Month: May 2017

So, I don’t know how beer commercials clock in at over 4 minutes, but Heineken just managed to do it. Maybe they were trying for a few minutes longer than the Kendall Jenner Pepsi commercial that caused such a stir. Either way, they have a long commercial out there, almost 10 million views on YouTube, and it offers a similar notion.
You take some people that don’t get along (or have different views on certain subjects), put them together, have them put together some furniture (I know, right?), and with some talking and some Heineken, things get better. It’s not that far-fetched. In talking things out, people can come to an agreement.
But do people change? Does having a beer and talking really make things better?
A few nights back, Adam Jones, center-fielder for the Balto O’s, had racial slurs yelled his way at Fenway Park. Adam Jones is black. Hey, I’ve been to Fenway Park. Those fans are rough on their own players, so good luck out there in center, Adam. But there’s no place for the racial slurs–it’s 2017 and Adam Jones doesn’t need to hear it, nor does anyone not feeling racially charged who paid money to see a ball game.
The media caught wind of this, so the next night the Fenway fans gave Adam Jones a standing ovation. It was their way of saying, “Dude, there are some racist asses in the seats of every game, but that doesn’t reflect the overall views of all the fans.” At least that’s what I would think it means. It was a good moment for Jones and Fenway Park and made many a news headline today.
But do people change? Did everyone give Jones a standing ovation? and, if they didn’t, does that mean they’re racist?
We’ve come to the point in our history where one small event seems to forgive another event, especially if it fits the agenda that we’re all good people who just slip up sometime. But Adam Jones knows that whatever field he goes to in the future, there might be standing ovations, but there are always going to be people who don’t like him based solely on his skin color. But it’s the standing ovation that dismisses these acts, as if one day later erases something really disgusting that happened the day before. It does not erase it–it merely offers a different headline.
I shift to my 12-yr-old son. He’s never heard this. He’s never been subjected to a slur, or been offended at what he’s been called. It just hasn’t happened. If he had been at the game, he would have been confused about why someone would call a player certain names.
When I show him the Heineken ad (it will be at the bottom of the post), we’ll talk about it after. Because when you’re over 25 and think that women should be around to have your baby, and you’re placed in the same room as a strong feminist, you better have a lot of beer and short-term memory loss about what you just said on a video.
My opinion might not be yours. You might not be my friend. But do you want your kid to change his/her opinion or beliefs so he/she might attract more friends? Can’t my kid just grow up, do what’s right and good by others, and enjoy a Heineken at the ballgame? https://youtu.be/8wYXw4K0A3g

My goal with this blog was to write every single day of school, and then some, to see if I had the discipline to write 200 posts in a school year. I will.
Today was like a fog came over me–one that hasn’t lifted. To write of the teaching experience is pretty fun. As always, teaching my kids and questioning them brings laughter every day. And, every now and then, they sometimes “get it.” Every now and then.
It’s hard to write about school and not be negative. My mind runs at night, wondering about my brand at school. I have one–it’s probably negative to many, but class sign-ups and the desire of students to be in my classes tell me otherwise.
But being a teacher is hard on me because I can’t shut my brain off. I hoped that creating a blog would alleviate this condition, but I’m always thinking of lessons, media literacy, and anything I can present to my students that will get them to think. I would assume that’s what ALL teachers are like, but I can’t be sure.
Greed and sloth are powerful motivators to people–that’s the case with anything. We want that full-time pay for that part-time work. My job will never be easy because that’s just me. It’s not something I can turn off and on. Some like it, some don’t. You’re welcome. Sorry.
I’ll try to be a little more positive in the remaining weeks–it’s easy enough if I just write about the good kids I’ve had, or have–but that’s not the reality of my existence at school, and many other teachers tell me it’s not their reality either. People don’t want to read that, though.
Bah. I’ve written too much and haven’t written anything. Am I bugging you? Don’t mean to bug you. Okay, Edge, play the blues.

I like Albert Brooks. I like most of his movies. Sure, he was in Taxi Driver and offers his voice as Marlin in Finding Nemo (we do not speak of Finding Dory), but he has written, directed, and starred in about five or six of his own movies. One of them is Defending Your Life.
It’s a simple film–a guy gets killed by a bus and meets every other new dead person in a sort of limbo where they must “defend” their lives in order to move up to the good place. It’s courtroom comedy featuring clips of his life and how he has to justify that he is ready as an individual to take the next step, or get sent back to Earth in another person’s body.
This becomes the issue in many a courtroom piece. I like Camus’s The Stranger because the trial has nothing to do with the killing of an Arab; instead, the jury focuses on the character of Meursault. Why is he so distant? Why does he do the things he does? And why don’t they make sense to us, since we all have a majority opinion? It’s about the person, not the issue.
Everyone’s your buddy, your pal. There’s playful banter between all, until the trial starts.
I just watched an ESPN 30 for 30 documentary on John Calipari’s success as a coach. Same deal. Everyone welcomed him to UMass for his first coaching job. Why shouldn’t they? The team won two games the previous year, neither against Division One opponents. Everyone was so nice and applauded the job he was doing with those kids. Because they were LOSING.
That’s the problem with success, though. People don’t like it when it’s happening to someone else. They don’t like a changing of the guard. They don’t like watching someone else become successful with a program filled with students/players that could not find success elsewhere. Rather than applauding the success, they look for reasons, no matter how ludicrous or irrelevant, to find fault in what other people are doing.
I get it. I do. You’ll get the truth out of me, whether it fits your ideals, or not. But no matter what people say about me, or the person I have team-taught with for the last 15 years, we know the deal. We have merely tried to teach our students everything, all the while instilling a sense of self-worth and community (among other things) for everyone involved.
You’d think that’s a good thing. Maybe that’s why Albert Brooks isn’t popular (except as a fish).