making two lamb cakes this year since we have invited twelve people for Easter. I further said that I was going to make the traditional pound cake and would also, for the first time, make a chocolate lamb cake. No, this is not the black sheep....it will be a lovely brown lamb...or so I thought.
After an hour of water aerobics to get in shape for my cooking marathon, I began to make the traditional pound cake. Now, I have been making this cake for over 50 years. It was one of the very first things I learned to bake as a child and I remember regularly making it for my grandfather because he liked it. Making this should be a piece of cake, as it were.
However...................Every year there is not quite enough batter for the lamb cake. The lamb's face is fine, but the back of his head looks flat like that of an infant who lies on his back all the time. I decided to make 1-1/2 recipe. Sounds easy, but how do you make half again more of 5 eggs? 1-2/3 cup of sugar? 1/2 tablespoon?
Well, I did my best with the measurements and filled the mold almost to overflowing. No flat headed lambs this year! Into the oven it went. After an hour the toothpick inserted in the little hole came out clean. The lamb was done...but it wasn't. Seems that 1/2 again as much batter means it needs to cook a lot longer. I didn't find that out, however, until I finished struggling to remove the two sides of the mold. This, sadly, is what I got.
OK, so now we'll make the chocolate lamb cake. Mixing, no problem. Plenty of batter, no problem. Bake, no problem. Take out of the mold, problem! This cake also needed a lot more time, so it went back in the oven resting in just the bottom of the mold. After another half hour it was baked, but, oh, what a sight!
It looks like one of those awful Learning Channel shows. "The Lamb with Horrible Disfiguring Tumors of the Neck and Chest", perhaps?Traditional pound cake lamb #2 just came out of the oven. It has to "rest" five minutes before I take off the back of the mold. Then "rest" five minutes more until I take off the front of the mold. I know it will be flat-headed because I didn't add more batter, but will it be in one piece? Will it be fully cooked? I can hardly bear the stress of waiting.
All I know is that my daughter-in-law is coming over tomorrow to decorate the lambs. She did a great job last year. Will she up to the challenge of TLC lamb victims???????????????
Only time will tell.
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