A7 Inside and Out

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
Principal Irv Marshall is scheduled to meet with our Language Arts department tomorrow and it is expected he will unveil initial plans for a proposal to institute the High Schools That Work reform model program here.

I'm sure Mr. Marshall will get a chilly reception. Or as Ricky Ricardo used to tell his TV wife Lucille Ball "Luceee, you got some splainin' to do."

You can begin to make up your own mind about how appropriate the High Schools That Work program is for BHS by clicking here.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
Completed Act I of Arthur Miller's tragedy Death of a Salesman.

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
Viewed an excerpt from the award-winning documentary Hoop Dreams.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
The first monthly installment of The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, by 24-year-old writer Charles Dickens, was published on this date in 1837 under the pseudonym Boz. The short sketches were originally commissioned as captions for humorous drawings by caricaturist Robert Seymour, but Dickens' whimsical stories about the kindly Samuel Pickwick and his fellow club members soon became popular in their own right. Only 400 copies were printed of the first installment, but by the 15th episode, 40,000 copies were printed. When the stories were published in book form in 1837, Dickens quickly became the most popular author of the day.

WRAP IT UP
On this date in 1945, Tennessee Williams’ play, The Glass Menagerie arrived on Broadway in New York City to become what critics and the public called the best play of the year. Williams, one of America's most noted playwrights, specialized in 20th Century tragedies. Given his life view, his focus on the down side wasn't strange. "Don't look forward to the day you stop suffering, because when it comes you'll know you're dead," Williams once said.

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
Someone once said the only constant in life is change. Whoever that was, they definitely captured life here at BHS.

Late last school year, in an effort to curb lateness, the administration decided to offer a special room - B-6 - to hold students who were late for class. Teachers (called for the purposes of their new duty, sweepers) were to escort the students to the B-6 holding area. However, almost as soon as it opened, students decided to bag going to class and show up at B-6 on their own.

So, one year after it started, the B-6 operation is to be scrapped. As of April 1, B-6 will be closed and sweepers will escort late students to their class.

New punishments will also be in effect for late students. They are:
1. first lateness in a week = teacher detention
2. second lateness in one week = writeup to supervisor for Saturday detention
3. third lateness in one week = writeup to supervisor for In-School Suspension

We will have to see how this procedure works. And, of course, we can always change it.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
Continuing our thorough examination of Act I of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
We worked on a comparison/contrast essay involving the poems and song lyrics we have been studying recently. Then using the ideas explored in those words we discussed this writing prompt: would you rather be famous and fade or expire when you were young at the top of your game.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
And you thought painting doesn't pay. On this date in 1987 Vincent van Gogh’s "Sunflowers" brought $39.85 million -- more than triple the record for an auctioned painting. The sale was on the 134th anniversary of the birth of the artist. Singer Don McLean wrote and sang a musical tribute to this artistic genius, titled "Vincent", in April of 1972. A multi-million dollar gift isn't a bad birthday present, even if it was quite belated.

WRAP IT UP
Eric Clapton, British rock guitar player extraordinaire, was born on this date in 1945. Clapton expressed these thoughts about his entry into the world of music: "You were at school and you were pimply and no one wanted to know you. You get into a group and you've got thousands of chicks there." And you thought it was all about the music.

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
Two of our Honors seniors, Ashley Wuzzardo and Sarah Blizzard, departed today for a one-month student exchange stay in Eskilstuna, Sweden. Here's wishing Ashley and Sarah the best of trips.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
Still studying the demise of Willy Loman in Act I of Arthur Miller's study of the failed American Dream, Death of a Salesman.

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
We compared A. E. Housman's poem "To an Athlete Dying Young" to the lyrics of Natalie Merchant's song "River."

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
Social critic Mary Wollstonecraft, one of the earliest and most eloquent proponents of women's rights, married William Godwin, the most famous radical reformer of his time on this date in 1797.

Wollstonecraft, who had been raised by a tyrannical, abusive, and alcoholic father, was philosophically opposed to marriage, as was Godwin. However, the two decided to marry after Wollstonecraft became pregnant with his child.

Wollstonecraft supported herself from age 19 as a companion, governess, and teacher. When her sister fled an unhappy marriage, Wollstonecraft took her in and hid her for months from her abusive husband, who had the legal right to force his spouse to return to him. The two, along with another sister, started a school. Initially a success, the school eventually went bankrupt and left Wollstonecraft burdened with debt.

At age 27, Wollstonecraft published a semi-autobiographical novel and a children's book, the latter of which became a smashing success. She began publishing book reviews in a journal of political reform and writing social criticism. In 1790, she wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Man, about the French Revolution. Two years later, she produced A Vindication of the Rights of Women, a coolly reasoned, well-balanced argument for women's rights, published at a time when women had no rights or property of their own.

A supporter of the ideals behind the revolution, she moved to France in 1793, where she fell in love with an American man. After she gave birth to his child, he abandoned her. Depressed, she tried unsuccessfully to kill herself. She returned to London and became part of an influential group of radical intellectuals. In 1796, she fell in love with William Godwin, a well-known writer who associated with the same circles. The couple married when they discovered she was pregnant and lived happily for six months-until Wollstonecraft died after giving birth to a daughter. The baby girl become Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, author of Frankenstein and wife of poet Pierce Bysshe Shelley.

WRAP IT UP
In there was censorship prior to Janet Jackson and the Super Bowl category --- On this day in 1990, recording companies agree to put a warning label on music products that contain potentially offensive lyrics. Some companies had already started using labels to warn buyers of lyrics containing objectionable references to sex and violence.

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
Great news on the contract front. It seems negotiators for the teachers and the school board have reached a tentative agreement on a salary and laguage guide for this year. A meeting is scheduled for next week to unveil the details.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
The tragic tale of Willy Loman and his family continues with our study of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
Given the continued disruption and food fights in the cafeteria, we devoted today to talking about rules and special responsibilities and requirements for seniors. Several seniors were suspended for their involvement in the latest food fight.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
On this day in 1892 American poet Walt Whitman, whose poem "Song of Myself" college prep students here examine in a Padeia seminar, died. The high and
controversial emotions which surrounded Whitman in life attended
his death: in the same issue that carried his obituary, the New
York Times declared that he could not be called "a great poet
unless we deny poetry to be an art," while one funeral speech
declared that "He walked among men, among writers, among verbal
varnishers and veneerers, among literary milliners and tailors,
with the unconscious majesty of an antique god."

WRAP IT UP
American poet Robert Frost was born this day in 1874. After their 1st marking period study of Frost's poem "The Road Less Traveled" seniors should remember these words by Frost: "I took the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
Today's focus was the Chef D talent show. More than 300 students filled the auditorium to see BHS students strut their stuff.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
We began our study of Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman.

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
We compared John Updike's poem "Ex-Basketball Player" with the lyrics to the Bruce Springsteen composition "Glory Days."

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
On this day in 1957, U.S. Customs agents seized 520 copies of
American Beat poet Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" on the grounds of obscenity. Ginsberg and
his lawyers were not hopeful when they learned that the trial
judge was a Sunday school teacher who had recently sentenced five
shoplifters to a screening of "The Ten Commandments," but the
ruling came down unequivocally for the poem.

WRAP IT UP
Here is an excerpt (taken from the website Today in Literature) from The Salt Eaters, by Toni Cade Bambara, who was born on this day in 1939.

Bambara died early (1995) and did not publish anything
for her last fourteen years; a collection of writing was
posthumously published, edited and introduced by Toni Morrison,
who was a friend, a fellow activist, and an admirer of "the heart
cling of her fiction." This is Bambara's first novel (1980);
speaking is the healer Minnie Ransom, who with her spirit guide,
Old Wife, is working on Velma Henry, a civil rights activist and
feminist who has just tried to kill herself:

"It's these children, Old Wife. I can handle the dry-bone
folks all right. And them generations of rust around still
don't wear me any. But these new people? And the children
on the way in this last quarter? They gonna be really
blip. But the ones pouring into the Infirmary are blip
enough. Soon's they old enough to start smelling
theyselves, they commence to looking for blood amongst
the blood. Cutting and stabbing and facing off and daring
and dividing up and suiciding. You know as well as I,
Old Wife, that we have not been scuffling in this waste
howling wilderness for the right to be stupid. All this
waste. Everybody all up in each other's face with a whole
lotta who struck John--you ain't correct, wel you ain't
cute, and he ain't right and they ain't scientific and
yo mama don't wear no drawers and get off my suedes, and
he hit me, and she quit me, and this one's dirty, and
that one don't have a degree, and so on and on."

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
Here's an interesting story about issues that affect BHS and other high schools across the country from the Washington Post by staff writer S. Mitra Kalita.

Lilly Ware Dunn, a sophomore, knew that Brad Workman, her friend's boyfriend and a senior, didn't like her. She just didn't know why.

Still, they would pass each other in the hallways of George C. Marshall High School in Falls Church and exchange smiles.

"Fake smiles," Dunn, 15, pointed out. And she'd ask herself: "Why does he have a problem with me?"

Yesterday Workman, 18, confessed the culprit: "That voice."

And then he apologized.

They hugged in the middle of Marshall's auxiliary gym as about 100 students and 20 adults applauded and reached for tissues. It was one of hundreds of hugs shared yesterday as Marshall held its first Challenge Day, a program geared toward combating bullying, stereotyping and, ultimately, violence in schools.

Curriculums devoted to teaching children to be nice to each other are gaining popularity across the Washington area, under headings such as "ethics days," "honor days" and "character education days." In Virginia, schools are required to include a component aimed at producing "civic-minded students of high character," and students in Maryland must perform 75 hours of community service to graduate. Dozens of District schools are rolling out programs on how to be a good person.

Although eye-rolling students tend to dismiss such efforts as "cheesy" or "touchy-feely," the lessons imparted at Marshall yesterday seemed to resonate loudly and immediately. During an afternoon session, facilitators with wireless microphones tried to keep up with the teenagers coming forward to confess thoughts of suicide, abusive relationships, eating disorders, gang activity and family problems. One student revealed he was gay. Another warned her friends to stop drinking and driving because they were frightening and hurting her.

Raw emotion, even over apparently petty rifts, reverberated through the gym.

By her own admission, Dunn speaks in "high-pitched, whiny" tones. "You don't even know me," she said, confronting Workman. "You just judged me."

Minutes after Workman apologized, Travis Honesty, 15, a sophomore, stood up and apologized for making life so hard for a teammate in junior varsity football.

Minor hazing can be the starting point for grudges with serious consequences. With this program, and others like it, Fairfax hopes to build a family atmosphere in schools that can prevent such incidents from escalating into violence.

The language used in yesterday's Challenge Day targeted "meanies" and "bullies," but Assistant Principal Rani G. Hawes said it still applied to everyone. "If we wait for a shooting or gangbang, it is too late," she said. "We have several students on the fringe of a gang. You go to a gang to be accepted."

To take part in Challenge Day, students paid a $25 fee, although some qualified for sponsorships. Hawes said the whole day, run by a California-based nonprofit company, cost about $3,300. She hopes to bring the program back for three days next year so more students can take part.

"At least half of the group is thinking they came here to get out of class," said Rich Dutra-St. John of Martinez, Calif., who founded Challenge Day in 1987 with his wife. "But huge things can happen afterward. 'Challenger clubs' have started to eat lunch with people left out."

After a Challenge Day two years ago at Oakton High School, seniors decided to "pay it forward" and, as their class gift, donated enough money to enable younger students to take part in the program, Dutra-St. John said.

The day at Marshall began with a series of exercises in which students were paired off and asked to stand five inches apart and talk to each other for seven minutes. The facilitators told personal stories, played John Lennon music and quoted Mahatma Gandhi ("Be the change you wish to see in the world").

The tissues came out during the "power walk," in which a line of masking tape was rolled out down the middle of the gym floor. All of the students lined up on one side of the gym, and facilitator Cherine Badawi called for certain people to step across the line:

Anyone who had ever been called fat.

Anyone who had ever been whistled at.

Anyone who had ever been hit by someone he loved.

Anyone who had ever been made to feel stupid by a teacher.

Anyone who had ever been affected by alcoholism.

The visual and physical exercise forced students to see themselves as both victims and bullies.

"I'm a very judgmental person -- by race, if they're short or fat, whatever," said Sean Delean, 18, who said he often gets into trouble (and detention) for his wisecracks. "After this, I could understand how all these people go through all these problems."

Delean, a broad-shouldered lacrosse player, crossed the line with the people who had been labeled "fat."

After the power walk, students gathered in small groups to discuss stereotypes and to apologize to anyone they had wronged. With a facilitator's arm around his shoulder, Delean headed straight to the corner of the room: "My brother's here, and I want to say I'm sorry I made your life a living hell," he said. "It'll be good from now on."

Sophomore Blair Delean, 15, accepted the tearful apology -- and a brotherly hug.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
We were wiped out by the Student Government meeting. Our start of Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman will have to wait until tomorrow.

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
Students were asked to write a response to the the article about Challenge Day from the Washington Post.

COMMUNICATIONS BREAKDOWN
Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof opened in New York on this date in 1955, two days before Williams' 44th birthday. The play would win Williams his second Pulitzer Prize.

Williams had been an award-winning playwright since 1945, when his first hit play, The Glass Menagerie, opened, winning the Drama Critics Circle Award. Two years later, he won his first Pulitzer Prize, for A Streetcar Named Desire.

WRAP IT UP
Elvis Presley, the King of Rock n' Roll, was inducted into the army on this day in 1958. Although he had been drafted the previous December, the army granted Presley a deferral so he could finish shooting his film, King Creole.

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
Students are buying tickets for the Chef D talent show which is scheduled for 9th and 10th periods Thursday.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
We completed our look at the excerpt from Faust by Goethe.

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
We finished compiling notes for a persuasive essay from our reading of John Tunis' article "Ain't God Been Good to Indiana."

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
Bestselling author Thomas Harris delivered his 600-page manuscript for his new novel, Hannibal, to Delacorte press on this date in 1999.

He had promised the book more than 10 years earlier as part of a two-book contract that paid him a $5.2 million advance. The book was the third novel featuring serial killer and cannibal Hannibal Lecter, who first appeared in Harris' 1981 book Red Dragon as a minor character. He played a larger role in The Silence of the Lambs (1988), which sold some 10 million copies and was made into an Academy Award-winning movie in 1991.

Hannibal appeared in bookstores less than three months after Harris delivered the manuscript and quickly topped the bestseller charts, despite-or perhaps because of-an intensely gruesome plot.

WRAP IT UP
An evolution law, enacted this day in the great State of Tennessee in the year 1925, made it a crime for a teacher in any state-supported public school or college to teach any theory that contradicted the Bible’s account of man’s creation.

Tennessee’s Governor Austin Peay said, “The very integrity of the Bible in its statement of man’s divine creation is denied by any theory that man descended or has ascended from any lower order of animals.” Opponents planned to challenge the law, denouncing it as a violation of the constitutional principle of separation of church and state.

Within two months, a Dayton, Tennessee high school science teacher, John T. Scopes was indicted, and later convicted, in the famous ‘Monkey Trial’ for teaching his students the theory of evolution; that man descended from a lower order of animals ... or monkeys. Scopes was fined $100. Defense Attorney Clarence Darrow stated that this was “the first case of its kind since we stopped trying people for witchcraft.”

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
Superintendent Dr. Victor Gilson has scheduled five-minute meetings with staff members at BHS. Of course, the memo sent everyone questioning the meaning of the session. Guess we will just have to wait until April 1 to find out.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
We began a look at an excerpt from Goethe's Faust, the oft-told tale of someone who sells his soul to the devil. In this case, Faust was seeking knowledge and unlimited human experience.

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
Still working on notes for a persuasive essay prompted by John Tunis' article "Ain't God Been Good to Indiana."

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
Pink Floyd's single "Another Brick in the Wall," from the album of the same title, hit No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard pop charts on thsi date in 1980. The song was the band's only No. 1 single in the United States. We use the song from the video The Wall in Honors class as part of our unit on Where Do I Fit In?

The band set records with its 1973 breakthrough album Dark Side of the Moon, which stayed on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart for 741 weeks, longer than any other album in history.

WRAP IT UP
Thirty-seven-year-old writer Jack London wrote letters to H.G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw, and Winston Churchill on this date in 1913, asking how much they were paid for their writing. London, who grew up in extreme poverty in Oakland, California, claimed all his life that his motives for writing were largely financial, but the quality of his literary work made him famous by the time he was 28.

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
Today was BHS's annual career fair. Speakers throughout the building and large group presentations in the gym. Speaking of careers, here is an interesting Canadian site that offers links and information on career choice.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
We completed our study of Guy de Maupassant's "The Jewels."

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
We continued our reading of "Ain't God Been Good to Indiana" and began compiling notes on a persuasive essay on whether Tunis believed basketball interest in the Hoosier state was more positive or more negative.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
On this day in 1924, feeling that he had finally found the ideal
title for his new novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald enthusiastically wired his editor, Max Perkins, that he was "CRAZY ABOUT TITLE
UNDER THE RED WHITE AND BLUE...." Not as crazy as her husband
about this one, or about "The High Bouncing Lover," or " Among
the Ash Heaps," Zelda (and Perkins) eventually talked him into
The Great Gatsby.

WRAP IT UP
Speaking of Fitzgerald, the Great Gatsby author had this to say about writing: "An author ought to write for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmaster of ever afterwards."

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
We held a student schoolwide Paideia seminar on an analysis of the lyrics of the song "Where is the Love?" by the rap group Black Eyes Peas.

This was the first time students had selected the text and authored the questions. Obviously opinions about the seminar varied, but many students seemed to enjoy the contemporary text and discussion.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
We completed our examination of Selma Lagerlof's short story "The Rat Trap" and began reading Guy De Maupassant's story "The Jewels"

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
Still reading the basketball article "Ain't God Good to Indiana" in preparation for a persuasive essay on the topic.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
On this day in 1932 John Updike was born. In a writing career
approaching fifty years and as many books, the five "Rabbit"
novels (counting the 2000 novella, Rabbit Remembered) stand out
as a bell tolling, at decade intervals, for Harry Angstrom and
America. Two of them won Pulitzers; one of them was reviewed as a
book "that one can set beside the work of Dickens, Thackeray,
George Eliot, Joyce and not feel the draft."

WRAP IT UP
Speaking of love, Canadian author Margaret Atwood had this to say on the subject: "The Eskimo has fifty-two names for snow because it is important to them; there ought to be as many for love."

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
There was a staff meeting today and we were officially introduced to our new supervisor for special education, Meredith Fiori. Here's wishing Meredith good luck in tough job.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
We completed our study of Leo Tolstoy's "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" and began reading Selma Lagerlof's "The Rat Trap." Reading a short story by a Swedish writer like Ms. Lagerlof is particulary appropriate since two of our students, Sarah Blizzard and Ashley Wuzzardo, will be leaving for an exchange trip to Eskilstuna, Sweden next month.

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
We began reading John Tunis' study of high school basketball "Ain't God Good to Indiana."

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
In 432 A.D., Bishop Patrick left his home in England and returned to the country where he had once been enslaved. His purpose was to introduce Christianity to the Irish people. Many legends were told about Patrick, including the most famous, that he had charmed all the snakes into the sea, ridding Ireland of them. He was so loved that he was made the patron saint of all of Ireland. St. Patrick’s Day has been celebrated in Ireland on his feast day, March 17th, since the year 461. Today, Saint Patrick’s Day is still a legal, national holiday in Ireland and Northern Ireland. And occasion for the wearing of much green and partying in America.

WRAP IT UP
Speaking of basketball, former Los Angeles Laker superstar Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had this to say: "I'm not comfortable being preachy, but more people need to start spending as much time in the library as they do on the basketball court."

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
Obviously, dancing is popular with students here at BHS. But apparently not everyone in the scholastic world appreciates modern dance trends, as evidenced by this story from Bend, Oregon.

Dirty dancing may pack 'em in at the movie theaters, but at Bend High School, it's enough to shut down a school dance.

Last Saturday night's Sadie Hawkins dance was cut off at 10 p.m., after students persisted in dancing dirty, close enough for their hips to kiss, after repeated warnings from administrators.

"Quite honestly it's like having sex with your clothes on," said Mary McDermott, a teacher and the school's activities director, describing the style of dancing.

What many students don't understand, they said Monday, is what made that night or that dance any different.

"There's no other way to dance besides being up against the other person," said Mat Baker, 17, a senior. "It's just the way people dance these days."

Students were angry, Baker said, particularly since many paid up to $10 to come to the dance, only to get kicked out. The way he sees it, the teenagers were doing the same kind of things they see in movies.

"There were no clothes coming off or anything," Baker said.

But the school had heard enough complaints from parents and the community about what they term inappropriate dancing, McDermott said.

"At some point you have to take a stand and send a message to the kids and say this is not OK," said Marshall Jackson, an assistant principal.

In the week before the dance, the school had warned students over the public announcements that "freak dancing" or "grinding" would not be permitted.

Freak dancing, a term many students said was new to them, is used by school administrators to describe dancing that is sexual in nature.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
We began our unit on What Do I Want? by gaining background on Russian author Leo Tolstoy and beginning to read his classic short story "How Much Land Does a Man Need?"

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
We completed our reading of "Princeton's Bill Bradley" by framing responses to questions about the John McPhee excerpt.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
Nathaniel Hawthorne's story of adultery and betrayal in colonial America, The Scarlet Letter, was published on this date in 1850.

Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1804. Although the infamous Salem witch trials had taken place more than 100 years earlier, the events still hung over the town and made a lasting impression on the young Hawthorne. Witchcraft figured in several of his works, including "Young Goodman Brown" (1835) and The House of the Seven Gables (1851), in which a house is cursed by a wizard condemned by the witch trials.

Plagued by financial difficulties as his family grew, Hawthorne took a job in 1845 at Salem's custom house, where he worked for three years. After leaving the job, he spent several months writing The Scarlet Letter, which made him famous.

WRAP IT UP
On this date in 1955 "The Ballad of Davy Crockett," by Bill Hayes, reached the number one spot on the pop music charts and stayed for five weeks beginning this day. The smash hit song sold more than 7,000,000 records on more than 20 different labels. Everyone seemed to be singing the song that saluted the frontier hero who was “Born on a mountain top in Tennessee...” Coonskin caps were seen everywhere as the Crockett craze spread like a frontier fire.

Eight years late on this date Peter, Paul and Mary released the single, "Puff The Magic Dragon." Through the years, controversy continually surrounded the song. It was banned by several radio stations whose management figured that the song was about the elicit joys of smoking marijuana. The group denied this startling assumption. “It’s about a magic dragon named Puff,” they said. So there. The trio recorded a dozen hits that charted between 1962 and 1969. Puff was their third song. It went to number two on the pop charts and puffed around for nearly three months. The group next did a Bob Dylan protest song, "Blowin’ in the Wind" and ended a sterling career with a John Denver song -- the group’s biggest -- "Leaving on a Jet Plane."

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
This year, the English department has been plagued with an increase in its mouse population, a situation which has caused much discomfort and some audible shrieks of displeasure from ardently anti-rodent students and teachers.

I guess the following Associated Press story proves that we are not alone, at least.

(AP) - Anthony Williams spends his days combing over Chicago city schools property looking for cracked walls, cluttered closets and leaky pop machines -- anything that could provide access, cover or food for mice and rats.

Williams is one of about 30 rodent inspectors a day who scour every classroom, boiler room, kitchen and closet in the nation's third-largest school district after a spate of school closures prompted Chicago schools chief Arne Duncan to publicly call workers on the carpet in January.

"I am putting every school-based employee on notice today: If you can't keep your schools clean, we'll find someone else who can," Duncan said in January after city sanitation crews shut down food service at 13 schools because they found rodent droppings in kitchens, cafeterias and classrooms.

Keeping schools rodent-free is a tough assignment that plagues districts nationwide. New York Public Schools, for instance, checks each of its 1,200 schools for rats about every six weeks.

"It's a universal problem," said Robert Corrigan, a rodent control consultant based in Richmond, Indiana. "It's an inner city, suburban and rural problem. ... Try to rodent-proof your house and see how difficult that is, but then take a school ... it's a tremendous, tremendous challenge, not to mention it costs a lot money."

Over the next couple of months Chicago's inspectors will search and clean all 600 public schools at a cost of $2 million to $4 million. Duncan says he expects each school to keep itself clean and rat-free after that.

Crews started work in January on the district's largest schools and those with poor cleanliness records. A second wave of inspections started in mid-February, and a third wave began in early March.

Though searching for rodent evidence is on top of their list, crews are also looking for dirt, clutter and cracks. Previous school inspections were usually limited to school kitchens and cafeterias, but the recent blitz includes boiler rooms, teachers' lounges and classrooms.

"If you can put a pen through a hole, then they [mice] can get through," said Williams, a quality assurance coordinator for Chicago Public Schools.

Williams and three other inspectors recently spent several hours at a local elementary school, telling teachers to put candy in glass jars with lids, and peering under bookshelves and behind refrigerators in search of rodent droppings and piles of dust. They looked through basement vents and lifted lids off recycling containers to see what was inside.

The top item on the "to-do" list they compiled for the school was to clean up a pop machine in the school's makeshift teachers lounge where rodent droppings were found. Other items included patching up holes in the walls, putting screens on vents and attaching sweeps under doors to keep rodents from sliding underneath.

"For an old building, it's not bad," Williams said of the 96-year-old school. "But it does have a lot of old holes in it. ... A lot of general cleaning needs to be done."

Regular cleaning and maintenance is a central element of Detroit Public Schools' rodent-control plan, said the program's manager, DeWitte Lee. The district inspects high schools twice a month and smaller schools once a month.

"Rodents can crawl into the smallest crack or crevice," Lee said. "The key is ongoing inspections of the exterior of buildings."

Chicago Public Schools hopes the blitz encourages students, staff and teachers to create a culture of cleanliness so schools don't rely on inspectors to point out cracked walls, leaky pop machines and cluttered closets, spokesman Mike Vaughn said.

"We're hoping to create a mind-set that everyone take responsibility for the cleanliness of their schools," he said.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
We finished our three-day showing of O, a modern prep-school reworking of Shakespeare's Othello. The violent, powerful, tragic conclusion left the classroom in silence.

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
We began our unit on What Do I Want? with a reading of John McPhee's look at Bill Bradley, who led the Princeton Tigers basketball team to great glory in the 1960s.

The reading, which focuses on the hard work behind athletic success, is particularly appropriate as March Madness (or, for those who aren't sports fans, the NCCA college basketball tournament) is now with us.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
On this date in 1956 "My Fair Lady" starts 2,717-performance run in New York starring Rex Harrison & Julie Andrews. The movie version of the musical, based on the George Bernard Shaw play Pygmalion, would win an Academy Award for best picture.

Also opening on this date in 1972 was the classic movie The Godfather.
Francis Ford Coppola's film swept the Academy Awards, winning Best Picture, Best Actor (for Marlon Brando), and Best Screenplay (Coppola and Mario Puzo, author of the best-selling novel). Its sequel, The Godfather, Part II, was released in 1974 and won six Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director.

WRAP IT UP
"Beware the Ides of March," the soothsayer urges Julius Caesar in Shakespeare's Tragedy of Julius Caesar (act I, scene ii). Despite the forewarning, Caesar was stabbed in the back by his friend Marcus Brutus on this date in 44 B. C. Caesar fell and uttered his famous last words, "Et tu, Brute?" (And you, Brutus?)

Shakespeare's source for the play was Thomas North's Lives of the Nobel Grecians and Romans, which detailed the murder of Caesar in 44 B.C. Caesar's friends and associates feared his growing power and his recent self-comparison to Alexander the Great and felt he must die for the good of Rome. North's work translated a French version of Plutarch, which itself had been translated from Latin. Shakespeare's version was written about 1599 and performed at the newly built Globe Theater.

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
BHS was the scene today of one of its more attended activities - the annual slam dunk and three-point basketball shooting contest.

As usual, there were controversies about ticket sales, but the 9th/10th period event seemed to okay. (I was covering parts of two classes for teachers who were judges so I can't rate the contests from first-hand knowledge).

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
It was day 2 of the showing of O, a modern reworking of Shakespeare's classic Othello.

The film is eliciting visceral responses from students, which means it appears to be having its intended impact.

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
Using the ideas discussed during the past two days of discussusions about double standards for males and females, students had to draft a letter using thoughts expressed by the gender opposite them.

That meant men were writing as women and women were trying to get inside the male thought process to write. Several students, especially males, said the assignment was particularly hard. Maybe that's part of the reason why for the gender gap in communication.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
Jack Kerouac was born in Lowell, Massachusetts on this date in 1922. Kerouac was the son of French-Canadian parents and learned English as a second language. In high school, Kerouac was a star football player and won a scholarship to Columbia University.

In World War II, he served in the Navy but was expelled for severe personality problems that may have been symptoms of mental illness. He became a merchant seaman. In the late 1940s, he wandered the U.S. and Mexico and wrote his first novel, The Town and the City. It was not until 1957, when he published On the Road, an autobiographical tale of his wanderings, that he became famous as a seminal figure of the Beat Generation. His tale of a subculture of poets, folk singers, and eccentrics who smoked marijuana and rejected conformist society was written in just three weeks. The book is filled with other Beat figures, including Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs.

Kerouac wrote five more books before his death in 1967 in St. Petersburg, Florida. However, none gained the mythic status of On the Road.

WRAP IT UP
The soundtrack of The Graduate, which features Simon and Garfunkel's song "Mrs. Robinson," was presented with the Grammy for Best Record of 1968 on this date in 1969. The pair, who had known each other since sixth grade, also won the award for Best Contemporary Pop Vocal Performance. Obviosuly, music has been important to Paul Simon and Art Garfunkle, who recently reuinited for a lucrative tour. In fact, Simon had this to say about music: "Music is forever; music should grow and mature with you, following you right on up until you die." So here's to you, Mrs. Robinson...

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
We had promised some updates on the new dual credit senior English class BHS is holding with Cumberland County College.

With the midway semester point approaching, initial reports about the program are encouraging. Nineteen of the 21 students enrolled are still in the class and Professor John Lore says he has pleasantly surprised with students' writing ability.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
We began a showing of the video O, a 1990s reworking of Shakespeare's tragedy Othello. With basketball and prep school as a background, Mekhi Phifer, Josh Harnett, and Julia Stiles assume modernized roles of Othello, Iago, and Desdemona.

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
Here is was a Padeia seminar on the double standard for laes and females. Some challengin positions were presented and examined. I don't know if any opinion were changed, but there was definitely lively, meaningful discussion.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus was published on this date in 1818. The book, by 21-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, is frequently called the world's first science fiction novel. In Shelley's tale, a scientist animates a creature constructed from dismembered corpses. The gentle, intellectually gifted creature is enormous and physically hideous. Cruelly rejected by its creator, it wanders, seeking companionship and becoming increasingly brutal as it fails to find a mate.

Mary Shelley created the story on a rainy afternoon in 1816 in Geneva, where she was staying with her husband, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and their friend Lord Byron. Byron proposed they each write a gothic ghost story, but only Mary Shelley completed hers. Although serving as the basis for the Western horror story and the inspiration for numerous movies in the 20th century, the book Frankenstein is much more than pop fiction. The story explores philosophical themes and challenges Romantic ideals about the beauty and goodness of nature.

Mary Shelley led a life nearly as tumultuous as the monster she created. The daughter of free-thinking philosopher William Godwin and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, she lost her mother days after her birth. She clashed with her stepmother and was sent to Scotland to live with foster parents during her early teens, then eloped with the married poet Shelley when she was 17. After Shelley's wife committed suicide in 1817, the couple married but spent much of their time abroad, fleeing Shelley's creditors. Mary Shelley gave birth to five children, but only one lived to adulthood. Mary was only 24 years old when Shelley drowned in a sailing accident; she went on to edit two volumes of his works. She lived on a small stipend from her father-in-law, Lord Shelley, until her surviving son inherited his fortune and title in 1844. She died at the age of 53. Although Mary Shelley was a respected writer for many years, only Frankenstein and her journals are still widely read.

WRAP IT UP
On this day in 1923, James Joyce wrote to his patron, Harriet
Weaver, that he had just begun Work in Progress, the book which
would become Finnegans Wake sixteen years later. When Nora
found out that her husband was "on another book again," she asked
if instead of "that chop suey you're writing," he might not try
"sensible books that people can understand." I don't know about you, but I sure don't understand Finnegan's Wake.

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
In today's world of education, it seems teachers sometimes do the strangest things. Here's a case in point story out of Washington, DC, courtesy of the Associated Press

An elementary school teacher was suspended last week after school officials learned that he showed students excerpts from the movie "The Passion of the Christ."

Ronald Anthony, who teaches at Malcolm X Elementary School, was placed on paid leave while investigators look into the incident, Elfreda Massie, the interim superintendent for District of Columbia Public Schools, said.

Massie said Anthony acknowledged showing some of his sixth-grade students portions of the R-rated film on Tuesday. The movie depicts the crucifixion of Jesus and includes violent scenes. At least 16 students are believed to have seen portions of the film, Massie told The Associated Press.

School officials learned of the incident when a parent complained, Massie said.
The school sent a note to parents Wednesday, saying the film shouldn't have been shown and that the teacher believed it connected historical events from the students' social studies book.

Massie said Anthony "used poor judgment" and should have relied on more appropriate materials to for the lesson.
School officials also said they are looking into how Anthony obtained a copy of the film, which has not been released on video.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
Students today took a challenging online test on all five acts of Othello. The group grades ranged from 85 to 63.

LIGHT MY (COLLLEGE PREP) FIRE
Students began exploring the idea of a double standard for males and females by analyzing the lyrics of Dion's early 1960 hits "The Wanderer" and "Runaround Sue."

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
On this day in 1948, American author of The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife, Zelda, and eight other patients were killed in a fire at the Highland Mental Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina. This was eighteen years after Zelda's first mental breakdown and eight years after Scott's fatal heart attack -- a world away from the Jazz Age they helped to define, and which helped to defeat them.

WRAP IT UP
On this date in 1876 Alexander Graham Bell transmits the first message by voice over wire using his newly invented telephone. Those immortal words “Mr. Watson, come here. I want you.” Imagine - no portable phone, caller ID, call waiting etc. And, of course, no busy signal.

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
Bridgeton High School is considering a plan that would allow students to choose several new ways to get credit toward graduation next year. Among those options just approved by the state are:
- interdisciplinary theme-based programs
- independent study
- student exchange programs
- distance learning opportunities
- internships and
- community service

While the proposal sounds good, there are several problems that would need to addressed before it could become a reality.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
Reading is one of the most beneficial activities anyone can undertake. Today the majority of our honors English students traveled to the elementary school to read to youngsters there.

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
Students completed a task rotation examining Countee Cullen's poem "Incident" and the subject of race relations.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
James Dean maked his first appearance in a major film role in East of Eden, for which he received an Academy Award nomination on this date in 1955. Dean had acted on Broadway and played bit parts on TV and in several films, but did not appear in a major film role until age 24. He achieved spectacular stardom with just three movies--East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause (1955), and Giant, which premiered in 1956, after his death. He was killed in a car accident September 30, 1955.

WRAP IT UP
On this date 35 years ago The Smothers Brothers' Comedy Hour, which featured such rock bands as the Beatles, the Who, Jefferson Airplane and the Doors, is canceled by CBS-TV. This was in the wake of the controversy over the on-air censorship of guest star Joan Baez. The brothers had refused to censor comments about her husband, who was going to jail for objecting to the draft.

Also on this date seven years ago The Notorious B.I.G. was shot to death while sitting in the passenger seat of a Surburban after a Soul Train awards party. He was 24.

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
Finally good news on the contract front. It appears negotiators for the teachers and the school board have reached the basis for an agreement which would mean that teachers here soon may no longer be working without a contract.

BEA negotiators are crediting Superintendent Dr. Vicotor Gilson and Human Resources Director James Dunkins with diligence in ending the logjam. Here's hoping for a quick end to the long-running dispute.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
We reviewed highlights of Othello for a comprehensive test later this week.

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
We analyzed two poems by Countee Cullen - "Incident" and "Tableau" and used a findings as a prompt for a personal essay about the current state of race relations.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
Scribner's published Thomas Wolfe's second novel, Of Time and the River on this date in 1935. Wolfe started the novel, a sequel to his highly acclaimed debut novel, Look Homeward, Angel, in 1931, but it took him and his editor, Maxwell Perkins, years to edit the work.

Wolfe was 6'5'' and couldn't sit comfortably at normal desks. He did most of his writing standing up, using the top of his refrigerator as a writing surface.

Look Homeward, Angel, perhaps best remembered for its famous line "You can't go home again," was published in 1929 and brought Wolfe immediate acclaim as the "Great American Novelist." The semi-autobiographical book details the youth of young Eugene Gant in a North Carolina town modeled on Wolfe's own hometown of Asheville. The book was immensely popular but won Wolfe the anger of his family and friends back in Asheville for telling town secrets.

Wolfe was born in Asheville, North Carolina, in 1900, one of eight children of a stonecutter. His mother bought a boarding house when Wolfe was five. The boy felt displaced by the constant parade of traveling salesmen, impoverished widows, and other boarders and later turned them into characters in his fiction. He entered the University of North Carolina in 1916 and finally went to Harvard College to study drama in the hopes of becoming a playwright.

In 1923, he moved to New York and taught at NYU while writing plays. By 1929, he had devoted most of his efforts to his monumental first novel, which made him into one of the best-known writers of his time. The novel was later adapted for the stage, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1958.

WRAP IT UP
On this date 11 years ago, "Beavis and Butthead" premiered on MTV as a series. The two mutant characters had previously appeared on another MTV program, "Liquid Television." Speaking of MTV, David Lee Roth, former lead singer of Van Halen, had this to say on the subject: "When you get something like MTV, it's like regular television. You get it, and at first it's novel and brand new and then you watch every channel, every show. And then you become a little more selective and more selective, until ultimately... you wind up with a radio."

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
As expected, students reacted vociferously to the announced ban on the issuing of passes to lockers. The problem is too many students abuse that privilege and wander around the halls creating disturbances. Of course, students argued that the ban was yet another attempt to make BHS "like a prison."

Ironically, while students are complaining about too much control, the majority of teachers find to little.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
Today, we invited Mr. Weinstein, our Paideia facilitator to hear student thoughts on our whole school reform model. The outcome - a resounding "we hate it." The true question is can that attitude be changed, and, if it can, what is the best way to accomplish such a shift.

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
The past few weeks have seen a dramatic escalation of problems in the cafeteria, including food fights. This situation worsened greatly yesterday when Henry Mendoza, the cafeteria custodian, was shoved through a window while trying to help break up a fight between two female students. Mendoza was seriously injured and will have to have surgery on his arm.

Given the gravity of the situation, we spent the period talking about the need for self-control and respect at BHS. If anyone reading this blog has any ideas on this subject, please email them to us using the email link on the right of this page.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
On this date in 1839, Charlotte Bronte wrotes to the Reverend Henry Nussey, declining marriage. The 23-year-old Bronte told him that he would find her "romantic and eccentric" and not practical enough to be a clergyman's wife. Rather than marry, Bronte struggled as a teacher and governess to help support her brother Branwell's literary aspirations. In the end, Branwell's excesses destroyed him; his sisters, though, all became literary figures.

Charlotte was born in 1816, one of six siblings born to an Anglican clergyman. When she was five, the family moved to the remote village of Hawthorne on the moors of Yorkshire. The gloomy parsonage produced some of the best-known novels in English literature. Bronte's mother died in 1821, and Charlotte and her older sisters were sent to the Cown Bridge School, a cheap boarding school for daughters of the clergy. However, her two sisters fell ill and died, and Charlotte was brought home, where she and her remaining siblings, Branwell, Emily, and Anne, invented and wrote about elaborate fantasy worlds to amuse themselves.

Shortly after declining the proposal of Reverend Nussey, Charlotte went to Brussels with her sister Emily to study languages and school administration. Returning to the parsonage at Hawthorne, the sisters attempted to set up their own school, but no pupils registered. Meanwhile, their adored brother Branwell was becoming a heavy drinker and opium user. When Emily got him a job teaching with her at a wealthy manor, he lost both their positions after a tryst with the mother of the house. He eventually died after accidentally setting his bed on fire.

In 1846, Charlotte ran across some poems that Emily had written, which led to the revelation that all three sisters were closet poets. The sisters published their own book, Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. Only two copies sold, but publishers became interested in the sisters' work. Charlotte, under the nom de plum Currer Bell, published Jane Eyre in 1847. Emily's Wuthering Heights and Anne's Agnes Grey were published later that year. Sadly, all three of Charlotte's siblings died within the next two years. Left alone, Charlotte cared for her ill father and married his curate, Arthur Bell Nicholls, just a year after she published Villette, a novel inspired by a failed romance she had in Brussels years before. Charlotte died during a pregnancy shortly after the marriage.

WRAP IT UP
The classic motion picture King Kong was shown on television for the first time on this date in 1956. Those of us who lived in the Philadelphia area and are old enough to remember, recall that the movie was a staple of the Early Show movie. I never got to see the whole movie in my youth since invariably dinner would begin before the end of the show and we were not allowed to watch television while eating. However, I still remember this line from the movie: "He’s always been king of his world, but we’ll teach him fear.... Why in a few months it’ll be up in lights on Broadway: Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World." (Obviously this line came before the dinner summons).

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
We completed the three days of state-mandated testing with the second day of language arts assessment. Both students and teachers are glad the testing is over and we can get back to a more normal schedule.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
Death reigned supreme as students finished Othello today. Next up, an intensive discussion of the themes of the tragedy.

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
More bide your time and wait until students are back in class after state testing.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
Ernest Hemingway completed his short novel The Old Man and the Sea on this date in 1952. He wrote his publisher the same day, saying he had finished the book and that it was the best writing he had ever done. The critics agreed: The book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and became one of his bestselling works.

The novella, which was first published in Life magazine, was an allegory referring to the writer's own struggles to preserve his art in the face of fame and attention. Hemingway had become a cult figure whose four marriages and adventurous exploits in big-game hunting and fishing were widely covered in the press. But despite his fame, he had not produced a major literary work in a decade before he wrote The Old Man and the Sea. The book would be his last significant work of fiction before his suicide in 1961.

WRAP IT UP
Currently, with the release of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ religion is certainly a hot item in the news. Religion was also a hot item on this date in 1966 when, in an interview, John Lennon announced that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. Lennon, known as the most outspoken of the four Beatles, spent weeks trying to explain his remark, which he contended was not a putdown of religion but a commentary on public interest of the time. Lennon always stood by what he said. "If being an egomaniac means I believe in what I do and in my art or music, then in that respect you can call me that ... I believe in what I do, and I'll say it," he told reporters. I think Mel Gison was echo those thoughts.

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
Day two of state testing and day one of language arts assessment.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
We continued through the final scenes of Act V of Othello.

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
More informal discussions with the handful of seniors in class because of revised schedules for state testing.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
On this date in 1931, "The Star Spangled Banner" officially became our national anthem.

On Sept. 13, 1814, Francis Scott Key visited the British fleet in Chesapeake Bay to secure the release of Dr. William Beanes, who had been captured after the burning of Washington, DC. The release was secured, but Key was detained on ship overnight during the shelling of Fort McHenry, one of the forts defending Baltimore. In the morning, he was so delighted to see the American flag still flying over the fort that he began a poem to commemorate the occasion.

First published under the title “Defense of Fort M'Henry,” the poem soon attained wide popularity as sung to the tune “To Anacreon in Heaven.” The origin of this tune is obscure, but it may have been written by John Stafford Smith, a British composer born in 1750. “The Star-Spangled Banner” was officially made the national anthem by Congress in 1931, although it already had been adopted as such by the army and the navy.

The poem/tune actually contains four stanzas, although the first is the only one ever sung.

Here are all four stanzas.

O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen thro' the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O thus be it ever when free-men shall stand
Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust!”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

WRAP IT UP
Radio and film comedian Lou Costello, of the renowned comedy duo Abbott and Costello, died on this date just three days shy of his 53rd birthday. Abbott and Costello started out as vaudeville performers and were first heard on the radio in February 1938 on The Kate Smith Hour. They quickly rose to stardom with their clever, fast-paced prattle. Their routine "Who's on First" still ranks with the funniest comedy sketches of all time.

Click here to read the hillarious exchange.

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
We began the 2004 state testing with the mathematics exam. Most students indicated that the two-plus-hour test was difficult.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
For us it was the first scene of Act V of Othello with the stabbing of both Rodrigo and Cassio. The violence today just hints at the violence yet to come before the tragedy concludes.

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
With so many seniors missing because of the altered schedule for state testing, we simply used the time to catch up on seniors plans for next September.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
Beloved children's author Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known by his pen name Dr. Seuss, was born on this date in 1904.

At the time of his, Dr. Seuss' 46 children's books had sold more than 200 million copies, and his last, Oh, the Places You'll Go! (1990), was still on the bestseller lists. His books, which he both illustrated and wrote, have been translated into twenty languages as well as Braille.

Dr. Seuss populated his odd and fanciful children's books with a hybrid bestiary of Wockets, Whos, Grinches, bunches of Hunches, Bar-ba-loots, red fish, blue fish, and a fox in socks. He once remarked in an interview, "If I were invited to a dinner party with my characters, I wouldn't show up."

His stories march forward at an incantatory, rhythmic pace, and are full of tongue-twisters, word play, and highly inventive vocabulary. The American Heritage Dictionary in fact credits Dr. Seuss as the originator of the word nerd, which made its first appearance in his 1950 book, If I Ran the Zoo: "And then just to show them, I'll sail to Ka-Troo And Bring Back an It-Kutch a Preep and a Proo a Nerkle a Nerd and a Seersucker, too!"

His books were originally considered too outlandish to appeal to children. His first, And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street (1937), was reputedly rejected by twenty-eight publishers before it finally found a home at Random House. It was one of the company's most prescient decisions: former Random House President Bennett Cerf once remarked, "I've published any number of great writers, from William Faulkner to John O'Hara, but there's only one genius on my authors list. His name is Ted Geisel."

Among his most famous books is The Cat and the Hat (1957), a story about two children who find themselves home alone with a roguish, hat-wearing feline who is a study in bad behavior. With only 223 vocabulary words and much repetition, it was ideally suited for beginning readers and became a lively alternative to the wooden dullness of the "See Spot run" primers. And Green Eggs and Ham (1960) managed with a vocabulary of just fifty words to tell the story of a Seuss creature's relentless crusade to introduce a hapless furry character to a revolting dish.

In addition to becoming one of the world's most loved children's writers, Ted Geisel worked as a political cartoonist, an advertising illustrator, and a documentary filmmaker. In addition to the pen name Dr. Seuss, he also wrote under the pseudonyms Theo LeSieg and Rosetta Stone. He graduated from Dartmouth College, where he edited the school humor magazine, and pursued a Ph.D. in English literature at Oxford, ultimately dropping out when he decided his studies were "astonishingly irrelevant." They certainly did little to aid his phantasmagorical imagination in the creation of the environmentally conscious Loraxes and fractious Sneetches, not to mention the indescribable Zubble-wumps and ooey-gooey green Ooblecks. Dr. Seuss claimed his ideas started with doodles: "I may doodle a couple of animals; if they bite each other, it's going to be a good book."

WRAP IT UP
In all of his works, Dr. Seuss stressed that is was okay to be yourself. "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind," he once said.

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking

THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE
Last minute preparations were underway for the three-day state testing period, which begins tomorrow. Guaranteed that no matter how well planned, there will be some surprises.

FOR YOUR (HONORS) EYES ONLY
We completed Act IV of Othello with Othello denouncing the faithful Desdemona to her face as a whore.

LIGHT MY (COLLEGE PREP) FIRE
We concluded our study of The Tempest with the showing of the award-winning adaptation by Russian artists and British actors of Shakespeare: The Animated Tales The Tempest.

The animated video captures the essence of the play and its dialog in less than 30 minutes and thus serves as the perfect review to keep the drama in mind.

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
Forty-one-year-old British writer E.M. Forster embarked on his second trip to India after an absence of eight years on this date in 1921. Forster would turn his observations of the country into his fifth and most critically acclaimed novel, A Passage to India, published in 1924. The novel explored racism and colonialism through the story of an English tourist who accuses a respected Indian doctor of attacking her.

WRAP IT UP
Black novelist Ralph Ellison was born on this day in 1914. His best-known work, Invisible Man, expounds the theme that American society willfully ignores blacks. The book won the National Book Award in 1953. "I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me," Ellison wrote.

Well that it's for today. So - until next time - keep on reading, keep on thinking